Taffs Well and Nantgarw Online
Official Website of Plaid Cymru in Taff's Well and Nantgarw
Adrian Hobson - your Plaid Councillor
Croeso i
Ffynnon Taf a Nantgarw!
Welcome to
Taff's Well and Nantgarw! The official site of Plaid Cymru in
Taff's Well, Nantgarw, Glan-y-Llyn, Tawelfryn and Ty Rhiw. LATEST NEWS
DATE FOR YOUR DIARY! SITE VISIT WILL TAKE PLACE AT 1:30pm WEDNESDAY 16 SEPTEMBER 2009
The Friends of Ty Rhiw Cemetery will be holding a respectful vigil during a site visit by the Inspector appointed by the Welsh Assembly Government to decide on the future of the chapel.
A good turn out is essential to show the strength of feeling. Please attend if you possibly can. We don't expect there to be any banners or "protests" - just a demonstrationn of our concern.
COMMUNITY COUNCIL ACCOUNTS ARE IN A MESS!
Councillor Adrian Hobson has been told by the Wales Audit Office who are responsible for safeguarding public funds that Taff's Well Community Council has not had audited accounts since 2002! No wonder the Clerk has been refusing to provide residents with details of their spending.
This situation beggars belief and is surely illegal. How can a publicly funded body continue to collect tens of thousands of £ from local residents when it can't prove that the money collected over the last 7 years has been properly spent?
What have they done with our money? There's not much evidence of the large amounts involved being spent locally.
The only decent thing to do will be for the Councillors to resign so that capable people can be elected to run the Council properly.
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MORE THREATS FROM THE COMMUNITY COUNCIL
The Clerk of the Community Council has threatened action against us (again!) because he claims he has never refused to provide residents with the accounts!
We are happy to put the record straight. The Clerk has consistently FAILED TO PROVIDE ACCOUNTS ON REQUEST AS HE IS REQUIRED TO DO BY LAW.
The test of this failure is that Councillor Adrian Hobson has written to the Clerk to request audited accounts on more than one occassion - as have other residents. The Clerk has failed to provide the information. What's he got to hide? The difference between "refused" and "failed" are just weasel words and further undermine residents' confidence in the unelected and unrepresentative Community Council. The sooner they're gone the better and we now have 10 candidates ready to stand at the next opportunity.
If we ever see the accounts we'll let everyone know. We're not holding our breath.
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LAST DAY FOR OBJECTIONS - BUT WHAT NEXT?
Today - Friday 24 July 2009 is the last day to submit objections to the Planning Inspector. Councillor Adrian Hobson has personally delivered all the pro-forma slips and letters you sent to him.
Many of you have asked "What Next?".
The next possible action is if the Inspector decides to make an accompanied visit to the site. If you've objected you should be made aware of any accompanied visit or visit this page regularly for news.
If we become aware of a visit by the Inspector we'll use the grapevine to tell as many people as we can. We expect to make a respectful demonstration of the strength of feeling in the community by holding a vigil outside the cemetery when the Inspector arrives. Arrangements for that will be made once we have a date.
It is open to the Inspector to make an unaccompanied visit in which case we will not get this opportunity.
The next important milestone after a site visit would be the Inspectors decision. He will either allow the appeal (so the Community Council can develop their community centre) or, hopefully, refuse the appeal. Once the decision is known Adrian will prepare another factual newsletter to get the information out to the community.
Even if the Inspector rejects the appeal, the Community Council may be irresponsible enough to carry on with their plans - so our campaign will have to continue either way.
The next step may be for the Friends of Ty Rhiw Cemetery to direct their campaign towards RCT - who are ultimately the ones behind this silly proposal. The objective will be to get RCT to end their support for Taffs Well Community Council and talk to the Friends instead about the future of the cemetery chapel and the surrounding cemetery.
WITH YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT WE CAN STOP THIS CRAZY PROPOSAL AND CAMPAIGN FOR THE CEMETERY CHAPEL TO BE TREATED RESPECTFULLY. KEEP WATCHING THIS PAGE FOR UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION.
ENTRIES BELOW MAY NOW BE OUT-OF-DATE
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SAVE OUR CEMETERY - OBJECT TO THE INSPECTOR
The deadline for submitting objections to the development of the cemetery is 24 July. We can stop the proposal if you write to;
the Planning Inspector,
Crown Building,
Cathays Park,
Cardiff,
CF10 3NQ.
You must object on planning grounds. Other issues will not be considered. You can object on the basis that the development is an over-intensification of an isolated and tranquil site. It will also destroy the character and amenity of the cemetery for mourners and funeral parties.
You can also explain that once planning permission is granted, the Community Council will be unable to manage the use of the building.
OOPS! COMMUNITY COUNCIL MESS UP THEIR APPEAL
SOS - SAVE OUR CEMETERY
Following the refusal of planning permission to desecrate our cemetery, Taff's Well Community Council appealed to the Welsh Assembly.
