St John's Day Centre

A flying visit this afternoon to St. John's Day Centre, a Social Services establishment in Manselton, in the heart of my ward. The day centre is attached to St John's House, which is a council-run residential home but many of the clients come to it from the surrounding communities. A lot of them have complex needs including dementia, so it is important that they are surrounded by familiar experiences.

It is in this spirit that the day centre has started to develop a community garden, which is also accessible to residents of the nearby home. This is being put together with the help of volunteers, many of them from the Principality Building Society, who have also donated several thousand pounds to help construct and stock the garden.

On my visit I met a number of the volunteers, spoke to staff and to a number of the clients. The garden is a fantastic facility and a credit to all those who have helped to build it.

I will be back there a week tomorrow in my capacity as a ward councillor, when local children have been invited to help design and produce a banner for the centre's fence. This is a school holiday activity being organised by a new group in the area which calls itself Cwmbwrla Community Events, and which I have helped to set up.