TWO GRADE TWO LISTED BUILDINGS, ONE DOOMED TO BE SOLD AT AUCTION WHILST THE OTHER RECIEVES £16.5m TO REBURBISH IT...QUESTION IS POISED, WHY IS ONE DEEMED MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE OTHER?

 

See below Coleg Harlech or, to give it its original name,  Plas Wernfawr, a house originally built in 1907–08. and designed in Arts and Crafts style by the radical architect George Henry Walton. The building together with the terraces walls of the garden on the seaward side is a Grade II listed building. The forecourt and garden structures on the inland side are also listed Grade II. 

Plas Wernfawr became Cymru's only long-term, mature-student residential education college in 1927 and was unique in that it offered bursary funded two yr  residential courses to mature students from a working class background who had missed out on a chance to study full time due to their social or economic circumstances

By the1990s, Coleg Harlech, once funded as a unique institution in Cymru, came under the same funding regime as other further education colleges, it had always had a strong association with the WEA and in 2001 it became CHWEAN (Coleg Harlech Workers' Eductional Association North Wales)  and subsequently evolved into Adult Learning Wales until it was sold by that body in April  2019 to businessman Leslie Banks Irvine who has since re-sold the whole site in four lots apart from the Halls of Residence which had been sold previously to an English company. See my earlier blog post for full info in regards to that sale.

When it was announced that the Coleg Harlech site was to be put on sale for the first  time in 2019, Adult Learning Wales chief executive Kathryn Robson said: "It is heartbreaking that we have to take the decision to sell the property, but the name of Coleg Harlech and all it stands for continues, as we provide life-changing opportunities for many adult learners in Gwynedd and thousands more throughout Wales"

She continued...

"We will continue the good work and positive legacy for second-chance education which has been the life-blood of Coleg Harlech for the past 90 years"

And...

"We are working with Cyngor Gwynedd Council, Snowdonia National Park Authority, Visit Wales and Cadw to secure a strong future for the buildings, and we are hopeful that we can deliver on this."

But now, we find that the Coleg Harlech site has been sold again including the historic Plas Wern fawr Grade II listed building which sold for a measly £230,000 which included the majestic theatre and library.  (See link below the pic)  

https://www.townandcountrypropertyauctions.co.uk/north-wales-mid-wales-shropshire-and-cheshire/auctions/1473-27th-august-2020/111007/

So much for " working with Cyngor Gwynedd Council, Snowdonia National Park Authority, Visit Wales and Cadw to secure a strong future for the buildings!

Meanwhile see below, Neuadd Panycelyn, Student Halls of Residence at Aberystwyth. Again, a grade II listed building, constructed between 1948 - 1953 and only became a halls of Residence for male students in 1951 and later as a Halls of residence for Cymric speaking students from 1974 until its closure in 2010. 

Unlike Coleg Harlech though, not only has Pantycelyn been saved for the nation and will continue to be used as a halls or residence for Cymric speaking students, it has been renovated at a staggering cost of £16.5m of which  £5.m came from the Welsh Government.   

See in link a BBC Cymru film which boasts lavish reburbishment of Neuadd pantycelyn and compare with the films we have seen of Coleg Harlech in its current sad state: 

  https://www.facebook.com/bbccymrufyw/videos/1042967452809673

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm delighted that Neuadd Pantcelyn has been saved for our nation and that it will continue to be the hall of Residence for Cymric speaking students at Aberystwyth but, I would like to know exactly WHY Neuadd Pantycelyn is considered to be more important to save than Coleg Harlech?

For starters, Neuadd Pantycelyn is a Hall or Residence and there are many Halls of Residences for students at Aberystwyth, many old and many new being constantly built and any one of those could have homed the Cymric speaking students. Neuadd Pantycelyn is not the WHOLE college complex and, unlike Coleg Harlech, it was not the WHOLE college complex which was in danger in Neuadd Pantycelyn's case - and yet, it was saved and renovated at a vast cost of £16.5m whilst the WHOLE of the Coleg Harlech complex, including the historic grade II listed Plas Wernfawr, Library Theatre, Halls of Residence and recreation halls were abandoned and allowed to be sold off for peanuts! WHY?

WHERE'S THE JUSTICE FOR THE UNDER PRIVILEGED WORKING CLASS OF OUR NATION! Do not ALL the citizens of our nation deserve a chance to be educated and enabled to seek and find their vocation in life?

Those that have the financial support of parents to stay in school until they sit exams to achieve the qualifications they need to get to colleges and universities will have that chance but what about those who will not be that blessed? Coleg Harlech was in existance for such people but, due to the unthinking recklessness of those in power that are where they are because we put them there to protect our interests, we witness the 'wholesale selling off' of our interests and any hope that the working class of our nation have of utilizing such interests. 

