Appalling read

The article on yesterday’s front page regarding the Merivale Retirement Village ejecting residents who inconveniently, it would seem, had not passed away before the new facility at the village opens makes for an appalling read.

For company director Simon Marks to have said that it is not a financially driven thing is disingenuous. This is a privatelyowned for-profit business, with its details available on the Companies Register.

To ask people in their 70s, let alone their 90s, to find somewhere else to live, with only six weeks’ notice is, quite frankly, unbelievable and totally lacking in any compassion.

However, this raises a bigger issue. Just who is advocating for these people to ensure peace and tranquility in their twilight years?

It would seem, from the article, that there is no-one to speak for them and to challenge the legality, let alone morality, of this decision.

If that is the case, this is further evidence of elder abuse and a failing in the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act 1988 to ensure that situations like this cannot happen in New Zealand.

Where are agencies like Aged Concern in this shocking treatment of the elderly at the Merivale Retirement Village?

Mary and Michael Gousmett, Rangiora