St James and Twyn Carno have been named as two of the most deprived areas in Wales, according to new Welsh Government statistics.
The Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) is the official measure of relative deprivation for small areas in Wales.
The index uses levels of income, employment, health, education, housing, physical environment, access to services and community safety to calculate its rankings. Council wards are used as a basis for different areas and are also split into sub-levels.
St James 3, which includes Lansbury Park, and Twyn Carno 1 are ranked the second and third most deprived areas in Wales behind Rhyl in Denbighshire.
Overall Caerphilly County Borough ranked seventh out of 22 councils in terms of having the most deprived wards. Caerphilly had 14.5% of its wards in the most deprived 10%. Merthyr topped the table with 25% of its wards the most deprived in Wales. Blaenau Gwent followed with 23.4% while Rhondda Cynon Taf had 17.8%.
Newport was fourth with 16% while Cardiff was fifth with 15.8%.
Jeff Cuthbert, Labour AM for Caerphilly said: “The Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation report confirms what many in the Caerphilly constituency know already – that there are communities still struggling to come to terms with the economic changes of the last thirty years and which would be at risk of even more pain if government doesn’t step in and help these communities get back on their feet.
“That’s why Welsh Government initiatives like Communities First, as well as schemes like Pre-VENT and the future Welsh Jobs Fund, will be absolutely vital in making sure that places featured in the report’s overall deprivation table are supported with the necessary assistance and cushioned from the UK Government’s drastic spending cuts.
“We have done a lot of work bringing money and help into these areas but clearly much more needs to be done. We will not shirk away from this.”
Click here for a map outlining Wales’ most deprived areas.
Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation 2011
Of course there is no corelation between this level of multiple deprivation in caerphilly, and the fact that for most of the 30 years Jeff Cuthbert talks about Labour was in power in London and Cardiff, or is there?.
Jeff Cuthbert said
Labour AM for Caerphilly said: “The Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation report confirms what many in the Caerphilly constituency know already – that there are communities still struggling to come to terms with the economic changes of the last thirty years and which would be at risk of even more pain if government doesn’t step in and help these communities get back on their feet.
I agree with Ron James. It is disgusting that the Last Labour Government, in fact all the Labour Governments of the last thirty years didnt step in and did nothing for south Wales in general and Caerphilly in particular. The trouble is nothing is done because this is Donkey Vote Country, people will vote for a donkey as long as it calls itself Labour and they do. In addition, the last Labour Government let in millions of migrants and thats where the jobs needed in Caerphilly have gone.
I notice that Jeff Cuthbert, in "Local View", says he`s proud of the the work done by the Communnites First Partnership, in our most disadvantaged communties: work which some how seems to have ignored Lansbury Park and Twyn Carno, in his constiuency, two of the wards suffering the most multiple deprivation in Wales.
He`s also proud of his association with the Young Socialists of Wales, Trotskyite backed, Militant Tendency front entryist organisation , a group that helped keep Labour out of power in the 1980s, so perhaps he`s used to double talk and a distorted view of reality.
St James Ward of Caerphilly CBC has been a Community First project area for years and years, it would be interesting to see how much money `Gross` has been awarded to `projects` and `insperational initiatives` specifically attributed to St James, i.e. to improve the lot of the citizens of that electoral ward of Caerphilly Council, then, extrapulate from that figure the actual NET financial figure spent on the initiative itself, do so by subtracting the administrative cost of each project,the costs of match funding moneies, normally drawn from other budgets, and then one would really find out how much, or how little, sucessive Council Administrations and Welsh Assembly minister and officials have actually spent on this ward.
For instance, about four years or so ago, the Welsh Assembly made a financial Community First award (attributed to a St James`s ward) of £665,ooo,oo. yes, six hundred and sixty five thousand pounds, to a single Community First and Caerphilly Council initiative to create an indoor Skateboard facility at the Indoor Market Hall in Caerphilly Town, as everyone now knows the skateboard facility never came about.
In the meantime however the Caerphilly Council threw £30,000 at the project to get the market hall usable, this was done, however, due to the total absence of due diligence and proper controls of spending ratepayers money the health and safety regulations of the entire proposal was never undertaken, not, at least until huge amounts on ratepayers money had already been wasted, the skatboard ramps etc were bought with a further huge award of Lottery Money, this was `INDOOR EQUIPMENT` but when it was discovered the Hall was totally and completely unusable as a venue for such activity, ( and the Project controllers never owned the hall anyway nore did they have an enforceable lease, so there was no security of tenure even if it had sucessfully opened) The Caerphilly Council, in their wisdom, moved this INDOOR EQUIPMENT to a venue at the rear of the Caerphilly Lesuire centre, Where is it NOW?. Is there a facility in Caerphilly? where is the public money which was spent on this facility? Could this be an example of why St James has not moved on so far as it should considering the millions of pounds spent on community projects in the ward?. Finally, the `Charity` which set up this entire debacle have recently been placed into liquidation, the money raised from its assets over debts?
£20,000. a TOTAL loss of approx £700,000,00. to the ratepayers. Unless of course you know different?