Port Talbot

[dynamicbaddog]

Anyone here from Port Talbot, or anyone spent a significant amount of time there? Even though I was born and bought up in S.Wales I don't know anything about Port Talbot at all. Reason I ask, is that lately I've been feeling in a bit of a rut here in London, and my local council has got this housing scheme going where they rehouse you with other local authorities in less popular parts of the country. I went in today and asked if they had somewhere nice in S.Wales and they said the only area they could offer was PT. I've done a bit of googling and I like the fact that it is only an half hour train ride to Cardiff and it's by the sea.
But as I've never been there I would be grateful for a a bit of inside information on the general vibe of the place, what does it get like on a Saturday night for instance?!

 

[ddraig]

like a toxic coronation street, don't do it, massive huge steelworks and industrial area

http://www.neath-porttalbot.gov.uk/homesbychoice/aboutporttalbot.cfm
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/regions/wales/426317/464239/465114/?lang=_e

Steel Town

The steelworks dominates the skyline at Port Talbot, South Wales. The town relies on large plants such as this one for employment but is also adversely affected by the pollution they and the M4 motorway, also above and adjacent to the town, emit into the atmosphere. Picture © Copyright Ian Homer.

this is Port Talbot afaik

 

[RubberBuccaneer]

Jack Dee recently at the St.Davids hall just said the name and people burst out laughing, he said he had no idea what it was like but just asks a few people what is the worst place around wherever he goes.

Having said that it's got a lovely beach.

Old joke ..... my girlfriend and I were getting passionate and she says to me ' kiss me where it smells'....................so I drove her to Port Talbot.

 

[SeniorSbagliato]

Port Talbot might be a shit hole but you'll only be a stones throw from some great beaches n other interesting places. Might be worth a look if you're mobile.

 

[Crispy]

Driving up the M4 past Port Talbot when the sun setting is the closest to a vision of dante's inferno I think I've ever seen.

 

[SeniorSbagliato]

Wicked innit, sulfurous clouds and flamming towers. Burn baby burn!

 

[davesgcr]

The nearby Aberavon sands (grotesque,wind blown , concrete prom - near the iron ore terminal and accessed through the massive Sandfields estate) - was once touted as a "desirable" holiday resort.

Bearing i mind the outfall from the steel works and the plastics plant at Briton Ferry - a week in Bhopal would have been healthier.

Take that as a "not reccomended" ......

Try the other bits of Neath / Port Talbot - Pontardawe for example - lot greener , cleaner and 30+ mins to Swansea.

 

[Biffo]

I went to Port Talbot once but it was shut.




AND





I've been to Paradise but I've never been to Neath.

 

[Belushi]

I was down there last year and Port Talbot is still one of the most polluted places in Britain, though much of the rest of south wales is much better tyhan when I was a kid.

 

[s14n]

They had a Harry Ramsdens at Aberavon beach right next to the sports hall, for a while...

It looked new and busy one month, then seemed to age into early decrepitude remarkably quickly, and had closed down completely 6 months later!

Never lived there myself but as others have reccomended, I wouldn't.

 

[LilMissHissyFit]

Don't be mistaken into thinking that accepting a flat in Port talbot will find you living IN port tablot at all. I used to live there and the waiting lists for housing in Port Talbot town or sandfields estate or Margam were years and years long.

However if you needed housing and would accept a property in Abergwynfi or Blaengwynfi,, Croeserw,Cymmer etc you wouldnt have to wait very long ( if at all). They are miles from port talbot but come under the same local authority.
The homes by Choice Scheme Seems to bear this out. Loads of empty properties in really crappy areas, miles from employment oppotunities or facilities.It seems there are a few flats on sandfields estate, margam etc but thats pretty rough as places go. they are likely to be the ones absolutely nobody wants
It depends how badly you want to move back I guess. There are couple of flats listed in Baglan which, as areas go is the only one I'd be clamouring to get housed in

 

[phildwyer]

No, whatever you do, don't move to Port Talbot. Everyone will tell you the same. It is a terrible place. It smells really bad, worse than anywhere I've ever been. Go there and have a look and a sniff and get back to us.

 

[LilMissHissyFit]

They have pink pidgeons ( now think abouyt your lungs and the effect upon) and also that I developed severe asthma while living there. T'aint just the smell you need to worry about

 

[dynamicbaddog]

Thanks for the info everyone - sounds pretty grim so I reckon I'll give PT a miss, don't think my lungs will up to it

 

[davesgcr]

Overall a very wise move.

Have a look at Swansea instead - the right side of the bay where you can look at the steelworks from a safe distance - upwind!

(the one that Walter Savage Landor compared to Naples - pre industrialization that is !)

