‘False dawn’ fears for county’s new vision

Elgan Hearn Local Democracy Reporter

A senior councillor hopes the blueprint to stimulate economic growth in Blaenau Gwent will not be another “false dawn”.

At a meeting of the county borough council’s Economic Development and Environmental Management scrutiny committee on Tuesday, March 10, councillors received a presentation on the draft blueprint.

Joint director of economy for both Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen councils, Christina Harrhy, who is leaving her role soon to take the helm of the Welsh Government’s Disused Tips Authority, explained that the blueprint will actually sit above the Local Development Plan (LDP).

Last week councillors agreed to scrap their own replacement Local Development Plan (LDP), which has been worked on for several years by county planners, in favour of forging a new joint LDP with Torfaen.

The blueprint for economic growth is also set to be a joint venture with Torfaen.

Ms Harrhy said: “The problem we’re trying to solve is that we are ranked alongside other UK local authorities in a league table produced every four years called the competitiveness index.”

The last version of this index, published in 2023, had Blaenau Gwent ranked 361 of 362 authorities, and the council had been rock bottom — 362 of 362 — in the previous table produced in 2019.

Ms Harrhy said: “We need to move that dial over the medium to long term to solve that problem.”

She said that the manufacturing industry is very “buoyant” in Blaenau Gwent, while in Torfaen the key area is the medical and pharmaceutical sector.

Ms Harrhy said: “They are both areas that we want to maximise, ensure we keep those employers and attract more.

“The blueprint will set out a vision for what we want to achieve and how we are going to deliver it.”

She explained that Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen have a “very proud” industrial heritage and this would be an opportunity to “create” a new industrial heritage based on “advanced manufacturing and meditech.”

Ms Harrhy continued: “This blueprint is not going to happen overnight; it will take us forward over the next 10 to 15 years and there are a number of workstreams that will underpin each of the strategic themes.”

Cllr Malcolm Cross (Labour – Sirhowy) said that every councillor would have felt like they had received a kick “down below” to see Blaenau Gwent languishing at the bottom of the competitive index.

Cllr Cross said: “For far too long we have been neglected. For 50 years we’ve been a forgotten entity, which really annoys me.

“It’s nice to see some long overdue funding coming in, but we’ve been led up so many garden paths over the years, it’s frightening.

“You could not have any better example recently than Ciner Glass.

“They were going to come in and provide work.

“They gave all the promises in the world and even called the local rugby ground Ciner Glass Stadium; we were let down.

“I seriously worry we have the workforce numbers to take this forward.

“I know there’s a really good team working hard but it must be so frustrating when, for no reason at all, these doors shut.

“We’ve had so many false dawns in Blaenau Gwent.”

Ms Harrhy said: “We are operating in a global world; for every 10 opportunities that come our way, one may land and that’s just the nature of the beast.

“One of the key attractions to investors is having a council that’s open for business, and this council firmly is.”

It is expected that the document will be put out to consultation soon before the blueprint is finalised later this year.

There are three key themes that will be worked on separately:

– Business and Employment Growth
– Infrastructure and Investment
– People and Skills.

In July 2025, Turkish firm Ciner announced their decision to pull the plug on the factory proposal at the Rassau Industrial Estate, which had been hoped would create 650 jobs in the area.

The firm were originally given planning permission by councillors to build the factory back in June 2022.

Last autumn it was revealed that the UK Government’s UK Export Finance department had stood as the guarantor for a £100 million loan for Ciner.

The loan by UK Export Finance was part of a finance package worth €504 million to allow Ciner to build a glass factory in Belgium.

According to Ciner, this loan guarantee did not have any bearing on their decision to pull the plug on their factory project in Ebbw Vale.

UK Export Finance said that their decision would help UK firms that will be helping Ciner build their Belgian factory.