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DThe Dragon Indoor Market, with its dimly lit and depressing Braquera Street arcade, remains one of only two occupied shopping units. However, this won’t last long as low footfall, spiraling business rates and a lack of financial security mean the entire center in Bridgend will be empty by Christmas.
The store was filled with handmade crafts and local produce, and owner Kim Whitehouse was frustrated. Her shop initially enjoyed a boom when it opened 18 months ago, but the closure of Poundland, Iceland and Wilko’s in the town center reduced her customers to “zero” and she decided to close.
“I know a lot of locals are unhappy because so many places are closed and there’s so little in town. All that’s open are vape shops or barbershops. There’s not a lot of opportunity or support for small businesses here,” she said.
It’s impossible not to notice the dismal state of shop fronts in this south Wales town just 20 miles from Cardiff. In a further blow, the indoor market was forced to abruptly close in September 2023 after reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) was discovered on the roof.
One local councilor, speaking anonymously, said: “Every time we speak to people they say they are fed up with Labour. People think Labor is stingy for people who need money.”
This complaint echoed throughout the Welsh valleys. deprivation Its population faces high unemployment, low wages, an aging population, long NHS waiting lists and uneven distribution of services.
These are the concerns of the Welsh Nationalist Party Plaid Cymru and Nigel Farageright wing Reform Britain Both sides are looking to capitalize on their advantage, with early polls ahead of next May’s senatorial election suggesting Labor could lose its firm 100-year hold on Wales.
In the former mining town of Maesteg, a short drive down the Llynfi Valley from Bridgend, Farage raised eyebrows among locals by promising that his party’s policies would be “very different from the status quo”.
Jason Ryall, 55, is among those turning to the reform side, citing immigration, poor support for local businesses and a lack of opportunities for young people as the main reasons. “Virtually every one of my friends would vote for reform,” he said.
“They are slaughtering all the Labor heartlands in the north because people are tired of it. We’ve had Labor here for 100 years and nothing has changed and all the scandals that are coming out of parliament with MPs like Angela Rayner are ridiculous,” he said.
Another shop owner, who asked not to be named, said: “Labour has always been God in these places. Not anymore, they have lost our trust.”
Despite the rain on Monday morning, local Wetherspoons pub The Sawyers Arms was still busy. For just £3.79, punters can buy a full English breakfast and a pint of beer, with pensioners, regulars and youngsters sitting inside.
When asked what they thought of their high streets, some criticized the large number of takeaways and brightly colored e-cigarette shops, which have become increasingly common with names like ‘ESCAPE2VAPE’ and ‘Liquid Lab’.
One thing is for sure: the community is tight-knit. Cries of “Okay, mate” and “How about it, mate” can be heard across the street, and it’s clear that the town and its locals are still passionate about its connection to its industrial past.
In the 1920s, more than 7,000 miners worked in Maestegue’s coal industry, and the valley became world-renowned for its high-quality thermal coal.
However, the closure of the last mine in 1985 ended generations of families working in the pits, and unemployment soared due to a lack of public and private investment.
“Unemployment and drugs are a key issue here,” said local David John Waters, 76. “There’s no doubt that young people here don’t have opportunities. All these places that were once prosperous are now like ghost towns.”
Another recent blow has been the closure of the Port Talbot steelworks, one of the area’s major employers. Although Tata Steel has begun construction of a £1.25 billion electric arc furnace, 2,000 employees remained unemployed after the last coal-fired blast furnace closed last year.
“The whole family worked in the steel plant, father, son and their son. There was nothing here to keep them working,” he said. Reforming policies that consider net zero emissions a costly farce, Farage has vowed to reopen the furnace even though that is unlikely.
Mr. Waters remains sceptical. “Whoever comes in, it makes no difference. No disrespect intended, but it’s all talk. If you talk to the boys who have worked here their whole lives, they’ll say the same thing, and if you went anywhere in the valley, they’ll say the same thing.”
Maesteg is dotted with smaller villages such as Caerau, which was identified as the fifth most deprived area in Wales in a 2019 Welsh Government report. Rows of gray social housing stretch along the valley, while its predecessor, the grand Station Hotel, remains derelict after weapons and drugs were discovered during a police raid in 2021.
Driving along the winding road between the two Rhondda valleys, there are few traces of the coal mines that once devastated the countryside. For more than a century, Labor has been able to rely on the support of these former mining communities to propel them to power in Westminster and the Senate.
While the townhouses remain, loyalty to Sir Keir Starmer’s party has all but disappeared, with Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan now facing an uphill battle to regain trust ahead of May’s election.
Speaking in a pub in Treorchy, a local woman said: “The way Labor is going is brutal. Everything keeps going up, the prices in the pub, the amount we pay for food. I’ve been a Labor voter my whole life but I won’t vote for them again.”
Not everyone was critical of the local labor council, with Nigel Locke, 56, and Lesley Locke, 50, praising Rhondda Cynon Taff for her work supporting charity Valley Veterans. They described the work of local councilors as “fantastic” in helping the 7,500 ex-armed soldiers living in the area access housing and mental health services.
“It’s the people on top who are failing us all,” Leslie said. “There’s a general disillusionment with it all.” Her husband Nigel added: “The Conservatives have never really had a presence here or in the valley. From what we’re hearing here, the reformist groundswell in Britain is something to watch.”
“Our local councils have been very supportive of us as a charity but local charities are suffering because of what is happening nationally. Starmer is not well treated around the world. There is controversy almost every day.”
While the pub they’re in is busy and locals gather for bingo, Tony Pandy’s community faces the same problems as the rest of the valley.
“Valley and west wales Joe Rossiter of the Institute of Welsh Affairs said: “These are two of the poorest areas in Europe. The EU has given them a lot of infrastructure spending but has not actually delivered economic transformation in these communities.”
“When this money is gone, where is the scale of future investment to deliver long-term jobs? The Welsh Government doesn’t have the money to do that.”
As of October, opinion polls showed a two-horse race between Gladys Cymru and Reform Britain, with Labor lagging miserably in third place.
He said: “If these polls come to fruition it will be a fundamental realignment of Welsh politics and the end of Labor will be in the spotlight for more than 100 years.”