PLEASE APPRECIATE THAT I GET SENT MORE INFORMATION AND LEADS THAN I CAN USE. I TRY TO RESPOND TO EVERYONE WHO CONTACTS ME BUT I CANNOT POSSIBLY USE EVERY BIT OF INFORMATION I’M SENT. DIOLCH YN FAWR
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This week we’re back to the Miscellany format, with a mixture of updates and new reports. It’s big, but broken up into digestible chunks.
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GWYNFRYN
To make sense of this section you’ll need to know what has preceded it. So if you haven’t read the previous issues I suggest you start with ‘Residential units’ – how many is too many?. This was followed with an update in Poor Wales: magnet for property spivs, fraudsters, and enviroshysters.
What remains of the Gwynfryn estate of Hugh John Ellis-Nanney near Llanystumdwy has been split. Philip Andrew Bush has retained the land for himself after selling the shell of the house – which was badly damaged by fire in 1982 – to his good friend Aaron Hill, with whom Bush stays when he visits the area.
Bush needs accommodation because he may live in Kent, or he may live somewhere more exotic, where vitamin D deficiency is unlikely to trouble the locals. I suggest this possibility because Bush has been associated with a number of companies registered in locations where a very laid back approach is found to keeping records and obeying the law.
We are now asked to believe that this listed building Bush sold to Hill is to be given new life with ’30 residential units’. You can view the rudimentary plans here. The more I learn about this project the less sure I am that much, if anything, of the old building will be re-used.
I say that for a number of reasons.
First, the building has been treated with contempt by Bush and those he has allowed to use it. In the previous posting I mentioned a character named John Day. The pictures below follow his time at Gwynfryn; when Bush allowed Day to use this piece of Welsh history as a scrapyard.
Just click on an image to enlarge it.
You may recall that in an earlier post I referred to plastic chairs from Butlins. One of the images above corrects my mistake.
Then there was the second fire, in 2013. Philip Bush has been so unlucky with fires.
Over and above these mishaps the general condition of the old pile suggests it may be past saving. For it’s not just general and gradual decay. Sometimes things take a dramatic turn with a fall of masonry.
Again, click on an image to enlarge it.
So for a number of reasons I suspect that whoever’s behind this project – and the jury’s still out on this – will incorporate very little if anything of the old building into the new. No matter what is claimed in the planning application.
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‘SEND A MESSAGE TO LONDON’
The name Tyisha might be familiar because it’s the area near Llanelli railway station that’s plagued by petty criminals and drug addicts. Tyisha is now the most deprived ward in the whole county of Carmarthenshire. Here’s a report from WalesOnline.
You’ll read one local complain, “I think the area’s used as a place to put undesirables . . . a lot of landlords in the area don’t know what their residents get up to and don’t care – they just care about the money in their pockets . . . so many of the drug abusers they’re not even from the area – loads of them are coming here from England, why are they all being dumped here?”
(Many of the ‘landlords’ will be housing associations.)
People are being dumped in Tyisha because a number of third sector bodies and other agencies have found a location with the necessary criteria: working class urban area (locals can be ignored), near railway station (‘clients’ can be put on a train from anywhere), cheap property (ideal for HMOs).
Of course, once the rot sets in there begins a spiral of decline that only benefits those causing the problem. What I mean is that property prices fall even further because nobody wants to live in Tyisha. Those locals who have not moved out are now stuck in houses worth less than they were worth five years ago.
Although Plaid Cymru is supposed to run the county council, and has even held the Llanelli seat in Corruption Bay, the town councillors are overwhelmingly Labour. And some of them are of the worst sort.
Though Gary Jones in Llangennech is definitely one of the better ones (he’s even sent me photos of Dennis Coslett’s grave). But I’m afraid he’s let himself down by his involvement with Tyisha.
It pains me to say this, but what I see here is a Labour councillor apparently celebrating the misery brought to an area of his town by his party’s cronies in the third sector and housing associations. It supports the widely-held view that Labour keeps Wales poor in order to blame the Tories and keep getting elected.
What the hell were you thinking, Gary? What is that pose?
Last year it was announced that Tyisha may be in line for cosmetic redevelopment to the tune of over £9m. Which means that Tyisha can look forward to those big flower pots on the streets for the drug addicts and the drunks to use as very public lavatories.
Here’s a suggestion for the self-styled ‘Welsh Government’. Don’t give public funding to your cronies for them to import problems and then we won’t have to spend yet more Welsh public money to remedy those problems. Capiche?
What a way to run a country!
If we had a functioning media then the properties causing the worst problems would be identified, the relevant information obtained from the council and the Land Registry. And then the owners of those properties, and/or those renting or leasing the properties, would be named and shamed.
And then, rather than capitalising on peoples’ misery, the town’s Labour councillors might pull their fingers out and demand an end to it.
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OPD GARRISONS
Over the years I’ve written a lot about One Planet Developments. I wish there’d be no need to write anything because I wish the insane TAN 6 legislation had never been passed.
But it was passed and, predictably, it is now being abused. For people soon realised that the OPD route offered a way around the ban on new dwellings in open country. That’s because planning permission is guaranteed if you can satisfy planners the dwelling you want qualifies as an OPD.
We’re at the stage now where a ‘Hobbit house’ that cost a few thousand to knock together with straw bales and bits of spare wood is being offered for sale at £475,000. There is some uncertainty in planning circles as to whether such a structure can be demolished and replaced with a conventional bricks and mortar mansion.
