#neathporttalbotcouncil — Public Fediverse posts

NEATH PORT TALBOT: Scott Jones is the new council leader, three weeks after Steve Hunt quit

Neath Port Talbot Council has a new leader. Cllr Scott Jones, the Independent councillor for Gwynfi and Croeserw, was confirmed in the job at a full council meeting on Wednesday (14 October).

He takes over from Cllr Steve Hunt, who quit last month. Cllr Hunt said he was going for personal reasons, but also admitted he had got so drunk at an invitation-only event that he fell over, and that he had said he wanted to “wipe out” Plaid Cymru, the Independents’ partners in the ruling coalition.

Until Wednesday Cllr Jones was the cabinet member for Streetscene, the department that covers bins, recycling, roads, parks and flood defences. Readers will know him as the councillor quoted whenever the council takes a fly-tipper to court.

“Fair funding” first, says the new leader

The council says “fair funding and protecting vital services” will be at the top of his agenda, and that he wants the county borough to be “stronger, fairer and more resilient”.

“A key and immediate priority will be to make the strongest possible case for a fair and sustainable budget settlement for Neath Port Talbot Council,” he told the chamber. “The financial pressures facing local government remain significant, and we will work constructively with our partners to secure the resources needed to protect vital services and support the people who rely on them.”

It is the same fight his predecessor picked. Cllr Hunt used his reappointment in 2024 to warn the Welsh Government over the money the council gets, and said the night he fell over that his criticism had been aimed at Welsh Government spending decisions.

“Leadership is never about one individual”

Cllr Jones told councillors his time running Streetscene had shaped how he would lead. “As Cabinet Member for Streetscene, I have worked alongside dedicated officers and councillors to secure investment in our communities, improve parks and public spaces, strengthen flood defences, deliver environmental improvements and exceed Welsh Government recycling targets,” he said.

“Those achievements were made possible by teamwork, partnership working and a clear focus on delivering practical results for residents. They have reinforced my belief that effective leadership is never about one individual.”

He added: “It is about bringing people together, supporting them and creating the conditions for everyone to contribute. That principle will guide my approach to leading the Council.”

The council says he will also deliver “collaborative leadership” and the coalition’s priorities. Its announcement does not say whether anyone stood against him or how councillors voted.

Carl Jordan takes Streetscene, and a first cabinet next week

Cllr Carl Jordan becomes the cabinet member for Streetscene in his place, the council says. Deputy leader Cllr Alun Llewelyn, of Plaid Cymru, had been carrying out the leader’s duties since Cllr Hunt stepped down on 21 September.

Cllr Jones inherits the Rainbow Coalition of Independent, Plaid Cymru, Liberal Democrat and Green councillors that took over in 2022, the first administration not run by Labour since the council was created in 1996.

His first cabinet meeting as leader is next Wednesday (21 October), when it decides whether to consult on 32 more places for children with additional learning needs at two schools the council is still building, with no money yet found to run them.

Cllr Hunt stays on as the Independent councillor for Crynant, Onllwyn and Seven Sisters. He had been reappointed leader at every annual meeting since 2022, most recently in May.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

NEATH PORT TALBOT: Council leader Steve Hunt quits and admits he got so drunk he fell over
Why the job was vacant: the resignation, the gin, and the Plaid remark.

NEATH PORT TALBOT: “Nearly all” specialist places are full, so the council wants 32 more for autistic pupils
The first big decision on the new leader’s cabinet agenda.

Improvements for ‘towns, villages and valleys’ priority for new Neath Port Talbot coalition cabinet
How the Rainbow Coalition set out its stall in 2022.

Reappointed council leader vows to fight for more funding
The funding fight Cllr Jones has now taken on.

More Neath Port Talbot Council news
Every decision from the civic centres in Port Talbot and Neath.

PEATLANDS: Almost £2m from the Lottery to bring the bogs back above the Afan and Neath valleys

The uplands between the Afan, Neath, Cynon and Rhondda valleys are in line for three years of restoration work, new footpaths and free outdoor activities after a second National Lottery award of almost £2m.

