Volunteers transform south Wales street in one-day makeover
Volunteers have helped transform a town centre street in south Wales with newly painted shop fronts, planting, and a nature-themed mural as part of a one-day makeover.
The new Towns Together initiative saw Blaenau Gwent Council work with businesses, community groups and residents of all ages to makeover Beaufort Street in Brynmawr town centre.
Over 70% of people polled chose Beaufort Street to receive the updates, which included repainting shop fronts and street furniture, cleaning, weeding, and installing new planters and flowers.
Ahead of the day, the council’s neighbourhood teams carried out a deep clean of the area including jet washing and road sweeping.
A new nature-themed mural was also painted by a local artist, Matt Dey, and a new ‘Thank you for supporting Brynmawr Town Centre’ store banner was installed.
The Towns Together programme is part of the council’s new Blaenau Gwent Deal approach to working alongside communities. The makeover was funded by the UK Government’s Pride in Place Impact Fund.
Councillor John Morgan, Cabinet Member for Economy and Place said: “Thank you to everyone who came along on Saturday and gave their time. Towns Together is a perfect example of the Blaenau Gwent Deal, demonstrating how communities can come together with the council to improve the area in which they live.
“It was absolutely fantastic to see people of all ages take part and the children were brilliant, so inspiring!
“With this collective action, we hope to make our town centres into areas where people want to visit and businesses want to invest.”
One volunteer said: “We live in Brynmawr and we wanted to make the town centre look better and we certainly have this morning. It’s lovely to see it looking so much better already.”
Local councillor Wayne Hodgins added: “This was a fantastic example of Brynmawr at its best. Residents, local businesses, community groups, schools, councillors and council staff coming together to make a real difference in the heart of our town centre. The community spirit on display was amazing and I’d like to thank everyone who took part.”
The council gave their thanks to, volunteers, the Rotary Club, the businesses of Beaufort Street, Dawn at the Hospice for the Valleys, Ross Cable, The Men’s Shed, Brynmawr Town Partnership, Local councillors Wayne Hodgins, Jules Gardner and Jon Hill, as well as Brynmawr Museum.
A video of the makeover is available here.
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