That the seller feels they can ask this price suggests they believe such a transformation can now be wrought.
While on the outskirts of Swansea developers have seen a way to build properties in the green belt – with a few acres of land – by calling them ‘farmlets’. Each of them less than two acres.
Now I learn of yet another innovative approach to OPDs from Swansea, this time a plan to house military veterans. And not just one settlement but “a network of ecovillages”.
I have to confess that when I saw the city of my dreams linked with veterans my heart sank. I immediately thought of this crew, the Democrats and Veterans Party, shown here at one of their shindigs.
Though since I wrote about them (scroll down to section ‘(swivel) eyes right!’ they have renamed themselves the Five Star Direct Democracy Party. And they’ll be standing next year in the elections for what they still call the Welsh Assembly.
(It’s going to be a crowded field on the BritNat fringe!)
But thankfully there appears to be no connection between the would-be eco-warriors and those seeking to marry up Great with Britain again.
That said, it’s difficult figuring out which organisation is actually behind this project, because a number are named.
In no particular order, they are: Garrison Farm CIC (originally Project One Ecovillage) a company formed in March; the Community Ecological Land Trust (CELT); and EcoSpace Housing Co-operative, which seems to have an address in Swansea and can be found on the Directory of community-led housing in Wales website, but about which I know little else.
The two principals are Christopher John Carree, who lives in Ravenhill, and Ross Edwards of Morriston, who is clearly local. With maybe Carree in the driving seat.
And yet, despite the Swansea connections, the Garrison Farm Facebook page suggests the operation is based in Chester. Though the map is fixed on Brittany!
If we are to have OPDs then I’m sure some would prefer Welsh veterans living on them rather than charlatans from over the border doing well-paid day jobs in England and using the OPD as a weekend retreat.
Something that – coincidentally! – I’ve exposed quite recently. Scroll down to ‘One Planet Developments’.
As I’ve hinted, the worry is that too often the term ‘veterans’ links with far right politics. And heading out into the boondocks of Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire has echoes of US militias getting away from the federal government.
Maybe Messrs Carree and Edwards can clear things up.
While I was looking into this report I ran across a site that brings together those looking for land in Wales suitable for OPDs. You might want to follow it. If nothing else, reading it will remind you of the threat posed by One Planet Developments.
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‘I DON’T WANT TO GROUSE, BUT . . . ‘
Actually, they’re pheasants, but you get my drift. And they’re to be shot on land around Cwmrhaidr, to the south of Machynlleth.
I suppose I first became aware of the issue when I saw a tweet from beaver lover Iolo Williams. Yet another rich person from England has bought a chunk of Wales and proceeded to do whatever he likes.
Iolo Williams calls for Natural Resources Wales to intervene. Touching. He’d have had more chance of a response if he’d called on the Vladivostok fire department.
This new site for game shooting is marketed as, ‘Dyfi Falls’ by Guns on Pegs. It’s said to be “near the village of Machnylleth (sic), in mid Wales”.
Another company involved is Cambrian Birds, which is not an escort agency (as I’d hoped), but organises days out for the kind of braying ass prepared to pay £395 for a ‘sock’. (Not sure if that’s one sock or a pair.)
A resistance group was set up on September 30th called Arbed Cwmrhaidr a’r Llyfnant (Save Cwmrhaidr and the Llyfnant). The group explains that its concerns are not limited to the unnecessary killing of birds for sport:
“The release of 40,000 gamebirds, most of which seem to be escaping into neighbouring farms and woodlands (including SSSIs), are already causing massive ecological damage. They eat endangered plants and animals, compete with native wildlife for food, and their excrement creates ammonia pollution capable of destroying the rare species that are special to this place.
The bulldozing of trees and new roads is devastating this landscape, a famous beauty spot since Victorian times.
Who benefits? Not local people. The company (Cambrian Birds) is registered in Shropshire. The owner is in Essex. The gamekeepers have been brought in. The clients pay over £2500 per day, but it will be invisible to the local economy.”
I’m not sure I approve of, “famous beauty spot since Victorian times”. Wasn’t the area beautiful before it was ‘discovered’ by visitors from over the border? We’re in Columbus territory here.
As you’ve read, the land was bought by a man from Essex and has been leased to Cambrian Birds. If the protesters know the identity of the buyer they seem reluctant to make it public. Thankfully, the quibble-free proprietor of this blog has no such qualms.
Here’s the title document. It tells us that the land was bought by Thomas William Speakman for £4.75m, without apparently needing a loan or a mortgage. I’m afraid the Land Registry did not offer a plan of the land via website enquiry.
How did we get to this situation?
Certain agencies, including the self-styled ‘Welsh Government’, have been so successful in ‘selling’ Wales that many people now see Wales as the new frontier (or maybe the final frontier); a territory just waiting to be ‘opened up’, peopled only by primitive natives who can be brushed aside.
They will continue to believe this until we, the Welsh people, make them realise they’ve got it wrong. And it has to be us because no one else will do it.
To end on a lighter note. Something that occurred to me as I was writing this piece is that these birds are now running wild on land coveted by the rewilders of Summit to Sea.
What do Monbiot and his chorus of memsahibs have to say about this?
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AN UNUSUAL SCAM
A good source has been in touch to tell me of a couple in their sixties, husband and wife, man and woman, male and female, who stayed – briefly – in a cottage he owns. They stayed one night, left early the next day and then tried a bit of blackmail.
Which is why they’re appearing here.