Lost Peatlands Connections will work across 16 sites covering almost 870 hectares, re-wetting bogs and restoring heath, grassland and woodland on the plateau that commercial forestry and wind turbines now dominate.

For walkers, the headline is five new routes with interpretation along the way, plus an explorer app, virtual reality experiences and a podcast series to open up a landscape most people only see from the valley floor.

For residents, the programme promises volunteering days, outdoor learning for schools, wellbeing activities, heritage skills training, public events and creative projects, with delivery due to start this month.

The project is led by Neath Port Talbot Council‘s countryside and wildlife team and takes in the upland core of the historic county of Glamorgan. That includes the ground around Pen y Cymoedd wind farm.

From 23 hectares to 870

It builds on the original Lost Peatlands of South Wales scheme, launched in 2021 with £1.56m of Lottery money to restore 256 hectares of bog that had been ploughed and drained for timber after the Second World War.

By 2024 that work had turned a 50-hectare former plantation above Glyncorrwg, the size of 70 rugby pitches, back into wet peatland by blocking drains and flipping tree stumps back into the ground.

With the new award, National Lottery Heritage Fund money for the two projects comes to around £3.5m. Match funding and partner contributions lift the value of the latest phase alone to almost £2.6m, the council says.

Peat matters because it holds carbon. In good condition a bog locks it in and soaks up rainfall; drained and dried out, it leaks carbon into the air and sends water straight downhill.

The council says the work will leave the hills more resilient for wildlife while helping with carbon storage, natural flood management and the wildfires that have scorched the Afan Valley plateau in recent summers.

Who is involved

Alongside the council, the partnership brings in Natural Resources Wales through its National Peatland Action Programme, and the wind farm’s owner Vattenfall.

The Woodland Trust and Coed Lleol, the Small Woods Association, are also on board. So is the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales.

Across the county line, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council completes the line-up.

Cllr Jeremy Hurley, the council’s cabinet member for climate change and economic growth, said the funding would allow the partners “to build on the success of the previous project” and called it “a major investment in the landscapes, wildlife and communities of the South Wales Valleys”.

He added that the project “will create opportunities for people of all ages to improve their wellbeing, learn new skills, discover local heritage and develop a stronger connection with the natural world around them”.

Cllr Cen Phillips, cabinet member for nature, tourism and wellbeing, said the money “will help more people experience and connect with these incredible places” and should encourage more residents and visitors “to explore all that the area has to offer”.

Andrew White, director of the National Lottery Heritage Fund in Wales, said the project “brings together nature recovery, heritage conservation and community engagement in a way that will create lasting benefits for both people and places”.

Anyone wanting to follow the work or get involved can contact [email protected] or find the project as @LostPeatlands on social media.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

Major peatland site restored in Neath Port Talbot: the 50-hectare Glyncorrwg site, the size of 70 rugby pitches, brought back to bog in 2024.

Restoration of ‘lost peatlands’ to combat climate change: how the first 23 hectares at Castell Nos were re-wetted with peat dams.

Lost Peatlands project key in fight against climate and nature emergencies: why the plateau above the Afan and Rhondda holds the most southerly deep peat of its size in Wales.

South Wales’s ‘Lost Peatlands’ given new lease of life: the original £1.56m Lottery award in 2021.

PORT TALBOT: Artist’s impressions show the 1903 Newbridge Road Bridge rebuilt for walkers and cyclists after ten years fenced off

This is how the Newbridge Road Bridge could look with people on it again, in artist’s impressions drawn up for the council a decade after it was fenced off and more than half a century after the last car crossed it.

The restored bridge would carry a four-metre shared path for walkers and cyclists over the River Afan between Sandfields and Riverside Road, linking Port Talbot‘s west side to the docks, the town centre and National Cycle Route 4.

The images come from a pre-application consultation that runs until Tuesday 10 November. After that, Neath Port Talbot Council will submit the planning and listed building applications and, as the planning authority, decide them itself.

The bridge was closed to all users in 2016 after engineers found its central span had deteriorated badly. It had been shut to traffic since 1972.

