Other parts of borough are Caerphilly town’s ‘poor relation’ for regeneration spending, claims councillor

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Blackwood and other areas of Islwyn are perceived as “poor relations” of Caerphilly town because of a lack of comparable investment, a councillor has claimed.

Cllr Kevin Etheridge said footfall data showed fewer visitors to his Blackwood ward and other parts of the Sirhowy Valley than in Caerphilly town, where millions have been spent on various regeneration projects.

The leader of Caerphilly County Borough Council, Cllr Jamie Pritchard, said he wanted to see “all of our towns and villages progress” amid comments from people in some areas “feeling as though they don’t have enough investment”.

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He said the council had backed multimillion pound placemaking plans to oversee regeneration for Blackwood and for Bargoed in the coming years – but explained both are in their early stages.

Approved in the summer of 2025, the plans for the two towns are still taking shape – unlike the council’s equivalent plan for Caerphilly town, which was drawn up six years earlier.

“Regeneration projects in Caerphilly are therefore further advanced, reflecting the earlier adoption of its placemaking framework,” said Cllr Pritchard.

“The council is committed to regenerating town centres across the county borough, including Blackwood and the wider Islwyn part of the borough,” he added.

The next stage for Blackwood is to appoint a team to develop the various proposals for three areas of the town – its north, centre and south – with the council seeking Welsh Government funding for that work.

In Bargoed, the council has so far spent £150,000 on its placemaking plan, but intends to borrow up to £4.5 million for the wider work in both towns.

Cllr Etheridge, an independent, noted the council’s own footfall data showed roughly twice as many visitors to Caerphilly town centre as to Blackwood during one week in October.

Speaking at a council meeting on Tuesday November 10, he suggested the figures were evidence of differing fortunes between Caerphilly and the rest of the county borough.

But Cllr Pritchard said the reality of the situation was “something different” from perceptions, and the council was only “one part of the jigsaw puzzle” in funding regeneration projects.

“We’ve got the Cardiff Capital Region, we’ve got the Welsh Government, we’ve got the UK Government, and everything can’t be overturned to the council” he added.

He explained that projects either completed or under way in Caerphilly town were either partly or fully-funded by the Welsh and UK governments, including plans to replace the former indoor market with new flats.

“If there is a perceived thinking that most of the money is going to Caerphilly [town], I would again say CCBC has contributed elements of funding – of course we do – but the lion’s share of the investment comes from outside of the council,” the leader added.

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