Action plan aims to get 7,000 more people into work across the Valleys
AN ACTION plan to bring thousands of jobs to the South Wales Valleys was launched last week.
The plan is the result of a year’s work by the Ministerial Taskforce for the South Wales Valleys and has as one of its aims to get an extra 7,000 people into work by 2021.
But the launch comes just weeks after the Welsh Government refused to extend a financial guarantee to the Circuit of Wales scheme, which backers said could have created thousands of jobs.
The action plan has been developed following feedback from people living and working in the Valleys.
It sets out a range of aims and actions in each of the three priority areas, including:
Closing the employment gap between the South Wales Valleys and the rest of Wales by getting an additional 7,000 people into work by 2021;
Launching three pathfinder projects to look at how services and local delivery can be better joined up in Ferndale, Glynneath and Banwen; and
Exploring the development of a Valleys Landscape Park with the potential to help local communities use their natural and environmental resources for tourism, energy generation and health and wellbeing purposes.
Alun Davies, the Minister for Lifelong Learning and Welsh Language, said: “Our Valleys, Our Future is not simply a plan for the Valleys. It is a plan from the Valleys.
“From the start, I have been clear this taskforce will not be another case of the Government deciding what is right for the Valleys. If we are to succeed, local communities and local people must be at the heart of our work.”
The Welsh Conservatives said ministers would need to convince Valleys communities their new action plan is more than just a “glossy PR exercise”.
Shadow Economy Secretary Russell George said: “For a generation and more, Valleys communities have been let down by a lack of strategic