A LOOK BACK AT THREE DECADES OF OUR COMMUNITY PAPER
30 years of Grange News and carnival
Grange
Community News – and the Grangetown Festival – celebrate their 30th
anniversary in 2008. A glance through the 120 editions and you can find
Grangetown is an area which has witnessed quite a few changes since 1978.
But above all, there is plenty thankfully much the same!
There was also the Grangetown Luncheon Club, which met monthly and brought
together representatives of local groups, schools and churches, with a
guest speaker.
There are always plenty of snippets – 1980 brought the story of 12-year-old
football and rugby nut Vince Camilleri, whose sister’s prowess lay in
karate, and she managed to break his arm in seven places during a “playful
demonstration.”
The paper wouldn’t have survived without the support of local advertisers.
It’s interesting to see businesses which have disappeared or changed hands
– do you remember the Leisurama Bingo, Bogey’s Pool and CK Coaches running
trips to London for £4 return? Small ads for sewing and secretarial services
became computer repairs and phone shops. GCC in the 1980s was responsible
for helping to set up a PHAB club for the disabled and abled bodied, as
well as helping groups for toddlers to pensioners. By 1981, it was registered
as a charity and two years later had a new base at the Clydach Street
centre and supported services like the “meals on legs” deliveries to pensioners.
Under the indefatigable chairmanship of Linda Quinn, GCC also organised
public meetings, aimed at improving facilities for the young. In her 1981
report she also noticed that Grange News and Advertiser was going
from strength to strength, and had become an “essential community link.”
The Grangetown Festival’s history runs parallel with the newspaper’s.
It started off as a Saturday fete and carnival day in 1978, but by 1983
was running as a full week of events. Baseball matches, tug-of-war and
fun runs were among events in early years. While these have fallen by
the wayside, others have taken their place. The carnival day was held
alternately at local school fields and occasionally the Marl, before settling
at Grange Gardens in 2001 (“a proper village fete”, as one carnival-goer
remarked, positively). GCC and other groups also organised floats for
the annual Lord Mayor’s parade (The Good Old Days was the theme in 1982),
while another event which has fallen flat these days is the annual pancake
race in Pentre Gardens.
You can’t help but notice the changing face of Grangetown by looking
over 30 years of old issues – mostly for the good. The day classes at
the Clydach Street centre started in 1983 with dressmaking and upholstery,
but classes at the Buzz and Enterprise Centre by the 90s were aimed at
tomorrow’s computer whizz-kids. The paper noted in the mid-80s, Grangetown’s
“good community spirit,” although there were problems in housing and more
crucially jobs. The paper followed developments big and small – as well
as Cardiff Bay and the Barrage, there was the building of Channel View
Leisure Centre (1883-86), City and Carlton Gardens housing estates (1986,
homes priced from just under £33,000!) and improvements to Grange Gardens
(1995). Later the Gardens saw the bandstand in the park (1998) replaced
after nearly 40 years and repairs to the much-loved wooden bus shelter
outside (1994).
Artist Ian Randall, whose Silent Links ironwork (pictured right) is the centrepiece
told the paper it reflected residents’ fears that Grangetown was being
“nibbled at” by overdevelopment but also that they wanted to re-state
the area’s strong identity –the sculpture’s links like the people were
“firm and interlocked with a sense of strength and unity.” Like Grangetown
itself, the newspaper changed – although a little more slowly. It dropped
the “Advertiser” part of its name by 1984 and got a makeover in 1993,
with new design and typefaces. For many years it was printed by Billy
Dadd of Koda Press. We’ve also been grateful for the production help from
Steve Tear for a long period and in recent years from Peter Cronin of
the enterprise centre in Clare Road. Our current printers have helped
improve reproduction of photographs over the last couple of years. And
we’ve not stood still. By 2003-2004, we were developing our own website,
which included a community directory and updated news between the editions
of the printed paper.
Although Grange News promotes positive activities in the community,
it has not been afraid to report controversies and the changing local
landscape. We followed the demise of the Empire Pool (1998), although
widely welcomed were plans to demolish the Elizabeth Flats (2000). Other
disappearing buildings included the Crystal Laundry building in Redlaver
Street (2002), followed by Avana bakery in Pendyris Street (2004). There
was also the unsuccessful campaign to save the Red House pub (2004), although
the old library building was saved (2007). Keeping a close eye and not
afraid to criticise was the Grangetown History Society, which was formed
in 1995. It has regularly contributed articles and interesting stories
about the area’s past ever since. Stories ranged from local landmarks
to Cardiff City’s cup winning captain of 1927, Fred Keenor, who lived
at Merches Gardens.
