The director of a Carmarthenshire care home who applied for a licence to serve alcohol said he was determined that residents had a chance to feel normal towards the end of their lives. William James initially applied to serve alcohol until midnight at Gwernllwyn Care Home, Cross Hands, seven days a week but reduced it to 9pm following a meeting with licensing officers from Carmarthenshire Council and Dyfed-Powys Police.
He has now been granted a premises licence by a council licensing sub-committee. In addition to the 9pm deadline alcohol can only be sold to care home residents or their guests and just in the ground-floor restaurant area on Monday to Saturdays. But the restriction does not apply to Sundays, when the public can come in for a Sunday roast.
Mr James told the sub-committee that the bar at Gwernllwyn Care Home, Cross Hands, would not be open every night and that its use was intended for birthday parties and for Sunday lunch. "I only need the licence to make the people (residents) feel that they are normal, and that we are not taking that away from them," he said. "When everybody comes to that age, you feel abandoned and put into a room and forgotten about. I want the home to feel it's another chapter in life."
