Job-Getting and Job-Holding Glyncorrwg CDP

The Glyncorrwg CDP has focused much of its attention on the linkage between economic and social problems, more so perhaps than any other of the CDPs. That this has been the case is not surprising. The majority of the CDPs are concerned with situations in the inner city; however, the Glyncorrwg CDP is based on a number of small, former mining communities, now an integral part of industrial South Wales, which is facing all the problems associated with an older industrial area where the traditional economic base is undergoing change. The needs of the communities in the Glyncorrwg CDP have become of some concern when seen in the context of recent changes in the social and economic structure of the area. The 1951 population of 9,240 had stabilised at 9,370 in 1961; however by 1971 had fallen to 8,640, a total loss of some 700. As the natural increase during the decade 1961-71 was 800, the size of outward migration in this period has been 1,500. Since 1966 all three collieries in the valley closed, the railway line taken up, and a major redundancy programme implemented by the largest (and only) firm in the area. The valley has been faced, therefore, with a rapidly declining industrial structure (600 jobs in 1971 compared to 3,000 in 1961) with few lost jobs being replaced by new employment opportunities. The relatively ’closed’ community has been ’opened up’ with people seeking access to jobs outside, mainly in the Bridgend/Port Talbot/ Swansea growth point. In every sense of the word, the communities in the upper Afan valley are ’marginal’ to these growth points, and present a challenge for social planning. ( 1 ) In 1973 the employment position improved when Glyncorrwg itself benefited from a period of improved national economic activity and attracted a small but significant number of jobs.