Sunday 30 July 2017

1911 - the history that should have never happened but did!

Why does Wales get a bad deal? Why is this country the poorest in the UK by far. The inference is that the Welsh deserve it. Even welsh born and raised politicians have rubbished the country's history and lack of talent. Wales need guidance and protection from the ambitions of its inhabitants. Those who live here don't deserve a fair share - if they had "real drive" they would surely have left and never come back ! Suppressing the "wrong" history is apparently a national pastime. Even recent events may be spun as something completely different.


Neil Kinnock is an example of a man who did reasonably well in the UK sphere but was not renowned for his support of Wales, the project. His views on Welsh History were not far off the sentiments my children learned at school in history lessons. Their teachers do not have had much to work with, the Romans, the Tudors and the Second World war with welsh involvement as footnotes.

Those of us old enough to have been supporting the miners in the Miners Strike of 1984-5 realised that it was primarily a successful attack by Margaret Thatcher on a troublesome are of the UK economy -a  unionised heavy industry. In Wales it was a  large part of  the economy and surely deserved preservation. There was not the environmental concern of today about fossil fuels and the destruction of the industry was political. Welsh Labour supporters through those long months were waiting for the Labour leader to support the strike, especially in his own country. A touching sentiment, but forlorn. Interesting quote above where he airs his views on what he sees as a distinct lack of history in Wales.

Remarkably a local Secondary School in Llanelli once did do a local history project on 1911 and I had not even heard of those events  before my eldest child brought it  home. Mysteriously none of  my 3 younger children who attended the same school subsequently studied the 1911 events - they must have misplaced the project documents.

You might think that history its something fixed in the past and interpretation may alter but not the facts.  You would be wrong. The events of 1911, uniquely played out in Llanelli, and the massive attempts to suppress the facts and distort the truth, chillingly shadows the modern day distortions and cover ups of government blunders we currently see all over the world. Such is the ignorance about Llanelli 1911 that after the Centenary we decided to carry on with a few events every year to keep the memory alive of what really happened.

I recently heard that a member of the public had gone to Llanelli Library to obtain some information on the subject of the 1911 Strike.  He was told that they had no books or information. The gentleman at the desk dealing with the query remarked that "We wish it had never happened".

I happened to have donated 30 books on the subject on behalf of the the 1911 committee to them 5 years ago! Where could they be? I suspect some of the hundreds of bilingual books we got printed with a Heritage Lottery Grant  and sent to every Carmarthenshire school may also have disappeared.

As someone who is no stranger to controversy I found the 1911 Centenary Commemoration strangely double edged. The first reaction against remembering 1911 I found ,was opposition on the grounds that the history was shameful and showed that the people of Llanelli were capable of rioting and looting. A less common but more deeply disturbing attitude is that a good welsh nationalist like myself should not be involved in working class history as it's an "English" subject.

The basic story is:
The first National Railway Strike was called in August 1911. Railwaymen were paid so little that they could not support their families despite 70 hour working weeks. The majority of other workers in Llanelli were significantly better off and there was a great deal of sympathy for the strikers. The UK government mobilised 57,000 troops to keep the railways and ports open.

The railway was the major transporter of  UK goods and the GWR line through Llanelli was transporting massive food imports coming in from Ireland .

Huge pickets blocked the station crossing gates despite the efforts and bayonets of police and troops. Llanelli was the  only place in Britain where the trains were completely halted. Liberal Home Secretary Winston Churchill sent in more troops. Railway still blocked. A local magistrate read the riot act and finally the troops shot onlookers, killing 2 of them. The crowds should have disbursed but instead ran at the troops who spent the rest of their trip to Llanelli barricaded in the station. Some of the townspeople took advantage of the situation  to attack property owned by the local magistrates and the Railway companies. Ironically, by this point the strike had been settled.

Grave in Llanelli's Box Cemetery of an English labourer shot in the back garden of his lodgings.
Local Historian John Edwards.who wrote the book "Remembrance of a Riot" , the first comprehensive account of the events, says the emphasis on the looting, rather than the shooting, was the political reaction from the start and the incident is still locally known as the "Llanelli riots"as if it was some random criminal event. We still have an uphill struggle.


This year's events :

August 17th  Free Entry to all at the annual 1911 Historian's Forum at Llanelli Rural Council 5 for 5.30pm  Speaker Robert Griffiths author of "Killing, no murder" book on 1911 events.

This is followed by Civic Reception for all guests by Chair of Council [Buffet and Drinks]. Venue: Llanelli Rural Council Offices, Vauxhall, Llanelli  SA15 3BD  tel. 01554 774103

August 19th  Commemorative March from Llanelli Station stopping at the site of the killings and on to the town centre.Gather 1.30pm for departure at 2.00pm. Speeches in Spring Gardens, Town Hall Square followed by wreath laying at Box Cemetery.

learn more at 1911llanellirailwaystrike.org.uk/
                                                                                                                   Siân Caiach

Thursday 6 July 2017

The Sospan Restaurant - Carmarthenshire Econonmics

Wales is often seen as a begging bowl economy. Apparently unable to survive without hand outs and with insufficient power, resources and/or influence to help itself. The story of Llanelli's generously subsidised fine dining venue illustrates the strange and wonderful ways in which even our supposedly locally "controlled" Councils are encouraged to give away their land and source funding for selected
businesses. Exactly how these projects are formulated is mysterious, but they are often related to or associates of other organisations and projects who also bask in the sun of public funding. No surprise there. Those who know and experience these systems are also likely to use this knowledge for other projects.

