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Delyth Jewell, who is the deputy leader of Plaid Cymru, is one of four regional Senedd Members serving the South Wales East region.

This week in the Senedd I called for a statement from the Welsh Government about how to keep national treasures like Llancaiach Fawr open. As many of you’ll remember, the manor house was closed at the beginning of the year because of local authority cuts – and I believe there should be national support to help ensure vital pieces of our local history aren’t lost.

The manor is a place which brought history to life for so many of us as children, but I know that it wasn’t only school trips that went there – local groups congregated in the cafe for coffee mornings, and so many of us visited the barn for fetes and carol concerts.

Over the past week, Plaid Cymru councillors discovered through a Freedom of Information request that all but two of the staff who worked in the historic manor house are facing redundancy. I am so dismayed that all those years of experience could soon be discarded. I realise, of course, that the council, like all local authorities, are facing difficult times, which is why I’ve called for national support to save the jobs of these people who brought that little bit of magic into so many of our lives. Like many of you, I still hope that the site will be reopened as soon as possible, but that must include the historic manor house.  Without these staff members, I worry that a link to our past could be severed.

I’ve also been raising my concerns about plans to limit library services across the borough. Last week, I led a debate in the Senedd about the importance of community assets, including libraries in the Rhymney valley. Because in this time of cuts to local authority budgets, libraries are too often seen as an easy target. In Caerphilly, the council is proposing to close ten libraries across the borough, including in Nelson, Llanbradach, Bedwas, Deri and Pengam. Other councils across the south east have been looking to do something similar, and it’s really concerning.

As I said in that Senedd debate, closing a library is much meaner an act than merely closing the doors to a building. Because a library is more than pipes and brickwork: within its walls are mansions of memory, immeasurable worlds to which we can be transported. And they are hubs, too, for the weary and lonely. Places to meet, stay warm, to learn and wonder. That was the dream bought for us by our grandparents: places of comfort and knowledge and friendship. And that is the legacy so at risk of being lost.

I will continue to campaign for us to keep our local assets in our communities. If any of these issues have affected you, please contact me – my email address is Delyth.Jewell@Senedd.Wales