They arrived the Friday before last having booked through holidaycottages.co.uk. Within an hour the woman was on the phone complaining that the television didn’t work, the place was filthy, and she had been vacuum cleaning almost since she’d arrived.
When the guests went out for dinner the cleaner checked the place out – everything was fine, and the hoover hadn’t been used.
Early the next morning my source found a scruffy note pushed through his letter-box with a litany of complaints – but the pair had fled! He soon received an e-mail, which read:
“Following our abortive holiday to the above cottage which we left on 3 October 2020 due to dirty condition, missing/not working equipment, we have contacted holidaycottages.co.uk with photographs of the filthy conditions and await their response.
We have given that company 7 days in which to respond to our refund request and advised them that if they do not respond within that timeframe, we will issue county court proceedings (small claims jurisdiction) against them bringing you in as third party defendants.
While we would like to resolve this matter amicably, we shall have no hesitation in publishing our photographs online and commencing said proceedings in the event you or the holiday cottage agent do not strive to reach a mutually acceptable resolution to this matter.
It would appear, thus far, our communications with the company are going unanswered and, hence, court proceedings look inevitable unless you wish to settle this matter yourselves”.
Then the photographs materialised. I’m using just two to make the point. The one on the left is claimed to be from inside the cottage. The one on the right is actually from inside the cottage. Two completely different window frames.
And yet . . . in both images we see the same yard. Someone has gone to the trouble of Photoshopping the image on the left by imposing the phoney window frame onto a genuine picture of the yard below!
There was an exchange of e-mails which resulted in the complainant giving her bank details and demanding an instant refund for the two weeks she and her silent husband had paid for.
As far as my source and the local police can figure it . . . the woman would have quickly cancelled or claimed back the payment made on her credit card, then demanded a refund from holidaycottages.co.uk, plus a refund – or more – from my source using the threat of putting the doctored photographs online.
This was too well practised to be a one-off. So if Mrs Sandra T—–t of W—— M—–, Suffolk, tries to book a holiday in your property tell her you’re hosting the Liberal Democrats’ annual conference and both bedrooms are taken.
My source made light of it eventually, and had a little laugh in his final e-mail to her. Here’s an extract:
“But then was it worth it, such a tawdry little scam – surely you are now old enough to see how pathetic you are. You made so many mistakes . . . the fingerprints and some lovely CCTV shots of you enjoying P———. A word of advice, the trouser suit is not a good look in a woman of your age – especially from behind”.
The fellow’s a cad!
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THE BLM DIVIDEND
Ever since George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis the world has gone a little bit crazy. But there’s never been a better time for those who can sniff out Welsh public funding from a long way away. From England, in fact.
It’s time to introduce Diverse Cymru. The name says a lot.
You must have noticed that any third sector organisation hoping for Welsh money either gives itself a full-on Welsh name or, at the very least, adds ‘Cymru’ to the name of the local branch of an English organisation.
As for diversity, it will ‘represent’ a tiny percentage of the population. In my experience BAME organisations are usually made up of sub-Saharan Africans and those with origins in India or Pakistan. Others, such as the industrious Chinese, seem to be totally absent. And of course, there are white people – usually women – with Labour Party connections, in order to ease the flow of the lucre.
The help such organisations provide to members of the public is debatable, but they serve their primary function, which is to create well-paid sinecures and regular jollies for a class of people, often ‘woke’ to the point of hysteria, who might be unemployable in the real world.
Diverse Cymru made the news recently with this call for more help for BAME people suffering mental health issues under Covid lockdown restrictions. According to Samira Salter of Diverse Cymru, BAME people have been “forgotten about” during the pandemic.
Which is nonsense. George Floyd was killed on May 2, and BAME people have never experienced such solicitous attention as in the period since his death.
The people who have suffered worst under Covid are poor people. And certainly many BAME people fall into that category. But the great majority of poor people in Wales are white. It’s about poverty, not colour.
And if we’re dealing with the mental health issues around Coronavirus and lockdown, then I guarantee that these problems are worse in rural areas, not the cities and towns where BAME populations are largely found.
So who runs Diversity Cymru? A source has given me some information and after reading it I knew what kind of body we are dealing with.
“Lead director is Ms Eunica Aure who’s an economist from the Philippines and was a government Spad there. After a stint in the Asian banking sector she moved to London to work on land evaluation of estates in Afghanistan and now works for WYG the consultants that management consult on overseas aid.
Mr Benjamin Coates. His full time job is Assistant Director & Head of Performance and Effectiveness at Equality and Human Rights Commission, based in London.
Ms Helen Susannah Dodoo. Her daytime job is Assistant General Manager at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, which on her Linkedin profile she has located in New South Wales, Australia. She actually lives in Pontcanna, Cardiff.”
What the hell do these people know about Wales? Who appointed them trustees?
I didn’t believe the bit about New South Wales, so I checked. It’s true.
These people, remember, are the trustees of a ‘Welsh’ third sector body that has received millions and millions of pounds of Welsh public funding.
The website tells us, “Diverse Cymru was created in 2010 through a merger between Cardiff and Vale Coalition of Disabled People and Awetu” (Swahili for unity).
Diverse Cymru is either a pantomime horse of an organisation or a clever merger suggesting disabled people and BAME populations have a shared experience of discrimination.
Whatever the answer, how many other BAME bodies are operating in Wales? And how many charities and local government services for the disabled? And how many bodies tackling mental health issues?
With Diverse Cymru we find yet more of the duplication, competition and waste of money that we find wherever we look in the third sector.
