Reprieve for Abergavenny day centre

A day centre for adults with learning difficulties has been handed a reprieve, with a decision to close it placed temporarily on ice. 

The permanent closure of the Tudor Centre in Abergavenny sparked a protest last week outside the former school building that hasn’t re-opened as a base for those supported by Monmouthshire County Council’s My Day, My Life service since it shut at the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020. 

However opposition councillors have now “called in” the closure decision – meaning a council committee will get a chance to examine it and could insist the Labour cabinet takes a second look at the decision and consider comments from committee members. 

Cabinet member for social care, Cllr Tudor Thomas, took a decision at the end of November to confirm the centre’s permanent closure with the council planning to instead sell the site for affordable housing.  

Cllr Thomas called time on the day centre, despite an ongoing review of the My Day, My Life service which isn’t due to report until March next year, as the authority fears stricter rules on flooding risks, due to come into force next June, could block any redevelopment of the site. 

But those plans will now be looked at in detail by the council’s People Scrutiny Committee following the call in decision. 

Llanelly Hill independent councillor Simon Howarth, who attended last week’s protest, used the call in power and said he questioned how the cabinet had reached the decision which had taken people by surprise. 

He said: “Where was the consultation on the building? That is the process.”  

The councillor also questioned why the decision hadn’t been included on future work schedules for the cabinet. 

Cllr Howarth said he had asked the previous Conservative cabinet member for social care, two years ago, what the council’s plan for re-opening the centre was but said he hadn’t received a response. 

Karen Webb, of Abergavenny, joined the protest outside the centre as her 23-year-old son Alex Davies relies on the My Day, My Life service. 

She said: “I used to come here and drop him off and go to work but now, without the centre, there is nothing for him to do unless it is activities that I have organised which the support workers take him to. 

“It rained on Monday this week and they took him to Trago Mills and just pushed him around the shops where here they could do lots of activities, there was a kitchen and they could activities.” 

A spokeswoman for Monmouthshire council confirmed the decision had been called in and said: “The intention is that the decision will be considered by the People Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday, January 3 and this will be confirmed on the Monmouthshire council website as soon as possible.  

“The committee will have the opportunity to look at the detail of the decision and debate the matter and may choose to take no action, pass it to council for review or refer it back to the decision maker with comments. If it is passed to council they will have the same ability to take no action or pass it back to the decision maker with any comments they wish to provide. The decision maker can be either the cabinet member or full cabinet.”