Joyce tours Ceredigion health and community services – AM visits Penparcau volunteers, Bronglais nurses and ‘ManVan’ cancer service

Assembly Member Joyce Watson dropped by a Penparcau community project earlier this month to learn how volunteers are helping to enrich village life.
Penparcau Community Forum helps plan and organise community events and activities. As well as arranging things like shows and fetes, volunteers help run a local food co-operative.
Team organiser Dylan Lewis invited Mrs Watson to discuss the group’s campaign for safety improvements to sections of the A487 road through Penparcau, Trefechan and Aberystwyth town centre.
Speaking after her visit, Joyce Watson said:
“I am very grateful to Dylan and the team for taking the time to meet me to tell me about the valuable work they do.
“The Forum is building on the legacy of the former Communities First project, raising the profile of Penparcau, encouraging residents to get involved in community projects and pushing for improvements to local facilities and amenities.
Penparcau Community Forum has raised an e-petition to ‘de-trunk’ the main road through the village. Mrs Watson, who is a member of the Assembly committee that considers public petitions, advised members on the Assembly’s petitions procedure. De-trunking would mean transferring responsibility for the road from the Welsh Government to Ceredigion Council. Campaigners claim this would create greater local accountability and make it easier to deliver traffic calming measures and road improvements. The group’s aim is to make the road safer and, in doing so, encourage more cycling and walking.
Plans to build a new community centre and the forum’s wider work to tackle poverty and social problems were also discussed.
The meeting was one of a series of visits the Labour Mid and West Wales AM made in the area.
Earlier in the day (11 September), Mrs Watson went to see a mobile cancer support service in Aberystwyth. The ManVan, an American-style motor home that has been converted into a mobile clinic, parked outside Morrisons supermarket to offer passers-by counselling, advice and health checks for testicular and prostate cancer. The service, which is a joint venture between Prostate Cancer UK, Tenovus and Movember, has toured deprived and hard-to-reach areas of Wales since March.
The following day, Joyce visited Bronglais Hospital’s newly refurbished A&E department, part of the £38m ‘front of house’ investment, before attending a public meeting on health services at Penweddig School, Aberystwyth.