Four girders older than the bridge, two past saving

The Grade II listed bridge opened on 29 October 1903, built by the old Aberavon Corporation to give the new docks a road across the river. Three spans sit on stone piers in the water.

The structural appraisal by the council’s engineers found the four wrought iron box girders carrying the two outer spans are in reasonable condition and can be salvaged.

They are second-hand. The heritage assessment says the girders were reused from an earlier bridge when this one was built, and that their survival is “of at least regional significance” because so few of their type remain.

The two steel girders under the middle span are another matter. They are “severely corroded and past repair”, the assessment says, and one is held up by temporary props.

Under the plans, the whole deck would be stripped off, the middle span scrapped and replaced with new steel girders designed to echo the originals, and the outer girders taken away to a workshop for repair before being put back.

A new, narrower concrete deck would go on top, cutting the load on the old ironwork. The stone abutments and river piers stay, with repairs.

Lighting would be built into a new handrail rather than lamp columns, an approach the assessment says was agreed with Cadw‘s regional inspector to keep modern additions off the bridge.

Riverside Road rebuilt, 45 trees out and a rain garden in

The bridge is only half the scheme. Riverside Road, which runs from the bridge to the Afan Way roundabout, would be rebuilt with sheet piling to hold up the river embankment, a new 7.3-metre carriageway, the shared path alongside it, street lighting and drainage.

That means 45 trees along Riverside Road coming out before the piling goes in. The council says most are in poor condition and will be replaced at three to one, with a rain garden, hedges and wildflower areas planted.

The ecology surveys found a bat roost in one of the bridge piers, signs of otters on both riverbanks and oxtongue broomrape growing beside the road, a plant that will be moved to council land nearby.

Natural Resources Wales has told the council the Afan is a migratory route for salmon, sea trout and eels, and piling noise around high tide, when the fish move upstream, is flagged as the biggest risk to them.

On Newbridge Road itself, two raised tables would slow traffic on the approach to the bridge.

What 234 people told the council, and what worried them

The council ran a six-week public consultation in February and March, with three drop-in days at Aberavon Leisure Centre and Aberafan Shopping Centre. It drew 234 responses.

Eight in ten said the route would encourage more people to walk and cycle, and more than 80% agreed it would improve connectivity and be safe to use. Most said they would use it for leisure, with the beach the most popular destination.

Poor lighting was the most common worry about using the bridge, raised by a third of respondents. Others feared anti-social behaviour, motorbikes using the path, the narrower deck and the loss of fishing from the bridge, and some said the money would be better spent on schools or road repairs.

Councillors for Sandfields East, Sandfields West and Margam and Taibach raised the same three concerns at a meeting in January: motorcyclists, the reduced width and fishing.

£13.5m from the Levelling Up Fund, and how to comment by 10 November

The scheme is paid for by £12.16m of UK Government Levelling Up money confirmed in July 2025, with the council adding £1.35m. The total is £13.5m.

That money followed £803,000 for design work the previous month. Both came out of the original £27m Levelling Up award to Port Talbot in November 2023, which also funded the Civic Square and Princess Royal Theatre work.

The council has not given a start date for construction. A further round of investigations, to expose the foundations of the stone piers at each end, was planned for last month.

Comments go to Asbri Planning, the council’s planning agent, at [email protected] or by post to Suite D, 1st Floor, 220 High Street, Swansea SA1 1NW, by 10 November. The drawings and reports are on the Asbri Planning consultation page.

The bridge is one of dozens of walking and cycling routes the council has mapped across the borough, and the Wales Coast Path and Afan Valley Trail both run across it.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

£12m funding secures restoration of historic bridge in Port Talbot
The UK Government confirmed the Levelling Up money in July 2025.

Council granted £803k to draw up plans for Grade II listed Port Talbot bridge
The design money that came first, in June 2025.

Additional inspections for historic Port Talbot bridge as further deterioration found
Engineers found a corroded main girder in 2021, five years after the closure.

NEATH PORT TALBOT: Safer routes to schools, stations and parks, the walking and cycling plans for your area
The council’s active travel map for the whole borough.

More on Newbridge Road Bridge
Every story on the 1903 crossing since its closure.