Carmarthenshire care home serves alcohol to let residents feel normal

The director of a care home has said he wants to be able to serve residents alcohol to allow them to feel "normal".

William James, of Gwernllwyn Care Home in Cross Hands, Carmarthenshire, applied for a licence to serve alcohol until midnight, seven days a week.

After reducing the cut-off to 21:00 the licence was granted by Carmarthenshire council and Dyfed-Powys Police.

"I want the home to feel it's another chapter in life," said Mr James.

"I only need the licence to make the [residents] feel that they are normal, and that we are not taking that away from them.

"When everybody comes to that age, you feel abandoned and put into a room and forgotten about."

Under the licence, alcohol can only be sold to care home residents or their guests and only in the ground floor restaurant area on Monday to Saturdays.

But the restrictions do not apply to Sundays, when the public can come in for a Sunday roast, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

There were some objections to the licence application from people living nearby, although at that stage midnight was stipulated rather than 21:00.

Those objecting were worried that some people attending the bar would leave their cars overnight, causing difficulties.

One person said in an email to the council they remembered the care home's former use as a nightclub, when "anti-social behaviour, criminality and drunken behaviour were commonplace each weekend".

Mr James added that he wanted to stick up for residents.

"We've got to think about end of life because we are all going to be there," he said.

What was more normal, he said, than someone buying an alcoholic drink with Sunday lunch.