A Public Meeting will be held in Aberdare on Thursday 9th October 2008, at the Sobells Sports Centre.
At the Meeting Rhondda Cynon Taf Councillors will decide on the new Gloucesters & Ironworks site planning application.
All Welcome.
A Planning Application has been re-submitted to the local Council. The plans are for 130 houses to be built on the Hirwaun Gloucesters and old Ironworks site. This area is much valued and used by the community as an area for recreation and leisure and home to an abundance of wildlife and flora.
Councillors voted to refuse planning permission in July 2008.
Local Council Planning Officers are trying to persuade Councillors to change their minds and approve this application, despite overwhelming objections from residents over the last 3 years.
The people of Hirwaun are not opposed to building new houses.
They are opposed to inappropriate overdevelopment at the expense of the whole community.
Hoo-bloody-rah! for Hirwaun people fighting for their own Community.
Don’t Miss the Mercurymen gig at Cardiff Arms pub in Hirwaun this Friday 26th September.
Recently signed to Sony BMG, Mercurymen Jinder, Gavin and Simon are on the road promoting their debut album Postcards from Valonia.
This promises to be a very special gig. Catch them at the Cardiff Arms Hirwaun on the only Welsh date of their UK tour.
The Cardiff Arms was taken over by Julian and Annie Barfield a year ago. After a massive investment and complete refurbishment, the pub is making a mark for quality food, drink, entertainment.
Another day of chaos on the main Aberdare road leading north from the town…
Drivers experienced long delays today on the the A4059 road between Aberdare and Hirwaun due to a traffic collision.
A local grandmother driving home narrowly escaped with her life after being shunted from behind by a lorry.
Closure of the Llwydcoed by-pass road last week due to subsidence problems has caused an enormous increase in traffic on the A4059, leading to traffic tailbacks from Hirwaun to Trecynon during peak hours.
Local residents today expressed their concern that a fatality is inevitable unless Rhondda Cynon Taf Council re-open the Llwydcoed road as to matter of urgency to ease traffic congestion.
Out of sight out of mind at Hirwaun Industrial Estate… we photograph the informal landfill site.
Building and household waste, electrical equipment such as fridge and vacuum cleaner, clothes, you name it, it’s being dumped in this corner of Hirwaun Industrial Estate.
In the brand-satured world we live in, corporations do their utmost to protect their brand name and logo. Shell – the Royal-Dutch Shell Group – are experiencing some difficulties protecting their logo at Trenant, near Hirwaun.
The Shell fuel station closed in January 2006, and the site has remained a rusting industrial eye-sore ever since. Soon after the business closed, they covered their signage and large logo with a white plastic sheeting to hide the ownership of the site.
Eventually this blew away. It was replaced by bright blue plastic material in February 2008. This looked like a cheap blue plastic bag one might use at nearby Rheola Market! This too blew away within a few weeks.
The fuel station is situated at the junction of Trenant and the ever-busy A4059 Aberdare to Hirwaun road. There is a pedestrian crossing within a few feet and this stretch of road has been the scene of many serious accidents over the years, hence the presence of a nearby speed camera.
As one of the UK’s largest corporations, one would expect a more responsible attitude towards the small community that has tolerated the presence of a fuel station since the 1960s.
Contact Details for Shell UK
Telephone Freephone 0800 731 8888
Address : Shell Customer Service Centre, Rowlandsway House, Rowlandsway, Wythenshawe. Manchester M22 5SB
Now that Tower Colliery has finally closed, the new language that has been incubating there during the past thirteen or so years finally emerges.
Tyrone O’Sullivan and Tower Colliery shareholders now speak the language of business development and exploitation, the language of managers of men and land, of balance sheets, profit and bottom lines.
Over the past year or so, stories have been drip-fed via the corporate press about possible developments at the Tower site after its closure, including entrepreneurial-sounding visions for a waste processing plant, a housing and retail development, a museum and a range of other schemes.
There has been much talk about creating “sustainable jobs” at the former Colliery site, but one is skeptical of this type of lofty talk. The only idea not discussed by Tower Colliery shareholders is that perhaps the land be left to recover after nearly two hundred or so years of gross industrial exploitation.
No discussion has taken part with the communities of Rhigos or Hirwaun, or indeed any other community that will be blighted by more industrial expansion or development at the Tower Colliery site.
The new language of Tower Colliery is the language of a business class.
Amidst the frenetic flurry of stories on Tower Colliery this week, one story caught our eye as an insightful breathe of fresh air …
John Redwood commented in his blog this week on the closure of Tower Colliery. He was Conservative Secretary of State for Wales at the time of the pit closure and subsequent buy-out. Without his enthusiasm for the project, it is doubtful whether the miners would ever have become owners of their own pits.
When the miners arrived in my office, I think they were surprised by my enthusiasm for their cause, and by my explanation that their task was not to persuade me, but to work with me on our joint case to the Energy department and Coal Board to give them the opportunity to run the mine. As it meant being allowed to prove the Coal Board wrong it was not going to be easy, but I felt that between us we could do it.
