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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.

I recently joined residents in Trethomas who are campaigning to protect green space in their village.

There are proposals from the council to build eight bungalows on land in the north of the village, but the campaigners have pointed to flooding in the area which often affects this field. They are asking the council to instead donate the space for village green status, and their plans are really exciting. 

The council has previously planted grass plots and bulbs in the space, alongside members of the allotment group, local schools, and the local football club. In fact, since 2016, the allotment group has planted roughly 100,000 crocuses on this land with the help of school pupils. It’s stunning when they’re in bloom! The green space is a much-cherished community asset, and they’re keen to turn part of it into a community orchard.

This may seem like a highly localised issue, but I’m keen to highlight the dedication of these campaigners in their attempts to make the space they share beautiful, and to protect it for future generations. 

Local residents including Billy Hughes, Bryan Masters, Gary Aldworth and Barbara Parnell have been campaigning passionately about this for some time – and their determination should be commended. As they’ve pointed out to me, Trethomas is one of the most built-up parts of the county borough, so securing village green status for this green space would be vitally needed. 

I have written to the council to express support for their idea, and have called on them to consider this as an option.

If you live locally and want to know more about their campaign, please do get in touch with them: they all live in the area and can often be seen out and about, knocking doors with petitions and being active in supporting the community. Local projects like theirs deserve to succeed.