Property TV shows blasted for ‘driving away young people’ from Wales’ coast
The owner of a building company on Anglesey has blasted TV shows that sell Wales’ coast as the perfect place to retire, without making any mention of their language and culture.
Oswyn Williams of Glyndwr Services said that people from the island had had a “bellyful” of TV shows such as ITV’s Robson Green’s Coastal Lives which was broadcast Tuesday night.
In July the show’s production company, Shiver, sent out a press release looking for “families and retired couples that are moving to the coast to start a new life” to be featured on the show.
“This time the new series will be incorporating a property element,” it said.
Oswyn Williams said that he was unhappy that the presenter did not interview a single Welsh speaker on Anglesey and did not refer once to the existence of the Welsh language.
He told Golwg360 that the shows were partly responsible for the hike in house prices that was driving young people from the island.
Homes in Aberffraw now cost £200,000, compared to £50,000 a decade ago, and that homes in Rhosneigr were selling for £600,000, he said.
“These programmes don’t help at all,” he said. “They show what a nice place it is and people flock here to live.
“The unique way of life of the Welsh-speaking inhabitants is never portrayed. Anglesey is a very Welsh place and that should be a key part of the show,” he said.
“If you go to Aberffraw in the winter, the homes are empty. There’s no school. The people who used to live there have moved away.
“They can’t afford to buy the homes. People go there and they pay silly money.”
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Gwaeth byth, mae siaradwyr y Gymraeg yn Sir Fon ofn siarad eu hiaith o flaen ‘eu gwell’ cymdeithasol. Ergyd farwol i’r iaith arnaf ofn. Tydwy ddim yn cytuno, ond mae rhai yn meddwl ei bod hi’n ‘anghwrtais’ siarad ein hiaith o flaen ‘ein gwell’. Ydy o’n anghwrtais siarad Cymraeg o flaen Lithiweinaid, Pwliaid ac ati? Paham nad oes gennym ddigon o hyder i siarad Cymraeg trwy’r adeg? Echddoe, fuais i’n disgwyl am fws, ac yr oedd rhyw americanes/twrist yn holi am amserau ac ati. Troiais i at ddwy hen ferch lleol o’r pentref i ofyn os ydyn nhw’n gwybod, a… Read more »
Fortunately I don’t have a TV set so am not bombarded by this sort of thing! My ‘estrys yn y tywod’ routine has saved me from many a programme injurious to mental health but interesting to note from Robson Golightly Green’s Wikipedia page that “In 2016, he hit the tabloids again after it was announced by an OBE-awarded Church of England vicar that Green was having an affair with the vicar’s Filipina wife, and that she is living in Green’s country flat. The woman in question left behind her two children aged 16 and 20 and husband. It was stated… Read more »
Comment: ditto 14.9.17 These programmes are a symptom, not a cause of population churn in Wales. For the Conservative government in London in the 1980’s & 90s, this churn was a matter of people exercising a freedom to choose and an outcome of free market forces. Since then Wales has had its Assembly and 18+ years’ of a left of centre Welsh Governments. The churn of population will continue until such time as effective action is taken through a combination of regional development and measures such as tax disincentives against downsizing. Direct, selective immigration control would seem to be problematic… Read more »
This is colonialism in the raw, and any political party in Cardiff Bay that put limiting and controlling settler-numbers in its manifesto would get my vote. It seems to be a matter that requires legislation, and will eventually become an independence issue if we protest loudly enough. For the present, perhaps we need a petition to secure a Private Member’s Bill in Westminster, since they currently won’t allow a Welsh Government to decide who buys property in the choicest (and most linguistically vulnerable) parts of Wales. In fact it applies equally well to anglicised parts of the country. Robson Green… Read more »