£25m valley revamp plan unveiled

The Argoed ward of Caerphilly is one of Wales' most deprived

Multimillion-pound plans to transform a deprived area of the valleys over the next 10 years have been revealed.

Thirty nine projects have been drawn up to improve villages in the upper Sirhowy valley, between Tredegar and Blackwood in Caerphilly county.

Estimated to cost up to £25m, ideas range from a tourism development at an old colliery, a woodland "classroom" to a food cooperative.

A travelling exhibition about the plans will be held over the next two weeks.

The villages of Hollybush, Markham, Argoed, The Rock and Manmoel are being targeted under the plans, which were developed under the Communities First programme.

They are designed to tackle education, health employment and environmental issues.

Projects include redeveloping the former Markham colliery as a recreational area to promote tourism and also tackling social exclusion of young people.

But the blueprint also includes smaller projects, such as setting up a food co-operative to allow people to have cheaper access to fruit and vegetables to improve diets.

WHERE TO SEE THE PLANS Hollybush community centre - 10-11 July Manmoel village hall -12 July Argoed village hall - 13 and 16 July Markham Miners' Institute - 17 July Markham community house and sports centre - 18-20 July

It is part of the Upper Sirhowy Valley community partnership's plans being taken to local communities over the next fortnight.

The money to pay for the projects is expected to come from grants as well as existing budgets in the public purse.

Other ideas include providing areas of woodland which schoolchildren can have outdoor lessons to learn about their environment as well as building new community facilities.

Setting up access to credit union services and financial help to prevent people from falling into high levels of debt have also been outlined.

The plan outlines a number of exciting projects that will hopefully help regenerate the whole area in the future. Cllr Allen Williams

Organisers hope people will offer their views on the plans which will be on display via touch screen technology as well as face-to-face information and leaflets.

Chair of the partnership, Cllr Allen Williams, said: "The plan outlines a number of exciting projects that will hopefully help regenerate the whole area in the future.

"A lot of hard work has been put into preparing the plan and I'd like to thank everyone who has been involved in this process.

"We would encourage as many people as possible to attend the exhibition and have their say."