| Who are TAG? |
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| Who are we? We're a group of individuals who have many supporters in villages including and surrounding Tairgwaith - and friends even further afield! Why were we set up? AAT (Awel Aman Tawe) the group behind the windfarm proposal held a public meeting on June 20, 2000 at Tairgwaith community hall to discuss a community owned windfarm. This meeting along with an article in a local paper was the first time the residents of Tairgwaith knew anything about AAT's project and their intentions. One comment at the meeting - " if AAT's slogan is to consult the people, where have they been for the last year and a half?" The meeting turned out to be a shambles, the residents of Tairgwaith were in uproar, as this was the first opportunity the villagers had to understand what AAT had been involved with for the past 18 months. It was also the first time the villagers realised and took note of what AAT actually stood for. From the meeting, it seemed clear that AAT did not care about the only natural mountain we had left in our area - neither did AAT seem too bothered to plaster our landscape with man made wind turbines, scarring the mountain overlooking Tairgwaith. What is more disturbing is that AAT project co-ordinator, Dan McCallum called our mountain an 'ugly mountain'. ' After the meeting, a crowd started to gather outside the community hall to vent their feelings and emotions about the project. A full discussion was not possible during the meeting as only one side - those for the proposal - were available for questions. This is when we, the residents started to realise that we should also have a say - the cogs were then set in motion!...and TAG started to form. Soon After that meeting, some members of TAG and other concerned locals talked about their dissatisfaction with the local newspaper. A couple of weeks later some more people got on board (after they had either spoken to AAT on the phone or called into the office for one of the Phase One interviews AAT carried out with local people) due to the fact that AAT just weren't answering the questions people were asking them. It was evident at this stage that AAT were not just trying to consult people on their views about the windfarm, but were actually the same people who were trying to push the scheme for go ahead - hardly an impartial consultation of the local people!! Click on the links below to find out what we have been up to since that day. Diary of Events What do we do? Despite the fact that AAT seem to think we're all about 'reworking the Country Guardian arguments' (this would be expected from AAT - who don't know a lot about us) we are incontact with a wide network of other action groups and seek to provide a balanced view - you will see that links we have provided on our website cover ALL views. Take time to look at AAT's website and you will see links only to RE promoters or support groups. We have a petition which is constantly being added to and never fails to astound us at the fact that despite AAT's 'referendum', the signatures on our petition offer evidence to the contrary (except in Tairgwaith and GCG that is - as these two villages voted against the windfarm proposal) Where are we based? It's better for you to take a look at the following link to get an indication of where we are. The location pictured is Penllerfedwen - Part of Mynydd Uchaf - where the proposed site is. Click to view a map of the location However, if you have visited the site of the proposed windfarm, then you will see the magnificent views of the Black Mountain National Park. Standing at the Cairn you can turn 360 degrees and you will see mountains, natural mountains. It's hard to believe, but Wales comprises of only 0.13 % of the World's land area. A very small but very beautiful percent and it attracts tourists from all over the world. So it's crazy to find that at present, Wales has 46% of the windfarms in the UK yet only 5% of its population. We do not need more industrialisation in this beautiful part of Wales. We need to think about the conservation and preservation of this very precious commodity, ‘ Our Land, Our Heritage.’ - Ivor Russell - CPRW What do we stand for? Again, AAT would have you believe that we are NIMBY (not in my backyard) but they would say that wouldn't they?! We're not even going to spend time debating that weak 'scrape-the-bottom-of-the-barrel' argument. The following lines may give you an indication of what we're about: The objectives of TAG are: + To help preserve the natural heritage of Tairgwaith. + To help return the village to its pre-industrial condition. (see *below) + To support any efforts to have the Brecon Beacons National Park extended through Tairgwaith to Pontardawe. + To help promote the natural regeneration of the village on the completion of the opencast site. + To promote closer links between our members and other rural conservationists. ** This has confused some people, we would like to take this opportunity to clarify: When we state ‘pre-industrial’ we are referring solely to landscape and not to lifestyle. We are hoping that in the near future the current contractor (Celtic Energy) will return the landscape back to how it was before the advent of deep and open-cast coal mining. Part of TAG’s aims is to prevent any further industrial developments (such as a windfarm) being constructed. We are also hoping that once the landscaping in complete, we can aim to move some way towards having the Brecon Beacons National Park extended to include and indeed continue past Tairgwaith. This would not be possible with a windfarm on site. What have we been involved in recently? Lots, and continue to do so. AAT seem to believe that we are only active if we write a letter to the local press or hold a public meeting. Again, see Our Diary of Events - this is constantly updated - so keep checking back. Home |
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| Some views of the proposed windfarm site from various locations in Tairgwaith |
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| Before |
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| The photos below show how the industrial landscape has been regenerated from an industrial landscape to a recreational facility (harness racing track) |
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| Proposed Site |
| Proposed Site |
| Proposed Site |
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