Background

Communities First is the Welsh Assembly Government’s Flagship programme for tackling poverty and social disadvantage in the most disadvantaged areas of Wales. The programme is a long-term community regeneration strategy aimed at the 100 most deprived Wards in Wales.

The Welsh Assembly Government declared the Merthyr Vale Ward a Communities First area in January 2002, being ranked as the 55th most deprived Ward out of 865 in Wales. The Ynysowen Community Regeneration Board were formed to ensure delivery of the Communities First programme & of community led Action Plans.

The Board currently have three full time Communities First staff working on all aspects to deliver the programme. It is hoped that engaging the Community in a full range of working sub groups will enable us to facilitate this process.

The communities of Aberfan, Merthyr Vale and Mount Pleasant are situated within the Electoral Division of Merthyr Vale. The Ward lies at the southern end of the Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, approximately 5 miles from the town centre. Merthyr Vale has been ranked as the 55th most deprived Ward out of 865 and fourth most deprived Area in the Borough. This is the Community we serve.

A very successful Community Meeting was held on September 3rd 2003 in order to review and progress the Programme locally and engage those interested in joining our sub groups & establishing a full ‘Creative Vision’ for the community. A nucleus of twenty- two NEW community members came forward from this process! Which has since grown and led to further interest. This was a totally positive and productive meeting. We felt our hard work had really paid off in terms of community involvement. In addition we have met with a host of community groups and Agencies working locally to continually look to develop the Communities 1st Local Programme.