There is no justice in saving and renovating one Halls or Residence at a cost of £16.5m whilst standing by and allowing a whole college complex to fall to disrepair and eventually be sold for peanuts and we should all be asking WHY? would the fact that Charles Windsor had spent 3 months at Neuadd Pantycelyn have anything to do with it? We will never know will we but, Kirsty williams, the Education Secretary at the Cymric Senedd stated at the grand re-opening of the luxurious new Pantycelyn Halls of Residence that...

"Neuadd Pantycelyn is an iconic building within the Welsh-speaking community and has been part of the fabric of the language locally for decades, as well as being a cauldron of talent for students who go on to play an important role in Wales and internationally.

“As part of our goal to achieve a million Welsh speakers by 2050, we want to develop post-compulsory education which supports people to develop Welsh language skills for use both socially and throughout their careers".   https://www.wales247.co.uk/pantycelyn-welcomes-new-generation-of-students/   

There's nobody that wants the language of my nation to thrive more than myself but, to claim that the Cymric speaking 'Etonians' that go through the Pantycelyn Halls of Residence is going to play a crucial part in this Kirsty...really? Can you really predict how many of these Cymric speaking students will go back to their native Cymric communities throughout Cymru to live and work and bring up Cymric speaking families? Because, that is what will need to happen if they are to play an important part in the growth and survival of our language. Using the language to socialise and work in Crachach bubbles in Caerdydd or London will not save our language and whereas I'm happy that Pantycelyn has been saved and refurbished for use by Cymric speaking students, please do not claim that such was done "as part of the Welsh Government's goal to achieve a million Cymric speakers by the year 2050.

We have reached a stage in our nation's history where we are witnessing dramatic changes that is getting way out of our control. Our heavy industries have been 'systematically' shut down as have many of our other industries that used to provide our Cymric people with a living wage that would allow them to live and bring up families in their communities. We are now in an age of high technology that only opens up the doors of opportunity for a minority of our population as is the case in the growing field of Leisure and tourism - which is low paid and seasonal anyway on the whole.. The majority find themselves in a hopeless situation with two options open to them, leave their community and homeland to seek work elsewhere or, stay and live in poverty on benefits, with little or no hope of employment and certainly no hope of buying their own home. This situation has for many decades now resulted in many opting to leave in search of work and a better quality of life for their families, and this growing 'exodus' of Cymry has resulted in an abundance of empty properties being snapped up as holiday homes by outsiders, who bring with them their own language and culture - and now, we see outsiders buying newly built as well as old properties in Cymru so that they can move here on a permanent basis to escape a crime and covid-19 ridden England. 

 Add to the above, our land and forestries being bought up wholesale by capitalist companies to develop or to use as chips on worldwide stock markets, along with 'One Planet Development' colonialism assisted by our own Welsh Government, we witness the dismal reality of a nation facing genocide and for Kirsty Williams and the Welsh Assembly to try and 'pull the wool over our eyes' that we will have a million Cymric speakers by 2050 is total 'humbug' unless they begin, in earnest' to do what they were voted in by us to do, and that is to safeguard our nation, its people, language and culture and put policies in place that will assist our nation to thrive and not die! 

 The only way that Cymru as an entity can be saved is for our Welsh Government to invest in our communities - and I'm not talking about investing millions, as they are currently doing, in safeguarding and renovation of the Anglo Norman castles so that visitors to them can have an enhanced experience of the 'symbolisms' of our occupation', I'm talking about serious investment in training and in creating 'real jobs' in all our Cymric communities so that they CAN thrive and survive and, If they can contribute £5m to save a student halls of residence in Aberystwyth, they should be expected to, at the least, re-purchase Coleg Harlech so that it can be put to good use again to educate and train the majority of our Cymric people, the dispossesed working class, in all skills needed to get our nation back on its feet in a post brexit, post covid 19 Cymru.  

we, the working class of Cymru, knowing what we know now about the way that our Welsh Government is able to spend money,  should make an ever more determined effort to enforce the Welsh Government to re-purchase Coleg Harlech  and totally refurbish it for the use of the working class of our nation.  The working class are the majority that has built the nation that we have all inherited through hard labour for little rewards and they, and our nation, deserve a first chance to thrive. If £16.5m can be found to re-furbish a halls of residence then a similar sum can be found to re-purchase, refurbish and get Coleg Harlech up and running again so, get everybody you know - worldwide to sign this petition, lets get way over the 5000 needed to get it discussed in the Welsh Government chamber.  Sign and pass on... LET'S MAKE A COLEG HARLECH STAND FOR THE WORKING CLASS POPULATION OF CYMRU!  

https://petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/200218