Is There A Welsh Labour Plan For Bridgend If Detroit Pulls The Plug?

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

When it comes to this blog and Bridgend Town I feel like Frank Sinatra. I've moved away from the Bridgend area, (though I still work there) and rarely visit the town but sometimes events come along and make me want to write about it's decline even more.

I haven't been writing for a few days now simply because I've been on the early shift at work and on returning home the work jet lag just hits me and the urge for a nap is stronger that that to write. On Friday after finishing for the day needed to go to the solicitor at the town to pay off the fees owing for the aborted house purchase.

I genuinely,genuinely, had no intention on writing anything about the town. But as I was walking to the solicitor's office saw that there was another place that had closed down and for me it came as a shock.

No Longer Cooperative

Now the Cooperative bank has been in Bridgend Town to my knowledge for at least seventeen years, But not now. Mainly due to I'd argue to Welsh Labour mismanagement at both local and national level.

You will query how I could say that. Given the bank's well documented problems caused I would also argue by its abandonment of its core socialist principles of organic growth in favour of acquisition. But, rather like the Post Office's ultimately unsuccessful attempt to close the general Post Office if the town is perceived as unattractive it will receive less footfall of customers which consequently makes it venerable to closure by head office, an easy target as it were.

Shocked by the bank's closure decided after paying the solicitors' bill to visit the indoor market where I had heard that further stalls had closed. Indeed they had.

Mirroring The Town

In this row there is just one stall (the nailbar on the right) which is actually open.

There was a thriving stall here once

Regular readers of this blog will tell you I have spent a long time detailing the decline of Bridgend Town under the Welsh Labour administration. However awful though it is, things could get even worse post Brexit. As control moves from Brussels to Detroit.

As in explained in an earlier post the future of the Ford factory in Bridgend is under review. Now no one wishes for the factory to close, or for production to be radically reduced. But let us ask ourselves what will happen not just to the people who work there and their families but also to the surrounding area if that is what happens? The consequences will be disastrous. and in terms of Bridgend Town because it's in such a dire state already the effect will be to make the decline terminal as families with much less money, struggling to make ends meet will spend less. This leads us to the question what can the Welsh government in the national assembly and the local council, both run by Labour do?

Whilst how effective it could be is debatable, what Welsh Labour should do is ask the question "what if?" and see if they can make plans accordingly for such a scenario. What the proposed closure of Tata Steel showed last year and forthcoming closure of the Tesco call centre operation is that the assembly in particular was caught unawares and were reactive to events. Setting up a committee and reacting to news is not good government. It's politics being assisted by a white stick and a Labrador. The fact that Theresa May is doing the very same thing at the moment should not comfort us.

Both the assembly and the council know what the consequences for the people in the area and beyond as well as Bridgend town itself of even a reduced production in the plant. So, whilst I repeat again, no one wants the Ford plant to decline, Welsh Labour have been warned of the possibility and need to plan now for what they do if this occurs. They owe it to the people of the Bridgend area, and especially so in terms of the town, given that it's current state is the result of their mismanagement.

They have been warned. They need to prepare.

Until the next time.