ON SATURDAY, June 17, Glantawe Riverside Park, a mile and a half to the north of Pontardawe, hosted a Green Gathering as part of the UK-wide ‘Great Big Green Week’, the first of which took place in September 2021, and was the largest event for climate and nature ever seen in the UK. Over 5,000 events celebrated how communities are taking action to tackle climate change and protect green spaces, and encouraged others to get involved too.
Great Big Green Week sees everything from litter picks to letter writing, festivals to football matches, seaweed foraging to school assemblies. Events are hosted by teachers, bus drivers, sport clubs, artists, community groups, places of worship, libraries, builders – anyone who cares about climate change.
Local Green Weeks – Great Big Green Week community hubs – celebrate local activity, raise the profile of climate change and show why it is relevant to the community and local decision makers.
This year was Pontardawe’s chance to join in the action.Clare Cooper and Laura Santiago, of Swansea Valley’s ‘My Green Valley’ litter picking group, organised the event, to offer a platform for green organisations in the valley to come together, and chose Glantawe as there’s already a lot going on there in terms of community permaculture gardens.
On the day there were 30 stalls of wide-ranging interests such as NPTC Wildlife, Graig Trebanos Community Hub and Garden, Nant y Gaseg Uchaf Farm, with their lovely baby goats, ‘Good for You’ ferments, Ty’r Gwrhyd Canolfan Cymraeg, and our NPT Friends of the Earth group.
Who knew NPTC had a Green Infrastructure unit? Very interesting it was too, and can give people all sorts of support with environmental issues.
Graig Trebanos Community Hub and Garden is a relatively new endeavour, run by Rory Castle-Jones, of Gellionen and Graig Chapels, and works in tandem with Ysgol Trebannws, local residents and councillors.Liz Lewis of Swansea Valley Cardiac Support charity shop, based on Herbert St, spoke movingly of how they’d originally set up to support relatives of people in cardiac units, but now were helping youngsters with football and rugby, and of course the important job of finding new owners for pre-loved garments, and keeping them away from the ever-increasing fast fashion mountain on landfill.
Bernie Williams, of NPT FoE, said “We had a wonderful afternoon at the Green Gathering. The stalls were set out between the trees creating a mellow and magical atmosphere. Beautiful live music was provided by a cellist. The afternoon got quite busy, but there was still a happy, community feel. I was surprised how many people engaged with us; it was great to see how interested and concerned people are about green issues, and lovely to see the Riverside come alive with green activity.”
All-in-all it was a really great event and I sincerely hope it will be the first of many, as we all need to come together in our communities to help and support each other to create a more resilient future for our children.
