Town desperate to embrace change and fulfil potential
A year ago Neath was plagued by antisocial behaviour and that has not gone away, but there is new development and fresh hopes for the future although people living and working there say much still needs to change. MOLLY DOWRICK reports
IT’S 11.45am on quite an unseasonably cold March morning and there’s already someone sat on a bench in Neath town centre clutching an open can of Desperados beer. It’s a familiar sight, some locals say, a year on from the reports of alcoholism, drug-users and antisocial behaviour which drew headlines a year ago.
“Queen Street has died a death,” said one local resident when we asked her what she thought of Neath town centre. “There’s nothing here,” remarked another.
A further resident contacted me on social media to share how, last Saturday, her husband and three-year-old granddaughter were waiting for a bus at Neath bus station when they saw three young women “fighting in the middle of the road” in a possible alcohol or drugs-fuelled brawl.
But the picture painted of Neath in 2022, at the trailing edge of a pandemic which has changed everyone and everywhere, is not entirely clear cut. It depends, much, on who you speak to.
Many are proud to call Neath home and say it doesn’t deserve its negative reputation. They say they’re proud of the town’s history, its parks and independent businesses – and say it’s got real potential and promise. They’re excited for the future, especially the new leisure centre that’s set to open, but say Neath needs more investment in order to really put it on the map and draw footfall from across South Wales.
Residents want to see local businesspeople given more support from the council to help them expand their businesses or launch new shops in the town centre, and they also want to see more activities and events on offer, to further bring greater footfall to the area and build up its high streets.
It’s almost like there’s two sides to Neath: the gorgeous Victoria Gardens park, welcoming independent coffee shops and boutiques and the modern multi-million pound leisure centre and library currently being built – and Neath’s dreary shadow of antisocial behaviour, alcoholism and crime.
While South Wales Police stepped up their patrols of the area in April last year, in a bid to tackle antisocial behaviour, many Neath residents said it was still an issue that blighted daily life – and stopped many of them venturing into the town centre to do their shopping.
The latest official crime statistics from South Wales Police, which show the number of crimes reported in each district in the region in February, 2022, state that 102 crimes were recorded across the Neath North area, which incorporates much of the town centre, in just four weeks. Of these incidents, 36 involved violence and sexual offences and 24 were reports of anti-social behaviour. Several of these were recorded in and around the town centre – but I didn’t spot any police officers or PCSOS patrolling the area on my trip there on Wednesday morning.
Some residents are so frightened of seeing antisocial behaviour, that they avoid the town centre when they can. One resident told us via social media that they didn’t even consider going out for an evening in Neath, as they didn’t think they’d be safe. “I would not consider an evening out in Neath town centre as I have heard about far too many negative incidents there,” the resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said. “Fighting, drinking, drug-taking, antisocial behaviour – weekends are a definite no-no! Businesses there are being let down as people are staying away. How can any decent business survive? It all needs sorting out!”
Another local added: “When South Wales Police initially started their patrols around the town centre [a year ago], there was a definite improvement in the number of unsavoury characters hanging around and causing trouble. But over the past few months, the patrols seem to have become less prominent and the antisocial behaviour seems to be returning. More drinking on the streets in gangs from early in the morning, incoherent people shouting at each other openly about drug-taking.
“Empty alcohol cans and litter being thrown on the streets and people turning a blind eye as they are afraid to say anything!
“Begging on street corners and abuse if you don’t give anything. As the evenings get warmer and lighter I have no doubt it will become once again a town that nobody wants to go to!”
Another claimed: “With the weather changing and the nights starting to draw out, we are starting to see the idiots starting to congregate back by the famous bench [near Specsavers] and people walking around in the usual states! It’s not going to be long before they start all over again doing the same things as last year. We will be told to report it, nothing will be done – until it gets a bit closer to the time to the Neath Pub Rock Festival in April.”
Neath: the town of two halves
As you get off the bus at the bus station in the town centre, or near the town centre car parks if you drive in, you’re greeted with a gorgeous green park in front of you featuring a lovely, traditional bandstand that dates back to 1897. It’s stunning and makes you think you’ve stepped back in time or into Disney’s Mary Poppins film. The park is peaceful during the week and in the off-season, shoppers say, but can get busy on weekends and in the summer. And sometimes there will be large groups of young people guzzling from cans, appearing to ignore the ‘alcohol free zone’ signs, locals told me.
But before the pandemic the park was a hub of activity with food festivals and local performers playing gigs out in the sunshine. One Neath local recalled a fantastic performance from an Elvis tribute act pre-pandemic and would love to see that event return. But while the park was a popular spot for food fairs and events before Covid, I’m told there haven’t been any events here for quite some time – so locals are desperate to see more going on.
Dotted around the park there are pretty flowers and several benches, with residents sitting, relaxing and watching the world go by. It’s from a bench in the park that another local resident, who asked not to be named, said she’d spotted many “bullyboys” in the nearby bus shelter, drinking and possibly taking drugs. She hadn’t seen the group for a couple of months, she said, but expected them to return to the area when the summer came.
