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GLYNNEATH BY-ELECTION 29 July 2021 Candidate - Dai Richards - Glynneath Residents
Against Contamination
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My name is Dai Richards and I'm standing in the Glynneath Town Council
by-election this Thursday. When you see me around Glynneath, this is what I look like, today I'm clean shaven for effect, but normally I'll have
2-10 days of stubble on my chin, just like this.
I moved to Glynneath to be closer to the Brecon Beacons.
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This is what I love, I
love the mountains, swimming in the lakes at sunrise and walking the waterfalls
in flood, I love to be a part of nature, to be at one with this amazing planet, and
I want to enjoy my
remaining days left on this earth.
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![19-dates.jpg (705456 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/19-dates_small.jpg) |
I'm 61 years old and apart from living 5 years in Swansea I've lived all my life in
Neath-Port Talbot and the
last 14 in Brynhyfryd, Glynneath.
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![44-neath-1891.jpg (1166040 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/44-neath-1891_small.jpg)
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My family hail from Neath and in 1891 all 4 sets of my great grandparents lived
near Neath town centre.
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![54-victoria-gardens-photo.jpg (1148246 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/54-victoria-gardens-photo_small.jpg)
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These are my great great grandparents, Thomas & Elizabeth Snow. Thomas Snow
is credited with building Victoria Gardens in Neath Town Centre.
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![21-cc.jpg (351528 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/21-cc_small.jpg) |
I'm best known for my prowess as a sportsman, I've represented Wales at Cyclo
Cross
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![27-gb-tri.jpg (352215 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/27-gb-tri_small.jpg) |
Triathlon
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![37-19930120E-welsh-run-kit3.jpg (342080 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/37-19930120E-welsh-run-kit3_small.jpg) |
Mountain Running
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![24-c2c-kayak.jpg (297316 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/24-c2c-kayak_small.jpg) |
Marathon Kayaking
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![25-93-Fairford.jpg (234146 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/25-93-Fairford_small.jpg) |
Duathlon (combined running and cycling)
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and Mountain Biking. This is me in red top & pink shorts, riding for
Wales in the 1996 Mountain Bike Tour of Britain where I finished the leading
rider in the Welsh team.
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![49.jpg (293896 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/49_small.jpg)
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I rode 6 years as a sponsored rider for the Schmoo's Mountain Bike Team,
travelling the length & breadth of Britain to race against professional
teams such as Raleigh, Marin & Peugeout with the occasional magazine photo
shoot included.
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![33-1000s.jpg (723386 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/33-1000s_small.jpg)
![34-1993-07-00-swindon.jpg (391363 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/34-1993-07-00-swindon_small.jpg)
![22-TA.jpg (199095 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/22-TA_small.jpg)
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During this period of my life I also worked as a Physical Training Instructor with the
Territorial Army, winning the major British Military mountain running
competition, the Welsh 1000 metre peaks race twice in succession, running from the sea
near Bangor to the top of Snowdon and the Territorial Army Triathlon Championships
for the first 4 years of its existence. I also spent time perfecting other
military skills.
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![35-2000-10-00-wc-celtic-wor.jpg (768895 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/35-2000-10-00-wc-celtic-wor_small.jpg) |
In 2000, near Prague in the Czech Republic, I won the veteran over 40 title in the World
Quadrathlon Championships combining kayaking with the three triathlon sports..
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![16=simon.jpg (531219 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/16simon_small.jpg)
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In 2009, Inside Sport Magazine named me the Wales' Fittest Man. I was 16
years past my best by that time and had retired to focus on developing sport
locally so that my children could enjoy a healthy lifestyle.
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![15-boys-o.jpg (316872 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/15-boys-o_small.jpg)
![15-dale.jpg (406003 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/15-dale_small.jpg)
![17-vics.jpg (351535 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/17-vics_small.jpg)
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I live with my wife Hayley and we have 4 children, 3 of whom have represented
Wales and/or Great Britain, Simon & Dale at orienteering, Dale at cyclo
cross 2, Victoria represented Wales and Great Britain at slalom kayak and in
2017 Victoria was a member of the Great Britain women's
team that won a gold medal in the slalom discipline at the World White Water rafting
championships in Japan so we have another
World Champion in the family. She is pictured in the front left of the raft.
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![18-vics.jpg (368480 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/18-vics_small.jpg)
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Two of my children are respected scientists, they both have a PhD in chemistry,
Dr Simon contributed a chapter to the Royal Society of Chemistry Perodical, Organometallic
Chemistry in 2020 and Dr Victoria is the chief editor of the chemistry journal
Nature Chemistry Communications.
