Neath Port Talbot council are considering closing the visitor centre. Please visit the petition at change.org to enlighten the forward thinking councillors.

Signed

Dont think it should close but it needs to change, poor service and poor food

Working link:

http://www.change.org/p/neath-port-talbot-cbc-stop-the-closure-of-afan-valley-visitor-centre

Just for clarity, this is the “old” centre at Afan, not Glyncorrwyg Ponds. It’s looking like closure will be imminent if something’s not done as funding is only secured until the start of September.

I cant sign if Im not planning on visiting. If the Council receive thousands of signatures, decided to keep but not enough footfall would that be right? Internet support is good but if its not financially viable?

^the service/food comment-

Years ago I remember CoedYBrenin cafe was terrible. Great building, bored/lots of staff not bothering and slow service. I stopped going in that cafe when I revisited.

Signed

Needs new ownership – current lot give being miserable a bad name.

Signed via FB. The welsh seem determined the remove the trade that “cycling” brings these days. First some bad publicity (and perhaps handling) at Velethin Wales after protests and tacks on the road, now this.

Surely the Trade it brings to the likes of the Afan Valley would take a massive dive if the Trail centres became less appealing?

How do you get poor service over a coffe and a plate of beans? Oh wait, yes I got plastic cheese on mine last time, hurumph!

Well, they managed it. Asked for two drinks, they just pointed at a machine. The bike shop was barely much better. My mate was told to stand at the door as he had muddy shoes on.

I’m guessing the council have a limited budget, and given the choice between educating kids, looking after disabled adults or funding a visitor centre for out of towners, then the centre suffers.

Signed.

It would be a shame to see any facility go but I never bother with Afan centre when im there unless i have to. Stark contrast to Glyncorrwyg where im happy to have my tea and a beer after a ride and speak with the shop boys

Must admit, it seemed a bit ‘old school cafeteria’ when I popped in. The contrast with Glyncorrwyg is pretty stark, and I’ll be starting and finishing my ride there in future.

Signed, but it’s worth noting.

It’s not the trail centre that closing, or the visitors centre – ‘just’ the café.

As others have said it’s one of the last two ‘school dinners’ style Cafe’s left in the South Wales centres (Cwmcarn being the other, but it’s improving) the food is deep fried sausage, frozen chips, beans, eggs in any combination you fancy and the odd sandwich – nice cakes though. Almost every other centre does it better.

It would be much better if someone private took it over and improved the food, maybe it will attract more visitors.

The original Afan centre has been in decline for a couple of years, now, it really suffered when Penhydd was closed and whilst it’s supposedly the kick-off point for Y Wal, most regulars don’t park there.

The major sad thing though is that Afan took a huge lump of Cognation money that could have been spent building a new trail and stuck a glass roof on the café and a little balcony – it’s not a great job, it’s too small really, but that will go completely to waste if it closes.

According to the local press the entire centre is under threat. Apparently the bike shop staff have also been given notice.

http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/Temporary-reprieve-visitor-centre/story-25996011-detail/story.html

It’s not the greatest café in the world, but it’s been very handy in the past, and seems like a no-brainer to have some facilities near the most beginner-friendly trails.

They have said they are not closing it in Twitter and are seeking a new service provider for the cafe. Which it is sorely in need of

Shame to see the facilities go, if it does, one can only hope it’ll be replaced by something better.

Went there once, never been back since. Shocking food, poor service & really rather unwelcoming overall..

Not signed. If it’s not financially viable mtb-ers and others should have been voting with their wallets over the past few years. As per others I went once and didn’t like it (it was a long time ago). An online petition doesn’t pay the bills

Mr Agreeable – Member
seems like a no-brainer to have some facilities near the most beginner-friendly least beginner un-friendly trails.

fify.

Pawsy_Bear – Member

They have said they are not closing it in Twitter

Their official line is “We are seeking another operator to take over the catering facilities”.

@cat_lewis @SkylineCycles @NatResWales @WalesOnline Hi, no it is not. We are seeking another operator to take over the catering facilities.

— Neath Port Talbot Council (@NPTCouncil) July 9, 2015

I’d expect a statement along the lines of “sorry, no-one wanted to take it on” in short order…

Why would I sign a petition to save a dump of a cafe 200 miles away? Fairly sure the council have got better things to do than consider the interests of a surly business? Who really uses it anyway, when most people start up the valley? It’s a great spot ruined by the current occupants. Now if the petition was for One Planet at Llanegla to take over….

Good point, CYD and One Planets cafes were polar opposites when I went in them. If a council subsidises(?) one thats bad I’d rather see it shut thanwaste taxpayers money.

Would you be happy for your council to prop up say a watersports cafe/facility within your councils area that wasn’t the best at the moment? If it was this cost-slash or Lollipop ladies for the schools? What would you prefer if you were a local there?

Whats happened at Glentress? Has it improved since the big furore then change? I remember the old Hub that lots of people reminisce about- it wasn’t perfect on quite a few fronts. The change worked out- yes, mainly due to the scale/size (which is a different scenario to Afan) but also quality/food etc.

Why would I sign a petition to save a dump of a cafe 200 miles away? Fairly sure the council have got better things to do than consider the interests of a surly business? Who really uses it anyway, when most people start up the valley?

Nearly 4,000 people beg to differ.

https://www.change.org/p/neath-port-talbot-cbc-stop-the-closure-of-afan-valley-visitor-centre

Nearly 4,000 people beg to differ.

How many of those who signed actually go there or just want to sign as a feeling of solidarity?

Start a petition and find out.

There doesn’t seem to be a week that goes by without someone saying ‘please sign this petition to save..’

