Lovely sentiments. Yes the beach and prom look better than I can ever remember them but the fun has been taken away. I grew up directly opposite the beach and have lovely childhood memories of being there. Remember the little shops on the prom that used to sell buckets and spades etc? Dont listen to people like "observationpoint", they hav'nt got a heart, they got a swinging brick! Brill video, keep up the good work. Well done DAD!!!
I feel very moved about the way you've explained everything. My grandpa always tells me about the fair, and the horse rides they had, then the steelworks demolished the small beach...
i agree i live in portalbot now i may be young but i know what its like to have something taken away from you we do need to save the beach before the whole of the town gets run down
I spent many hours down the beach as a child . On the trampolines, running round the gardens . There was also childrens shows on the sea front as well. The fair was like another world exciting and sometimes a bit scary..I spent hours in the Afan Lido with my twin brother. We used to go down the beach play games, build moats and we spend all day down there our parents didnt worry about us they new where we were. The beach is now charactorless and barren..Completely sterile...Very sad..
Very sad, I spent my childhood years visiting the seafront and the funfair with my parents, traffic jams on sunny weekends and holidays with families visiting the seafront also used to be a regular occurrence. I also remember watching the waves coming in at high tide and enjoying seeing them crash on the sea walls, this also used to be popular with lots of families who used to park cars up with their kids just to watch it, health and safety would have a fit if that happened today! The people of Aberavon have been badly let down, this jewel of the area has been left to disappear by the local authority and will never return.
I grew up on Aberavon Beach, I remember the busses in the Green Stars Car Park (GONE) that brought thousands of visitors to MIAMI Beach Fun Fair (GONE), Day's Fairground (GONE), The Boating Pool (GONE), Paddling Pool (GONE). They would congregate at the Beach Hotel (GONE) before spending the day on the magnificent sands of the beach. The beach is now barely recognisable as anything other than a developers paradise for retirement and care homes.
More houses have been built to provide labour, generates money into the economy and appears to last longer than Burger King/Knight and the Bowling Alley. Secondly, the Local council haven't provided these homes, they are private. The beach is popular for water sports such as surfing, therefore there are attractions. South Wales experiences colder climates, as a result less businesses chose to build attractions for tourism.
Well done on this video Puting a unit like that on the beach it nuts who ever thought of it must be nuts like what Neath and port talbot council is The done the same to the town station road all clubs so THE COUNCIL PULL YOUR FINGER OUT AND CLOSE THE PLACE DOWN and restore our beach for the summer and not leave a load of NUTS FROM A UNIT LIKE THIS
In 2016 theres plenty of car parking, some on street and free and loads of pay and display car parks all along the beach. The Lido has been rebuilt, theres a paddling pool, and an adventure playground. The beach itself is still more or less as it was in the 1960's (I remember it well) miles of sand and a half decent lighted prom to walk on. Theres several cafes, and even toilets in whats called locally as teletubbie hill (you'll see why if you go there) It's true we lost the fair, as I understand it wasn't closed down but went bust after some money went missing. But then fairs are all closing down, Barry fair is more or less gone, Porthcawl fair is looking in a terrible state, frankly I wouldn't go on a ride there if you paid me. Yes Port Talbot has it faults, but the video does give a false impression on the place. If you want to see what it looks like now look up drone footage of the beach.
The Afan lido has not closed down! To be honest, the "wonderful" health and safety laws of Britain closed down most of the things at aberavon. Such as the boat pools and the funfair!
Nice sentiments, but mostly bollocks. The beach was run down for years. British Steel covered it with coal from the docks. It's cleaner now than it has been for decades and the promenade actually looks clean and modern. And why are we moaning about the houses on Little Warren? It was a filthy scrubland full of flytipping and junkie syringes. It's now tidy and well-kept. The fair was a dangerous craphole, and if it was any good it would've stayed open. We can't live in the past.
The beach is a shadow of its former self with everything you have mentioned on here ... I worked the car parks summer seasons 77/78 and all the amenities were there then ... used to love the kiosks selling beach balls, buckets, spades and candy floss ... its obvious to me that there has been a money 'back hander' involved in what its become ... money being in the forefront as usual and not the public .... when beach hill was flattened I knew then that what was once a great beach resort was coming to an end ... this is the 21st century for you money is the order of the day and not the people who just want to have fun
Local council provided the LAND that these homes were built on and that land was for the 140,000 people of Port Talbot and the jobs are gone now the houses are built and the LAND the same labour would have built the houses somewhere else and our climate is getting warmer and attractions can be indoors as well as outdoors people are fed up with Spain and the like And the threat of skin cancer if they get burnt so mose people every year are looking to stay in the UK and enjoy our home resorts.
my daughter lives in spain and went out there 5 times last year. sunny yes and bored more there then on aberavon beach also the euro exchange is killing traveling to europe and Guess what! people are staying home un the UK and the future employment for Port Talbot may be in tourism Not mini buses going to the airports for people to fly away but for people flying in to visit this lovely country called WALES.
what comes around goes around. tourism is going to be the next big employer of wales and we need to get ready not try to jump on the bandwagon when its to late. The filthy scrubland belonged to all the port talbot people now it doesn't! get it! it should have been re-generated for the use of all port talbot people not just these home owners who by the way were quick enough to complain about the plenergy plans (stopping people getting jobs) for they're own ends.
Its a little misguided and unfair i think, some of the facts a simply untrue. No where to park car? Mmmmm....the beach now in 2016 is a beautiful attraction that thousands are proud of. Times change things alter accept it move on. Its not campaigning for better facilities that people of PT are best at, its moaning where they excel. The traffic problems around sandfields and aberavon caused by tourists visiting the beach this summer were a sure sign of its huge draw. I was in PT for the summer and saw myself how great it is, every attraction was packed out, every car park full, it was amazing. Stop moaning.
