Aberfan Memorial to be destroyed? Sign the petition.

[Lord Bracknell]

Browsing through Wrexham's RedPassion website, I came across this message from White Eagle of Snowdon:-

At 9.15am on October 21st 1966 144 people died when a coal tip collapsed onto a primary school in Aberfan, South Wales. 116 of the victims were children. The pictures from the time were truely horrifying.

After the disaster the people of Coventry paid for a memorial playground to be built as a lasting memorial to the dead. Now, the disgraceful Merthyr Housing Association plan to destroy the playground to build houses.

THEY ARE LIKE GRAVE ROBBERS IN THE NIGHT.

An online petition to stop this development has been launched.

These plans cannot be allowed to happen. For the sake of the memories of the children I urge you to sign the petition and inform everyone that you know to do the same. Please get the petition listed on any websites you may have access to and lobby all MPs and members of the Welsh assembly in Cardiff. Also send an email to Merthyr housing association and tell them of your disgust.

DO IT FOR THE CHILDREN.




He also posted this:-

I've been trying to get it on the brighton website but I am having no luck.




The petition can be found here



I guess most NSC users are too young to remember the events of October 1966. I'm not. The tragedy happened very shortly after I first moved to Brighton and I have friends I met in those early days down here who lived very near to Aberfan.

What is going on is disgraceful.

 

[Albion Rob]

Signed.

How bloody sickening. I was aware of the tragedy but didn't know the exact death toll. How people can be so insensitive is beyond me.

 

[Yorkie]

I have signed it. I can remember that day extremely well. I can still visualise the dreadful scenes on television where they were trying to dig out the bodies from the school and the realisation that an entire generation of children were lost in that village.

How these councillors can live with themselves, I really don't know.

 

[Gwylan]

Utterly disgraceful. I see that the council tries to justify itself by claiming that the site is now derelict, an opinion flatly contradicted by local mothers. I don't understand why there's a need to do it - there's not a huge shortage of housing in south Wales.

I remember it so well. It was the first time I saw my mother cry, but then she comes from the next village along the valley and went to a similar school, under a slagheap. It was particulary poignant for her.

One of my cousins was a Plaid Cymru councillor in Aberfan some years ago. I bet she's spitting about this.

 

[ditchy]

signed

 

[Zeitgeist]

Signed. Is there no depths some people will sink? Wouldn't surprise me if some property developer is greasing the palms of "people" in the planing depeartment?!

 

[Wardy]

signed

 

[chips and gravy]

Signed and link passed on to friends

 

[On the Left Wing]

I have signed.

I remember the day when I was a pupil at Benfield Primary, when our whole day was spent saying prayers for the kids at Aberfan and our teachers relaying the news. I may only have a vague memory of what I was doing when JFK was shot, but I will always remember the day of the Aberfan disaster.

 

[Hiney]

I was 7 years old and it remains one of my most vivid childhood memories.

There was a programme on a year or so ago examining the disaster which brought home the horrifying sequence of events.

For the Local Council to suggest removing a monument to the lives of all those children is nothing short of a disgrace.

How would the city of Liverpool react to the same thing happening to the Hillsborough memorial, or the people of Bradford.

Bastards

 

[itszamora]

Signed. I am far too young to remember this, but destroying a memorial for houses is utterly unacceptable

 

[Tooting Gull]

On the face of it, this sounds terrible - I've read about that tragedy, and heard from people who were alive at the time about the impact it had on the whole country.

But maybe we're not hearing both sides here. A housing association are not rip-off property developers, maybe there is a genuine shortage of affordable housing for families that badly need it. Maybe (and this should ring a few bells) after an exhaustive search this was the only realistic site. I'm just guessing.

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

Signed, but only 128 so far? I assume it's very new.

 

[GUNTER]

This was one of the worst tragedies outside a war in the history of the UK. To remove this memorial is absolutely disgraceful.

 

[Cadman]

Signed.......I was 16 at the time, and remeber that it put the World Cup win in perspective.!

What a bloody discgrace if this is allowed to happen.!!

 

[Scotty Mac]

160 people signed now - including me

 

[moggy]

just signed.
have to say thats typical of the welsh, and they wonder why they're not popular
saying that, i've always found people from north wales to be very friendly.
just the southerners.

 

[Lady Bracknell]

What a shameful proposal. I was 11 at the time of the Aberfan disaster and remember it well.

 

[dougdeep]

I have signed, I remember it only to well.How quickly some forget.

 

[Beach Hut]

I was 3 when this happened so my earliest memory was seeing an old clip of it on "The Rock'n'Roll Years".

What struck me was the silence and air of serene dignity with people virtually moving the demolished school brick by brick in the hope of finding someone still alive.