Every home in the Upper Afan Valley is about to get a form through the door asking what up to £20m should do for the valley over the next ten years.
The household survey is being delivered over the coming weeks, from Cymmer and Croeserw to Glyncorrwg and Gwynfi. The board behind it wants it back by 31 October.
Can’t make head nor tail of it? The board says anyone who gets stuck can take it along to one of its village events, where someone will fill it in with them.
The survey that shapes the first four years of £20m spending
The answers will shape the Pride in Place board’s investment plan for the first four years of the programme. They will also set out what the whole decade of spending is meant to change, the board says.
That first plan has to be in place by the end of November, board chair Karen Jones has said. The survey closes a month earlier.
She set that deadline when the board’s 16 members were named in July.
The forms are arriving later than first planned. When it called for project ideas in August, the board said the survey would land in early September.
Village events and a Facebook group for the Upper Afan Valley
The board says it spent the summer asking people what the valley does well, what holds it back, and how that could change.
The survey runs alongside face-to-face events in every village and the call for project ideas, which also closes on 31 October.
Dates for events through September and October are on the UpperAfanValleyPiP Facebook group and in local community centres, the board says. Look out for the Pride in Place posters.
Karen Jones: ‘Please make sure to have your say’
Jones, a former Neath Port Talbot Council chief executive, said the board had set up several ways to hear from residents and people working in the upper valley. “The household survey provides another opportunity for people to have their say,” she said.
She wants every form back. “We’d like everyone to fill out the form and return it,” she said.
“The Board is determined that its priorities will reflect what is important to local people,” she added, urging residents to “please make sure to have your say”.
Welsh Secretary Stephen Kinnock: ‘Your views matter’
Stephen Kinnock, the Aberafan Maesteg MP and Secretary of State for Wales, sits on the board himself. He said the summer’s work had given the board “a really valuable picture of what people love about our communities, the challenges they want to see tackled and the opportunities they want to build on”.
Now that the survey is landing, he wants everyone to spare a few minutes for it. “Whether you have lived here all your life or are new to the area, your views matter,” he said.
He said the money had to follow what people asked for. “This is about listening to local people and making sure the investment over the next ten years delivers real, lasting change that reflects the priorities of the communities themselves.”
Cllr Jeremy Hurley, Neath Port Talbot Council’s cabinet member for climate change and economic growth, said the valley’s own people were best placed to steer it. “These communities know their area’s needs better than anyone,” he said.
He called the programme a chance to build on the valley’s strengths and tackle its problems. “Every voice matters, so I would urge residents to have their say and help shape a positive vision for the Upper Afan Valley over the next decade,” he said.
Why the Upper Afan Valley was picked for £20m
The valley was chosen in January as Neath Port Talbot’s single nomination for the UK Government scheme, after council officers ranked it the most deprived area in the county borough.
Parts of it have appeared among Wales’s 50 most deprived communities in every official index since 2005, according to the council.
It is one of three £20m Pride in Place areas in the region, alongside North Gate Swansea and the Llanelli town area.
The money comes straight from Westminster rather than through the Welsh Government.
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