Save our steel

Who knows whether the steel works at Port Talbot will be saved? I hope so not only for those working there but also for the wider community. Because if the works close the impact will be huge.

Let me tell you a story and share a couple photos I've found on the internet.

I grew up in a village in the South Wales valleys called Crosskeys. It was a former mining village - though the mine closed in the early 1960s. Most men worked in other mines, or the steel works at Llanwern or Ebbw Vale. Though there were other employers and factories in the area.

My grandfather worked in Ebbw Vale works for 25 years having worked in the mines for 30 years. (He went down the pit aged 13!) He retired in 1973.

My grandfather lived in a town called Tredegar.

Tredegar is "over the mountain" from Ebbw Vale. (In the summer months my grandfather would often walk to work as he enjoyed walking.) It was a thriving town. The town had lots of shops. It had a cinema. A beautiful park. A small hospital. The first photo dates from that era. As a kid in the 60s and 70s I loved visiting Tredegar. In the school holidays I'd often go and stay with my grandparents for a few days. I used to be put on the 156 bus at Crosskeys and met by my grandparents in Tredegar.

My grandfather died over 10 years ago and I have not been to Tredegar since. But by the late 1990s (the time of the second photo)

it was a shadow of itself. Most shops were boarded up. The town had collapsed following the closure of the Ebbw Vale works in the 90s. (And to a lesser extent the mines in the 80s.) This is what happens to communities when a large local employer closes and nothing replaces it. A drive round the South Wales valleys tells you the same tale.

This is what will happen to the town of Port Talbot and nearby communities if the steel works is allowed to close. Of course some will find work in time. But will it be worthwhile employment? And in the meantime what happens to the shops and service industries reliant on the income generated by the steel works?

I know saving Port Talbot is a huge undertaking. But I just wanted to show the impact on a community if it goes down.

I hope that the government just doesn't let the market decide. People in South Wales know only too well what happens when governments listen to markets and not people.

Photo acknowledgements:

http://tredegar.gwentheritage.org.uk/content/catalogue_item/red-white-bus-tredegar
http://www.discoverthevalleys.org.uk/adams.html