Joan
Gallagher has been a prominent member of Grangetown Community Concern
since it started in 1977. She recently announced she was stepping
down from editing Grange News although is continuing as GCC secretary
at the age of 83. Joan, who served as a councillor in Cardiff for
12 years, says the community paper remains a vital link.
“We’ve found over the years the community newspaper has been important
in keeping people informed of what’s happening in their area and
in bringing people together, “ she said. “The most important thing
about Grangetown is its community spirit. To us, Grangetown is like
a village in the city. We’re enclosed by the rivers Taff and Ely,
the railway and its bridges – it makes us slightly isolated.” Joan
said the area remains a place people want to live – that spirit
surviving over the generations and the people themselves helping
to make it special. “In 1943, I worked for a credit drapery in the
town centre and had to collect on my bicycle in the evenings during
the blackout. In Butetown and Grangetown, the people there were
always the best payers. And you’d know where you could stop for
a cup of tea!”
We have also run regular news from the local police and crime prevention
advice. There were days too when the police station at Dorset Street was
open, starting with four constables in 1991, rising to 16 by 1993 – although
the police said they couldn’t guarantee to man it all the time, as they
were out on the beat. That local station was short lived, much to the
disappointment of many. As this is GCC’s own paper, we can be forgiven
for dwelling a little on our own activities from time to time. We were
forced to move from Clydach Street in 2003 to a temporary home at the
Buzz, but were delighted to move into Grangetown’s new £1m library in
2006. GCC also had a double celebration when we became the first city
winner of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Award in 2003, while there was another
trip to the Palace in early 2004 when GCC secretary Joan Gallagher was
awarded the MBE in the New Year’s honours.
It’s hard to sum up three decades of a community newspaper in a short
space. But we still need your news, as we all surely still need our community.
Looking through the old and new copies, Grangetown has retained a healthy
number of organisations and its own strong identity; something which seems
lacking in some more soulless places.
In 2001, GCC committee member Brian Drew asked the question, “is community
spirit dead in Grangetown?” He noted in the paper that community facilities,
especially for young people, had not kept pace with the expansion of modern
Grangetown. Community facilities were also on the mind of the committee
20 years before. And now in 2008, local people working with Communities
First are raising it again – we like where we live, there is a sense of
community but we want more places to go and “commune” in.
Here’s hoping it won’t be another 30 years.
The paper began
locally as the Grange News and Advertiser, not long after Grangetown
Community Concern (GCC) was formed. By 1980, it was taken over by GCC
and was printed in those days by Ron Phipps, out of Stafford Road and
then Blaenclydach Street. The early editions set the template for what
followed – bringing together the activities of local groups, schools and
sporting clubs, with news of local developments – and stories of Grangetown
in times past. It was edited in those days by Butetown community tutor
John Winslade, before an editorial board of four took over, with our present
editor Joan Gallagher a constant. The sporting successes of Grangetown
Boys Club are still filling the pages today, while some will remember
groups like the St Samson’s Young Wives Group. Slightly older wives in
2008!
Grangetown also had a couple of “adopted” creatures from the deep –
Oscar the Octopus was the symbol of GCC for many years and looked down
from the top of the newspaper’s masthead. His tentacles represented the
intertwining of different groups and different ways GCC could help people.
Then there was the Grangetown Whale – not just the Frank Hennessy song
about the fishy local legend, but the volunteer bureau which operated
alongside GCC in Clydach Street.
A fitting start
to the Millennium, with a nod to a greener future, was the opening of
the new Grangemore Park and sculpture on the site of the old Ferry Road
tip (2000).
Joan at the helm at 83
YOUTH GROUP PUTS ON CONFERENCE FOR LOCAL BUSINESS
"Don't judge a book by its cover
A
local youth group, called the BRG (Butetown,Riverside, Grangetown) organised its
own jobs conference - Building Our Futures - for local businesses, saying
it wanted to dispell the negative image of the area and to showcase the talents
of local young people.
The event, organised by the 13-18-year-olds, and sponsored by Legal
& General took place at the Wales Millennium Centre on September 12th
2007.
