Port Talbot is getting a £1.06m community fund from the company building the substations that will power Tata’s electric arc furnace. National Grid says people in the town get to decide what it is spent on.
The first chance to say so is Friday evening at Afan Lido’s ground, the second is Saturday morning in Aberafan Shopping Centre, and a survey runs until 26 November.
The fund comes with the Margam Connection project: an extension of the substation off Harbour Way, a second new substation inside the steelworks, and an underground cable joining the two. It is money for the community, separate from the construction budget.
National Grid has put forward six things the fund could pay for: skills and training, green spaces, community facilities, youth services, help with fuel bills and support for local firms. Anyone filling in the survey can add their own.
Why £1.06m: two substations at £530,000 each
The company says the fund follows UK Government guidance on community funds for transmission projects. That guidance, published in March, recommends £530,000 for every new substation a community hosts, and Margam has two.
What it has not yet said is how the money would be paid out once the priorities are set, whether in one go or over several years, or who would sit on any panel deciding between bids. None of that is in what it has published so far.
Carys Taylor, National Grid’s head of external affairs for Wales, said: “We’re delighted to be delivering this community fund worth more than £1 million, and we want local people in Port Talbot to help shape how it’s used.”
Elyn Stephens, Plaid Cymru MS for Afan Ogwr Rhondda, said major infrastructure “should leave a lasting benefit for the communities that host it”. The fund, she said, gave local people “a genuine opportunity to influence how over £1 million is invested”.
Tata’s furnace connection, six to eight months late
The same substations are the reason the furnace is waiting. National Grid told Tata in June that the connection was running six to eight months late because of ground conditions and planning, and Ms Stephens called the delay “another blow to the communities I represent”.
David Rees, the former Aberavon MS who chaired the Senedd’s cross-party group on steel, went further, saying the furnace might not run until autumn 2028 and that National Grid should pay penalties if the date slipped again.
Neath Port Talbot Council approved the Margam extension unanimously in March. Cllr Rob Jones, who represents Margam and Taibach, told that meeting the future of steelmaking in the town was at serious risk without it.
National Grid says the Margam work is part of £3.2bn it plans to spend on the transmission network across Wales over the next five years. Last month its distribution arm said grid-controlled batteries could get Port Talbot’s next factories connected sooner.
Afan Lido on Friday, Aberafan Shopping Centre on Saturday
The pop-ups are at Afan Lido FC’s Marston’s Stadium on Friday 6 November, 6.30pm to 8pm, and in Aberafan Shopping Centre on Saturday 7 November, 10am to noon. No booking, and the project team will be there to take questions.
The survey is open to residents, businesses, charities, community groups and councillors until Thursday 26 November, through the project page on National Grid’s website.
National Grid says the answers will shape what the fund pays for. It has not given a date for when the first money would reach the town.
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