I WROTE A LETTER TO THE PRESS

Which i pasted below

Dear editor

I write concerning vandalism in Hendy and the county councils comments about deciding on a policy three strikes and out.

This is a concern given that Hendy was highlighted as a possible area that could be affected with the loss of its park under the policy if it came into effect?

What has happened to the society of today? How things have changed? years ago when I was a young teenager, as group of youngsters my friends and I would never resorted to some of the malicious damage that youngsters have caused today.

There are a number of factors, which I believe contribute to and are the root of the problems, in my day the local beat police officer lived in the villages, and even if they were off duty they shopped or socialised in the village, and they knew every youngster and their family, if we were rowdy or up to mischief, our parents would know, before we even got home what we had been up to. Today the police seem to move around and don’t live in the community long enough and a lot of the community residents are unknown to the local officers.

The other major factor is, what is there for the youngsters of today to do, cut backs has seen community facilities vanish, years ago Hendy was the best kept village in the county for three years running, They achieved this because there was community spirit and hardly no vandalism, but there were well maintained facilities like the tennis courts and a park, there was the pool, there was the scouts in the Urdd hall, youngsters had an activity they could participate in.

The Hendy youth of today have no youth clubs, we lost the tennis courts in the 90’s, and the pool is closed and under threat from the county. The village lost its football pitch in a prime spot in the heart of the village, when the county sold it to build houses, which increased its revenue from council taxes. Yes they did give the village an alternative field, but this is across the railway line and has poor access, which now causes residents of Harlyford Road some heartache, with parking problems.

Although the pool committee are campaigning to Save the pool without full support from the county it would be a huge task for the community volunteers to achieve. The committee are conducting a feasibility study for the pool and park area and I believe instead of looking for excuses to remove the facilities in Hendy, Carmarthen County Council needs to look at the root of the causes of the incidents of vandalism and address these, if they cant fund better facilities then maybe they should fund more cameras to view and monitor the areas effected from vandalism.

If they invested money in the pool and park and community facilities in general, they would find vandalism would decrease, as youngsters would not be bored, maybe if the feasibility study for the pool came back positive, the county council might then reconsider its stance around not supporting the project financially, instead of making the committee a verbal promise and offer of a large grant and then reconsidering and denying ever offering the committee any funds. If regeneration of the park and pool became a reality, maybe Hendy could again be in the running for best kept village.   

Yours

Steve lloydjanes

llanedi community councillor

the hendy campaign needs locals to support by writting similar letters of support to the press  suz.oakley@swwmedia.co.uk is the letters editor for the star