Council neglecting playing fields

Carmarthenshire County Council is neglecting its play equipment and its playing fields according to a Plaid Councillor. Cllr Siân Thomas of Penygroes has criticised the council for cutting back on play equipment, and for failing to maintain playing fields.

"According to what we were told in a recent meeting," said Cllr Thomas, "there will be no spending on children's play areas in future. The Labour/ Independent coalition which runs the council has decided to close every paddling pool in a year’s time if the local town or community council does not agree to take over the responsibility. If play equipment needs to be removed for safety reasons, it will not be replaced. Before long, we will have a number of parks with no play equipment at all for small children. They will find only empty squares where the equipment used to be. With the school summer holidays approaching, this is a matter which concerns me. The bets place for children to be is out in the open air."

It seems that there will be no expenditure on playing fields either. Cllr Thomas said, "The County claims that they worry about keeping the population fit and healthy, but on the other hand they refuse to spend a penny on keeping our playing fields in an acceptable condition. There will be no repairs or improvements. Our playing fields for sports such as rugby will deteriorate. There's no hope of developing sporting heroes for the future, and the Scarlets will not be the champions of everything - as they should be - in their new home without new talent feeding through."

Call for better signage at Parc y Scarlets

The lack of adequate signage for the new stadium at Parc y Scarlets is causing unnecessary traffic problems, according to local county councillor Meilyr Hughes.

Cllr Hughes, a Plaid member of the council, said, "I have received a report of one instance where a bus pulled up on the approach to the roundabout, and all of the passengers left the bus to head to the Stadium. In the process, they stopped traffic on two busy roads in order to cross them. I am told that this is a far from isolated instance, as other people have been seen attempting to jump over surrounding fences at the Retail Park and then make their way through busy traffic to get to the Stadium.

"I am convinced that clearer signage, indicating the location of car and bus parking, would help. But we also need pedestrian access to the grounds in order to improve the safety for both supporters and general traffic in the area."

Report now available on-line

The report of the Plaid Cymru group of councillors in response to the county council's proposals for re-organisation of secondary education in Dinefwr and Gwendraeth areas is now available on line here.