Community Revolutions

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to visit the largest time bank in the whole of the United Kingdom. Located just a stone’s throw from the Fawr, this timebank in Blaengarw, at the top of the Garw valley, has revolutionised this small community since it was established in 2004. Community owned and managed, the timebank project has succeeded in reducing crime, increasing employment levels, providing vocational training, reclaiming colliery land for community use as well as breathing life into abandoned shops by re-opening them as viable businesses. Throughout the project, the local youth have been engaged and made to feel part of the movement.

What has been achieved in Blaengarw in a few short years is incredible and very inspiring. If this can be done so successfully in Blaengarw, why not elsewhere in the valleys? Blaengarw, like many communities in the Rhondda, is isolated and miles from the hustle and bustle of a major conurbation. The people of Blaengarw have turned this to their advantage by uniting the community to provide the kind of services and opportunities that the market has failed to.

Of course, none of the many achievements of the Blaengarw Timecentre would have been possible without community spirit; a quality that is endemic throughout our valleys. This same community spirit can clearly be seen in the people of Maerdy with their determination to save one of the community’s last remaining heritage buildings. Plaid Cymru councillor Gerwyn Evans together with the rest of the ‘Friends of All Saints’ have occupied the church since its last official service at the beginning of the month.

They have shown remarkable resilience in their campaign to save the building before it is sold on the open market or demolished. They are asking for the opportunity and time to raise the money needed to renovate and maintain the building so it can be retained for community use for future generations to come. I have been in touch with the Friends of All Saints from the beginning of their campaign and have corresponded with the Welsh Government and the Church in Wales on their behalf.

Time will tell whether the campaign will be successful or not; I can only hope all the hard work and determination to find a way to retain one of the last old buildings left in Maerdy comes to fruition.

Save S4C

S4C is the only Welsh language television channel in the world. The ConDem coalition government in London is slashing the S4C budget and removing its independence by absorbing it into the BBC. No guarantees have been given about public funding beyond 2015 and very little information has come out from the BBC as to their plans for the channel.

Claims of low viewing figures and questionable practices in the running of the channel have helped those who would quietly like to see the end of an independent Welsh language TV channel. Many of those campaigning to save the channel are fiercly critical of the channel's failings and so are not demanding that it continues in its current form.

S4C is not just for Welsh speakers. Many non-Welsh speaking parents with children in Welsh medium schools recognise the fantastic worth of Cyw, S4C's children's programming. For many parents who don't speak Welsh, S4C provides one of the few ways children can hear Welsh outside school, something vital to their language acquisition, especially over long time periods like the summer holidays. It's also vital in the process of normalising the Welsh language within our communities.

The principle of a Welsh language channel is an important one to uphold. It's not just a broadcasting issue. It is a language issue.

In support of the campaign to save S4C, I have stopped paying my TV licence.

Speaking ahead of a rally being held today in Cardiff, Cymdeithas Yr Iaith Chair Bethan Williams said:

“The channel faces cuts to its budget of over 40% in real terms, being swallowed by the BBC and seeing powers to get rid of the channel completely in the hands of Westminster Ministers. The Government is saving 94% of the money that they used to pay S4C, cuts that are wholly unfair. It will be impossible to secure the independence of S4C under the joint-proposals of the Government to fund S4C through the BBC. We now know that if the BBC had refused this idea there would be no threat to the independence of the channel. The unfortunate truth is that the heads of the BBC in London don’t care one bit about S4C, and that is why we are in a critical situation at this time.”

S4C was set up after a difficult battle. This campaign is about making sure it doesn't disappear without a similar fight.

Ymlaen a'r ymgyrch.