Oliver Jones memorial Hall, Dolywern
Workshop—Ceiriog Valley Visioning Day 11 November 2006
What do we who live and live and work in the Ceiriog Valley think of their communities?
How do we see our valley developing in the years ahead?
What of our schools, our health services and the local economy?
What do we think is needed to improve the quality of life for all who live here and what is wrong that needs attention?
Northern Marches Cymru through its Visioning programme wanted to know and so we were invited to a meeting at the Ceiriog Memorial Hall on 10 October. Such was the interest from that briefing that when Northern Marches Cymru invited us to a full day ‘workshop’ on Saturday, 11 November, almost eighty people turned up. We came from all walks of life, the young (some still at Primary School) and the old; all determined to have their say and let ‘THEM’ know what we thought and what we wanted, and WE DID!
The Oliver Jones Memorial Hall was laid out to accommodate the 'mix' of interests that Northern Marches had identified from the responses. In the first round the allocations to tables were deliberately mixed, to generate a mix of ideas and later we all moved to specific tables where 'stakeholders' met to develop their themes further.
The first exercise of the mixed groups was to look back at our individual lives as far as the 1960s and write down on individual 'Post-it' notes things that had happened personally in our lives—in each decade—60s, 70s, 80s and so on. This exercise was called 'Timelines' .
In the same mixed groups, we then wrote on 'Post-it' notes, noteworthy things that had happened in the Valley, again divided into the 60s, 70s, etc. The people from each table then had to get up in turn and stick their post-it notes on the two 'Timelines' on the wall for the relevant decade in which the particular event had happened.
After this exercise, focussing on the past, we were asked to study the 'Timelines' to identify the themes and patterns that they considered important to the Visioning event.
The personal dealt with birth, death, marriages, employment, retirement etc. On the valley there was little, apart from the closure of the village shop/post office at Llwynmawr in the 60s, but as the 70s, 80s and 90s came along, there was a pronounced theme of loss of services. Shop closures in Glyn Ceiriog, the reduction in banking hours and staff. New housing was noted and the threat to the valley schools as well as the closure of the Wynne Slate mine were also noted.
People now looked at the ' trends and problems of life in the valley' that had been identified. We were now invited, using Post-it notes, indicating actions that we thought should be taken to overcome the problems highlighted. As these were handed in an officer of WCBC drew a map on a wall chart and began linking common themes along lines radiating from a central point. Each line being of a different colour per a 'logical group of problems' .
The 'Mind Map' having been completed we were now invited, through the use of coloured stars to go up table by table and identify on an individual basis what we considered to be the main themes of interest. By the use of the coloured stars and symbols it was also possible to see how each table (now 'Stakeholder' groups) voted. It had been the intention of NMC/WCBC to flush out the particular interests relevant to each stakeholder group.
The four most popular issues that emerged were:
Tourism/Heritage/Youth facilities and Economic regeneration
Each group now had to select the top three items that it had voted for. Then on a flip chart show what actions we were taking to help overcome the problems identified and give a three minute response to the meeting. This was strictly controlled, to the point of speakers being informed that they had 60 seconds left, absolute maximum!
The following were the priorities of the respective 'Stakeholder' groups:
Committees
Ceiriog Memorial Hall
Tramway Heritage Centre
Forest Schools' Site
Berwyn Festival
The Brownies
Chirk and Ceiriog Valley Partnership
Damage and noise by outsiders in 4x4
Tourism
Fly Tipping
Businesses and Churches
Review of Schools in the Valley (schools under threat)
Should be more communication with WCBC
That people are now discouraged from paying Council Tax in their Post Office
Should be WCBC news in the 'Glyn News' each month
Vehicles speeding through Pontfadog
Priority construction of pavement from Dolywern to Glyn Ceiriog
Creative Groups (principally Garden Society)
People should be encouraged to grow their own food
Recycling facilities not available to all valley households
Heritage and Tourism
Restoration of the Glyn Valley Tramway
30mph signs are too near in to villages
Youth
Should be more stuff in Dolywern park
Drop-In club is no longer open
No shops in Dolywern
Bad road turnings in parts of the valley
Road repairs are not kept up to date, or are poor
Residents (1)
Road access to Valley at top of Pontfaen is bad as is parking and safety in that location
Damage and noise by outsiders in 4x4s
Damage and noise by outsiders on motorcycles, off-road
Environment and Heritage, particularly landscape
Youth facilities
Glyn Valley Tramway Wharf purchase is good and positive
Glyn Valley Centre progress is good and positive
Residents (2)
Whatever happens in the Valley should be environmentally friendly
No integrated transport (bus/train links at Chirk do not work)
Social Transport Enterprise needed (Community Mini-bus)
Future use of Community Centre
Berwyn Festival (arts, music, local food)
Annual Carnival is good
Try to preserve peaceful beauty of the Valley
Statutory
Councils could do with talking to each other a lot more
Wonderful things go on outside the Valley Valley residents do not always know about them and they would like to share in them
Ceiriog Memorial Institute Refurbishment—good
Youth facilities—not much done, more needed
Dolywern & Pontfadog Residents
Lack of facilities for young people
Inadequate park for young people at Dolywern (22 under 16 live near by)
Drop-in Club for Young People has stopped due to onerous new Government regulations and are too much for the people who ran the club
Drop-in Club did not have the support of Wrexham Youth Service
Re: Ceiriog Memorial Institute, Glyn valley Tramway and the Chirk and Ceiriog Valley Partnership—lack of cohesion and Valley-wide strategy for tourism
Need a branding of the Ceiriog Valley
Of the 100 miles of footpaths re-opened and maintained, about half have been shut or blocked off
Cheshire Home residents can't go anywhere by wheelchair as footpaths to Glyn Ceiriog stops in the middle of nowhere, due to lack of funds
Each group then had to prepare a list of things it was proud to have achieved and sorry for what it had not achieved., e.g. for the Ceiriog Memorial Institute, John White said, 'he was proud to have raised £300,000 but sorry that it had taken six years to do it'. Glyn valley Tramway was proud to have bought and maintained the Coal Wharf and negotiated the lease on the Engine Shed, but sorry that it hadn't the cash to repair the Engine Shed, and so on around the room.