Let’s focus on the money for a bit.
The company is actually called Diverse Excellence Cymru Ltd. And it should go without saying that in addition to the grant funding it has also received a loan from the self-styled ‘Welsh Government’s, Finance Wales Investments Ltd.
(And there was me thinking that Finance Wales exists to build up the Welsh economy, to create jobs.)
Down in the south west, local authorities are coughing up lots of money for Diverse Cymru to deliver services to the disabled which elsewhere, and on the national stage, Diverse Cymru seems to have abandoned.
As the latest accounts tell us, the principle source of funding now is now Direct Payments from the three local authorities of the south west. This explains the office in Carmarthen.
For some reason the funding from Pembrokeshire reduced by more than 50% from 2018 to 2019, while the other two authorities increased their payments. What is the explanation for these variations?
Of course, getting paid for delivering services looks a lot better than just getting hand-outs from the ‘Welsh Government’, and this is reflected in the table below.
But I return to what I said earlier about Diverse Cymru being an absurd hybrid trying to deliver two unrelated services. Not only that, but we have also found a geographic split between the Cardiff-based, BAME arm, and the council-funded services for independent living for the disabled organised from Carmarthen.
And so I can’t help wondering if any of that money raised in the south west is funding what are clearly the true priorities of Diverse Cymru.
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LLANGEFNI SHIRE HALL
It’s time to catch up with another rascal in the manly form of Tristan Scott Haynes who, last year, bought the old Shire Hall in Llangefni, capital of Ynys Môn.
Tristan appeared on this site in Not another one!, after which he was called back for a few curtain-calls in Wales, colonialism and corruption (scroll down to section ‘Llangefni Hire Hall’), Miscellany 06.06.2020 (‘Ynys Môn 2’), before finally putting his head around the curtain in Odds & Sods 22.07.2020 (‘Llangefni Shire Hall’).
In that final appearance I reported that the Shire Hall was up for sale. That, I thought, was the end of it, unless another ‘interesting’ character took the stage.
But now I learn that the old monstrosity has been withdrawn from sale.
Not only that, but Haynes is touting for investors. Or rather, he has issued a prospectus that says it’s directed at contractors to fulfil his dream in Llangefni, but as you read the document you soon realise he’s looking for money.
The prospectus is issued by his company Chief Properties Ltd, though it doesn’t say whether it came from the Paris office or the Los Angeles office. In truth, it’s probably from the garage he rents in Bedford.
There is no website for Chief Properties, but I did find a very basic YouTube channel. I suppose it has to be basic because the company has no money and is lumbered with two loans from Together Commercial Finance Ltd, another of the ‘specialist lenders’ that we so often find in Manchester.
Read the prospectus for yourself. (I am indebted to a recipient for sending it to me. He assures me he’s ripped open the sofa and is now going through all his trouser pockets in order to cash in on this unmissable offer.)
As such documents go, it’s badly written. I suppose this would serve as an example, “29th May 2020 Executives of the Anglesey County Council suggests and supports the development of SHIRE HALL to residential use.”
In addition, it’s amateurishly compiled with a number of spelling mistakes. One glaring mistake, due to the large print, is the “Ariel view” provided of the building.
And here’s an example of the gibberish I’m referring to. What the hell is it trying to say? How does the council feel about being associated with this? It reads like a very poor translation.
But it’s not all bad, for the prospectus reminds us of Eryri’s claim to fame: “Snowdonia National Park – otherwise known as the adventure capital of the UK”.
The bastion of Welsh resistance to English aggression now reduced to England’s playground. Makes you proud to be Welsh.
♦ end ♦
You mentioned “that fat-arse woman from Ceredigion.”above. I didn’t realise that was a cladding scandal, I always put it down to too much fodder and not enough exercise.
An important role of the Llywydd, just like the Convener at Holyrood and the speaker in the Westminster House, is to maintain impartiality and also champion the backbenchers in holding government to account. Elin Jones MS has failed in this role, on both counts.
Indeed – Olympic-class failure. And, as is usual in this country, she’s not even paying vice’s tribute to virtue by hypocritically pretending to exercise the powers of her office properly.
‘Liberals are *so* awesome.’ – Charles Evans Hughes.
Where are you getting these quotes from? I hope they’re genuine.
Completely off topic – Unpronouncable half wit MP from Shrewsbury has been at it again, howling at the moon just because Drakeford in one of his more awake ( as opposed to woke) moments decides that folk from bugged up areas of England should not travel to less bugged up areas of Wales. Obviously the toff with the Polish sounding name has recently been denied his ration of choir boys, rent boys or whatever takes his fancy by Covid constraints in the Midlands and London and it’s now getting on his nerves causing him to come over all xenophobic and faux-victim. Poor dab.
What irks me the most about what cunts like him, Quisling Cairns and Andy Right Twat Davies have been spouting about all this, is that border restrictions would undoubtedly be used between states in federations like the USA or Australia! I gather there do exist secessionist movements in places like Texas or California, but I’d be surprised if there was any widespread sense of national identity in those places like the countries of the UK.
If First Minister Dullard declared that a passport or a visa would be requirements to enter Wales then these Conservative and Unionist wankers would be justified in their griping. As it is, it’s a ‘subnational’ territory of the United Kingdom exercising powers within its remit. And seeing as how states within the One Nation Under God can decide for themselves whether felons get to live or die for their crimes, arguably the ultimate power that a central government could possibly cede, I don’t (unfortunately I might add) think these policies undermine Their United Kingdom.
