Community Council Acts Against Wishes of Residents

Report by Councillor Frank Little

Blaenhonddan Community Council tonight (18.10.10) resolved, by ten votes to five, to rename the Owain Glyndwr Centre as the Waunceirch Community Centre. The reasons advanced by the majority group were that: all the other centres in the community were named after their locality, that the original naming decision had been taken on political grounds (when Plaid Cymru had controlled the council), and that there was no local connection with Owain Glyndwr. The counter-arguments were that people had got to know the centre under that name (this was backed up by a petition), that there was already a Waunceirch Hall, which could cause confusion, and that there would be a cost involved in changing the name. The response to this last argument was that the major cost would be replacing the lettering on the front of the hall, which we would have to do anyway as the letters had been removed by vandals.

OUR COMMENT:
It would appear that those who voted for the name change were not prepared to listen to local residents who wanted the name to remain the same after alleged political vandals had pulled the name down from the front of the building.   The height of the sign was considered too high for youngsters to perform the dirty deed.

On his website, Councillor Frank Little says in his headline: "Owain Glyndwr - No More."   We are sorry we do not agree with him as the name will live on.   In fact it will probably end up as a nick name and last longer than those who voted for the name change.

Unstable Council?

During the meeting reported above, it is alleged that two councillors, namely, Mike Richards and Mike Teague, stormed out of the meeting after making allegations about the council's activities.   It is also alleged that Councillor Janice Dudley was asked to leave the meeting by the Chairperson.

It should be made clear that reports of the meeting are being received from several sources and that we are printing them in good faith as residents should know what is going on.  No doubt we will get more information shortly.

It is no good residents looking at the community council's official website for information because it has not been updated since last year.   This is really a sad state of affairs because it is denying residents of what they rightly deserve to know.