A public meeting is to be held on Friday October 28 to discuss the ongoing roadworks in Caerphilly town centre.
The meeting has been called by Labour Assembly Member Jeff Cuthbert, MP Wayne David and Eddie Talbot, the chair of the local traders association.
The meeting will be held on Friday October 28 at 6.30pm at Neuadd-y-Parc Hall, Park Lane, Caerphilly.
Officers and councillors from Caerphilly County Borough Council have been invited to the meeting as have representatives from Wales and West Utilities.
Mr David said: “There is ongoing disruption in the centre of Caerphilly caused by these gas works.
“We are inviting representatives of both the council, who gave permission for the works to be carried out, and representatives of Wales and West Utilities, who are doing the work.
“I have asked both the council and the utilities company to shorten the time period for these works.
“It is totally unacceptable that the lifeblood of Caerphilly is being drained away in the run up to Christmas.
“This is a vitally important time of the year for both the traders and members of the public.”
would the unholy right wing alliance of Wayne David MP, Jeff Cuthbert AM and Ed Talbot have called this meeting if the Labour Party were in control of the Borough?. The problems are caused by Wales and the West Utilities and the Officer of the Borough in a combination of poor organisation and planning. This is just a witch hunt against the local Plaid Councillors, since the unholy alliance cant beat them at the ballot box.
I am a bit confused by Ron James' comment.
"The unholy alliance can’t beat them at the ballot box."
Actually all the people mentioned have been duly elected to represent the voters at, respectively, Town level, Welsh Assembly and Parliament. They are now going to meet the voters at a meeting. This seems to be perfectly reasonable to me.
I have nothing to do with arranging this meeting but I think I shall go to see what happens, as this is a very important issue for those of us who run a small, or large, business in our town. I am sure that borough councillors have been invited to attend as well. What is the problem?
The Comments posted by Ron are way off the mark, I have read previous postings on this publication which appears to show that the current situation, being suffered by town centre traders, is set, firmly, at the feet of local Councillors, I have read they it was THEY who prevented the works being completed in a much shorter time earlier in the year because it would have clashed with the Big Cheese and other town centre events, and, I understand no end of protestation by the Plaid Cymru ward Councillors their supporters and their Plaid Cymru colleagues on the Caerphilly Council can alter that fact because is it contained in Council Minutes, I understand.
Ron should also accept that any matters of poor planning and poor organisation also rest at the feet of elected members of any particular group who happens to be in control of our Council, Labour or Plaid Cymru, it is precisely this " nothing to do with me gov`" attitude which the public have come to expect from Politicians, and to me that is unacceptable.
I think it is also a step too far to suggest that the traders, represented by Ed Talbot (who I see is the South East Wales Chairman of the Small Businesses Federation) and senior Labour Politicians discussing the catastrophic situation in Caerphilly, in public, is an `Unholy Alliance`. It seems that Ron suspects an Alliance in the Assembly of Plaid and Labour Members over the last four years, to run this Country of ours, was what exactly?
Finally, It appears that this `Unholy Alliance` invited Plaid Cymru Councillors to attend this meeting and they have refused to do so, presumably they have their reasons for not doing so.
I find the comments on this article ridiculous, and why the general public are sick and tired of politicians and political rambling for blatant political point scoring.
This is not a battle between 'left' and the 'right'. This has nothing to do with 'bashing' various political parties and everything to do with sorting out the roadworks in the town centre, which appears to be having a negative effect on trading.
Poor planning of these works are the problem. A representitive of Wales and West Utilities would have met a member of the Caerphilly Councils Highways Department and organised the dates and extent of the roadworks with them. The fault lies with either of these two employees and 'someone' needs to step up and sort out the issue.
Caerphilee is wrong
When we start to `elect` officials of our Council then that`s the time to blame them for such situations, in the meantime, as Caerphilee seems to suggest, politicians of all parties can hide behind them when things go wrong, they have been doing this for years, just look at the Icelandic £15 million pounds of our money lost to the ash piles of Iceland, officials fault that of course,? until of course, democracy kicks in, as in the case of the appalling situation being experienced by the traders of the town where the minutes and records of the Council clearly show the actions of Plaid Cymru ward Councillors and other Plaid Cymru Councillors to be responsible for the delay, until now, of these works, they did so in order NOT for the works to clash with other town centre events. it is as simple as that, and traders and other stakeholders in the town will decide at who`s door this man created problems visits, unless of course the `OFFICIAL` of the Highways department would like to role himself or herself out to be quized on the real reasons for this issue. The Freedom of Information Act is a wonderful tool to get to the truth of the matter.