Much of Sth Wales is hugely better and greener now - but not Port Talbot !

 

[Karac]

Down in Port Talbot a couple of weeks ago -seems ok but you can smell the sulphur from the steel works pretty bad everywhere.

 

[Leon]

Surely no-one would actually choose to live in PT?

Bits of the Neath Valley if you like it rural, maybe, but PT?


No way.

 

[Belushi]

Bits of the Neath Valley if you like it rural, maybe, but PT?

Aye, Glynneath, Resolven etc are nice enough villages.

 

[Biffo]

Burry Port anyone?

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100...-town-dubbed--welsh-st-tropez--name_page.html

 

[ddraig]

Burry Port is nice and always has been
got a decent country park in pembrey next door and an 'award winning' beach
a bit out of the way tho - ie another 30odd miles past port talbot

and not on the intercity line most of the time

 

[ddraig]

port talbot again

hmm, lovely

 

[Virtual Blue]

Swansea is miles better than Port Talbot. Friendly Welsh folk, lots of fatties, whingers and high unemployment in a scenic town. What else do you need?

Swansea

 

[jjuice]

They had a Harry Ramsdens at Aberavon beach right next to the sports hall, for a while...

It looked new and busy one month, then seemed to age into early decrepitude remarkably quickly, and had closed down completely 6 months later!

Never lived there myself but as others have reccomended, I wouldn't.

As well as being ridiculously overpriced ,Harry Ramsden was bound to fail 'cos of the competition. Franco's chip shop on Aberavon Beach is the best chippy on the planet - just one of the many nice things about PT and the Afan Valley.

 

[Loki]

Driving up the M4 past Port Talbot when the sun setting is the closest to a vision of dante's inferno I think I've ever seen.

Yeah I've done that journey many a time and felt the same.

 

[herman]

I Cant imagine that Port Talbot is any more rough than any Valleys community or indeed working class community anywhere. But it does smell like eggy farts which may take some getting used to.

 

[nwnm]

Tnn

 

[suzee blue cheese]

I grew up in Port Talbot, from 68 - 75 or thereabouts. Then we moved to Porthcawl, I remember my first impression of Porthcawl, how white and clean the houses the houses running up from the front looked.

Port Talbot never used to smell of eggy farts back. Baglan did. Man, Baglan STANK, bad. We'd drive through Baglan once a week to visit my nan in Bryncoch, I guess people who lived there must have got used to the smell. Port Talbot wasn't as bad. But I'm going back a lifetime. I think the Baglan works closed down years ago, didn't it...?

Anyway, we used to live in Broomhill, up on the side of the mountain. Walk home from school was a bitch... The view though.. The view was astronomical. Yes, it was out over the steelworks and the M4 snaked over the town but when viewed from that high up, at night it was spectacular - awesome... Bizarre as it may sound after all universal write offs it's getting, there are aspects of Port Talbot, like the view from Broomhill, that were once pretty amazing.

I wouldn't chose to live there again though...

 

[Tankus]

I always thought that Skewen was smellier ........

I was brought up on the sandfields estate , Aberavon when I was a nipper , went to Traethmelyn junior and then onto Sandfields comp (late 60's early 70's) , left in the first year , to live in Caerphilly .......

It didnt seem rough at the time , but looking back ...!
I missed the summers, though , as the school was close to the beach , It was down there before going home ........!

The biggest shock to me on leaving was my appalling education ,of I was blissfully unawares untill my family moved . My new comprehensive , had only a few years back , been converted from a Gramma , It had teachers who could speak foreign languages , and even read bloody Latin , a revelation .... the first year was a stretch

Its a place to leave ........... not to arrive ,I guess .... but it was a fun childhood , not been back that way for 30 years , Its just an M4 drivebye on the way to Tenby ...

Way too young to know the nightlife , but if your are going past Cardiff ... definitely head for Swansea .....

 

[ddraig]

welcomewelcome tankus! stick around

 

[colacho]

I always thought that Skewen was smellier ........

I was brought up on the sandfields estate , Aberavon when I was a nipper , went to Traethmelyn junior and then onto Sandfields comp (late 60's early 70's) , left in the first year , to live in Caerphilly .......

It didnt seem rough at the time , but looking back ...!
I missed the summers, though , as the school was close to the beach , It was down there before going home ........!

Way too young to know the nightlife , but if your are going past Cardiff ... definitely head for Swansea .....

That was Llandarcy... but even that had nothing on PT. My brother used to live in Baglan, fucking hell, the cars used to rust extra quickly and weird shit would fall out of the sky and blight your washing...

I used to play rugby occasionally at Sandfields in the 70s (I was at Neath Boys Gram, later Dwr-y-felin Comp) and that was toxic as well... couldn't breathe properly by the second half...