A house that has stood empty on Neath Road in Maesteg for 30 years is heading for auction, after the council took it out of its owner’s hands.
Bridgend County Borough Council secured a compulsory purchase order over the property, the legal power that lets a council take ownership of land or buildings when every other route has failed.
For neighbours, the house had long stopped being a curiosity. The council said its deteriorating condition brought reports of rodent activity, fears that people could get inside, and an appearance dragging down a street that sits within a conservation area.
The council said it explored all available options to persuade the owner to act, and turned to compulsory purchase only after those long-term efforts failed.
The photographs released with the announcement show what three decades of standing empty looks like: boarded windows behind a carved stone bay, legal notices pinned to the garden wall, and inside, a bay window with its frames rotted open and the garden’s greenery pressing into the room.
The house is now due to be auctioned in October. Once sold, the council says it will work with the new owner to support its renovation and return to use.
Cllr Colin Davies, the council’s cabinet member for housing and regeneration, said: “Bringing long-term empty properties back into use is an important part of our work to improve local communities while also making the best use of existing homes.
“After three decades of deterioration and remaining empty, residents and local councillors have understandably been calling for this property to return to use. I’d like to thank officers from the council and Shared Regulatory Services for their long-term efforts to engage with the property owner and for securing a Compulsory Purchase Order after building an extensive case.
“We are now looking forward to working with the future owner to help bring this home back into use.”
The case was built by council officers alongside Shared Regulatory Services, the environmental health, trading standards and licensing service run jointly by Bridgend, Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan councils, under Bridgend’s strategy for tackling empty properties.
Money from the Welsh Government’s Transforming Towns Empty Property Enforcement Fund helped cover the work of securing the order.
The house’s return comes as Maesteg’s housing picture moves on other fronts: diggers are due next month on the old Revlon factory site, where 192 homes are planned on Ewenny Road.
And the region’s long-empty buildings keep proving there is nothing readers find harder to look away from, from the Victorian school where Star of the Week certificates still hang a decade after the last pupils left, to Rheola House, photographed by urban explorers before fire gutted it in August.
After 30 years, the ivy is finally on notice. The next chapter starts in the auction room.
Related stories from Swansea Bay News
- MAESTEG: 192 homes on the old Revlon factory site start next month, with a new builder and a later finish — The town’s other long-empty site finally moving.
- MANSELTON: Star of the Week stars still hang inside the Victorian school left empty for a decade — Inside the Grade II listed school frozen since 2015.
- RHEOLA HOUSE: Inside the John Nash manor before the fire, the staircase, the lantern and the rooms nobody saw for years — What decades of emptiness cost the Regency manor.
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