Sports Club Engagement (Llantwit Bowls Club)

📅 Date: 6 March 2024


📍 Location: Bowls Club


🗣️ Who we spoke to: 14 attendees (20–60) from local sports groups


Facilitators: Llantwit Major Town Council


🙋 Type of engagement: Focused group discussion group brainstorming session


🚀 Emerging themes:

  • Positives:

The town is well-maintained and welcoming, with free parking that supports local businesses. Visitors often comment on its charm, thanks to beautiful beaches, green spaces, and well-kept sports pitches. Residents enjoy tarmac pavements, allotments, a wide range of sports clubs, and a swimming pool, making Llantwit Major a vibrant and attractive place to live and visit.

  • Concerns:

Residents have raised concerns about several local issues, including dog fouling on sports pitches, a limited variety of shops, and the absence of banks or cashpoints.

The town is feeling the strain from new housing developments, while beach access on foot remains unsafe, either via a road without a pavement or through muddy fields with cattle.

Pavements and footpaths are often hazardous, street lighting is poor, and public transport is infrequent, with no late-night trains and inadequate service for major events.

Other challenges include poor road and water facilities at allotments, lack of an archery club, outdated pool and changing areas, restricted and costly access to the school astro pitch on weekends, and a shortage of community buildings and storage spaces.

  • Next 5 years:

Priority plans for the future include a call for additional floodlit astro turf pitches, a running track, and a skate ramp, alongside improved youth facilities and a dedicated youth club building. There’s a strong focus on better holiday provision for young people, enhanced lighting, upgraded roads, pavements, and cycle paths. Residents also want a more competitive supermarket, a new medical centre, and solutions for school parking challenges on Ham Lane South.

💬 Comments:

“Working together as clubs will help us achieve more – a sports forum is a great idea.”

“We need better facilities and safe routes for everyone to use them.”


Summary:

The session highlighted the value of partnership working and the enthusiasm of local sports groups to collaborate. There is a strong appetite for upgrading facilities, joint planning, and community-led initiatives. Establishing a Sports Forum represents a major step toward coordinated action and achieving long-term placemaking goals.