Its been a busy few months since the Local Government Elections, but with a few setbacks I’ve tried to keep ploughing forward for the ward.
Supporting events within the ward via my small schemes, I have been targeting youth initiatives like ‘Fit & Fed’ along with supporting local Play Schemes and Youth Clubs.
Attending many events within the ward, from Charity Fund Raisers, Varteg Community Day, Table Top Sales and Community Events, I not only support the event, but I also add to my list of contacts to work towards doing more for the youth.
The most major task to date was the setting up meetings for the wonderful ‘Carols under
the Arch’ which was a lot bigger this year, needing lots of cutting through red tape. Thanks again to Noddfa Church for organising the event.
After a family bereavement from Motor Neurone Disease, I put a motion through Council to adopt the MND Charter, which was accepted enabling me to Champion the cause!
Within days I raised £300 by taking part in a 24 hour silence, within a few weeks I took part in a Charity Collection at Tesco and have now organised a fund raising Elvis concert for the ward.
One of the issues that concerns me is the amount of food bank usage and poverty within parts of the ward, to help address this I applied to join the board of Garnsychan Partnership to link in to get help where it’s needed, but unfortunately there wasn’t a vacancy.
But working closely with Pastor John at Noddfa Church and his congregation we have run collections for food banks, clothes for the homeless, shoebox collections, started youth clubs (that I’ve sponsored) and interact with the Fire Service, Community Support Officers and Play Service.
We have set up Toaster and Kettle Mountains and Sanitary Products Collections all at very little cost.
Myself and Community Councillor Lynda Clarkson put a proposal to Torfaen County Borough Council to turn Victoria School into a building to support local enterprise and tourism, constantly looking at ways to keep the building from being sold and kept for local use.
This is ongoing and the sale has been postponed for the forseeable future.
During the last few months I have met with the Fire Service, Police, Community Safety and Torfaen Leisure Trust to see how we can partner work with each other to promote the ward and bring activities here.
I have just applied and been accepted as a Trustee for TRAC2 the County Borough Wide Charity that supports families not just in the Abersychan Ward but throughout Torfaen, with these, I am hoping to build closer ties with the ward and help support the residents most in need.
Since May, I have still been inundated with day to day concerns like, grit bins, refuse, pot holes, flooding, ASB, home visits, fly tipping and various other issues which I have dealt with as quickly as posible.
As always, Thank You for your support!
Giles Davies 