By Alia Radman and Salma Khan
We hold most of our meetings inside the Wales Millennium Centre, although we
are based in the Buzz Information Shop. We meet at least twice a week from 10
am till 5 pm, which we use to prepare and gain skills and knowledge we will
need for our conference to be a success. When we formed the BRG, we did not
know each other, but throughout all the meetings we became a group of friends,
we have built trust and there's good companionship between all of us. We have
worked as part of a team to discuss and set rules. One of those was to make
sure that we all attended the meetings regularly and on time which was also
the first challenge set by the group. We were given six workshops, which we
would have to run - which are as follows: We all agreed that the youth forum would put
on a workshop called rights and entitlements. We all hope to achieve our set
targets and exceed further in our future. All that we hope for is that the business
and industry take on board what has been organised for them at the conference,
which can add to their knowledge. We hope to make a difference through the eyes
of the businesses associates and the youth.
We hope that we can open back the curtains, which have been closed to the
eyes of the business and youth, to show the picture we have painted of the future.
We are putting on this conference
purely for the fact that most businesses judge the youth who are applying for
jobs by their background, and do not look at their skills or knowledge which
they can bring to industry (CVs and credits). We hope that from this experience,
that business associates from now on stop judging the book by its cover and
explore the talents and knowledge, which may be hidden behind closed doors,
because young people cannot face another rejection. We would just like to thank
Garry-Bowin-Thompson, Steve Kharieh and Shakila Malik for giving us a chance
and for putting there faith in us, which we feel has been undermined by the
image portrayed in the media. We would also like to thank Nathan Evans, Gareth
Hicks of BVSNW, Jane Hawkshaw of QT consultancy and Sheila Llewellyn of Safer
Wales and Veena Patel of V.A.C. for helping us to organise our workshops. For more details: Website information or call Business in the Community on 029 2048 3348. The
BRG group was formed by: Salma Khan, Alia Radman, Assisa Yusef, Javeria Aslam,
Sunnah Naheem, Abdi-Magid-Yussef, Abdi Osman, Saeed Yussef, Sulman Ali iqbal,
Khalid Ayanleh and Mohammed Dualeh.
Work on north Grange facelift
Work started in late February 2005 on the first stage of a facelift for hundreds of homes in north Grangetown.
As
well as housing improvements, the £9m scheme will involve traffic
calming, tree-planting and play facilities, as part of the facelift to
an area covering 858 homes.
An initial £1.68m has been earmarked for the first year, with council officials telling residents that we are at "the very beginning of a long process."
It is expected the whole project will take five or six years, although it may take 10 years if the renewal runs into difficulties.
The first homes eligible for work were properties in Monmouth Street. This has been followed by Allerton Street. Rutland Street, part of Hereford Street and Court Road are expected next.
Council Housing Renewal Manager Steve Davies told a public meeting in May 2004: "We need your support, co-operation, help and ideas."
Properties in high-priority streets will be eligible for block work, such as new roofs, chimneys, double glazing and new guttering, as well as rendering to homes front and back. There will be a choice of individual colours for new doors, while the "majority view" will have a say on a range of finishes for the fronts of blocks of housing. Home-owners will be eligble for 100% grant awards - although if the property is sold within five years of the work, the grant would be repaid, with a sliding scale kicking in from three years. Each home is expected to be eligible for £15,000 worth of work.
Details have been sent to all homes in the area. The work will be overseen by a high-profile group of council officials from the housing, cleansing, parks and highways departments.
The latest developments follow work by consultants two years ago, which found that the estimated cost of bringing housing in the area up to a "reasonable standard of repair" would be £8m. They found that almost a quarter of the largely Victorian and Edwardian properties were "unfit," while as many as a third could be suffering from dampness.
Their report, which also recommends traffic and parking measures, as well as environmental improvements, follows consultation in 2002 with residents.
| GROUP REPAIR TIMETABLE
Phase 1: Monmouth Street Complete
Phase 19: Somerset Street (west side to halfway) and Hereford
St (east side, from Court Rd junction to half way) Correct as of August 2007. |
Phase 6: Wedmore Rd (by Allerton Street)One concern raised by some residents was an original council condition which says the cost of the grant - up to £15,000 - is deducted from the price of any house sold within 10 years. That has now been dropped.
