Clock is ticking in historic town’s fight for survival
The Blaenau Gwent town of Tredegar, birthplace of NHS hero Aneurin Bevan and former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock and once bustling, is officially the second most deprived town in England and Wales. Lockdown can only make it worse, business owners tell
“THIS lockdown could be the final nail in the coffin,” says Tredegar Butcher Tyron Andrews.
He’s owned the butchers in Commercial Street – the town’s high street – for more than 20 years. In that time, he’s seen the bustling town on the edge of Blaenau Gwent go from a hubbub of activity and economic growth to a ghost town.
Now, rising rents, falling footfall and council tax have all contributed to why Tredegar has the second highest level of deprivation among towns in England and Wales, according to a Centre of Towns study, which looked at the short-term and long-term implications of coronavirus on places such as this.
The report said: “We believe these measures interact in different ways in different places but a place which has poor social and economic wellbeing and is isolated might be said to be lacking in resilience with regards to Covid-19.”
Measures that are considered for the deprivation ranking include distance to the nearest GP, the median household income and broadband speed.
As well as “absolute deprivation”, Tredegar also scored badly on measurements of social wellbeing and economic wellbeing according to the survey.
For 62-year-old Tyron, the news was not a shock – he said it had been “on the cards for a while”.
He said the amount of shoppers visiting the picturesque town had been dropping, even before the impacts of the coronavirus lockdown started to kick in.
“Obviously it was sad for us to hear that Tredegar was named as one of the most deprived towns in the country, but at the same time it’s something that’s been on the cards for a while, and even before the pandemic we had seen a big drop in the amount of people shopping in the town,” he said.
“It’s a shame as it’s such a lovely place, and after living here for over 40 years I wouldn’t want to move anywhere else. The truth is there’s a low footfall of people and when it comes to running a small business that can really