Jeszcze Cymru nie zginęła kiedy my żyjemy …
Or something like that.
‘If you tell a conservative his pet money-spinning scheme is illegal, he’ll look at you blankly.’ Howard A. Taft
The last thing any community, anywhere needs is a bandwagon of Otis Ferry-esque country squire tossers poncing in to the place. I live in hope perhaps one of them might cop a slap one day from crossing the wrong ‘native’.
It occurs to me that much of the current bleating about Drakeford’s decision to limit access to parts of Wales ( not entirely closing any border) derives from the English having a job lot of duds and defectives ready for transfer with nowhere to send them ! Of course it might just be that they were all going to pop over to Abba sock or Newport for half term and now those plans are shredded. How inconvenient. Let them wallow in their own toxic phlegm.
I have many unhappy memories of Tyisha. From what I hear, this quarter of la Città de Santa Elli delle Strade improves backwards.
There *is* a sort of elemental balance at work here. At one and the same time, Wales is used as both a penal colony, and an adventure playground for spivs and fanatics.
‘Liberals are jolly nice chaps.’ – Dwight D. Eisenhower
Tyisha was never Nice but now it’s just not nice.
Jac is correct to identify the railway station in Llanelli as a key driver in the woes of Tyisha.
It’s not unique to Llanelli. Railway stations were built 150 years ago and then it would have, at that time, been the prosperous hub of commercial activity. However, there are two direction such locations can go. Extreme wealth as commuter real estate feeding a prosperous city, think Radyr, Llandaf or Gowerton, or extreme poverty and run down, like Porth, Pembroke Dock and of course Llanelli.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNvPKwArLV4
Drych yn y gogledd.
All such railway stations will have abundant development land as redundant sidings and ancillary buildings. If you designate that land through the planning process with new industries or pockets of executive housing it becomes a gold mine. Fill that land with scrap yards, old shipping containers and third sector hubs and it becomes a ghetto of poverty.
I suspect the railway station will be the key to the regeneration of Tyisha.
Currently it’s ignored. There are a number of things that need to happen.
(a) the removal of the level crossings that strangle it,
(b) the confiscation of the land currently managed as a flytip location by the Llandovery bunker house impostor,
(c) a moratorium on new housing estates on Marchynys and the rest of rural Carmarthenshire in favour of brownfield land near the Llanelli railway station in the LDP.
(d) an end to dumping problem druggies and alcoholics in run down boarding houses. Withdrawal of HMO licensing.
(e) an immediate defunding of third sector organisations in West Wales.
(f) the diversion of public funding from fantasy projects like Delta Lakes into making Llanelli rail station as the western hub of the South West Metro and upgrade the Swansea district line as loop access.
This is where the cause of a problem that can be transformed to an opportunity.
Yes the key to regenerating Tyisha will be the station, and that plan is in being, with a new focus on a boulevard to the town. Tyisha is the result of years of poor planning with a party that just want the seat, A party that relies on traditional voters that like children clinging on to their mothers apron for protection and guidance.
Tyisha and Glan Y mor the neighbouring ward became the County’s answer for decanting problematic individuals, in the hope of resolving community issues, This L party’s method of thinking is of proven failure and one of sweeping the dirt under the carpet. Using funding and associate charitable organisations to decant social problematic individuals by putting all the rotten eggs in one basket.
Problematic growth was the result, with Assisting organisations that feed off grants, some with good intentions with programmes that has never worked to clean up the substance misuse zombies that walk the wards. Sadly, given the residual income that is generated with a turnover of clients it has turned Tyisha into an industry, one lucrative for landlord portfolios for housing, Letting agency’s for clients and estate agents to pick up the cheap housing from the direct impact of the influx of antisocial people. The spin off however, is crime antisocial and policing being concentrated into one county ghetto and a town that on days resembles an open prison.
L Party Results is a model of how to turn a ward into a snowflake community of poor housing and entrapment for those who reside here, them listening to the daily sounds of sirens and arguments, litter and fly tipping from tenants that have no community respect.
What has changed we may ask? The administration the acceptance of Tyisha and Glan Y Mor’s plight from the community shouting out for help, One local resident 7 years ago gets on the county opposition seat and stands as a resident representative and demands change and proposes regeneration. Like pissing into the wind at the time it was noted. However embarrassed by his fight, made his seat a target seat at the next elections. The L party descended and flooded with campaign promising local issues and steering clear of real issues. Sadly at the time Plaid was weak in their delivery and Brexit issues and the L Party won. Solid tactics that bluff the traditional voters in thinking Westminster would honour their goals. The ward not realising the two l Party candidates had never stepped foot into the ward before and one from outside Wales.
Shock reverberated through the county though, when Plaid won the day with a deal with independents, the result was eventually resurrecting the ex-councillor’s proposal and bringing to life a long awaited olive branch for Tyisha. Today that administration is forward thinking with investment for Tyisha and Llanelli fighting for change, a new dawn for the County employees and respect. Embarrassing the previous deplorable administration, Carmarthenshire are now under a barrage of dirty political opposition complaints and criticism by a party that is well past it’s sell by date, one that is responsible of 40 years of stagnation.
The opportunity has finally been slammed down on to the Tyisha and Llanelli’s table.
Accepted and motion passed.
The above reply is typical of plant pot plaidies. Boulevard, my arse. The idea that putting a few flower planters at the side of the road and painting some extra road markings and maybe throwing down some cobblestones is going to solve the issues in Tyisha is laughable.
