On Saturday (14/04/07) in Penrhyndeudraeth at the communities pressure group Cymuned’s annual conference, Chris Myant of CRE Cymru and Richard Brunstrom of North Wales Police spoke strongly in favour of the Welsh language and communities in Wales. In some of the most forthright statements yet made by public figures in Wales, they made it clear that winning a future for the language and for Welsh communities needed and deserved a greater level of leadership and commitment from the Welsh Assembly.

‘This was an extremely important day for the language and communities of Wales,’ said Aran Jones, Cymuned’s Chief Executive. ‘Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom made it very clear how important he believes it is for institutions serving Welsh-speaking customers to improve their levels of service through the medium of Welsh, and for individuals to make the effort to learn the language, while Chris Myant stated unequivocally that attempting to strengthen the language and communities of Wales can and should go hand in hand with the equality agenda of the CRE.’

Given previous tension between language campaigners and the CRE, Cymuned believes that this represents a very significant change in the quality of debate around language and community campaigning.

‘We are enormously grateful to Richard Brunstrom and Chris Myant for their historic input to our annual conference,’ said Aran Jones, ‘and also to Ffred Ffransis of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg who spoke powerfully on the links between communities, housing and education. It is becoming absolutely clear that campaigning strongly for the Welsh language, and calling for measures to defend our communities and make them sustainable, is an admirable and legitimate part of the work of strengthening civic society in Wales.’

Also present in the conference were members of the Purbeck Housing Action group from Dorset, who expressed support for Cymuned’s work both on housing and the language.

‘We were delighted to welcome friends from England to the conference,’ said Aran Jones, ‘and we are looking forward to working with Purbeck Housing Action to promote the Homes4Locals.com campaign as widely as possible. It is high time for everyone to see that our work is positive and important whether in Wales, Cornwall, England or anywhere else.’

For more details, contact Cymuned’s office on 01758-612712.

Representatives of new English pressure group Purbeck Housing Action will this Saturday (14/04/07) be attending the communities pressure group Cymuned’s annual conference in Penrhyndeudraeth. They will be travelling from the south coast of Dorset to Gwynedd because they believe that Cymuned’s approach is the right way forward for dealing with the widespread housing crisis.

‘We are very pleased to be welcoming our friends from Purbeck to our conference,’ said Aran Jones, Cymuned’s Chief Executive, ‘and we hope that we will be able to offer them useful insights into our ideas and experiences, and to build a relationship that will allow us to work together successfully in the future.’

Politicians short on ideas but eager for cheap publicity, such as Mark Tami, current MP for Deeside and Alyn, have previously accused Cymuned of being anti-English. Purbeck Housing Action’s presence in Cymuned’s annual conference, along with North Wales Police Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom and Chris Myant, Director of the Commission for Racial Equality in Wales, makes a mockery of such slurs.

‘We have a complaint being adjudicated by the Press Commission against the Sun newspaper for telling lies to its readers about our intentions,’ says Aran Jones, ‘and we look forward to seeing an end to the dirty, agenda-driven attacks that have been made upon us in the past. The simple truth is this – whatever bigots like Mark Tami may like to suggest, working for the future of the Welsh language, and for the future of all our communities, is an entirely positive thing to be doing.’

For more details, contact Cymuned’s office on 01758-612712.

The communities pressure group Cymuned have today condemned John Droog of Rhostyllen Community Council for what they are calling an ill-informed, misleading and unnecessarily aggressive response to the group’s Homes4Locals.com campaign.

‘Mr Droog shows how little he has thought about this issue when he incorrectly claims that Homes4Locals.com is calling for affordable housing,’ said Carrie Harper, of Bennions Road, Wrecsam, who is Cymuned’s local organiser. ‘What we want is appropriate development for local need only, which would inevitably include a range of houses at different prices – all of which would be for the local market, and therefore within reach of local salaries.’

‘Mr Droog says that we want ‘little or no’ development, which is absolute nonsense. He also says that our campaign is organised by people from outside the area, which I find personally deeply insulting,’ says Carrie Harper. ‘He is willing to mortgage Rhostyllen’s future in return for what amount to no more than cleverly-presented bribes from the National Trust – if Wrecsam Council provided the funds as they should do for necessary improvements in Rhostyllen, we would not have to sell ourselves in this dangerous way to the National Trust.’

Cymuned claim that the National Trust would still be able to make an extremely significant profit on the Erddig development even if all the houses were for the local market only, and that this would do far more good to the local community.

‘Mr Droog’s ill-thought outburst is a great pity,’ says Carrie Harper. ‘It is fairly clear that the more of these houses are for the local market, the better for local people. As a local councillor, he should be standing up for the interests of his voters and supporting our campaign, not rolling over the moment the National Trust whisper a few sweet nothings in his ear.’

For further details, contact Cymuned’s central office on 01758-612712.

The communities pressure group Cymuned has condemned the Assembly Inspector’s decision to overturn Gwynedd Council’s previous refusal to grant planning permission for turning Wern Manor into 26 new residential units for the open market. Cymuned believes that the inspector was not qualified to make a decision regarding the effect of the development on the Welsh language, and that it was not democratically acceptable to overturn the County Council’s decision without urgent cause.

‘This is an utterly appalling decision,’ said Aran Jones, Cymuned’s Chief Executive. ‘We would like to know what qualifications Clive Cochrane has that allow him to make such sweeping statements claiming that the development will not affect the Welsh language – planners with far more experience of linguistic matters have already made it quite clear that he is entirely incorrect.’

Local decisions should not be overturned unless they are clearly damaging to the public interest, says Cymuned. The days when it was acceptable for decisions to be taken centrally in some far-off capital have long gone past, and if local people are to be encouraged to take a more active part in our democracy, their decisions have to be respected.

‘There is a slurry pit closer to this building than the Assembly’s own guidelines permit,’ says Aran Jones, ‘so it is clear that Mr Cochrane is choosing to ignore inconvenient guidelines in an entirely unprofessional manner. If he does not have the ability to make a correct assesment in a sensitive situation like this, he should not be employed for this kind of work.’

Cymuned are calling on local people who wish to show their disappointment with this undemocratic decision to come to Cymuned’s Annual Conference in the Penrhyndeudraeth Memorial Hall on Saturday 14th of April from 10.00 in the morning. There will be a motion in the Conference to condem the Assembly Government for overturning Gwynedd Council’s decision without due cause. Members of the public can register for the Conference by emailing cymuned@cymuned.org.

For more details, contact Cymuned’s office on 01758-612712.