So was forged a partnership in British politics that none had predicted. I joined forces with Tyrone O ‘Sullivan, the charismatic Lodge Secretary and leader of the buy out team to persuade Coal Board and government the should give the miners a chance. I was the only person who saw nothing strange in the alliance. I had always believed in workers participation and employee ownership. Here was a chance to show its magic in an industry that had been gravely damaged by the them and us mentality of the large corporation.
Perhaps the greatest modern legacy Thatcher left the Valleys was the Tower Colliery Story where two hundred or so workers bought their own pit and worked it by and for themselves until they dug every last tonne of coal they could dig out of the ground. The Tower Colliery Story is a success story and a story of radicalism. Every community needs a good story to tell the next generation.
What would the late and great Phil Weekes have to say about the closure of Tower Colliery this week ?
In 1974 at a Conference held during the Year of the Valleys, Philip Weekes described himself thus :
I have all the contrasts, the contradictions, the cussedness, the emotions that you will find in the typical valleys miner, which is what I claim to be. My devotion to the Valleys has no logic that I can discover; it seems to be rooted in emotion. An emotion that made me demand that I be removed from an exciting job as Director-General of Mining in London – to run the largest, geologically-toughest, most unprofitable coalfield in Britain, and probably, Western Europe.
Weekes was a genius communicator but even he would now find it difficult to articulate his disappointment at the demise of our old way of life in the Valleys.
Rev. Bernard Jones became the new Aberdare Rural Dean this week.
Rev. Bernard is currently (Church in Wales) Vicar for the Parish of Hirwaun responsible for two Churches within the Parish : St Lleurwg’s Church (Hirwaun) and the sister church at Penywaun, St Winifred.
The role of Aberdare Rural Dean involves extra responsibilities and duties within other Parishes in the Deanery of Cynon Valley. A key role for the Rural Dean is to support parishes during vacancies. The previous Rural Dean was Rev. Robert Davies of Aberdare Parish.
Congratulations to Rev. Bernard and we wish him well in this new role.
It is exactly a year since we wrote about the forgotten people of Hirwaun. In our report we tried to convey the basic facts which went unreported by Trinity Mirror, publishers of the Cynon Valley Leader.
The willingness of working people to respond to the challenge of overdevelopment in Hirwaun was a story we could not ignore.
Events have moved on swiftly since then : the English housing developer seeking to build several hundred homes in the last remaining green space in Hirwaun (the Gloucester site and nearabouts) had their planning application rejected by Rhondda Cynon Taff Council. They have since appealed against that decision, and this has led to the decision being reviewed by the Welsh Assembly.
There will therefore be a public inquiry at Hirwaun on Tuesday 23rd October 2007, held at Hirwaun Community Centre. Starting promptly at 10am. The Public Inquiry may run for two days.
Why should you bother to attend such a public meeting ? Karen Morgan of Action for Hirwaun puts it eloquently and passionately thus : “Please, please give some of your time to help save the Gloucesters by attending some or all of the inquiry and having your voices heard. If we all continue to stand together as a community, we have a good chance of winning and we’ll have some kind of legacy to leave behind for our children and grandchildren to enjoy.”
Is there or is there not a new unlicensed landfill site in Hirwaun ?
We commented on this problem back in February. Since then the site at Hirwaun Industrial Estate seems to have grown even bigger with even more household and industrial waste.
Here’s a video clip of a paraglider ‘jumping off’ Rhigos Mountain yesterday.
It’s near Craig y Llyn, the highest summit in Glamorgan.
There are splendid views of Rhigos and Hirwaun from this lofty ledge.
Tower Colliery is nearby, although it it expected to close this month.
Jill Evans, Plaid Cymru’s Candidate for Rhondda in the National Assembly Elections, chose this location to give a press conference yesterday.
The following statement was issued on behalf of Jill Evans’ office :
“Plaid Cymru firmly believes that urgent and effective action is neededto tackle climate change. But the top priority must be given to energyconservation and efficiency. Then, renewable energy must come from severalsources – hydro, solar, bio-mass and wind. Labour’s policy, with its80% reliance on on-shore wind-farms, is wrong. The result – 150 windturbines in north Glamorgan by 2010 – is unacceptable.
“We’re calling for a planning moratorium while a new strategy isdeveloped. And then, local communities should decide their own energyplans, not be dictated to as they are now”.
Our emphasis on what is a radical proposal – “local communities should decide their own energyplans" : people should be free enough to make decisions for themselves and their community.
A Public Meeting will be held in Aberdare on Thursday 9th October 2008, at the Sobells Sports Centre. 
Another day of chaos on the main Aberdare road leading north from the town…
There is no need to panic, the green-haired ‘aliens’ currently walking from Hirwaun via Aberdare to Abercynon are friendly!
In the brand-satured world we live in, corporations do their utmost to protect their brand name and logo. 
Photos are now in the 
Now that Tower Colliery has finally closed, the new language that has been incubating there during the past thirteen or so years finally emerges.
Rev. Bernard Jones became the new Aberdare Rural Dean this week.
