Bridgend Town: The Decline Continues

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today,

As regular readers will know, before I moved away from the area a lot of the posts on this blog were about Bridgend Town and it's decline due I would argue for the most part by the arrogant incompetence of the local Labour council.

Well yesterday (Tuesday) for reasons will not bore you with I had to leave the apartment we're renting early and decided (as I was working in the area later on that day) to visit the town, mainly to honour (belatedly) a promise I'd made in a recent post.

First then let's say hello again to a couple of Bridgend Town friends, the town centre statues that I love for different reasons. Firstly The Reader.

Come Rain Or Shine He's Reading

And statue number two. A statue so bad it's riveting and I wouldn't it to be taken away.



Why is it so bad? Because if you look closely it's physically impossible to have your legs in the position they're in here or be able to turn your head as our friend can.

Anyway to the town properly. Apparently there is an organisation called CF31 Bridgend Bid which is trying to revitalise the area. Good luck with that. However it does seem tactless to say the least to put up posters on a shop that has closed down for a number of months now.



And now to that (belated) promise. I'd mentioned in an earlier post that the McDonald's in the town. The one that has been closed down and left to rot for seventeen years has been demolished. Well here it is.

The end of an era

I've been told by two sources that it's going to be replaced by flats where retail units will be at the bottom. Are the council mad? It's no spoiler alert to say that in my admittedly unscientific wander round the town centre I saw two buildings being renovated and one new shop opened (a "Dessert Bar". A concept I'm probably too old to understand but seemed popular) and that was it. There are vast swathes of empty shops but the council thinks that adding new units is going to help the situation? Even if these units are filled it will not help the problems the town centre is facing?

(As a quick aside given Halloween is coming soon you don't think that the tenants of these flats are going to be haunted by the smell of Big Macs from time to time? Just a thought)

And there seems to be no solution to specific issues. Regular readers might remember the Nolton Street arcade. The small shopping arcade where aside from the two that backs onto the street every single shop has closed down.

Well nothing has changed.



I also went into Bridgend Indoor Market. Not completely sure but I think that an extra stall has closed since I was there last.



Certainly doesn't appear to be any new stalls there. Anyway I spoke to a stall holder and he said to me that the decline was due to the council and the rents they charge.

And to add insult to injury I give you this.



Seems like nothing I haven't mentioned before? Look at what's hanging on the wall. It's a Christmas decoration. It's October and Christmas decorations are being put up? I've made it clear in this blog that I'm not one of life's Christmas people anymore. But even so given how depressing the situation is the stallholders I doubt are feeling the Christmas spirit at the moment.

Bridgend Town Yesterday

After lunch. Which was rather nice.....



I walked along Wyndham Street. Where I saw this.

Can't remember what it was before. Clearly dead now.

The biggest shock though came as I was walking back to my car when I noticed this.

The town centre Argos has closed. Apparently it's moved to to join the Sainsburys in Macarthur Glen retail outlet centre. Now the area has three Argos stores. No longer however does it have one in the town (unlike nearby Maesteg that a quick search on the internet suggests is open). So one more major retail outlet has left the town centre.

And what is the Labour council currently doing? Well apparently it's partly depedestrianising what it pedestrianised in the first place and it's attention is also being held by what cuts it's going to make to public services. It seems they will be "consulting" on the issue with the public. If you want my views on this consultation I would refer you to my post 

http://sopralalunawithpenguinsintherain.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/perhaps-maesteg-is-not-only-indoor.html

(where incidentally I first discovered that Bridgend Indoor Market had problems)

Why this post? Because roughly this time last year Bridgend Council did exactly the same thing.

And as I've said previously. The town is in this position now but it could be in an even worse state if anything happens to the Ford engine plant. The council, like the Welsh government, needs to plan now for a worse case scenario.

I doubt it will though.

Until the next time.