In the afternoon, after an excellent buffet lunch, each group had to visualise things in twenty years time, 'creating our ideal future'. The purpose was defined as 'to imagine the future you intend to work towards'.
When each group had done this, it had to present its ideal future to everyone in the hall by way of a pretend radio or TV broadcast, a pretend game show, a talk, a pretend guided tour of the Valley, a day in the life of a resident, etc. This is what they said:
Group 1
An electric bus running frequently from Chirk to Llanarmon. A hydro-electric scheme, it would work quite easily in just 6 inches of water in the River Ceiriog. A leisure centre for expanding youth needs. A Medical Centre in Glyn Ceiriog covering doctor, dentist and optician, all living in the valley. Thriving woodyards and tree planting on a huge scale. Re-opened woollen mill. Community orchard. Cider festival. Sports, drama, football and cricket at Dolywern.
Group 2
Total facility learning (University of the Third Age). A Director of Fun. Sports, music, drama and plays. Parent Free Zone. Electric transport hire firm. No polluting vehicles. Mini-bus available for hire (with driver) at any time.
Group 3
Electric bus through valley, stopping at Heritage sites. Berwyn Festival thriving. Tramway Heritage Group thriving. A completed Dolywern to Glyn Ceiriog footpath. A library. A Tramway museum. Street lighting switched off at 2am . Local produce shop. Local crafts. Managed woodlands.
Group 4
Local groups communicate with each other. Community based shop. Community website and magazine. Mobile organic fruit and veg shop. Mobile library. Community based bus. Tramway system now running from A to B. A pol car available. Enough land for farmers to farm in old fashioned way if they so wished. Heritage projects showing how life was in the valley years ago. The Ceiriog Memorial Institute still serving the community. Glyn Valley Tramway workshop and Tramway heritage Centre open to the public. Slate mine museum re-opened. Guided walks of the valley.
Group 5
Restored woodlands. Wonderful walks. Resident doctor and dentist. A good cafe. A Wooden Sculpture Trail. Valley becomes 'carbon neutral'. Re-opened mines and caves as tourist attractions. Ceiriog Museum with Tramway trail. Museum showing a stolen wind turbine!
Group 6
Sculpture trail. Self-sustaining electric tramway. Star of walks and mountain bikes at Dolywern. Dolywern centre of equestrian trails for the valley. Motor bike trail to the wind turbines. Statute of a miner in the centre of Glyn Ceiriog. Glyn Ceiriog Museum where it is also possible to join the Glyn Valley Tramway for a ride up the valley to (your) next destination. Red Kite Centre at Pandy, signifying eco-friendly carbon neutral valley. At Pandy, water is bottled and exported under the Ceiriog Organic Brand label. At Llanarmon, sculptures designed by the children of Llanarmon Primary School , alongside the river and on the hills. Llanarmon a mobile free zone. Old Flax Mill restored in Llanarmon, now a Heritage Centre. Major fishing centre. Venue for the Berwyn Festival.
The event now reached its finale, with the last event called 'Common Ground for the Future'. Everything that the six groups had identified was now called out and recorded. People were then given 5 green blobs and 5 red stars to indicate which projects they either supported or did not support. When this was completed people were invited to show their personal support for a particular project and one they could physically support, leaving their name and telephone number.
It was then announced that everything would be taken back to Wrexham for NMC/WCBC to establish which projects had proved the most popular and which would be taken forward. The NMC/WCBC indicated that they hoped to have the results ready for December and would then be contacting those who had indicated they could support those projects.
