NEWS

You can make a difference if you just try. The biggest disease in Pontypridd is apathy, don't catch it and don't pass it on. If you want things to improve them do something about them. Write or email the local paper, write to your MP, write to your AM, write to your local councillor and keep writing until things change or they do. Don't give up and until you change Ponty for the better! We shall try to update this section with local news every week or so but don't forget that most news is posted on the message board daily.

3 May 08

Still time to enter the Welsh Poetry Competition and win a cash prize of £200. If you think you can write a winning poem just click here. New column added to writing page. Lots of offers on our shopping page too. Codes for discounts appear on the forum/message board when they become known to us, so be sure to check back there.

27 April 08

Good win for the Ponty to see us reach yet another Swalec Cup final. Lots of debate on the message board about what's happening with old Brown Lenox site and of course elections coming soon so no doubt there'll be some dodgy posts soon...

6 April 08

Brand new web site design launched. Ponty beat Bridged in the Welsh Cup and the City get to the FA Cup final for the first time since Michael Palin tried to take some frogs across the Andes.

23 March 08

Wales Grand Slam DVD now out - click here to buy it.

15 March 08

Great day in Cardiff today, pubs overflowing as Wales beat France for the Grand Slam (what else did we expect from Gatland & Edwards?). Ponty walkway shut, Ponty toilets closed, Ponty Park closed, Taff St closed - is someone trying to tell us something? St Catherine's looks what it is - a horrible grey multi-storey car park that will soon be smelling of urine (hope the council workers enjoy it).

1 March 08

Happy St David's Day to one and all.
 

The Welsh Poetry Competition is now open and accepting entries again. Why not enter and give yourself a chance of winning one of the cash prizes on offer? Remember the competition is funded purely by the organisers and we are not effected by the London Olympics - we don't steal your grant money!

20 Feb 08

Lots of debate on message board which is nice. Wales take on Italy this w/e in Cardiff hoping for three out of three... The second international Welsh Poetry Competition is only 2 weeks away. Nothing much happening in town on development front as usual for last 30 years.

2 Feb 08

Great win for Wales as we beat England at Twickers. Half of Ponty watch match in Old Arcade - like old times it was... Grand Slam 2 anyone?

26 Jan 08

Quite a few columns and the odd photo have appeared in the Ponty Observer of late - shame they don't pay us! Six Nations fever (where?) grips a nation - well, it does if you're from somewhere other than Ponty. This has to be the least interested in rugby everyone I know is. We'll be Old "A" in it for England game though so maybe that will light the fire again? Poetry Reading Event organised by John Evans coming up in CYB on Feb 11th and the Welsh Poetry Competition also due to start it's second year in March.

12 Jan 08

Business advertising now possible on our hugely popular message board and for only £100 a year - a bargain! Maximum of 6 adverts on page feeder (each one rotated every month so everyone gets the same coverage). Sign up here here.

1 Jan 08

Happy New Year and Happy 10th Birthday to all at Ponty Town Online. They tried to shut us down, they threatened us with court action and the police but thanks to you - the public - we are still here. So lets make 2008 a year to remember as well as the last 10. Lets get a crossing on the other side of the A470 before someone gets killed. Lets get the Brown Lennox site cleaned up. Lets make the streets safer. Lets eat more curry.

Our Town Development Plan

Over the past eight years we've made it clear what we'd like to see happen in our town and now that we have a new Labour controlled council perhaps they will listen to the people. After all, Plaid didn't listen so we voted them out. Below is a round up of our current thinking...

St Catherine's Corner: The new development is underway. The vicar is against it. We are against it and we think the people will be against it when they see it. Time will tell so watch this space... (Note: We did say - with the widening of the road the church looks lovely now, so lets not block the view with a hideous concrete construction or car park. Let's build some small units for multi-nationals and local shops in a 50:50 mix. Any construction must be done using sustainable local materials. The Welsh Assembly is supposed to be promoting this so we should get any funding we need. Lets commission an architect that likes the work of Gaudi and say we want the same! With a unique and attractive development at the northern end of town people from the valleys going home every night by car, bus and train will be enchanted and want to visit!)

Maritime/Sardis: There is a huge amount of land/space here and so we propose the first of our sports centres for the town. An Olympic size swimming pool, state of the art sports centre with basketball facilities (to attract the Rhondda Rebels to town), a modern multi-gym for use by Pontypridd rugby players and academies, and future regional (Warriors II) rugby team, a secure bike park for users of the centre, a cycle track and indoor tennis courts. There is plenty of car parking at Sardis Road already plus we have the rugby club nearby (which obviously needs knocking down and rebuilding). Morbaine want to put shops and more concrete here which we are against for a number of reasons: more cars = more pollution, where will Ponty play? and we want a sports centre!

Brown Lennox: The site had the chance of a small Morrisons store (they even promised to pay for the restoration and upkeep of the canal) but while Labour led RCTCBC passed the development - the WAG (Carwyn James, Labour) turned it down. Great to see democracy and the will of the people being ignored in Ponty.

So what now... Well, we'd still like a Morrisons there (or Aldi or Lidl), we'd still like the canal cleaned up, we'd also like a visitor centre/shop for the canal, but what we'd really like is a sports centre with a 25m swimming pool with secure bike park. We don't need a car park as there is already one at B&Q etc.

The idiotic roundabout can be designed properly (i.e. demolished) and we can have access to the site here as well as a slip road for traffic to go north to Merthyr and Aberdare (not sure why it wasn't done to begin!). The Glyntaf slip road can also be reopened and speed restrictions imposed (like at Taffs Well) so everyone driving past Ponty is made to slow down on the A470 and sees how wonderful it is and wants to visit!

