Monday, July 02, 2007

Poor Sense of Priority.

Really disappointing letter in my mail today - from the Welsh Council for the Blind. The employment of Nicky Balsom as the Council's Sports Development Officer is to end - along with its Sports Development Project. No money. The letter tells us that "Nicky has personally done great work, and has set up a number of clubs for visually impaired children. He is currently working with 231 children in three different areas, and the plan was to move on to create a further three clubs". What a shame this is.

My approach towards anyone suffering any sort of disability is to ignore it as far as possible - whether it be blindness, deafness or even recovered cancer patients like me who have to set aside an hour every two days to colonically irrigate. We should try to ensure that every person can do the same thing, as far as possible - and that includes participating in sport. I well remember my Assembly colleague, David Melding, telling me when we were discussing the new Assembly Building that it should be designed to allow the physically disabled to enter through the front door like everyone else. It was difficult because of the levels, but David had no time for the idea of entry only by some form of lift. Quite right too. A very disappointing letter indeed today.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Glyn. I think this is a sign of things to come. While an advocate of the London Olympic Games 2012, I think the amount of Big Lottery money and other funding is beign directed more and more to this event and away from local and regional projects such as this. I don't know the facts here but I'm sure other similar projects are under such pressure.