FIGURINES of a shepherd and woman in traditional Welsh dress could be at the centre of a legal wrangle.
The future of the statuettes, named Dai and Myfanwy who overlook one of Wales’ busiest shopping centres, was thrown into doubt last year when plans to replace them and the clock they stand either side of were put forward.
That plan, which would have seen a giant digital advertising screen covering the wall of the Congress Theatre in Cwmbran in place of the clock, was withdrawn shortly afterwards following a public backlash that prompted more than 700 objections.
But hopes of restoring the clock so that Dai, who has a lamb and sheepdog at his feet, and Myfanwy who is wearing a traditional Welsh dress, shawl and long black hat, would rotate once more appear to have stalled due to uncertainty over responsibility.
Councillor David Thomas, whose Llantarnam ward includes Cwmbran’s pedestrian shopping centre, was among those to speak out against proposals to remove the clock and statue last year from the theatre’s south facing wall that overlooks Gwent Square.
But at the Torfaen Borough Council’s March meeting he said he has been unable to make progress on establishing who is responsible for restoring the feature’s working functions.
The Reform UK councillor said: “The clock on the Congress Theatre known locally as Dai and Myfanwy is not a decorative extra. It is a structural feature of a council-owned building and a recognisable part of Cwmbran town centre’s heritage.”
He said council officers had told him the building lease is “silent” on the clock and as a result he believed responsibility must lie with the council, which he asked cabinet member Joanne Gauden to confirm.
But Labour’s Cllr Gauden told him the theatre building, constructed in 1972, isn’t owned by the council but leased from property giant LCP which purchased the Cwmbran Centre, which is also recognised as the town centre, from its previous private owners in a £138 million deal in 2022.
The Croesyceiliog councillor said following Cllr Thomas’ enquiries with officers on maintenance responsibilities they had told her “legal advice has been sought to clarify the position, and I can provide an update once we have that response.”
It was only after Cllr Thomas asked if she agreed that responsibility for fixing and maintaining the clock would rest with the council if it wasn’t specifically mentioned in the lease, that Cllr Gauden stated the building isn’t owned by the council.
She said: “We don’t own the building. We lease two buildings in Cwmbran town centre from LCP, one to deliver our library service and one that we sub-lease to the Congress Theatre. As you say the lease is silent on both the ownership and maintenance responsibility of the clock and the two statues.
“If we wanted to progress plans to reinstate the functions of the clock and the statues then I suggest a study would be needed to confirm that the works could be both viable and the functions could be restored without noise interference to performances at the Congress Theatre.”
‘Dai and Myfanwy’ were added to the wall of the theatre, 1982, in an effort to relieve the dominance of the ‘Brutalist’ style that had shaped the Cwmbran Centre, and the new town project led by the Cwmbran Development Corporation, according to Coflein, the online catalogue of archaeology, buildings, industrial and maritime heritage in Wales.