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![42.jpg (408162 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/42_small.jpg)
![28-acad.jpg (704287 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/28-acad_small.jpg)
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I worked at Neath Port Talbot College managing the first college Triathlon
Academy in Britain and to support the Academy I built a feeder system for junior
triathletes. In 2005,
75% of Welsh age group champions were from the academy feeder system. At the
same time I was chairman of Wales' largest and most successful club of that
period based in Neath, Multisport Racing Club.
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![36-2005-08-15-mirror-2.jpg (490269 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/36-2005-08-15-mirror-2_small.jpg)
![40-rr.jpg (566481 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/40-rr_small.jpg)
![47-RR-Times.jpg (658992 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/47-RR-Times_small.jpg)
![52-SWEP-vol-1.jpg (322752 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/52-SWEP-vol-1_small.jpg)
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I work occasionally as a sports coach and my day job is running the world's
leading supplier of Rugby Memorabilia, Rugby Relics. This is a company I started
from a shoebox of spare rugby
programmes 43 years ago back in 1978. We sell all kinds of rugby memorabilia and
have an on-line museum of memorabilia. We exhibited our collection of artefacts in the 125th and 130th Welsh Rugby
Union Anniversary exhibitions.
I've also written a book on the Origin of Sport which explains the birth
of Rugby Union.
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![50-sherlock.jpg (175791 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/50-sherlock_small.jpg)
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For fun I work as an extra in television and movie productions including
Casualty, Sherlock and the locally filmed Pride where I was featured in the
first scene filmed, if you have the DVD, I'm the first person you see when you
put it on. I appear to the right Bill Nighy in this promo
photo.
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![41-family-13.jpg (623616 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/41-family-13_small.jpg) |
This is my family, my wife Hayley and I and our direct descendants, together
with their partners we are 13 in total.
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![12.jpg (404489 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yp/12_small.jpg) |
We moved to Glynneath in 2007 and up until 2016 with the occasional hiccough
I kept myself to myself and I enjoyed living in Glynneath until the Cuddy Group
started building a mountain of Aberfan proportions behind our homes.
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![39-UKLEA-contam-montage-mar.jpg (295836 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yl/39-UKLEA-contam-montage-mar_small.jpg)
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In 2020 my research into the planning process relating to the Heol y Glyn
development has identified malpractice in the Neath-Port Talbot Council Planning
Department that has led to contamination being ignored on the site as opposed to
being treated and cleaned up or removed in line with the council's Contaminated
Land Strategy and UK Government law. The council have in effect failed to safeguard the health of the residents surrounding
the site.
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Early on in the planning process residents from 20 properties
asked me to represent them in
objecting against the format of the Heol y Glyn Development. I have supported these residents since then. This is me in a planning meeting doing the job of Glynneath
Councillors who are the only ones from Glynneath supporting the development.
The council does not like plain speaking and the truth, so they have blocked me from asking any more questions
relating to the development. This is why I need to become a councillor so that I
can ask these questions officially and not as a member of the
public.
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![00t.jpg (140832 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yl/00t_small.jpg)
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Recently I have discovered that 20% of properties in Brynhyfryd that have long
term occupancy and a physical border with the site have had a family member die
of a rare neurodegenerative disorder in the last 5 years. This is 112 times
above the national average and some of these deaths can be linked to a similar
example of industrial contamination in a French town.
In a nutshell what I am saying here is that
Neath-Port Talbot Council are potentially killing Glynneath residents to
support their own historical corruption.
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![23-Byn-win.jpg (339765 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/23-Byn-win_small.jpg)
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I'll give you a second or two to digest this
information..................................
I would consider myself to have reasonably successful in achieving my life's
goals. This is not through being lucky or having the boxes ticked for me by
someone else. It's through sheer hard work, attention to detail and an aptitude
for understanding the steps required to achieve those goals. If you've watched
this video to this point, please understand that the video is not an
advertisement for my arrogance. The video is a demonstration of a
series of successful processes that I and my family have completed in a world that celebrates
winners not losers. Achieving success is a process and the skills involved within that
process are transferable and can be applied to solve community problems as well
as to enhance community projects.
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![11-1994.jpg (798562 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/11-1994_small.jpg) |
The residents of the Central Ward of Glynneath have the opportunity to have me working for you by voting for me this
Thursday.
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Please vote for me so that I may help this community to achieve its goals and
to achieve success, and please vote for me to support the families
of the Glynneath Residents Against Contamination Group who's lives are being
threatened by a corrupt council.
This Thursday, please vote for Dai Richards.
Thank you.
www.dai-richards.wales
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![39-titles.jpg (1390379 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/39-titles_small.jpg) |
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![09-end2.jpg (975833 bytes)](../../../../../images/aaaaa/yj/09-end2_small.jpg) |
This video is an election communication, produced and published by Dai Richards,
66 Brynhyfryd, Glynneath
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