Porthcawl Regeneration shambles

It certainly looks like Bridgend County Borough Council will drag their shambolic handling of the Porthcawl Seven Bays Regeneration Project well in to the year and beyond.

Citizens of the town have every right to voice their concerns over BCBC’s shortfall in meaningful public consultation, the lack of planned public facilities and not to mention the arrogant handling of the local town council and campaigners, which included county councillors voting to exclude community groups from the a recent Regeneration Forum meeting.

I support Porthcawl SHOUT in their decision to call in the Welsh Audit Commission to look into the financial handling of the sale of land to retailers Tesco. The Council’s lack of business acumen was exposed when it was revealed that ratepayers would only receive 30% of the £6.5m profit. The remaining 70% or £4.7m will go to the Evans family despite the fact that the family only own 20% of the land area. All of these discussions were conducted during secret cabinet meetings, when the Council are only custodians to local land.

I recently met a number of people when I set up a street stall on John Street and the overwhelming number of people I spoke with was extremely disgruntled over the lack of facilities on offer in the town. Examples included a cinema, a theatre and a swimming pool. Of course, the demand for a local swimming pool is well documented with the annual Pool-less swimming gala and a petition containing in excess of 5,000 signatures. Alas, these valiant efforts have been ignored by County Councillors.

Porthcawl is an attractive town with the potential to become Wales’ premier seaside tourist venue – if not the UK’s. With stunning sandy beaches, attractive coastlines and ample green land surrounding the town, the natural resources ooze potential for a buoyant tourism industry. However, the regeneration should provide facilities for local people and to draw in a wider number of tourists. Compare the project with the proposed development of Barry a few miles down the road. The Barry regeneration project will bring a major improvement to the town; children’s play facilities, improved transport infrastructure and facilities to improve local health through sport initiatives.