A SUCCESSFUL ‘call-in’ by the leader of Pembrokeshire’s main political opposition group could see a breathing space for Pembroke Dock’s Anchorage day centre, due to close in little over a month.

The ‘call-in,’ made by Independent Group leader Cllr Huw Murphy at the September 23 extraordinary meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council’s social care overview and scrutiny committee, was supported by fellow group members.

The county council is currently changing care provision for older adults and those with learning disabilities, and closure of Pembroke Dock’s Anchorage day care centre was agreed by senior councillors at the September 9 meeting of the council’s Cabinet.

This follows a series of engagement events at The Anchorage, outlining the reasons and the options in continued service, part of which is much-needed building maintenance costs at the centre, set against a background of increasingly tight budgets, councillors have heard.

The Anchorage Day Care Centre in Pembroke Dock has been a “safe and happy place” for adults with learning difficulties and additional needs for decades.

In more recent years it has expanded to support elderly dementia sufferers, but numbers attending the centre have declined, especially post-Covid, previous reports for councillors have said.

At the July meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council, members received a petition calling for the council to keep the centre open, with an impassioned plea by Peter Welsh for the centre to remain open.

Despite a plea by local councillors Tony Wilcox and Brian Hall to give the centre a breathing space ahead of a potential move to an as-yet-unbuilt facility at Pembroke’s South Quay development, the matter was brought to the September meeting of the council’s Cabinet, when its closure was backed “with effect from November 1, 2024,” along with, as part of wider changes in the service, establishing social enterprise models in Crymych’s Bro Preseli and Narberth’s Lee Davies Centre with effect from April 1, 2025.

The anchorage building is council owned while the other two are not.

After that Cabinet decision, the ‘call-in’ was submitted, saying: “This call in is requested to further examine the financial savings that is claimed will occur through closure (Anchorage) of one day centre and moving two other day centres (Lee Davies & Bro Preseli) to a social enterprise model. Further scrutiny is required to establish the robustness of the proposed social enterprise models to provide an adequate service to replace that currently in place through PCC.”

Speaking at the September 23 meeting, safeguarding champion Cllr Murphy said it would be “a dereliction of duty” if he “did not speak up,” adding: “Listen and do the right thing and return this to Cabinet and we will work with you.”

Cabinet Member for Social Care & Safeguarding Cllr Tessa Hodgson, who had presented the previous reports said the council had listened to concerns raised, saying that while the service was a statutory provision, buildings were not, and the changes were from a need to ensure the service was sustainable, with more than 3,000 adult social care users in the county.

She told members the number of service users attending the Anchorage had declined, with “people making a free choice to access services differently”.

“It’s not about us imposing solutions on people, it’s about us working with them to plan for the future,” she told committee members.

Following a call by Cllr Anji Tinley, committee members agreed, by six votes to five, for the September 9 decision to be referred back to Cabinet for further discussion on the social enterprise model, with a potential piloting in Bro Preseli, along with what bridging options could be considered for the Anchorage while awaiting the South Quay development.

The ‘call-in’ will be considered at a future Cabinet meeting.