Regular readers will by now agree that Isle of Wight carer John Rosenthal isn’t a man to give up easily.
Following John’s third letter to Councillor Roger Mazillius on 20th December, he was busy at the keyboard once again at the beginning of the year.
Below is a letter he sent to Cllr Mazillius on 2nd January raising several queries.
We’ve been in touch with the council and requested the estimate figure for works to the Gouldings and will update the article once we have a reply.
In the meantime, here’s John’s latest letter which he agreed to share with VB readers.
Dear Cllr Mazillius
Re: Proposals for Westminster House.
It would appear that you have followed up on several of my remarks relating to the Westminster House Consultation and the Gouldings, ie; using outside sources for consulting the clients of W/H and also looking at the large list of inadequacies in relation to the proposed accommodation and access issues etc. at the Gouldings.
I have heard though through a fairly reliable source that the estimated costs for remedial work to correct these now approaches £225,000 and possibly more.
This is a long way even by council figures from the original £50,000 quoted at the start of the consultation, and I do not quite see what you are going to gain from the £215,000 quoted that you needed to save in respect of running W/H.
This higher figure, which will obviously be passed on to the clients using this facility if these proposals go ahead, when added to the extra travelling costs for all those involved, clients, parents and carers, not only to and from the facility, but also to the clients day care services which are mostly in Ryde or Newport, the end result to the clients will probably be the same if not more than it would be if the service was left at W/H.
Surely all of these points with the bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen area, and access to the lift along with the removal of trees, bushes etc. and fencing in of the garden area should have been considered before now. Obviously, several people, so called experts, have not done their homework.
I repeat one of my previous comments about the council manipulating figures to make things look good in favour of the proposed move.
I also hear that W/H had to be opened for emergency respite over the holiday period as it was the cheaper option than the other alternatives available, even though staff that were officially on leave as no emergency rota was in place, had to be called in.
Would this ‘cheaper’ much needed emergency respite service still be available if W/H was not there?
Yours sincerely
John Rosenthal
Update 13/1/11: We received this statement from the council today in response to the claims.
Roger Mazillius, IW Council Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care said: “I have written to Mr Rosenthal to assure him that the figure we are working to for upgrading The Gouldings remains at around £50,000.
“Neither I nor senior officers within Adult Social Care have any idea where this new figure of £225,000 comes from.
“The council is aware that there some genuine concerns over the proposals regarding Westminster House which we are working to address through the consultation process. Unfounded and inaccurate speculation is not helpful to this.”
Image: Mike Traboe under CC BY 2.0
