Get behind our campaign to save Torfaen high streets

'Your High Street: Use it or lose it’ aims to raise awareness of independent businesses, putting a spotlight on the people and places that offer a colour and character to our high streets.

Last month, the National Assembly of Wales released figures which highlighted the plummeting average weekly footfall number across Gwent.

Despite Blaenavon town centre seeing a 19 per cent rise in footfall since 2010 and Pontypool receiving a one per cent rise over the same period, both towns had a slight drop.

Since 2013, Blaenavon’s footfall has dropped around one per cent and Pontypool’s numbers have dropped by a further seven percent.

For many traders in Pontypool, the draw of Cwmbran’s Shopping Centre is to blame, with businesses having to come up with ideas and work harder to draw trade to the town.

However in recent months, Pontypool has attracted hundreds of visitors to the town to visit its attractions from Pontypool Park to the Shell Grotto.

Action groups such as ‘Friends of Pontypool Town’ have also campaigned to bring more attention to Pontypool, helping with events such as the popular ‘Vintage Day’ this month, which saw processions of cars and singers descend on the town.

Julie Haines, 57, of Cottage of Arwen, opened shop in Pontypool last month and believes more can be done to draw shoppers into the high street.

“When the Shell Grotto was open in Pontypool Park they had 900 people visit and we were very disappointed that Torfaen Council didn’t encourage those people into the town,” she said.

Husband Geoff was born in Pontypool and remembers a very different vision of the high street, when it was a “thriving massive place”.

“There were masses of shops and it used to take hours to visit them all, now you get through them in four or five minutes,” he said.

“It all changed when they put the new bypass in and it cut off the town and shoppers would end up going to Abergavenny or Cwmbran.

“Then Tesco was brought to the edge of the town and there is only one supermarket, pushing more shoppers to the outskirts of town.

“How do you get businesses to start here when the town hasn’t got a good reputation for business, there is nothing here. It will eventually become a ghost town."

Shopper Mark Price, 49, said: “The high street has empty shops which puts people off. The bypass had a big impact and people would drive around Pontypool instead of driving through it.”

Leah Jones, 20, of Cwmbran, works in Pontypool and believes the town centre is great “because everything is close together and in one place”.

Trader Gaynor James, of baby clothes shop Individuality, also believes that events attract town footfall but are sometimes “not advertised enough”.

“If only people realise what we have got in town they will have much better value and smiles than from the supermarkets,” she said.

Steve Harris, of Saving Vinyl Music (SVM), in Pontypool’s Indoor Market, believes the town doesn’t attract businesses.

“Investment is difficult and Pontypool in itself has been falling apart for years. We opened in April 2015 and every other new trader that has come in since us has left.

“I think we have lasted longer than the others because what we do is niche and we do have people visiting us from across Gwent and as far as Swansea.”

In Blaenavon, several events such as World Heritage Day, see hundreds of visitors pack its compact shopping alleys and groups such as Blaenavon Town Team (BTT), work hard to increase footfall.

Chairman of BTT, Rod Denley-Jones added: “It’s so important to increase the footfall in our local communities and shopping areas and support both new businesses that open and existing business that support our communities”.

Gerry Woodhouse, of Blaenafon Cheddar Company (BCC), said: “Torfaen is segregated [...] with Blaenavon and Pontypool on one side and Cwmbran on the other.

“Most people leave the house to go to work and get home in the evenings. You have to have that incentive to go into the town centre but a lot of people shop on their way home from work.

“That’s why it’s so important to have a dominant presence on social media.”

Co-owner of BCC, Susan Flander-Woodhouse, added: “We’re a food tourism destination for Wales in (2007) and we bring coaches and family buses to Blaenavon.

“There is a lot of promotion about Blaenavon as ‘the heritage town’ but nothing to say there is an award-winning cheese maker here.”

Shopper Neville Brooks, of Blaenavon, added: “Every town has got to have a focus and a centre point of the community and what has happened in the valleys and Torfaen is that it has become easy for people to shop outside their towns.

“For places like Pontypool the industrial heritage has gone and it has no identity. This needs to be established again.”

Torfaen County Borough Council has also played an active role in promoting Pontypool as a shopping hub, launching a ‘Time to Revisit Pontypool campaign’ and supporting independent trader groups.

Torfaen CBC’s executive member for regeneration, Cllr Lewis Jones, believes the Free Press campaign has came at “just the right time”.

“Hopefully (it will) showcase the many different traders in our towns, and challenge the perception that our town centres no longer have anything to offer,” he said.

“Torfaen CBC also run events throughout the year to get people back into the town centre and we now have two independent trader groups in Blaenavon and Pontypool that have taken up the challenge and are looking to organise their own events and activities.

“But the truth is that if we don’t use the high street then these businesses simply won’t survive.”

Do you have something you want to shout about? We want high street businesses across Torfaen to get in touch and tell us your story.

Call Chris Binding 01633 777251 or email cbi@southwalesargus.co.uk