Hello Arthur,
Can you tell me what meeting you are referring to? All council documents are available online – so no need for FOI. If you can direct us to where they are, then we can publish them on Caerphilly Observer.
Many thanks
Richard Gurner
I took up the suggestion, from the editor, to look up this work in the minutes. I found the following for the meeting held on 19th May this year.
"Time table for utilities work in the town centre."
"There are plans for utilities companies to renew water pipe work under the road surface of in Mountain Road in June. Concern was expressed at the many events occurring in Caerphilly town over the next few months, and what effect the possible road closures and trenching would have on these events. Members expressed an urgency to discuss the situation, with Welsh Water, to discuss the impact of their proposals."
It seem clear that this work, wrongly identified as water pipes, was due to begin in June. Councillors appear, from the evidence of this minute, to have wanted the work postponed in order that various events, organised by CCBC, would not be hindered. I think the FOI requests alluded to by Arthur, are more likely to be focussed on who met with Wales & West and what was said at these meetings. The content of these meetings is not on the council website.
Hi Richard,
Were these the minutes from Caerphilly Town Council or Caerphilly County Borough Council?
I should have clarified earlier that minutes, agendas and reports from Caerphilly County Borough Council can be found online.
You can search for specific ones at http://ow.ly/7atJk
Dear Editor, this minute is from the Town Management meeting. A St. Martin's ward concillor is deputy chairman of this meeting.
Clarification will be achieved when the notes of meetings between elcted members, officers and Wales & West Utilities are revealed. These, of course, are not usually published on the CCBC website.
The work did begin in June, on mountain road outside the golf club.
I see from the minutes that Richard Williams was there himself on behalf of the traders of the town. Yet he didn't comment on the works and neither has he admitted in any of his comments on here that he was there and had the opportunity to express concerns about them.
Typical of him to be economical with the truth when it suits him. Rather than do anything constructive at this meeting he sat there and said nothing. Now he tries to pin all the blame on the Council and use this site as a political forum to bash those who he will stand against in the Council elections next year!
Having just read the minutes of this so called council meeting I'm appalled that this Richard Williams guy, who represents the Town Traders, didn’t express any concerns at that meeting about the road works. To add insult to the injury that he has heaped on the retailers he now uses this site to blame others! Talk about a hypocrite !
Oh well, its bash Richard Williams time, all this disruption must be laid at my door. Regular readers will know that I have have declared, in this online paper, at least twice, that I was at this meeting. I have also mentioned that Cllr. Ron Davies voiced concerns, quite correctly in my view.
The only information that I was able to impart was precisely this, work was going to take place at some point and that Ron Davies had urged the council to convene a meeting with the company concerned in order to establish timescale, work area and so on.
I never have been privy to the information and agreements arrived at in these meetings and have had no involvement in the planning of these works.
Terry, if you know, and you seem to be well advised about the working of this Council quango, the town center management committee, how can someone who is not an elected member of the Council be blamed for something the Council, as a corporate body, did or didn`t do?. I would welcome your logic.
This is all a parish pump storm in a teacup, the work had to be done, and disruption would have ocurred at any time. But, as an armchair archeologist, I always look in holes in the road, trying to find bits of medieval Caerphilly. I didnt find any in the trench at the junction of Clive Street and Cardiff Rd, but I noticed that the gutter drain was not connected into any storm drain or any drain connection at all. This would suggest that all we have on Cardiff Road are soakaways, not connected to any drainage system. Work that was done years ago, and not the fault of wales and West Utilities, As a Contract Design Engineer/Draughtsman I`ve worked for organisations like Wessex Water, and I was under the impression that road gutter drainage had, by law, be connected into a storm drain. It explains why Cardiff Road is running with water after a rain storm, it has no where else to go.
Well spotted John Owen, this may be the cause of the perennial flooding problem at the junction of King Edward Ave – Brinrhiw. Maybe these streets are drained into soak ways too.