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Thank you for taking time to read the Tircoed Village June 2024 newsletter! The last newsletter issued was around a year ago, and a lot has happened since, which we will update you on. There is a wealth of information in previous editions of this newsletter, and you can find them by visiting tircoed.org/news. We ask all residents to take a little time to read this, and previous newsletters, in addition to the information available on the tircoed.org website. A lot of effort is put into these communications with the aim of preventing misinformation and already-answered questions being repeatedly posted on social media where we do not have the resources to respond.
If you are aware of anyone who may wish to receive a paper copy of this newsletter, please advise them that paper copies will be available in the village shop, and a copy posted at the village hall. An audio version is also available by visiting tircoed.org/news.
If you have any queries or would like to discuss a particular issue or idea, please contact the trustees via the tircoed.org website. Thank you!
The Trust is currently made up of four volunteers who give up spare time to help direct maintenance within the village, propose, plan, and execute improvement projects, respond to issues arising, manage the hall, and organise and run events for the community. We very much need support! If you can donate regular amounts of time and would like to take on the responsibility of a trustee and help with the above and much other unseen activity, or help with specific projects or events, please get in touch. If you believe there is opportunity for improvement in any aspect of village life, we need your help to make it happen. If you are interested in being a trustee or can help the Trust in any way, please contact us at tircoed.org.
The village hall continues to offer a wide range of activities for the community to enjoy and includes flower arranging, Pilates, karate, baby and toddler groups, and children’s ballet. If you have an idea about something you can bring to the hall for the community, please let us know!
It is lovely to see the children in the village using and enjoying the new play equipment that was installed last summer. Since our last newsletter, the Local Community Council provided a financial contribution towards the cost of the new play equipment, and we thank the council for their support. The Trust would also like to thank Mark Gosney for his advice and help regarding the new play equipment.
Work is still ongoing in the toddler play area. As a result of some concerns regarding the surface being slippery, new flooring was installed during the winter months. A period of dry weather was needed before the work could be conducted which is not easy to plan for with all the rain we received! Trustees are currently looking to further improve the facilities in the toddler play area and replace ageing and broken items.
Trustees are planning to improve the basketball facilities within the village given the increasing popularity of the sport and have applied for help with this from another organisation. Thank you to Dai and Jai for their help repairing the existing basketball equipment also!
The Trust is continuing to apply for grants to support improvements and events within the village.
All residents should already be aware of the AED installed by the front door of the village hall. If you are not aware, please ensure you and all household members are familiar with its location. Signs also point to it from the main road near the shop. It was used in April during a life-threatening event in the village and was made rescue ready again within 24 hours after the event. For several years, one of the trustees has been the guardian of it for the National Defibrillator Network and checks it regularly to ensure it is working correctly. If you are aware of any issues regarding the AED, or any other life-saving equipment such as the lifebuoys situated around the pond, please contact the Trust immediately.
A programme of work to improve communal paths within Trust-managed areas was identified during winter and some work was completed near the village hall in February. Our management company, CLC Chartered Surveyors, have been instructed to source competitive quotes for improvement works to be completed where required.
Since the last newsletter, the Trust has continued to organise several events within the village. Last August, we held another successful Summer Fete. Despite the wet weather in the afternoon, this was very well attended, and everyone enjoyed fun activities, tasty food, and live music. Thank you to those residents who helped on the day. It was nice to see everyone enjoying and we received a lot of positive feedback from residents.
The Christmas Fayre took place again in December. It was lovely to see so many people enjoying the festivities and for the children to meet Father Christmas! Once again, we received lots of positive feedback from those who attended and thank those who supported the event.
For both events, we asked all visitors to bring suitable items of food for our local food bank and were pleased to be able to provide much needed help for the local community!
In November, the Trust were pleased to be able to commemorate Remembrance Day by donating wreaths to the memorial in Pontlliw.
This year’s Summer Fete is planned for Saturday, 24th August on bank holiday weekend. Trustees have already started planning it and hope it will be bigger and better than ever! We always invite local small businesses with fantastic products to hold a stall at our events and we would love you to come along and support them! If you would like to participate as a stall holder, or know anyone who does, please contact us via the website.
Once again, we are asking everyone attending the Summer Fete to support our local food bank by bringing suitable food items for us to donate. Alternatively, please consider purchasing an item from the village shop to add to our collection as we want to make a difference to those in need of help in our local area.
All our events, especially the Summer Fete and Christmas Fayre, require a huge amount of time to plan, organise and run with a great deal of work conducted behind the scenes to ensure everything runs smoothly. Trustees give up their time to do this, and as one may appreciate, we are all volunteers who have jobs, families, and other commitments. For the Summer Fete to take place this year, we will again need help from the community. Please contact the Trust if you can help. If we do not get enough volunteers, then the fete will not be able to go ahead.
The radio station has ambitious plans to better serve the community and provide more local and live programming for an increasing number of listeners. The radio station will continue to be self-funded and meet all its costs independently with no rentcharge used to fund operations. It is a unique volunteer-run organisation serving not just our village, but the wider community within Swansea, and trustees look forward to its support of village events in future!
We have had numerous complaints from the community regarding dogs being left off the lead around the village which may cause distress for other persons and animals. Please ensure dogs are always on a lead in public areas. Dog fouling in public areas is subject to council-imposed penalties and owners who do not clean up after their dog could be given a fixed penalty notice of £75 or prosecuted and fined up to £1,000.
The Trust does not, and never has, had ownership for the highways in the village, including roads, pavements, and street furniture. Ownership was given to Swansea Council by the housing developer when the village was adopted. If you have an issue, please contact Swansea Council directly and any dangerous or illegal parking or obstructions should be notified to the police.
Rentcharge demands will shortly be issued to all properties liable for payment. If you do not receive yours, or you have an issue regarding your account or payments, please contact our management company CLC Chartered Surveyors. Contact details for them can be found on the Trust website. If you are a landlord, or rent a house within the village, please ensure the property owner’s correspondence address is provided to CLC.
Gift Aid is a government scheme which lets registered charities, such as Tircoed Village Trust, claim an extra 25p for every £1 paid on rentcharge and does not cost you anything extra to sign up to. This is because as a UK taxpayer you have already paid tax on this money, and once we receive your payment, we can claim the tax you originally paid back from HMRC and put it to beneficial use within the village.
It takes less than a minute to help our community by registering at tircoed.org/giftaid or via the QR code below, even if you have registered before.
If you have an issue or concern regarding Trust-managed areas, in all instances you should contact our management company CLC Chartered Surveyors. Contact details can be found at tircoed.org. CLC will escalate any issues to trustees requiring attention as appropriate.
CLC will also shortly introduce an online facility for residents to view rentcharge information and provide a means to contact them about issues regarding an account or issue within the village. CLC will provide details on how to register, and an invite will also be sent to any resident who has previously provided an email address.
If you need to contact Tircoed Village Trust for any other reason, you should always do so using the contact details provided on tircoed.org. Please do not use social media such as the Tircoed Community Facebook group, as this is not Trust managed, and trustees do not routinely monitor it.
Thank you for taking time to read this newsletter.
