Social Audit... Research Findings - Community and Place

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2.2.        2.2    Active Community   

The South Wales Valleys are renowned for their close knit social structure and highly developed sense of community. These images of valleys life have been confirmed by the findings of previous survey based research projects, which have found high levels of routine community association in terms of reported behaviour and residents perceptions of the local sense of community. These findings are replicated within this study.  As can be seen in Table 4, the questionnaire survey recorded high levels of satisfaction with both the place and about the sense of community. Although satisfaction levels were somewhat lower in Ynyswen, it was still the case that three quarters of the population described their area and the local sense of community as either excellent, good or acceptable.  

Table 4: Respondents describing community or place as Excellent, Good, or Acceptable.

Similarly, as can be seen in Table 5, in all three areas respondents were most likely to identify the close knit social structure that is fundamental to Valleys communities as the thing that they liked best about their area. However, the survey results again demonstrates the distinctiveness of each of the three areas. For example, nearly four in ten respondents from Cwmparc identified local social networks as the thing they liked best about their area (compared to around three in ten respondents in the other areas). Equally, the status of Treorchy as a local urban centre is reflected in the high proportion of respondents from this area who identified local services and amenities as the thing they liked best about their area (29% compared to only 8% in Cwmparc).  

Table 5: What do you like best about your area as a place to live (%)  

Furthermore, respondents were asked to identify if they were members of community organisations, clubs or activities. Here 27% identified themselves as members compared to an estimated 23% for the wider RCT area. This demonstrates a high level of community participation and membership of local organisations and suggests the existence of an active community.  

Conclusion 1: 

Results from the questionnaire survey demonstrate a strong attachment to place and a highly developed sense of community amongst residents of Cwmparc, Treorchy and Ynyswen. This is consistent with the findings of previous surveys conducted in the Rhondda Valleys and is a major asset for any programme of regeneration.  

However, the survival of community cohesions and attachment cannot be taken for granted and there is a sense of declining community values in previous studies of the Rhondda.

Recommendation 1. 

The Regeneration Group should take every opportunity to promote community activity and volunteering opportunities.  

There is significant international evidence that the level of ‘social capital’,  the term given to community relationships and cohesion,  has a significant affect on community regeneration and wealth creation. Promotion of social capital is often best achieved by providing informal and unstructured contacts and processes within the community especially across the generational divide. Providing opportunities for people of different ages to mingle and mix does much to raise trust levels and defeat suspicion founded on lack of personal contact across the generational divide. School projects which link children and older community members have been particularly successful. There is evidence that structured process such as committees and management groups discourage community involvement.  

Despite recognising the positive community influences in the locality, a key emphasis of a social audit will inevitably be upon what residents perceive as the negative and problematic aspects of life in their community. In this vein the questionnaire survey included an open question which asked respondents what they believed to be the three biggest problems affecting their community. The results of this question are presented in Table 6 which shows the percentage of responses to different issues and ranks these different issues according to how they have been prioritised by respondents.  This ranking system is used as the basis for the structure of the remainder of this report. 

Table 6: Respondents Identification of  the “Biggest Problems” Affecting Their Area.

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