Wind farm workers’ green fingers help Rhondda school restore its gardens1st Sep 2014

The team behind England and Wales’ largest wind farm has helped a Cynon Valley school restore its gardens to their former glory.

Site workers from joint venture partners Jones Bros and Balfour Beatty, which are delivering infrastructure on behalf of Vattenfall at the Pen y Cymoedd Wind Energy Project, recently carried out maintenance work at Cwmbach Community Primary School.

The school’s gardens were in need of attention after being damaged during construction work to merge the Cwmbach nursery, infant and junior schools over the 2012/13 school year.

Fortunately, a team of labourers from the project took an afternoon out of their busy schedule to build two new raised beds and tidy up the school fields.

Dawn Perry, eco co-ordinator for the school, said: “After the merger, our gardens were lost due to heavy vehicles travelling to and from site.

“We tried to repair them last year, but the ground had become so compact that it was too hard for the children to dig into.

“We got in touch with the wind farm operators to see if there was anything they could do to help, and some gentlemen from the site came down and tidied everything up for us.

“Now we’ll hopefully get some donations for plants once school starts again, so that the children can restore the garden to what it used to be.”

There are plenty of other opportunities for the community around the Pen y Cymoedd site to benefit from the project.

In 2016, Pen y Cymoedd Wind Energy Project will make £1.8 million per annum for over twenty years available to the upper Afan, Cynon, Neath and Rhondda valleys.

Stephen Holdroyd, Senior Development Manager for Vattenfall said: “The deadline for the first round of funding is fast approaching and we want to make sure that we get as many ideas on how the Community Fund should be spent from as many people, groups, organisationsand businesses across the area as possible.

“We are asking everyone to get involved and have their say. People don’t have to put forward applications for funding, you can just give your view on how you think the money should be spent. You just need to be a local resident with an opinion on what’s needed in your area.

“The final theme on which we are asking for ideas for funding is for creating jobs, boosting the economy and connections, but people can still submit ideas for any of the other themes until the deadline for the first round of funding which is 31^st August 2014.”