Four local people have been given seats on the board that decides how £20m is spent across a swathe of northern Swansea over the next ten years.
Timm Dadds, Rhianydd Herdman, Heather Allen and Gareth Richards were appointed after an open recruitment round, joining chair Thom Lynch on the North Gate Swansea Pride in Place Neighbourhood Board.
North Gate Swansea is the name given to the programme rather than to any place on a map. It covers the cluster of neighbourhoods immediately north of Swansea railway station: Dyfatty, Hafod, Waun Wen, Brynmelyn and North Hill, along with the upper end of High Street.
The money behind it is UK Government Pride in Place funding, running for ten years, and it can go on anything from saving a threatened pub or library to community safety, high streets and green spaces.
Lynch, co-founder of the High Street homelessness charity Matthew’s House, was named independent chair in June and said at the time that his first job would be building the board itself. He asked local people to step forward, warning it would take “a real team effort to get this right”.
More than forty had registered an interest before applications even opened in July.
“The quality of applications was exceptionally high so choosing the first members was genuinely difficult,” Lynch said.
A headteacher at Hafod Primary and a community manager at the Palace
Timm Dadds is headteacher of Hafod Primary School and has worked in the area since 2021.
“I am passionate about creating opportunities for children and families, celebrating the area’s rich heritage and diversity, and working together to help make our community safer, cleaner and more prosperous,” he said.
Rhianydd Herdman is community manager at Tramshed Tech, based in the Palace Theatre on High Street.
She said she wanted to see the area “continue to develop as a vibrant, inclusive and welcoming place where residents, businesses and community organisations can thrive”.
Thirty years in Brynmelyn, and a family that ran the Palace as a dance hall
Heather Allen has lived in Brynmelyn for more than 30 years. She volunteers in the gardens and at the warm space at Waun Wen Community Centre, and says older residents are her priority.
“I feel strongly about supporting older residents and want to help keep local activities going,” she said. “I have lots of ideas about what residents would like to see.”
Gareth Richards grew up in Waun Wen and Dyfatty and has lived there most of his life. His grandparents lived in Hafod and once ran the Palace Theatre as a dance hall. His father later settled in Waun Wen.
He has academic interests in inequality, poverty and criminology, and said he wanted the community to thrive “on its own terms”, with opportunities for people “to look after their own area, rather than have solutions imposed from outside”.
“A big part of this is making sure the full range of voices in the community gets heard, not only the loudest ones,” he said.
What has already changed on the ground
The board arrives in an area that has been the focus of a separate push for the past 18 months. Building a Better Dyfatty, led by the Swansea Public Services Board and South Wales Police, pairs regeneration with a crackdown on serious and organised crime under the policing model known as Clear, Hold, Build.
In June, a parade of long-shuttered High Street units reopened as Dyfatty Junction, a hub for drop-ins, advice and training that the council says should eventually be run by the community itself.
Police figures for 15 January to 15 May showed overall crime in the area down 11.5% on the same period the previous year, with anti-social behaviour down 63.2%.
More seats to come, and a network for everyone else
The board now starts work with residents and partners on what the £20m should buy first.
Lynch said more places would be advertised in the coming months as the programme grows.
Swansea West MP Torsten Bell, who sits on the board, said each of the four brought “a unique perspective, deep local knowledge and a real commitment to their communities”, and urged others to come forward.
Swansea Council deputy leader Andrea Harrington, also a board member, said the appointments brought “genuine community voices into the heart of the decision making process”.
A wider North Gate Swansea Changemakers Network is being set up for residents, community groups and businesses who want a say without sitting on the board.
North Gate is one of three Pride in Place areas locally. Llanelli has its own £20m board, and the Afan Valley named its 16 members in July.
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