Not only that Terry, You haven’t even had the decency to read the points I made. Firstly I mentioned the stranglehold of the level crossings. This means the Station Road/New Dock one needs to be ripped out and removed. The Glanymor one needs to be replaced with an over bridge. No cost to Wales or the community. Network Rail is sitting on millions it’s been given by Westminster to remove level crossings. All the Welsh Government needs to do is ask for the cash and lead the project.
There may be a need of a link road round the south side of Ysgol Pen Rhos, but as I inderstand it the county already owns this land. This will connect the copper streets up to Glanymor. That will be peanuts when a new Welsh Government plays Boris for the M4 cash to be spent IN our country when he fails to force through his override.
You say ‘connect with the town centre’. You’re having a laugh.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.6780529,-4.1522761,1373m/data=!3m1!1e3
Llanelli town centre.
By retail turnover and footfall the centre of Llanelli is now Parc Trostre. It’s where Parc y Scarlets is. That’s draining the old town centre. So a tram line is required along the Dafen drain from there to the railway station. As a trustee you need to hand over the good shed for £1 and a building to sleep the trams, making the railway station a hub and then link up the old town by laying tracks up station road into the old town terminating at the market or central square. This will also re-vitalise the old town centre. It means Station road becomes residents only access, apart from trams.
This will make TyIsha a magnet to private investment.
There will be some collatoral damage to such a plan. The God Squad charity building who helps Africa will be evicted at Glanymor level crossing to build the bridge. They can piss off back to England. The Kebab shops on Station Road, now a cul de sac, will close and be converted into more up-market eateries or residential with trees outside, and perhaps market traders to expand and move in with artisan retail. It will be in direct link between the railway station hub, the old town centre and Trostre.
This is the plan that needs to be dumped on the table at Country Hall. It would also mean that the ‘housing targets’ will be removed from Greenfield sites elsewhere in Carmarthenshire and the priority given to decent housing inside Llanelli town, where it’s needed, for Welsh people.
Plaid Cymru.
You’re in the way.
Move aside.
In the short term, I’m told that DPP are itching to do a stop and search, with knife arch at the railway station. A load of the druggies and mules need to be handcuffed and shipped out to Swansea Crown Court, and the UKBA needs to do a few raids on the fast food shacks. Street planters, a coat of paint and charity schemes is not the answer.
The problem is that no matter what foot-soldiers like Terry want, or the voters and residents of Tyisha, at the higher levels Plaid Cymru is a party driven by a twisted variant of socialism that prioritises drug addicts and ex-cons from England, or migrants from anywhere, over local people.
Plaid does this for a number of reasons. Partly because too many at the higher levels of the party enjoy virtue signalling; partly because some – like the former leader – genuinely believe it’s virtuous to dump other countries’ problems in Wales; while many are fearful of being called ‘narrow-minded nationalists’ if they prioritise Welsh interests. And of course, there’s always the carrot of a coalition in Corruption Bay.
The only hope for areas like Tyisha, and hundreds of others, is to stop voting for parties run by people who just want their place on the moral high ground, where they can feel ever so smug about themselves as they watch Wales below fall apart.
If we don’t strive for an answer we will never get it. Be it with what party? Independent party fails on all counts to get a consensus and a plan in a direction as to the various opinions and goals. So we are left with only one party that has Wales real interest, so what are we saying here give up? Plaid is made up of many with differing views and yes someone has to take the lead, covid and Brexit has highlighted the Westminster cabla and the lucrative viking raids on our industry and home corporations for offshore accounts and wealth. If Wales has to drag itself out from this UK pig pen it can only do it with the tools it’s got.
“So we are left with only one party that has Wales real interest”. That’s where you’re wrong. Gwlad and the WNP have been formed because Plaid has failed. And we both know that if Labour doesn’t get 30 seats next May Plaid will happily be Labour’s little helper, again. And nothing will change.
Yes Change is needed as we both agree. Change within and an engagement with people who have walked the walk, that can talk the talk and are able to pull people together. Unless we do that, Wales will never reach the crossroads and that decision. as for a coalition with Labour it would be jumping into bed with the a nest of vipers ( no disrespect to the actual snake that is, at least that can count) I don’t know the WNP and their policy and I don’t mind an opposition within Wales, that is healthy. It promotes welsh democracy and again a decision for the people. I do know local Plaid and they are winning here. The reason they are winning is because of business acumen and their ability to have a vision. Plaid are far from perfect as a group but willing to work, more than any other previous groups overseeing Llanelli and Carmarthenshire. (Please don’t say the opposition is making plaid look good, at least leave some wind in my sails) Engagement is the key in Wales, even if the two rail lines are going in the same direction, we need to engage with the sleepers that attach the two rails that can carry the engine of success.
Neil McEvoy has walked the walk, and talked the talk. Sean Rees has walked the walk, and talked the talk. But in Plaid Cymru if your face don’t fit, you’re ostracised in favour of a cosy shack up with Labour.
This cladding scandal is going to come back and bite Plaid Cymru in the arse. Especially that fat-arse woman from Ceredigion.
Terry, you seem like you have the right mindset to help rescue Tyisha, and if you and your Plaid colleagues can pull something off, then all power to your elbow. But you are so far removed from the Leanne/Adam hegemony and their wokish irrelevance that you might want to look closely at Gwlad or the WNP and decide that more could be done by nailing your colours to one of those two masts. Their focus is not just on Cymru as a whole but on the kind of local issues of which Tyisha is an exemplar. Their focus is on what’s best for Wales.
