Some emails others have written ….
Dear Cllr
Congratulations on being elected to Westmorland and Furness Council. It must be really exciting to have an opportunity to be part of a new authority so you can create a great place for us all to live in.
When the Abbey Care Home was closing our community was given three choices. Alongside local occupancy housing and extra care housing we were offered the following - ‘a mixture of extra care housing (which includes a dedicated care team on site to provide support where needed) combined with a small 10 bed Residential Care unit’. 88% of respondents supported this option.
The community was upset, many people had loved ones who had lived and died in the Abbey. However, they accepted that things had to change and chose option to maintain provision for elderly people in Staveley.
We assumed that we were being offered three viable options, chosen as alternatives to the Abbey Care Home. Nowhere, on the consultation information, were we told the fourth – to sell the Abbey to the highest bidder with no restrictions on use.
I’m confused as to what happened from October 2019 to the present time. Your consultation proposal must have been judged viable or you would not have included it in the consultation, whilst ours that builds on yours but in some ways is less ambitions, is deemed not viable.
I assume you believed that you were offering three viable options in the consultation. Please explain what made you change your mind or why the mixed option was offered during the consultation?
Yours sincerely
Dear Cllr
New Council: New Abbey
I’m sure you are aware that a decision has been made to put The Abbey Care Home on the open market – to be sold to the highest bidder. It feels to us that this is an act of asset stripping, taking something that is loved and valued by the community and extracting the maximum profit from it. The Abbey means so much to so many local people – it is where many loved ones spent their last years and where they died, it was their security for the future. Nobody knows who will buy it, how long it will remain a decaying eyesore in the very centre of our village or what it will become.
I’m sure you believe in the importance of looking after the more elderly and vulnerable people in our community. This is particularly challenging in rural communities like Staveley, where we’ve been working hard, with a range of professionals and partners to put together a comprehensive and innovative plan. We want to take the Abbey Care Home building and replace it with an innovative facility suitable for the 21st Century. Imagine, a community hub, accommodation for carers, a home from hospital unit as well as some independent living apartments all focused on the locality so that nobody would have to leave their community for social care. But our vision goes beyond the physical it will provide a compressive approach to the social and emotional needs of everyone in the community.
If a vibrant community like Staveley works together with a new Unitary Authority, I believe we can create something really special, alleviating scourge of loneliness and fear of the future that plagues older people. It could be a blueprint for rural adult social care provision and be rolled out across the new authority.
It is not only the elderly that will benefit. The accommodation will free up homes for younger people too.
Please do everything you can to support The New Abbey, together we can make a real difference.
Best wishes
Dear Cllr
I’m writing to you as a member of the Shadow Westmorland and Furness Council and prior to the meeting on Monday.
It is really reassuring to read in the Westmorland and Furness Plan that the first priority is:
‘For People - Supporting active, healthy happy lives for young and old -this means ensuring that people can thrive, leading fulfilling independent lives and thriving in their communities. It means supporting everyone to start well, live well and age well…’
The Parish of Staveley with Ings is trying hard to work towards that priority within our community plan, not long ago we raised sufficient funds to revamp our playground. At the same time, we’ve been working with a range of professionals, to develop a comprehensive community approach to supporting our elderly residents – we want nobody to have to leave their community for the care they need. It is well known that for many, the older we get the harder it is for us to build meaningful relationships and to adapt to new surroundings and this damages emotional wellbeing and physical health. The centre of our plan is the Abbey Care Home, which was closed against the wishes of the community in early 2020.
When the Abbey was threatened with closure the villagers came together to present a 2000 strong petition and during the Cumbria CC consultation, they almost unanimously selected an approach that involved independent living accommodation and a small care facility. Cumbria County Council failed to deliver the preferred option on their own consultation.
Staveley residents decided to develop their own plan to develop a comprehensive, innovative approach to social care in a rural community. We put in a request for a Community Asset Transfer of the Abbey and were promised support to develop it. The decision to refuse the CAT and put the building on the open market was devastating to our community, especially those who were relying upon the planned provision as they aged and their mobility deteriorated. The proposed independent living apartments will free up housing that could be rented, hopefully, to local people or for sale. We were reassured about the viability of the plan by the agreement of a Community Homes Fund grant of £260,000.
Given the priority in the council plan, we assume that you and your fellow Westmorland and Furness Councillors were not involved in this decision and urge you to revisit it with a view to reverse or delay the decision before it is too late. We would love to work with you to develop and extend our plan so it can be a blue print for other rural communities developing their own approach to meeting the needs of elderly members of their community.
Will you be supporting Staveley Community Trust by stopping the sale of the Abbey Care Home to the highest bidder?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely