Kenley Treatment Works Saved

Politicians went down from London to Kenley to view the floods that were in danger of engulfing the water treatment work this week.

A nearby school was evacuated and its playing field acted as a flood plain. Sand bags and other barriers constructed, and pumps brought in to save a vital facility. Boris Johnson(Mayor of London), Ed Milliband (Labour Leader),and Eric Pickles (Minister for Communities) wentdown to show support, and leadership in what could have been a messy situation if things had got out of control.

In The First of the Welsh Valleys

My sister moved into a community in Wales about three years ago - a few miles from where our Granny Llewellyn lived. It was once an area of coal mines and steel works. The Working Mens Club closed in December 2013 when the Co-op Bank foreclosed on a loan the club had taken out for improvement work.

We drove up into the Brecon Beacons where slag heaps are deeply furrowed by decades of rain.

We saw industrial sites that had helped make Britain Great.

My sister and her partner keeps hens. The hens have grown old and don't lay eggs that often, but they seem happy. They still get fed.

As time and money allows they work on the property. Previous owners have built new walls hiding what was behind and so there are secrets to be revealed like an old bread oven.

A lot of the old old oak beams had to be replaced with new but the old timbers are kept. They did not go in the skip with the breeze block and concrete

Lots more work still to do.