The imposing Pump House at North Dock, Llanelli, built at the turn of the 20th century and a listed building, found itself in a Waterfront  Regeneration Project Area. A use needed to be found which would preserve the imposing listed building.

 Bids were taken for developing the building. 3 were considered. {source FOIA/3789 CCC]

Developer A
£254,788  offered for site
£400,000 grant funding required.
Net  contribution grant required of £145,212

Developer B
Nil value for purchase of land.
£575,000 grant required

Developer C
Nil value for purchase of land
Nil grant required

CCC stated in the FOIA reply "However, it should be borne in mind that the award of contract was also based on a Cost and Quality submission, therefore the financial details would not have been scored in isolation."

After the bidding, the contract was awarded to Bendigo 9-10. a firm fronted by Rugby International players Stephen Jones and Dwayne Peel. Planning permission was granted. A Plaza built to enhance the site as per my previous blog, but the use of the building was delayed for 2 years until 2010 to allow Welsh Water to try to upgrade the sewage drainage in the area.  The restaurant area itself has appeared odour free whenever I've visited the environs but not so the flats opposite on the other side of the dock so I suspect there are still residual problems in the area.

Of course I can't be sure which bid the Council accepted but I suspect the winners were Developer B.
A Cadw contribution and Business Development Grants and other subsidises were said to be in the region of £600,000 and further smaller grants were allocated  by CCC with £13,750 coming from the South West Wales local investment fund.[ FOIA/5249]

Recently a local resident noted that the car park for the Sospan was being extended onto public owned Council land and flagged this up with the council. The Bendigo 9-10 had paid around £30k for use of the original car park area. Originally CCC claimed there was no issue but later realised there was. This is the revised response

 "Carmarthenshire County Council officers were notified at the time of the recent works that the extension was in accordance with an agreed lease agreement. Since the time of our initial response on 19th April 2017 surveyors have checked the boundaries on site and we are now liaising directly with the owner as we believe there is additional land take. If additional land has actually been utilised the council will look to secure a sale at market value."

Such has been the success of the restaurant that a new venture subsequently opened at the Eastgate, the private owned but public funded Llanelli town centre development which was also briefly home to a business enterprise run by the Scarlets which ran up large debts. Robert Williams, Chair of WRW, local construction firm and member of CCC's constructors' framework, is described as a co-owner of both the Sospan and the newer B 9-10 . Close to the Sospan is the Dragon 24 new office complex, which has had difficulty in letting the floor space. WRW is occupying one of the units. 


B-9-10 was launched at East Gate Llanelli in December 2014 by the same rugby stars Dwayne Peel and Stephen Jones along with local entrepreneur Robert Williams. This set of units has also been difficult to fully let, and ask for very large rents compared with the other areas of the town. The high end Burger bar does not seem to have survived despite an enthusiastic launch...

The new town centre restaurant was described as rugby themed "as it provides a stylish yet informal surroundings to enjoy delicious Welsh food and craft beers and even catch the latest Scarlets game on the big screen! The owners previously launched the multi award winning Sosban in Llanelli, which was most recently crowned Wales best place to eat by the National Tourism Awards, following their title as Wales’ best restaurant with the Good Food Guide, and The AA Guide’s Best restaurant in Wales title."  
One of several empty  units at the Llanelli Eastgate  

No information is available from CCC as to the number of promising young chefs placed at the Sospan for training. The food is very good by all accounts but expensive.

So how is the company doing?

 BENDIGO 9-10 is trading and listed at Companies House. It was planned to provide up to 20 local full time jobs. The current  employment figures are not available.

2016 accounts show a cash balance of £82K, net worth of £596,680, total current assets of £263,244,and total current liabilities of £135,901 with debt held by HSBC and Welsh Government.
This pattern of helping along local enterprises with procuring grants and added extras is perfectly legal and above board. However, although this project has provided a use for an old historic landmark it has not regenerated anything more than the area it stands on and its public plaza has certainly not attracted the public. It should be attractive to tourists but is remote and secluded from the the nearest tourist "hot spot" of  Llanelli Beach. It is not close to hotels and tourist routes and a long walk and short drive from the town. It may be that as a high end fine dining restaurant that makes little difference to trade as those who wish to eat the finest food and have the money to pay for it, may always make the effort.

However, as a reproducible model for expanding the local economy it is not useful. In fact the impression that only a few elite projects succeed in obtaining substantial public funding and  easy planning consent appears to discourage young entrepreneurs. As in much of Wales, there is no economic plan A, never mind a plan B, just build more homes for retirees and commuters. At least this will increase the Council Tax take, but little else.

Like much of Rural Wales, Carmarthenshire's sustainable industries are surely Tourism, Food Production [farming, food processing and packaging], forrestry and energy production.  The Public Sector is the major employer through Health, Education, Local Government etc. There are still some Llanelli engineering jobs, mainly related to the automotive industry but there is little sign of expansion in this area and similarly little prospect of expansion in the residual steel and other heavy industries. If there is any prospect of economic expansion we at least need a plan...  
                                                                                                                    Siân Caiach
Sospan :New Car Park in Foreground, Restaurant on left and the white building in the distance is WRW offices