Offenders help Pontardawe AFC reach their goal

Community Payback helps Pontardawe AFC stay in the Welsh League with a home ground makeover

Pontardawe AFC will be starting the football season with a game at their home ground for the first time in their history – with some help from a group of offenders.

After a 15-year battle to get their own pitch instead of having to share the council recreation ground with local cricket teams, club members have achieved their goal.

And a team of offenders have transformed their dilapidated changing rooms to bring them up to Football Association of Wales standards so they can continue playing in Tier 2 of the Welsh League.

The offenders, who were supervised by Wales Community Rehabilitation Company, performed some makeover magic by painting the changing rooms and referees’ rooms at Pontardawe Leisure Centre. The work was done as part of Community Payback, a sentence imposed by the courts which sees offenders doing unpaid work in the community.

Gary Thomas, Secretary of Pontardawe AFC, said: “When I saw the work that had been done I was blown away. The professionalism and pride shown by Nathan Stock, the offenders’ supervisor, and his team was impressive. The end result is beyond what we had hoped for when we started planning the season.

“We are now in a good position to meet the criteria for our new ground so our senior team can continue playing at Tier 2. The condition of the changing rooms is a key element but we could not have afforded to employ a company to do the work.”

The makeover made such an impact that Wales CRC have now been asked to paint other areas of the leisure centre for Celtic Leisure.

Simon Morse-Jones, Community Payback Officer with Wales CRC, said: “A lot of local teams, including school teams, use the changing rooms and I think they will be amazed when they see the difference. Previously there was mould on the ceiling, the plaster was in a dire state and there were marks on the walls where players had knocked the mud off their studs.

“Our offenders have brought the changing rooms back to life and have enabled the public to see justice being delivered in their local community. We tried to use the same team throughout the project where possible which gave the offenders a sense of ownership and pride in the work they did. A couple of them play on local pitches themselves so understand the impact the work had.”

Pontardawe AFC have previously had to share the council’s recreation ground with cricket teams which has forced them to start the season with a series of away matches and end the season by borrowing pitches for their “home” games.