Thank you for the engagement and you are right in many ways to look at the right people for the job.
That is the key.
However, the local Plaid is of a group of business minded individuals that have got the handle on things.
Plaid I agree in my view needs growth and with the right people and the key to that is engagement with all, Gwlad and WNP, we will not get to the right goals for wales by splitting the vote, as that will assist the two Cabals of Westmonster at the polling station.
Sadly we have strong minded people here, that insist that their way is the only way and without compromise, Sadly that attitude goes for all camps. That has to stop, and a collective policy and manifesto designed to get Wales to win.
A Welsh assembly under a Welsh government is the first goal for all and one of solidarity for Wales. Not a Westminster party.
Wales must be unified before any chance of independence and a solid government and that means working on the same steam engine. The stoker is not the driver and neither the driver is a stoker, how do we get them to work together?
Now Labour and Tory are laughing at us, knowing that split, fragmenting the vote is what keeps them in the running.
Carmarthenshire under the plaid leadership has shown that with the right team (Getting together) we can get the wheels turning and kick off Labours inability, a business policy based on hibernation of management, together with poor decorum in vital decisions. (as with Welsh Government)
#Yes! As you say, I need to nail my colours to a mast. The Fact is, we all need our colours working together on the flag not the mast.
Thank you for a good point and one that hopefully is productive for us.
Gwlad and the WNP are not splitting the vote, they’re increasing the vote. Plaid has hit its ceiling. It’s still regarded as a party for Welsh speakers only, and now it’s also a hard left or ‘woke’ party. Look at the figures – more people are prepared to think about independence but Plaid’s vote is static.
All explained in today’s post.
Thanks for the sensible advice Brychan, but unfortunately Llanelli Station is not likely to be transformed, although the local County Council do come up with some idiotic projects so I may be wrong. The whole of south Llanelli is reclaimed land already reliant on tide locks to keep it from flooding twice daily. Much of the sea defences to the west are based on the GWR embankment and to the East appear to me to be large new housing estates on raised land. The only large remaining land by the station, the goods yards complete with a fine Goods shed, are earmarked for social and performance based activities. The station sits on a very large aquifer. WWDC tell me that the land south of the station is showing increased soil salinity.
The last massive flooding event in the town was in 1897 when an Atlantic hurricane caused a 10 foot tidal wave which reached the steps of the Thomas Arms. The tracks were washed away at Bynea and Pwll, as was the road to Bury Port. I feel like Cassandra at every planning meeting,,when I object to building homes in the flood plains in this area, especially when one helpful planning planning committee councillor pointed out that since the official flood risk is one in a hundred years and as its over a hundred years since the last major flood, we need not worry.
The environment agency in England reckon one in 100 year tidal flooding will be annual within 50 years. Obviously that only for England.
The even more serious problem is the probable loss of the Railway west of Llanelli and Burry Port where the upkeep of the coastal track through Kidwelly and Ferryside to Carmarthen is proving challenging financially due to regular storm erosion. Time for Stuart Coles’ idea to run the track alongside the M4 from Swansea to Carmarthen?
I am fascinated with the detail knowledge and history and your input. yes one clear observation is that if this was the South of England these county challenges with remedial work would not be an issue here, As for the railway line following the M4 you must be kidding. HS2 has gobbled up all the reserve capital for the next century. Whilst Lee Waters is busy in getting everyone to walk to work or buy a bike no matter what distance. My old man was the works engineer for the ROF Pembrey, and he walked to work from Pemerton Rd. A two hour walk there and back along the railway line. in 1950’s. That LW plan is going to be very efficient and perhaps the children could cycle along with parents to work for family time and exercise. Our infrastructure need a massive overhaul.
So we won’t need a railway. perhaps we can suggest we train the youth up in surfing at cefn sidan beach, then we to catch that 100 year break from the lighthouse and settle for a pint at the Thomas Arms.
The Previous Plaid county councilor Jeff Owen who turned independent on the Brexit argument with Plaid was the Flood prevention manager for South West Wales. He pointed out the housing plan was on the flood plain for Stradey and the answer then with the previous administration was, that they had experts working on it? Jeff was the engineer that drew the flood plans up from over 30 years of work ? But the Council knew better. The new houses in Iscoed road has so much iron work to get up the steps, they are like a faraday cages. Yes see your point. There are many experts steering our country ‘s direction, some are humble and willing to take on board solid advice, however, many are college certificate holders that think they are are qualified by having the sheet of A4 parchment, sadly they are still shitting yellow in the facts of life.
Terry. I’d love to see the letter to the households who purchased those houses when they flood.
Dear Stupid
Yes I can confirm the storm surge passed under the railway through our culverts and increased the water level in Sandy lagoon last week. This also caused a backlog at Strady. It’s designed that way. To avoid any confusion these new streets were given English names. Cormorant Close, Heron Avenue and Swan Walk after the wildlife you can now enjoy in your own garden.
Network Rail accept no liability. The trains are on time and our elevated section of track is intact. If you’d like to discuss the situation in greater detail, we will be holding a public consultation at the Sandpiper. Bring your wellies. Please also find attached picture of Phil Bennett. Please note the shirt is red under all that mud and the bits falling out of the Kwis’s arse are not cockles as often speculated.
Kind Regards
We told the council but they didn’t listen.
I’m sure Jeff Owen would approve.
