Bridgend Town: Destroyed By Labour

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I've been promising this for a while now. This is probably the last opportunity I would have (assuming no last minute hiccups) to the house move so wanted to write a final piece on the way Bridgend Town has declined because of Labour council/Assembly mismanagement.

I started monitoring the state of the town almost a year ago and it's been an intention of mine to write an overall post taking in everything I've written for a while now. So I make no apologies that a lot of what I'm going to write will be repeating what I've written about before. Nor will I apologise that most of the pictures have already been shown in earlier posts. If nothing has changed why take a new picture?

Also whatever the excuses Labour has and will make about the state of Bridgend Town it is important to remember that this decline has been going on for years...and it's getting worse. And if anyone mentions austerity or the internet, then all I need to say that if you compare Bridgend with similar towns like Caerphilly or Pontypridd then it is quite obviously failing, and failing miserably at that.I'm painting an overall picture of the town, and overall that's Labour's responsibility.

Finally as regular readers of this blog will know. I'm a supporter of Plaid Cymru. I make no apologies for that either. After all the pictures will help tell the story.

Let us start with what is admittedly the most extreme example.

This was taken today

This building used to be an old McDonald's. It does not matter why it closed down. The key thing here is that it closed down seventeen years ago.It has been closed longer than my daughter has been alive on the planet Earth and yet nothing has been done. It's a building that literally been allowed to mold along.

Incidentally it appears that I've been mistaken in a new building development that I thought was a shopping centre is in fact an apartment block for "young professionals". The poster I saw nearby suggested a place where "young professionals" could sit and have coffee whilst being young and professional.

Trouble is...only across the road is...

Not mentioned in the poster

Damningly mentioned in the poster I saw was Macarthur Glen as a place where you could do some shopping....which is about a five to ten minute drive away!

This is typical Bridgend council. Either approve or instigate grandiose projects whilst ignoring the reality of decay around it and that includes the building blocks of a town.

A tragedy for readers

This building is now a cultural centre. And I genuinely wish it well. But look at the wording on the top of this picture. It used to be the Town Centre library until Bridgend Labour Council (with E U money!) moved it away from the town centre! It's about a ten minute walk away. New,high tech and abysmal it's the only library I've ever been in that my view could be best described as psychotic.

A town centre needs a library. Bridgend Labour council took it away from the town centre.

And though slightly different from when this picture was taken (there's a vape shop now to the left) this is basically what you will see if you look across.

What a view

Bridgend Town has a shopping centre. It's called The Rhiw. This is what you will see as you approach it.

Used to be a card shop

Judging on space and very much a guesstimate. I'd say about a quarter of this small shopping centre (excluding the indoor market - which I'll talk about later) is empty.

The Shop on the right was a charity shop

Bridgend town has an indoor market attached to the shopping centre. This too is in decline because of higher rents. Stalls that have been there for years have found they can't cope anymore. At a guesstimate I'd say a quarter of the market is empty. A market is like a library. Another building block of a town and yet Labour seems to be happy to see it wither and die.

Note the Heart Logo - Really Mocking

Heartbreaking

There also is  The Nolton Arcade. It had various small businesses such as a knitting shop, a toy shop and a café. No more. Aside from the two that back along the street every single shop is empty. I went there today having last visited in December. The only difference is that the Christmas decorations (!) have been taken down.

This was taken today

Do you remember the Phones4U mobile phone shop? People in Bridgend Town do given they see this every day.

As if it was yesterday

This is but the tip of the iceberg. You walk around the town and you'll see shop after shop closed down. It would appear from a cursory look that the only boom in retail appears to be vape shops.

Here are a few more shops that have closed:

An Italian Restaurant

A Clothes Shop

The latest shop to have closed down is this.

The Polish Shop On The Left

Now let me be fair here. I don't know whether the closure of this Polish deli is as a result of the state of Bridgend Town or Brexit. It's disturbing either way and as regular readers of this blog will know since the EU Referendum I was a regular shopper.

The Labour party in Wales. Either in the assembly or as the council has shown an arrogance in running Bridgend which needs a party that cares and would not aim for the big gesture but would look into trying to deal with what was already there. That party I would argue is Plaid Cymru.

Under Labour the town has according to a woman I heard in the market today "gone to the dogs". It could get a lot worse. For despite what Brexiteers told the people in the referendum Britain has not taken back control. In Bridgend control has moved to Detroit. For if Ford does reduce the manufacturing capacity of its engine plant there then the knock on effect for the town will be even worse. It needs a party that would prepare for that possible situation now and not call a committee afterwards

Bridgend Needs Plaid - This Was Taken Around Twelve Noon Today

Until the next time.