Via the North Wales Daily Post:
A plaque has mysteriously appeared on a bench opposite Conwy Castle highlighting the cuts Conwy Council has made to the North Wales Deaf Association.
Last month Conwy Council withdrew £50,000 funding from NWDA which means the local deaf community can no longer have access to a dedicated member of staff to help them with phone calls, booking hospital appointments, help with form filling, or problems with a landlord or any of the many other issues where a hearing person can pick up a phone.
NWDA were informed by Conwy Council of the cuts on July 29, which came into immediate effect on August 1.
It is not known who installed the plaque that appeared yesterday and has the inscription: “This bench has been allocated to the Deaf community.
“Due to funding cuts, this is the only help they will be receiving from Conwy Council for the foreseeable future.”
The bench was placed in Conwy in memorium of John Evans some years ago. The NWDA says they have no idea who has placed the plaque. It’s appearance has caused a storm on social media, with people saying Conwy Council should immediately give back the funding to the association.
Read the full story here: http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/mystery-conwy-bench-plaque-criticising-11952984
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pennybsl
September 29, 2016
Reading the link to the newspaper:
‘A Conwy Council spokeswoman said: “Conwy Council has a single point of access service for information, advice and assistance for health and social care matters. We employ a number of experienced staff that have a range of skills to assess and assist customers with sensory loss, and there’s a rolling programme of deaf awareness training across the Local Authority.” ‘
When will Council leaders and local government wake up to the harsh, costly realities of inadequate benchmarks of staff skills in Deaf Awareness and BSL after a short, superficial Deaf Awareness Course?
When will local government even learn the genuine asset of fully qualified and trained staff in BSL & Deaf Awareness at degree level?
The consequences of the loss of one very skilled council staff supporting Deaf people from a wide region are awful.
Extremely short-sighted of the Council to ignore an Equality Impact Assessment.
The extreme short notice of the cut to Deaf people and their families was evidently an act of deliberate sabotage, preventing residents’ campaigning to the Council.
MW
September 29, 2016
Brilliant – keep fighting the controlling conservative bigot at the Town Hall. Do check how much money they put into promoting welsh language/culture etc at d/Deaf people expense since BSL are not recognised.
Linda Richards
September 29, 2016
To be honest, it would be worth paying for lots of these and putting them in places where Deaf services have been cut, Deaf schools closed and Deaf Cenyres closed. A ‘Deaf’ plaque as opposed to a ‘Blue’ plaque! Lol!