The Welsh Assembly Inspector rejected the appeal because it contained a series of totally untrue and possibly libellous allegations made against Plaid Cymru Councillor Adrian Hobson.
The Clerk to the Community Council was told to go away and re-write the appeal. Councillor Adrian Hobson has written to him telling him that if he now removes the offending allegations he will effectively have accepted that they were indeed libellous.
Adrian will also tell the Inspectorate that Taff's Well Community Council should not be allowed to introduce new evidence at this stage. Adrian said "Without the potentially libellous statements, there is no substance left in the Community Council's evidence to the Inspector. It's a really incompetent performance and the Clerk appears to be out of his depth in the appeal process.".
RESIDENTS OPPOSE "DISRESPECTFUL" PLANS BY COMMUNITY COUNCIL
Hundreds of residents have signed a petition objecting to plans by Taffs Well Community Council to turn a derelict building in the middle of Ty Rhiw Cemetery into mixed community use inclding a youth club to be open up to 9pm.
Plaid Councillor, Adrian Hobson, opposed the planning application at the RCT planning committee.The application was rejected.
Councillor Hobson said, "Fixing up the old chapel is one thing - its been disused for over 60 years. However, the uses proposed by Taff's Well Community Council would spoil the quiet enjoyment of the cemetery for those who wish to quietely remember their departed loved ones.
The Community Council has been wasting our money on this unwanted project. They have spend thousands of pounds on architects fees and planning costs - all of which comes from your pockets and is on top of your Council Tax.
The Community Council have also been collecting cash donations towards their project and some residents who donated have now asked for refunds because they feel they were deceived by earlier descriptions of what was proposed.
You can contact Adrian by phone on 029 2081 3740, by e-mail at adrian@adrianhobson.com or on Facebook.
ADRIAN's DETAILS
Adrian has lived in Taff’s Well and Ty Rhiw for over 25 years and been the County Councillor for Taffs Well & Nantgarw since 1999.
Plaid has now represented Taffs Well & Nantgarw for over 35 years when you consider the service given by past Councillors Ifor Jenkins, Gordon Bunn and Gerald Edwards since 1973.
A past Chairman of Taff’s Well Community Council Adrian has also been a Governor at Ffynnon Taf Primary, Nantgarw Infants and Ysgol Gwaelod y Garth. He is currently Vice Chair of Governors at Taffs Well. He is also a past Chairman of the Ysgol Meithrin which still meets in the Village Hall.
Adrian has extensive professional experience in the public sector and local government having worked for over 36 years for the Welsh Office, Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments, The Welsh Assembly Government and now The National Assembly for Wales. He has worked in planning, local government finance, the health service, environment and human resources.
He is a professionally qualified public sector procurement manager and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply. He currently works as Procurement and Sustainability Adviser to the National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff Bay, ensuring that the Assembly gets value for money and develops effective environmental management systems.
Adrian’s wife Shan works for the Welsh Assembly Government, Daughter Eleri is a final year student in Aberystwyth University studying International Politics. Son Neirin is a pupil at Ysgol Rhydfelen and plays football for Pentyrch.
A TRACK RECORD OF COMMUNITY SERVICE
Adrian has previously been a qualified professional youth worker with South Glamorgan County Council and a Financial Adviser in the private sector. His interests include mountain walking and he has previously instructed young people in outdoor pursuits and been a member of the Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Team. Adrian is currently studying for a Masters Degree in Procurement at University of Glamorgan in Trefforest.
Adrian has also been active in the trade union movement for almost 40 years and has held a variety of official positions in several unions including several years as a full time trade union official.
Sign up for e-mail newsletters!! Scroll to the bottom of this page and add your name to the mailing list. We will then send you important news as soon as it's available. Lovells have built a new estate of houses next to the Taff's Well Rugby Club.
Although there are some disadvantages to building on a green space in the middle of the village the development has offered some significant advantages.
Firstly it helps alleviate the shortage of local housing stock allowing local people to move up to larger houses. About 15 of the houses will be affordable houses which should help locale people buy local homes.
Additionally, the developer will eventually pay £72,000 to Taff's Well primary school and, hopefully, the development will generate several new children for local schools, attracting further funding from the Council.
UPDATE I have ensured that the Council's lawyers have requested the payment of £30,000 for leisure use and the developer has already paid £47,000 into the education Department coffers for use in Taffs Well School.
Our opponents, inexplicably, were opposed the development! We think they are seriously out-of-touch with the reality of modern Taff's Well.
STILL ROAD DANGER IN NANTGARW
The traffic lights on Nantgarw Hill are still a danger to pedestrians. There have once more been reports of near misses as cars do illegal U-turns from the downhill to the uphill lanes.
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