Park: The Park is a War Memorial Park and we should never forget this. It is also the only decent thing in Ponty at present. So it makes sense to have more of it not less. We need to reduce (or eliminate completely) the number of cars entering the Park (only ambulances and a couple of council trucks are needed surely?). There should be no car park in the Park under any circumstances. Cars increase pollution, are a danger to our children and there is no need at all for us to destroy (or at the very least, erode) our "jewel in the crown". On the site of the RCT run down Day Centre we should build a new Environmental Centre for the schools of Pontypridd (c.f. Cardiff Museum's centre). Built from local sustainable materials of course, again the Welsh Assembly will pay for this, and a secure bike park opened in the Park. Think about it, if the Health Centre and Day Centre are to close then this means we should have more land for Parkland, not less.

Good news is that after years of campaigning the council has just allowed part of the Taff Trail to run through the edge of the Park - so some good news!

Town Centre: The Parkland should be increased not decreased. The precinct is ugly, dirty and outdated, so pull it down. We extend the Park across the River into the area of the precinct and landscape the ground there. We add cobbled stones, flower-clad lanes or even an open plaza - this could be the new cafe quarter, benches, cafes, statues, viewing points across the river and park for wildlife etc... This area should have 100% local shops with all-weather areas facing the River. We need cafes overlooking the River Taff. Flats can be built above the shops also overlooking the river and would mean people living in the town! NO multinationals over a certain size should be allowed into this area - there aren't any now are there! Not that we want to give in to this current obsession with car parks that certain people seem to have but we could have a small underground car park here as well.

One excellent suggestion is to have the RCT council offices relocated here - this would bring in a lot of trade to the town. The whole of Taff Street should be pedestrianised of course and deliveries finished by early morning or staggered throughout the day. Shops should be given extended licenses to open until 10:00pm if they wish and the whole area lit up so making it safer and easier to police. With pubs banning smoking soon we should see more families enjoying the town's pubs and eateries so let's make sure it's safe. Street friendly trees can be planted the entire length of Taff Street as well as being replanted along Gelliwastad Road. We should be looking to make Pontypridd the most attractive town in Britain and hence attract more visitors than we could cope with! Free, clean toilets might help. We would also suggest that the "Goods Yard" have a train station put there to link with the new bus station. Disabled access for town should also be improved.

We'd also like to see a Circular Walk introduced to Ponty and the surrounding area (e.g. Taff Trail, Museum, Old Bridge, Taff Street, Fountain, War Memorial Park circuit, The 5th Welch Memorial, Rocking Stones, Round Houses, Machine Bridge, cottages on Broadway, Tumble, Train station, Sardis Road, Thomas Telford's Newbridge Viaduct, St Catherine's Church, Muni Arts Centre, Llanover Arms, Newbridge, Taff Trail). This walkway could have special "paving stones" and/or plaques that could inform users of the historical significance of sites. It should of course link up to the Taff Trail, which as we've said earlier should run through town, with a cycle lane. A great way to liven up town, attract visitors, promote our history and it will cost the council next to nothing. We have offered to do a FREE website for the town council of the Circular Walk as long as they cover domain name and hosting costs.

We also have another plan - a bigger and better idea - far more visionary - looking way into the future (well 10 years anyway). We sent this in to the Observer:

I Have A Dream

Last night I had a dream! With the increasing proliferation of out of town stores and shopping on the internet continuing to increase very soon every small town centre in Britain will be deader than Ponty is at the moment. But this is no nightmare. We have a chance to create something special. With Cardiff, our nations capital, only a short trip away, Caerphilly and it’s castle even closer, the historic Rhondda, Cynon and Taff valleys on our doorstep and the rugged Brecon Beacons beyond, Ponty doesn’t need to compete. We already have much more than we need at hand. Our solution – lets turn Ponty into a “Green Town”. Ponty is ideally placed to become one of the best looking and most attractive towns in Britain - it has history, setting, wonderful people and a beautiful Park already here - you can't turn Milton Keyes into that can you? If you dropped a bomb on the precinct you’d do £5 worth of damage so that is to our advantage too - like Germany after the war we can redevelop our town as we want. We can turn Ponty into a really great place to live. State of the art sports centre and Olympic-size swimming pool on the Brown Lenox site. Replace the precinct and car park with low-rise flats and local shops amid more parkland overlooking the river – get people living in town again. More pubs and clubs, more cafes. Lets turn Ponty into the leisure and tourism centre of South Wales. With vision Blaenavon has reinvented itself as a tourist book town – Ponty is bigger and better! Lets abandon dreams of attracting multinationals in order to turn our very special town into a carbon copy of every other boring and bland town in the UK where one High Street looks the same as the next – lets go for gold! Pedestrianise Taff Street, plant trees along all our streets, get the Circular Walk underway, no more cars, our house prices will rise as pollution becomes a thing of the past, well-lit streets help police police - crime falls, council can charge more council tax, Australians will want to emmigrate here for a better life. Anyone in power brave enough to build a bright healthy future for our children?

 

If you think any of these ideas are good (or close to your own thinking) then copy it and send it to your local councillor and demand they bring it up at the next meeting they attend or you won't vote for them again. Keep writing to them until things start to change for the better. If you have something to add then post it on the message board for all to see. Tell everyone about your message board and encourage people to sign up and start posting. Don't just sit at home moaning - get active! It also might be worth picking on one small part of the plan and continually demanding that it is done, e.g. planting trees everywhere, that way the small mind of your average councillor isn't overloaded with too much information. OK, joke :).

 

Email the Western Mail with it. Send it to Carwyn James at the WAG. Let Kim Howells and Jane Davidson know. Send it to your friends. Start posting on our message board. Write to the Observer. Get involved in anyway at all. Don't except second best. Demand the best for your town and your children. And never give up. Fight for what you deserve. Think BIG.

 

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