Are we the forgotten people ?

October 17, 2006

Almost three hundred people met in a Valleys Chapel recently to discuss the future of their community. The village campaign group Action for Hirwaun organised the meeting at Nebo Chapel in Hirwaun to address the fears of local people concerning over-development in the area.

Action for Hirwaun were formed in response to widespread local concern about issues such as housing over-development and loss of basic public services. They hold regular meetings, consult widely and have deep roots in the community.

Many of these community-spirited people remember or were involved in previous community campaigns such as the campaign to prevent gas tanks being located in the village in the mid 1970s. Women were at the forefront of that campaign and thirty years later Hirwaun women are leading from the front in their battle for their community.

Chris Bond (see photo below) spoke on behalf of Action for Hirwaun and gave a hard-hitting visual presentation. He showed in graphic detail precisely how much of Hirwaun is disappearing under house and road building.

Chris Bond, Action for Hirwaun

We learned that Hirwaun is being simplified. It is both a sad and frightening ecological tale. The rich tapestry of fields, the wildlife, flora and fauna supported by the remaining natural havens is being simplified into tarmacadam, asphalt, and concrete. Such is the legacy we are leaving our Valleys children in the name of ‘economic development’.

There was an audible sigh from members of the public as the presentation progressed showing the inevitable loss of green fields and open spaces. The audience was shown a horse in a green field and someone quipped “enjoy it while you can”.

Mr Bond spoke of the transformation of Hirwaun from “a quiet village to commuter town”. Hirwaun is one of Wales’ biggest villages and there is a continued growth in population due to a house-building boom. Land is cheap in Hirwaun and it is a magnet for property developers.

The presentation cited the key issues that went to the very heart of the community and local people’s concerns : health, education, recreation, amenities, and policing. These were basic political issues, yet there was no elected politician at that meeting. The absence was in many ways a shameful indictment on local democracy. Elected representatives were invited to attend this meeting in advance, including local County Councillors and Assembly Members.

“So far no consultation”

One of the chief grievances seems to be the fact that local people are not being properly consulted over a range of large-scale developments. Some of the grievances concerning broken promises go back twenty or more years. Action for Hirwaun repeatedly emphasised “so far no consultation”. Given the voluminous evidence they have collected to support their assertion it is not easy to disagree with them.

Are local people to be consulted properly on issues that will affect their lives and the lives of generations to follow ? Or is it only a corporate oligopoly – the rich and powerful - that has a ‘vote’ on what happens to Hirwaun ? These are questions that demand to be answered by working people in Hirwaun.

public services “retreating from the community”

Mr Bond bemoaned the fact that “policing is retreating from the community” and the downgrading and eventual closure of Hirwaun police station. Mr Bond is correct however many people would suggest that he does not go nearly as far enough in his analysis : health, education, and other basic public services are also retreating from the community under the influence of neoliberal economics.

Neoliberal economics is the dogma that now rules our lives. They called it Thatcherism in the eighties, and many other things since, but it is nonetheless now the dominant political and economic system. It is a form of capitalism with the gloves off where very few private interests are allowed to control as much of society as possible. Today Hirwaun is fighting against the greedy robber-baron property developers, but tommorrow it could be the complete privatization of healthcare or education. People should be concerned about what is left of their communities.

Two wags from the WAG

It therefore seemed re-assuring to know that the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) were invited to send representatives to this public meeting to make a contribution towards the democratic process. They parachuted two wags into Hirwaun for the meeting and they came with a mission. It seems these Assembly Missionaries were there to convert the people of Hirwaun to the cause of ‘economic development’ Cardiff Bay-style.

Andy Falleyn came representing the Welsh Assembly Government’s Transport Wales department. He came as ‘travelling salesman’ for the A465 Heads of the Valley Duelling Programme. He flapped on about statistics and referred to a glossy document called Turning Heads 2020 which he waved about. It was an instant turn off.

People coughed and yawned. They were busy - and tired - working mums and dads and grandparents. It is not easy to listen to a bureaucrat jawing about jargon and fancy figures when you’ve just spent a day at the proverbial ‘coalface’. Mr Falleyn convinced few - if any one - at that meeting of the usefulness of the Heads of the Valley project.

If the duelling of the A465 sends thousands of extra cars through Hirwaun, the people will suffer a serious, long-term degradation in the quality of their lives and the lives of their children. That was the case presented by Action for Hirwaun and it was uncontested by members of the public. The severe concerns expressed about traffic congestion at the meeting were not assuaged by the Welsh Assembly Government representative… he wasn’t much of a travelling salesman.

Two wags from the WAG

From the back seats of Nebo Chapel the two wags seemed to a bear a physical resemblance to Laurel and Hardy, at least in this writer’s eyes. There was a physical contrariety and comedy about them, especially the wag called Chris Ashman who resembled Oliver Hardy. It seems that Mr Ashman is employed by Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council and is “on-loan” to the Welsh Assembly.

Mr Chris Ashman wowed the audience with this long title : Head of Regeneration, Welsh Assembly Government. Licensed to frill it seems… He then proceeded to talk about frilly phrases like “regeneration” and “development” and “investment” when most people there wanted to know about traffic gridlock. It all seemed so glib to be told that the “strength of the Valleys community spirit is envied across the UK”. And as if that was not enough Mr Ashman cooed that he saw “this meeting as the start of something”. This was perhaps the most inane political ‘chat-up’ line ever spoken in Hirwaun.

That great observer of language use and abuse George Orwell would have wept in Hirwaun at Nebo Chapel that evening. The Welsh Assembly Government people perverted words like “growth”, “development”, “regeneration”, and “investment” to fit their own ideological needs. Language is an instrument of power, and so if a rich and powerful elite want to exploit the people of Hirwaun by running thousands of extra vehicles through their village they will not (and did not) call it what it is - degeneration or degradation - they call it “regeneration” or “development”.

Betrayal by Assembly

There was a palpable sense of betrayal at that meeting. No one held out much hope that the Labourites Clwyd (MP) or Myring (County Councillor) would attend, but there was some hope that Welsh Assembly Members would give their moral support to their own constituents. None came.

But nearly ten years ago, in the summer of 1997, they came to Hirwaun. They came to campaign on the eve of the September 1997 Referendum on the Assembly. They came with promises. There was a cross-party campaign. In a Public Meeting at the Michael Sobell Sports Centre in Aberdare Ieuan Wyn Jones (Plaid), Eluned Morgan (Labour), and Tyrone O’Sullivan (Tower Colliery) shared a platform with Professor Kevin Morgan (Chairman, Yes for Wales Campaign).

Professor Morgan was born in Rhigos, a neighboring village. He is a good man and a clever man without whom the Referendum would not have been won. At that 1997 meeting in Aberdare he talked about his vision for the Welsh Assembly and how the people needed to give voice - to articulate and to confront the problems of industrial decline in Wales. There should have been a place at that Hirwaun meeting for the good Professor.

The Forgotten People ?

As Chris Bond asked at the end of that meeting, “Are we the forgotten people?”

Action for Hirwaun

Filed Under Environment, History, Local, People, Politics, Welsh Assembly

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Are we the forgotten people ?

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