A project to turn the original building of Caerphilly Miners’ Hospital into a community centre has been boosted by a £300,000 grant from the Welsh Government.
Charity the Caerphilly Miners’ Centre for the Community has been given the cash through the Welsh Government’s Community Facilities and Activities Programme.
The money will enable the charity to take a 99 year lease on the original Beeches building at the former hospital site.
Katherine Hughes, secretary of Caerphilly Miners’ Centre for the Community, said: “We have been working for four years to get to this point, working closely with partners, decision-makers and our community.
“This is a tribute to the support that everyone has given to the project and the faith that people have placed in our project and in me in particular – people like Jeff Cuthbert, AM our Chair since the project’s inception and United Welsh, who took the risk of working in partnership with us since we started.
“We have sought to follow the miners’ ethos of mutuality and collaboration, community enterprise and self-help. We will be delivering services for people to socialise, learn and develop skills, access information and advice and participate in community activities.
“There will be opportunities for people to invest in themselves and help their community. I feel confident that the model of community engagement and ownership that we are developing for this centre is the right one and I am sure that the Miners would be proud of how we have taken their vision into the 21st Century.”
To bring the original Beeches building into community use, the charity needs to raise £1 million and a new fundraising initiative will soon be launched.
The Beeches building was paid for by the miners of 29 pits in the Rhymney Valley after they each put aside 6d out of their weekly wage of 12s 6d to raise the £30,000 needed.
The new appeal is asking people to donate £8 – which Caerphilly Miners’ Centre for the Community says is the modern equivalent.
Ms Hughes added: “The campaign does not ask for £8 a week but a donation of £8 to replicate the donations of our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, or whatever people can give.
“It is so important that the community pull together to build on this essential funding so that this historic building can be part of our community for generations to come.”
The hospital closed in November 2011 with services transferred to Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr. Around 80 homes will be built on the site by developer Lovell and Housing Association United Welsh.
The community centre was one of six projects in Caerphilly County Borough to get funding from the Welsh Government.
The others were:
Holy Trinity Church in Wales – Caerphilly – £4,762
Graig-y-Rhacca Resource Centre – Caerphilly – £189,314
Caerphilly Miners Centre for the Community – Caerphilly – £300,000
Blackwood Methodist Church – Caerphilly – £47,765.84
New Tredegar Communities First Partnership – Caerphilly – £72,238.32
Graig-y-Rhacca Resource Centre – Caerphilly – £189,314
If you are interested in supporting the cause please contact Katherine Hughes on 029 2088 6569
This is excellent news. I know the group have been working really hard since the project's inception and it is testament to the committee's ambition that £300,000 has been awarded. On completion the facility will be of great benefit to the community and I hope future funding applications are successfull.
This is great for caerphilly and good luck to them but at the end of the day what is going to be done for oakdale whose hospital which was bought and paid for by the miners was sold for private housing.
Perhaps a vacant building ought to be bought and given back to the community of oakdale.
I`d rather have had a hospital there.
Caerphilly Councillor James Pritchard is correct, and once the group who are working on this project find the additional £700,000 which is required to complete the job, it could be an additional asset to the town.
However, It remains to be seen how much more public money will be weighed into the project to complete it, I sincerely hope and expect that all other public, voluntary groups, in Caerphilly town, who all do admirable pubic duty in keeping their projects running, sometimes without the benefit of close associations with Assembly Members, will not be disadvantaged by this huge public grant to one `new` project replicating facilities which already exist in abundance in the town.
There must be no `Bias` shown to this group at the expense of other, equally deserving causes, in and around the Town of Caerphilly, time will tell however whether the apparent enthusiasm and support of local Assembly Members and the very close association with the project over the past three years or so by local Councillors will show such evidence of ` Bias` at the cost to other projects with which they are not so politically, cosy.
I apologise to Jeff for quoting some of his comments "time will tell however whether the apparent enthusiasm and support of local Assembly Members and the very close association with the project over the past three years or so by local Councillors will show such evidence of ` Bias` at the cost to other projects with which they are not so politically, cosy." To me it is hypocritical for local Labour Assembly Members and local Labour councillors to be supporting the Beeches Project, the same people failed to stop the closure of the Miners, despite being active in the anti closure campaign, when all along they seemed to be active in promoting the white elephant at Ystrad Myach. They are the guilty men, and their support for the Beeches is like the youth who killed his parents and then wants leniency because he`s an orphan.
Jeff: above makes a lot of `wise` comments.
Lets hope that all, worthy, local projects will have the same support of our Assembly Members, including Jeff Cuthbert, which they consistantly gave, and continue to give, to the Miners Community Centre Project, which itself, has a board of trustees including a host of local politicians.
What negativity when people are trying to benefit the community. I would like to point out that there is not an abundance of councillors as trustees nor labour party members. There is a cross section of the community who wish to preserve what our forefathers strived for, to make a better living environment for their families. There were questionnaires in abundance when the project first commenced, the result of the response to these is being activated. Instead of complaining, why don't you volunteer and become involved, as I am. Easy to sit in a chair and criticise from afar.