The small town where ‘people are scared to go out after 6pm’ because of crime

Glynneath, a small Welsh town over 10 miles from Neath, is generally a rather quiet town, but in recent months, residents have reported a surge in antisocial behaviour. One resident who has been impacted by this is amputee Stuart Underwood, 58, who invested all of his savings in his motorhome just to later discover that it had been vandalised.

The motorhome was vandalised while parked in a council-run car park outside his retirement home on Thursday, February 27. Speaking about this to Wales Online, he said: “I have a motorhome; I don’t live in it. It’s parked outside the building. I had a friend around on Wednesday evening. We went down for food, and we came back, and the van was okay.

“I got up on Thursday morning… and someone had sprayed red paint all over it, and they put something on the windows which seems to have done some damage to the plastic windows on the side of the motorhome. It’s all I’ve got, and they’ve damaged it badly.”

Stuart, who is missing one of his legs and therefore struggles with mobility problems, reported the incident to the police on that same morning but was left dismayed that it took until Saturday evening for them to show up.

In a statement brimming with frustration, he said: “Whoever was in the control room expected me to go around knocking on doors to see if anybody had a ring doorbell, which might have seen what happened. That’s their job, surely their job, they’re investigating, it should be their job, not mine.”

He also remarked on the ongoing anti-social behaviour in the car park in which he keeps his motorhome, explaining: “There’s been a lot of people, a lot of kids. I mean, they’re kids; I do feel sorry for them because there’s not a lot for them to do around here, but there’s a lot of kids in the car park.

“Unfortunately for the children around here in the village, there’s nothing for them to do. When I was younger… there was always stuff for us to do, and unfortunately, kids are more interested in that thing you’ve got in your hand [ a smartphone] than they are in doing what we used to, which is play in the streets.

“So they’ve got nothing to do, there’s no youth clubs or anything around for them, everything is too expensive. I don’t know, they make a noise, they shout, they scream, they play football, whatever, but it’s just because they’ve got nothing else to do. So they use the car park as a nice open space to do whatever they’re gonna do.”

He then revealed that some ground floor residents have experienced disturbances such as window knocking. He shared that these incidents have led to a sense of unease among people, making them hesitant to venture out after dark. Stuart confessed: “We don’t go out at night. I don’t feel safe going out at night. I have mobility problems. As I said, I’m missing a leg.

“I don’t feel safe enough to go out in the evenings after 6 o’clock. I can’t speak for other residents… but there’s a lady here… and she has had problems with kids knocking on the windows of her flat because she lives in a downstairs flat. Kids knocking on the windows. Nobody goes out of here after six at night.”

Councillor Simon Anthony Knoyle, representing Glynneath Central and East at Neath Port Talbot Council, has responded to the recent vandalism incident involving the motorhome and has firmly denied claims that there is “not a lot to do in Glynneath.” In his statement, he mentioned: “I saw this on social media and spoke with our local PC who explained that he was looking into this.”

He further highlighted the strong relationship between town councillors and PCSOs in Glynneath, stating: “The Town Councillors and I in Glynneath have excellent relationships with our PCSOs who are active in the area and will deal with things when reported to them. The difficulty we have is that incidents are not immediately reported to the South Wales Police through the various channels for doing so.”

Knoyle also addressed the issue of residents turning to social media rather than official reporting channels: “Residents will take to social media and expect things to be done as a result of posting instead of reporting formally through to the SWP. This is a big problem in Glynneath and across the wider NPT community following conversations I have with my county Cllr colleagues.

“The issue that there is not a lot to do in Glynneath I absolutely refute, we have several youth clubs run by local organisations and through our youth service from an NPT perspective. “The football and rugby clubs are very active with training and matches through the weekend and on weekends with children from the age of 6 to 16 and youths playing in these teams. There are also local groups such as the Scouts and netball in the area, a community boxing club in Cwmgwrach, we also very lucky to have a leisure sentre with a swimming pool in Glynneath.

“The town council has obtained funding and is currently in the construction phase of a new £817,000 project in our Welfare Park for new toddler teenager play areas together with new tennis courts and a MUGA for the children and youths of Glynneath to access.

“We have recently invested over £100,000 in a new skate park at the leisure sentre. We have children play areas at Ynys Y Nos Avenue, Glynneath RFC, the development at our Welfare Park, the skate park, dynamic play area and playground at the leisure centre and a recently completed scheme at Cwmgwrach also.”

However, it’s not just Mr Underwood who has observed instances of anti-social behaviour, with numerous shopkeepers in the vicinity sharing these concerns with WalesOnline. Recalling one such occasion, one shopkeeper told the outlet: “A few months ago, my sister was working here for me and a group of kids came in, they went into the … the back of the shop, and started throwing things around.

“When she went in to tell them off, she had a load of abuse from one particular child but this child isn’t even from this village, he’s from a neighbouring village. The other children were fine and apologetic the next day, but it’s just this particular one child that was very upsetting at the time.”

Although the incident was not reported to the police, the shop owner expressed concern about the declining presence of officers in the area. They noted that, up until about a year ago, police patrols were a common sight, particularly after school hours, but that visibility has diminished.

One shopkeeper, preferring to stay unnamed, spoke out about the rising menace caused by local youth: “There’s just a lot of gangs of kids intimidating people when they’re on their own, vandalising things. One of my customers earlier was saying that where they’re building the new park down the road, they had all jumped the fence and they were in there kicking the new park bits and pieces that were in there… It’s just general menacing. That’s what it is. It’s just general menacing.”

Revealing the age of the troublemakers as “early comprehensive age.” the shopkeeper along with a customer, scoffed at the idea of seeing a police officer on patrol in the area, the shopkeeper quipping: “That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard this year. We haven’t even got PCSOs in Greenwich.”

In response to these complaints A Neath Port Talbot Council spokesperson told WalesOnline: “We take complaints of Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) extremely seriously and wherever we can, will work with our partners to take action.

In terms of anti-social behaviour in this area, however, our community safety team has not directly received any complaints, and so we would like to appeal to anyone witnessing ASB to report it to our partners, South Wales Police, via 101 – without official reports it is difficult for partners to take action, and to ensure increased police presence in the area too.”