First community members of the North Gate Swansea Neighbourhood Board featured in the South Wales Evening Post and Swansea Bay News as the £20 million programme begins to gather momentum.
It has been fantastic to see the North Gate Swansea Pride in Place Programme reaching more people across the city following the announcement of the first four community members joining our Neighbourhood Board.
The story has now featured in the South Wales Evening Post and Swansea Bay News, helping introduce the new members and share more about the long term opportunity ahead for North Gate Swansea.
We are also looking forward to further conversations with That’s TV as we continue raising awareness and, most importantly, inviting local people to get involved.
Meet our first four community Board members
The first four community members joining the North Gate Swansea Neighbourhood Board are:
Timm Dadds, Headteacher of Hafod Primary School, who brings a passion for children, families and creating opportunities for the area.
Rhianydd Herdman, Community Manager at Tramshed Tech in the Palace Theatre, who wants to help build a vibrant and welcoming community where residents, businesses and organisations can thrive.
Heather Allen, a Brynmelyn resident of more than 30 years and active community volunteer, who brings significant local knowledge and a particular passion for supporting older residents.
Gareth Richards, who grew up in Waun Wen and Dyfatty and has deep family connections across the area. Gareth brings both lived experience and an interest in inequality, poverty and criminology.
They join the existing members of the Neighbourhood Board as we continue building a diverse team of people who care deeply about the future of North Gate Swansea.
Up to £20 million of long term investment
The North Gate Swansea Pride in Place Programme could bring up to £20 million of UK Government investment over the next decade to communities around the northern gateway into Swansea city centre.
The programme covers communities including Upper High Street, Dyfatty, Waun Wen, Hafod, Brynmelyn and North Hill.
However, Pride in Place is about much more than funding.
Its purpose is to give local people a meaningful role in shaping the future of their neighbourhoods. Residents, businesses, schools, community groups, charities and other organisations all have an important part to play.
The Neighbourhood Board will help bring those voices together, identify local priorities and guide investment into the things that can make the greatest long term difference.
Helping more people discover North Gate Swansea
The recent press coverage is important because we want as many people as possible to know that this opportunity exists.
The South Wales Evening Post featured the Board appointments under the headline “Quartet join board to help oversee £20m investment”, while Swansea Bay News published an in depth feature introducing each of the four new members and their connections to the area.
We are incredibly grateful for the coverage and for the opportunity to keep telling the story of North Gate Swansea.
But getting into the newspaper is not the destination. Reaching the community is.
Over the coming months, we want to spend much more time listening to people across the area, visiting community spaces, attending events and finding different ways for people to share what they love about where they live, what needs to improve and what they hope the area could become.
The Board is only one way to get involved
Not everyone will want to sit on a formal Board, and they shouldn’t have to in order to have a voice.
Alongside the Neighbourhood Board, we are developing the North Gate Swansea Changemakers Network. This will create more ways for residents, businesses, community organisations and local champions to connect with the programme and help make things happen.
There will also be further opportunities to strengthen and grow the Board as the programme develops.
Our first full Board meeting is approaching, and this next stage will be about bringing people together, listening carefully and beginning to build a shared vision for the future.
This is only the beginning
There is a huge amount still to learn and plenty of work ahead.
However, seeing local people beginning to talk about North Gate Swansea, seeing new connections form and seeing the programme reaching a wider audience is a really encouraging start.
Thank you to the South Wales Evening Post, Swansea Bay News and everyone who has helped share the news.
Most importantly, thank you to the people and communities of North Gate Swansea who are already getting involved.
We’re just getting started. Are you in?
Read the full Swansea Bay News feature:
North Gate Swansea: The four residents who will help decide how £20m is spent on your streets
Find out more about the programme and how to get involved:
North Gate Swansea Pride in Place
Email: [email protected]