The owners and management of a local residential nursing home claim plans by Pembrokeshire County Council to develop a new civic amenity site next door to the home are 'disrespectful' to their elderly clients.

Brooklands Nursing Home manager, Darren Umanee, whose father, Mike, owns the home, said that the first they knew of the plans to relocate the civic amenities site from Tenby and develop a new facility on land alongside the A478 road, adjacent to the home, was when they received a letter from the authority last Tuesday.

The letter invited the owners to a meeting to be held in New Hedges just two days later, which was to act as a 'fact-finding exercise' for the benefit of residents living near the proposed site.

"We, the owners, management, staff and clients' relatives are very unhappy over this application from the county council," said Mr. Umanee. "Ask yourself, would you like to spend the rest of your days with a tip as your neighbour? We certainly wouldn't.

"We strongly feel that our clients' last days should be spent enjoying peace and tranquility and not be disrupted by noise, pollution, traffic chaos, dust, vermin, and disruption caused by seagulls etc, that this development would bring with it.

"Our clients are vulnerable adults who are unable to voice their opinion and concerns, but I'm sure that if they could, then they wouldn't choose to live next to a rubbish tip," he continued.

The county council's cabinet approved plans to acquire the land for the development recently, subject to the authority receiving planning permission from the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority for the new development.

"Pembrokeshire County Council have shown a total disregard and disrespect for the elderly by putting forward these proposals," said Mr. Umanee.

"Our residents are very, very vulnerable people who suffer with alzheimer's and dementia, and the stress and trauma of the horrendous noise caused by crushers and huge trucks on a site right next door, along with the extra volume of traffic back and forth to the facility, will be detrimental to their wellbeing, which is something we won't accept," claimed Mr. Umanee, who understood that if the facility moved from the Salterns to its proposesd location, the number of people using it could increase tremendously to perhaps as many as 200 to 300 a day.

Mr. Umanee, whose parents, Mike and Jay, have run the home for the past 27 years, explained that they had recently constructed a rear garden area, which provided a quiet, peaceful and tranquil outdoor area vital to the general wellbeing of the home's service users, and especially those that are unable to get out and about with their families and travel further than the home's grounds, while one of Brookland's specialist units is located right alongside where the site proposals are.

With patients who reside in Brooklands having a combination of complex physical and mental health conditions, co-manager Mike Bridge explained that a consultant psychiatrist had also told them that they believed that the disruption, noise and increased levels of activity likely to be associated with any such recycling facility adjacent to the home, would have an extremely detrimental effect on the health of the patients who live there.

A pollution control team report which the owners have seen has also highlighted that potential impacts from the civic amenity site may include noise from comings and goings of users, deliveries and collection vehicles.

Kate Walker, whose husband Colin has been a resident at the home for four years and suffers with vascular dementia, said she was 'absolutely stunned' on hearing of the development and was in disbelief that the council could show such disdain for people living at an EMI (elderly mental infirm) unit and residential home.

"How the county council can even consider putting a civic amenities tip right next door to the home is baffling," she remarked. "It's abusing the human rights of those who want to spend their last days in peace and tranquility, not to mention the health hazard of potential fly-tipping outside the gates.

"Whatever assurance the council gives us, we shall not believe it," she added.

Ann Thomas, of Cresselly, whose husband Ray suffers from alzheimer's dementia and has been at Brooklands for three years, said she would be very surprised if the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority would consider a development of a similar nature being constructed next to a school or a hospital, so why should a nursing home be any different.

"This has been like a second home to me and Ray since he moved here and I wouldn't have him anywhere else," said Mrs. Thomas.

"Ray can't get on a minibus and travel anywhere else, so he relies on the peace and quiet that the garden area provides on the grounds. That luxury will be lost to him and others here should a tip be built right next door," she added.

Other relatives of residents at the home claimed that the proposals were 'bordering on ridiculous' and that such a development would be 'encroaching on the civil rights' of residents.

One lady wanted to pose the question to the county council "when did rubbish become more important than the elderly?" while Derek Lawson Owen, whose father is at the home, said: "No matter how modern the proposed state-of-the-art civic amenity site and recycling centre might be, it will disturb the tranquil area with the increased traffic flow and noise, and impact on the surrounding area in terms of scenery and natural wildlife. This will in turn reduce the quality of life for these vulnerable adults and this is not fair."

As well as writing to local AMs and MPs for support, the Brooklands Nursing Home owners have also launched a petition against the development, which has been circulated to local shops and can also be signed online at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/brooklands">www.ipetitions.com/petition/brooklands

A spokesperson for the county council said last week that the current civic amenity site at The Salterns in Tenby had become unsustainable for a number of reasons, including lack of space and access, which had led to it becoming the council's poorest performing civic amenity site, and that a site had now been identified near New Hedges which would allow the authority to develop a new state-of-the-art facility with the widest possible range of recycling options.