As soon as the sun shines down on Neath, many “unsavoury characters” appear in the town centre, some locals say, and this can push footfall away – trade that is desperately needed by local shops, salons and eateries.
“Neath is a lovely place, it’s a shame the council don’t walk around and see the potential and spend a bit of money,” remarked a retired resident who lives in the town centre. “Neath
should be promoted as a Victorian town, with things like the Victoria Gardens promoted properly.”
Just over the road from the park, you’ll come across a jigsaw of short streets with high street stores, independent boutiques, salons and cafes dotted around – and, unfortunately, several empty shops. They’re scattered all around too, from New Street and Green Street, to Queen Street and Orchard Street. While you’d find empty shop units in towns and cities across Wales, the loss of Next and Roman in Neath seem to have had a knock-on effect.
During my day in Neath, I spoke to a range of shoppers and local residents, including three sisters who had popped into the town centre for their weekly catch-up lunch. The ladies, all dressed in something yellow, asked to be anonymous but told us that apart from coming in for lunch on occasion, they didn’t regularly come into Neath town centre as the choice of shops was very restricted. Even though they live in the Neath area, they often prefer to go to Port Talbot or Swansea and think Neath would benefit from a shopping centre with high street and independent shops all together under one roof.
“With Next gone now, and Dorothy Perkins and Roman, all we’ve got left in Neath is cafes, phone shops and charity shops,” one of the women said. “The leisure centre and the library will be good for the town, but we thought it was going to be a shopping centre, that’s what we need here.”
So what does Neath town centre actually have?
The ladies weren’t wrong, there are certainly several cafes, phone shops and charity shops in Neath, but there’s also an impressive Norman castle, a supermarket, some popular high street shops like M&S, Shoezone and New Look, and a striking fourstorey Victorian theatre which shows local productions, comedians and hosts cinema screenings. There’s also a handful of boutiques and independent businesses, a good-sized market with dozens of independent stalls, and a few pubs and bars – including glamorous venues Juniper Place and Old Havana which opened in the town centre in November.
Neath General Market, which is housed in a building that dates back to 1837, is located in Green Street in the town centre – but apart from a small fold-out placard outside one of the doors, you could easily miss the entrance if you didn’t know it was there. Whilst there isn’t a cafe or sitting area like in Swansea’s new indoor market garden, there’s a wide range of stalls selling everything from fruit and vegetables, to batteries, DIY tools, Betty Boop figurines and decor.
Among the stalls in the historic market, one of them has been running for almost 100 years. Paul Cole, of Paul Cole Family Butchers, explained the independent business was set up in 1928 by his grandfather, before being run by his father, and now by him. Later this year, Paul hopes his son will take over the butchers – so it’s set to be a four-generation business.
For Paul, the biggest problems at the moment are the cost of parking in Neath and the ease with which people can do their food shop or order clothes online. He said: “The biggest problem is online shopping – and people are not going to come to Neath if they have to pay for car parking [when they can easily order the items online from home]. We need free parking in Neath to bring people into the town, coming to our shops.”
While the family butchers survived the pandemic, thanks largely to Paul and his family’s commitment to offering deliveries across the Neath area, he said fewer people were shopping at the moment as they were unsure about the future financial situation and hadn’t fully recovered from the economic strain of the pandemic. “People are afraid to spend now,” Paul said. “They don’t know what it will be like in the next 12 months.”
Plus, rates, rent and utility bills continue to increase – so running a business in Neath can be expensive.
“My utility bills are set to increase from £10,000 to £15,000 this year for my two units in the market. With bills going up, we have to put the price of our products up – we’re fighting an uphill battle. “And people aren’t doing enough to make it [the market, and Neath town centre more generally] work, we need to get people in here.”
This sentiment is echoed by Bernard Presgrave, owner of The Rug Shop Neath in Neath General Market. Bernard has been running his business out of the market “for donkey’s years,” he said and commutes from Swansea each day. But with low footfall and high rent, some days can be a struggle.
“We need to see a reduction in rates and rent. There’s always lots of discussion about things they [Neath Port Talbot Council] are going to do, but little action – I want to see things actually brought in,” he said. Alongside better advertisement, Bernard would like to see solar panels erected on shops and other eye-catching decor to make the town centre more visually appealing and attractive to visitors.
One independent business owner, who asked to be anonymous, said more should be done to support businesses looking to set up shop in Neath.
When she launched her shop last year, she said she received no financial support from the council and was thrown in the deep end, trying to work out how to make her business work. “We need to get youngsters back into Neath, we need the council to connect with businesses, talk to businesses,” she said. “There’s so much more that can be done with Neath.”
“Like any other town, we need more shops, and there’s not enough independent stores as there’s not enough help for them,” added another business owner. “Neath is a lovely place, people don’t appreciate what they’ve got, we love Neath, we can’t fault it.”