It hits someones work pc etc and you do your 20seconds of action without actually pausing, reading into further and deliberating before deciding to sign?

This covers everything from Farm/wildlife to ‘child poverty due to tax credits etc etc.

Bet if you asked 4,000 local residents in Neath what they thought of the centre, they’d ask what centre? To be fair, if the council do pull out, there’s an opportunity there for a canny business surely? Bet the rent would be crazy though.

I signed it, but I don’t know why really, I don’t use it, they seem to resent customers in the cafe.

It’s been a dreadful place for years, real school dinner stuff, or at least it was up to 3 years ago when we moved away so don’t go to Afan anymore.

Whats happened at Glentress? Has it improved since the big furore then change? I remember the old Hub that lots of people reminisce about- it wasn’t perfect on quite a few fronts. The change worked out- yes, mainly due to the scale/size (which is a different scenario to Afan) but also quality/food etc.

Food is decent, the waitresses more so 🙂 Usually busy too.

Went there a couple of months back. Seemed pretty busy . Busy enough for the staff to forget half of what we actually ordered. Since the revamp on the Penhydd was done, I was really looking forward to riding it that day and was really disappointed. Dead Sheep and Sidewinder aside, the rest of the ride was a waste of time and effort. Shame really , but I wont sign the petition, as its not just the centre that is lacking, but the trails as well. Although close to Afan lodge, where we stayed, I would head up the road than down the road on the next visit.

Press Release –

It sounds like it might be for the best – the ‘centre’ as it is a bit of a white elephant, it’s a large empty space with some posters and a tv screen as far as I can tell – and the Café isn’t great as most people have said.

The trails, the bike shop and the car park are unaffected – I hope that means the toilets and showers are too.

http://www.npt.gov.uk/Default.aspx?page=2482&pr_id=5356

Cognation just posted same link as P-Jay, what’s being proposed makes perfect sense to me. You can’t keep running the cafe at a loss and if we are honest as a group we mountain bikers are generally pretty tight and how much donwe spend in the cafe after riding the trails for free ?

FWIW a petition needs around 100-200,000 signatures to get noticed IMO

I did wonder when I saw this whether people were mistaking the centre at Afan with Glyncorrwg up the road (not that that hasn’t had its challenges mind)

FWIW a petition needs around 100-200,000 signatures to get noticed IMO

Or some people to use the cafe.

Sounds like its the Cafe that needs to find customers

I’m confused: there seems to be a consensus from everyone who’s expressed an opinion that this cafe is rubbish, and yet we’re being asked to sign a petition to “save” it (I say “saved” as it doesn’t even seem to be clear whether we’re talking about said cafe being shut down, or passed to new management).

As there’s the OP and a few other “signed” posts, can someone actually offer up the positive reasons why one might offer support to this?

I certainly don’t support pouring more tax payers money in to a loss making concern. Like all have said above it needs new management. I always stop and eat in the cafe coffee shower etc at Glyncorrwg. It isn’t to going to close. Lets see what a new team can do. Glyncorrwg is great, could do with some investment though. I also use Skyline cycles too, great people who will help you out and get you back on the trails asp

Skyline are blooming fantastic people; always helpful, always quick. Have mental sales too. The cafe is OK – would be miles better if they had butter instead of marg in my humble opinion. Would also help if they didn’t sell stuff from the bike shop; last time I went in my poached egg cost £95 🙂

The petition; it’s to save a cafe that even the supporters think is awful? It’s being signed by people who rarely, if ever, go there? Cool!

I’m confused: there seems to be a consensus from everyone who’s expressed an opinion that this cafe is rubbish, and yet we’re being asked to sign a petition to “save” it (I say “saved” as it doesn’t even seem to be clear whether we’re talking about said cafe being shut down, or passed to new management).

As there’s the OP and a few other “signed” posts, can someone actually offer up the positive reasons why one might offer support to this?

I think it was down to miscommunication – FB and twitter posts made it sound as if they were closing the whole site, they also claimed the guy who runs the bike shop had been given notice too, it really is a very decent shop considering it’s tiny and staffed usually by one guy.

I personally, do use the café quite a bit, My Wife, my Son and I ride the Rookie Trails and more lately Blue Scar, Wife likes the cakes and the boy (well used to school dinners) will eat anything after a ride, so I would have been sad to see it go, even though I don’t really rate it – a poor café is better than none – plus I was pretty upset that they used a pile of Cognation money to upgrade it, which would have been wasted if they closed it, I seem to remember they said it cost £1m which absolutely, positively cannot be true, but I work with public sector funding sometimes and I wouldn’t bet against it.

But of course, none of that is happening now – the site isn’t closing, the shop is unaffected and there are already people in the wings hoping to take over the Café – the press release completely changed my view.

This is the effect of the cuts to local authority budgets. A choice between this and other more important services you can see why this is going…

That’s not to say they would pull out if it wasn’t loss making. If it was self supporting then fair enough but Glyncorrwyg probably put pay to that for most mtb’s.

Should have bought more cake instead of signing petitions late in the day.

Was about to sign the petition as the last time I went in there the service was very friendly and whilst the food was basic it was fine. But then the last time I went in was long ago…

indeed, I’d not even been to the centre for a long time whilst Penhydd was shut as despite not being a local or even that much of a regular I’d discovered the cheaper and more convenient parking for Y Wal. Did park at the centre again last time I rode to ride the new trails (sadly not as good as the originals IMHO) but didn’t go in.

If that press release is being honest it sounds like a good thing all round though. I’m assuming a private company would be willing to take on a loss making publicly run thing like this on the basis they could turn it around.