Prof Stuart Coles, an economist, can present interesting tutorials in ticket price and loading matrices, but he should note that railway engineering is based on sound principles and empirical data. He’s employed to tell the WG what they want to hear. I’m not a fan of the invest everything in Cardiff and the rest of Wales is impossible mantra. A new railway line via the M4 routing is a phantom. Brunel knew this when the route of the SWML was chosen.
Here is the flood map of Wales. Zoom in to Llanelli.
https://maps.cyfoethnaturiolcymru.gov.uk/Html5Viewer/Index.html?configBase=https://maps.cyfoethnaturiolcymru.gov.uk/Geocortex/Essentials/REST/sites/Flood_Risk/viewers/Flood_Risk/virtualdirectory/Resources/Config/Default&layerTheme=1
The pink to purple spectrum is surface flash type flood risk like a spring tide or a few days of heavy rainfall, the green spectrum colours are long term risks like an exceptional winter. Dark Purple and deep green is bad.
You will see that the railway line from the Lougher to the Gwendraeth is almost all low risk due to the embankments. Track sections have culverts under the railway to allow for tidal or river surges. The best comparison is to look at Llanrwst in the north where a whole section of railway is in the purple zone.
Increased salinity in the silt sub-strata south of the train station, a layer that lies below the clay moraine, is good. It means the new surface drainage scheme is working. The salt no longer being diluted by surface invasion. This clay moraine stretches to Machynys, the reason for the old brickworks. Machynys, the clue is in the name, an elevated glacial moraine, surrounded by marshes. Evidently St Byr in the 5th century had more vision than labour dimwits. That third sector squat needs to be told to jog on. That goods shed should be rescued as a tram depot, and provide real jobs for local people.
The British Isles has already had the 100 year storm since 1897. It was in 1987.
Structural integrity of sea embankments topped with rail line is another matter. This, as you say affects the Pwll section. There are culverts under the embankment to allow for surge. Network Rail has conducted inspections of all such structures since the Dawlish breach a few years ago. As far as I’m aware Sian, there are no sections of the SWML that fall into concern, although it would be a good question to ask for full disclosure to the Welsh Government when you are elected in May next year.
It should be remembered that the track bed concerned was originally carved to accommodate the GWR broad gauge. This means the footprint of embankments are wide. It’s also wrong to call the seaward sections as “defences”. They were not designed that way. The principle being that culverts were in-built to allow tidal surges to pass under the railway, to allow pre-existing natural inundation at times of surge to happen unhindered. The term ‘tidal wave’ is not actually a single wave just a term applied to the surge front. This occurs due to low atmospheric pressure as well as the lunar alignment, also misnamed as ‘spring tides’. This is very different from swell wave action, which can be baffled or mitigated with reinforcements. If the Senedd wishes to call Mark Langman the Wales director at Network Rail to give evidence to committee on such matters, he retires soon and can do so unhindered by Westminster priorities. The county council should not be sacrificing in-built protections to the SWML in promotion of it’s policy of housing development on flood plains in the south of the county. This integrity of the line is important for expansion of the Welsh network up to Aberystwyth and the future prosperity of Llanelli.
Hi Sian, May I ask “What idiotic projects”? TA
Totally agree with you. How can a plaid county council get away with doing nothing here just more of the same ruinous policies imposed by labour
The Plaid County has inherited the problem. The cost of which is going to be massive. Capital that would have to come from Welsh government that is Labour. back to square one. But given the insight Brychan has shown it’s more of a National disgrace for corporate planning to developers and benefactors, with total disregard for the impending disaster. The fall out of which will be blamed on global warming.
Found your comments on the rooms taken by Liberal Democrat’s and the trousers suit funny – nice to have a laugh these days.
We have to find our humour where we can in these dark days. Though the trouser suit remark was not mine.
Interesting as always Jac. I liked the “unusual scam” and blackmail attempt. I hope the “guests” tune in to your blog and now have enough egg on their face to make an omelette. The owner of the property handled the situation very well. What category can we place the “guests” in: professional claimants perhaps.
The thing I should have mentioned is that they’d booked for two weeks, so there was quite a substantial sum involved. If they’re pulling this stunt regularly, and getting away with it a few times, then they could be supplementing their pensions quite nicely.
What a depressing list of incompetence. You couldn’t get a worse show if you paid our Governments, public agencies and local authorities to go out and deliberately fuck things up. Well you probably could cos they would bring in yet more duffers to ensure further depths were reached. The point is that any person with an ounce of critical thinking would see each of these situations and conclude that someone is either underperforming/neglecting his/her duties or deliberately sabotaging our country and its resources. The waste, the duplication and the misallocation of funds/resources is scandalous along with the complete misdirection of policy in some areas of service.
Cases like Tyisha have been reported and discussed on here for 5-10 years or more. I’ve been party to some of them for at least 5 years. Then the Diversity Cymru lark, a joy ride at public expense often chasing problems that don’t exist except in the imagination of the schemer who writes their funding proposals. And all our politicians seem to do is ask them if they would like some more loot !
We are a nation that has been content to wallow in the madness of our elected leaders. Time to ring the changes.
As you suggest, these reports are an indictment of so many bodies and organisations, but the blame must start with the ‘Welsh Government’, which brought out TAN 6, which created NRW, which funds the third sector . . .
I’ll be updating the Tyisha story later with information since received.
Contact me regarding Tyisha ward
Councillor Terry Davies (Plaid) Tyisha Ward.
My e-mail address is editor@jacothenorth.net