Armed - or should that be legged - with a pair of new Wellies (B and Q's finest) I spent yesterday and this morning on the Maes, and I will be back again tomorrow morning for the handover from Gwynedd to Blaenau Gwent for the Heads of the Valleys Eisteddfod in Ebbw Vale in 2010. We are providing significant funding from the Regeneration Budget to support the 2010 Eisteddfod.
Today, the boots weren't needed as it was a lovely bright sunny day. I was pleased to launch the new Community Asset Transfer Fund in partnership with the Big Lottery Fund. More details of this are on the Welsh Assembly Government site here. This will be a real opportunity to transfer redundant public assets to community groups along the lines suggested in the UK Government's Quirk Report. The Welsh Assembly Government is providing the capital, and Big is providing the revenue funding.
After that, I dropped into the Bangor University reception - I was a student there in the late 1970s - and then headed off to sunny Rhyl where I announced the £20 million funding for the North Wales Coastal Strategic Regeneration Area, as well as the purchase for demolition of a number of well-known eyesores in the town which local MP Chris Ruane and local AM Ann Jones have been campaigning about. I also visited Rhyl Youth Action Group's marvellous new hub building which Rhodri opened last month. I was last there last year and it is great to see how much progress they have made.
Yesterday was even busier, and the boots were badly needed. I started on the Blaenau Gwent 2010 Eisteddfod stand, where there were exhibits of local art and also local produce ranging from cheese to Penderyn whisky, and a lot of people were having fun with the interactive Microsoft surfaces we had brought from Ebbw Vale and which will one of the pieces of kit available in the new Heads of the Valleys Genealogy and Visitor Centre at Ebbw Vale, due to open enxt year, and which will also accommodate the Gwent Record Office. With the help of the National Library, I had obtained press cuttings from the last Ebbw Vale Eisteddfod in 1958 where Aneurin Bevan and Paul Robeson were the star attractions. Apparently some of those visiting the stand had been at that Eisteddfod.
Then to the Eisteddfod press conference to announce our regeneration meeting in the afternoon, and on to listen to Carwyn speak - I might say more about that another day, but his speech has been extensively reported, although only in short-hand given it was a forty minute lecture.
In the afternoon, we formally launched the Bevan Foundation report on the Heads of the Valleys which challenges media stereotypes, with Alun Davies AM, a Trustee of the Bevan Foundation and Cllr John Mason from Blaenau Gwent Council present. Following that we had our meeting on regeneration 'Yr Hen Ffordd Gymreig o Adfywio' - title chosen by Dr Tim Williams who has I think listened to too many Edward H. Dafis records in his youth! We had some excellent speakers - Dr Tim, Nick Bennett from Comunity Housing Cymru, Gwyn Roberts of Galeri now on secondment to the Mon a Menai Strategic Regeneration SRA, Wyn Roberts who runs the north Wales Costal SRA and Walis George from Cymdeithas Tai Eryri. Another well-attended meeting.
I finished off speaking at the Wales Media Literacy Network event on digital inclusion, which was timely, as the Westminster Welsh Affairs Select Committee had just reported on its inquiry on this. Some extracts from what I said are here, but my speech on New Media and Democracy the other day in the Assembly covered quite a bit of the ground, and is available on Rhondda TV.
After four speeches in Welsh, along with a couple of interviews, I think that was the most intensive day of public Welsh-speaking I have ever undertaken.
