Its funny how things work out…

This week’s blog is written by Craig Whitney who was born in the Dulais Valley and has just started with the Global Centre of Rail Excellence team as Business Development Officer.

The landscape around the Global Centre of Rail Excellence site is one that I’ve known all my life.  I’ve walked almost every inch of the mountains and hills that will soon provide such a stunning backdrop to Europe’s premier rail innovation facility.

My name’s Craig Whitney and I’ve recently become a part of the GCRE team as Business Development Officer, supporting one of the most exciting and important rail infrastructure developments in all of the UK and Europe.

I was born here in the Dulais Valley, at Ashgrove Bungalow on the Onllywn to Coelbren road. Both my grandfathers were miners locally in the deep pits, as indeed were their fathers before them. My Welsh roots stretch back over at least five generations.

After moving to London with my father’s job as a toddler, I returned to Wales as soon as I had the opportunity over thirty-five years ago with my wife and young family who all grew up in the shadow of the Washery, once the principal employer in the area.

I’ve spent some twenty years in the printing industry and another fifteen largely working for myself and running businesses in the marketing and motorcycle industries. What attracted me to the opportunity with GCRE was the chance to be part of the team trying to regenerate and revitalise a valley that I’ve loved all my life. You don’t often get a chance to work right on your doorstep and it’s that opportunity to put something back to the community that means so much to me that was most compelling about the role.

Once there was a vibrant commercial centre to the area. There were multiple shops, petrol stations, even department stores in my village at the height of the collieries. The heart of the community is still there – we have a village store, a pub and a rugby club – but a lot of the wider social infrastructure has disappeared. We’ve lost at least five pubs within a mile radius of the GCRE site over the past decades, just one of the ways de-industrialisation has impacted the local area. As many of those living in coalfields communities will attest, the physical landscape of our communities has changed markedly in recent times.  

I count myself very fortunate to live in such a beautiful and quiet village, surrounded by the magnificence of the Bannau Brycheiniog national park. But for the last 200 years, it’s been a working, industrial environment and its commerce supported the homes, businesses and pensions nearby. And now I relish the chance to be a part of the next chapter of that story. To play a part in giving my children and indeed their children the chance to work locally in a ground-breaking project for an industry on the brink of a green travel revolution.

Professionally I’ve been involved with renewable energy, battery storage and solar industries over the past five years, so I’ve something of a passion for projects incorporating these emerging technologies at the heart of their developments. This is central to the GCRE vision, which aims to be a net zero in operation facility and be the hub of new green technologies that will be used around the world in the modern, sustainable transport systems of tomorrow being built around the world.

For generations coal dominated this landscape, taking a huge toll on the environment. Many of the jobs it provided were tough and hazardous and the legacy of the heavy industry’s decline has left many scars.

I believe GCRE has the chance to break the mould – not just for rail, but for the valleys of this area. Bringing a new green industry to an already proud community and bringing skilled and good-quality, jobs to the region, we can put valleys communities like mine back on the front foot. At the cutting edge of new technology and innovation – in turn supporting local businesses and communities nearby. We’ll need builders, groundworkers, welders, fitters, engineers and much more to build and maintain our new facility as well as a wide-range of administrative and support staff.

But for me, one of the keys is putting something back to the local community. The environmental and remedial landscaping considerations are at the very heart of the development – renewing much of the former Washery and providing new opportunities for local communities to benefit from the new infrastructure being developed. The recent commitment made to restore the “wedding cake” overburden tip is one example of the ways in which GCRE wants to be a good neighbour of those living locally.

Of course I’ll no doubt meet the many local people who welcome and support the development for the very reasons I’m so passionate about it. But I’ll also listen to anyone with questions and work with my colleagues to provide the answers and the reassurance we need to those living nearby.

Its fabulous to be involved in the Global Centre of Rail Excellence development – I never thought I’d have such a great opportunity to be a part of building a prosperous future for the communities of which I’m a part.

It’s funny how things work out.

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