The consultants in their original report found that while home-owners were spending money on improvements, mainly double glazing and new doors, "many of the roofs, including many which had been retiled, combined with the low level of energy efficiency, means that the majority of dwellings require significant levels of investment to the building fabric to address unfitness and disrepair."
After problems with some of the original contractors and delays, particularly on Allerton Street, the work is around 18 months behind schedule. But three new contractors were appointed in 2007 to carry on the programme - E G Carter (01873 856788) - for east Rutland Street, Emery (029 20 220061) for Monmouth St and Wedmore Rd (east) and A & N Lewis in Court Road, Hereford St and west Rutland St (029 20 567800)
The plans could also see some traffic calming measures in the Cornwall Street and Court Road areas and side streets. Speed bumps, as well as new pavements and road surface and tree-planting is expected in Court Road by the end of 2007. Street schemes: Plans for shutting off roads to through-traffic and grouping together streets have been scrapped. Schemes for tree planting and new pavements in Allerton Street have started and consultation will start in Court Road for what is likely to be a two-year improvement scheme to include new pavements, tree-planting etc.
Two thirds of residents in surveys put housing as top priority, but litter and street cleaning were also concerns for large numbers. A third also wanted more open spaces, and the so-called "bomb patch" off Rutland Street could be turned into a sports court and play area, while a programme of tree planting is also recommended.
The study also recommends street wardens, graffiti removal and waste clean-ups as part of the overall scheme.
However, the consulation also found that 82 per cent of people liked living in the area, with the closeness to the city centre and the community spirit seen as positives.
More details: 15% of population are unemployed - compared to 4.9% in the whole of
Cardiff - three quarters of these for more than two years; 19% are retired;
of those 42% working full-time, less than a fifth work more than five
miles away…nearly two thirds of households receive less than £15,000 a
year, with the city average salary £23,000.
Of 96 homes inspected internally at random for the survey - a third
were found "unfit" for habitation, with dampness (30%), disrepair (20%)
the main problems. Although, 75% of homes are fully double glazed and
10% partially…63% have central heating.
Pavements "variable" - blamed on untidy work by utility companies. Street
lighting "satisfactory," though illumination could be enhanced; few empty
houses - Elizabeth flats likely to make way for new housing; graffiti
problem on gable ends and Wedmore Rd. Streets "in poor state of cleanliness,"
rubbish bags dumped; residents raised issues of dog fouling, street parking
problems (esp on Millennium Stadium match days) and speeding traffic.
Shortage of green space and trees.
Work to include wall re-pointing/re-rendering; external redecoration,
new chimneys; new double glazing/PVC doors; gutter replacement; garden
improvements. Main element to be damp-proof courses. · Owner-occupiers
to be means-tested and vary depending on how long they've lived there.
Those homes not eligible for housing grants in the past would qualify
for some form of grant. · The favoured option is that 90% grants would
be available, with group repair block by block - rendering, window/door
repair, chimneys and roofs, with grants for internal repairs such as damp
proofing.
·Grants targeted at over 60s, on benefit and those in "exceptional
circumstances."· Low interest loans etc as alternative packages Encourage take-up of home insulation grants
Two thirds of residents said they wanted
funding for housing improvements, followed by traffic calming and street
cleaning (each 40%), parking permits (38%), open space improvements (34%),
tree planting (28%), better youth/community facilities (24%); Problems -
litter (69%-78%) and street cleaning (57%), youth annoyance (54%) were biggest
concerns, crime (53%), traffic speed (51%), parking (48%), vandalism (45%),
drugs (43%).
Consider building OAP bungalows - inc social housing, after requests from
a number of elderly people.
A North Grangetown Residents' Association has been set up - email to contact. Public meetings at the Cornwall Street Baptist Church are held every two or three months and a newsletter has been distributed to more than 900 homes and there are plans to hold regular forums to raise particular issues. The next meeting is scheduled for January 2008, date TBC.
The Council
Renewal Team can be contacted:. Steve Davies (Housing
Renewal Manager, 029 20 873 589), Daryne Keogh, senior housing
surveyot, 029 20 872361; or write to: Steve Davies, Room 366, County
Hall, Atlantic Wharf, Cardiff Bay. Neighbourhood planning officials
are Ros Baker and Simon Bedford, 20 873 183, Room 227, County Hall.