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Our patchWhat do they really thinkof what's going on atMaesG?

The cheerleadersBangor City always do wellwith these girls' support.

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MaesgeirchenIt's one of the biggest housingestates in north Wales. Here'sthe low-down on Maesgeirchenlife from the people who livethere.

have your sayIf you'd like to contribute to this section on Maesgeirchenjust get in touch.

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City cheerleadersLast updated: 28 December 2007

Cheerleading Stacey tells usabout Bangor Football Club'svery own cheerleading girls,while Sophie models the outfit.

"We're called the BCB - Bangor City Blues. We're the officialcheerleaders for Bangor City FC and the team say theatmosphere isn't the same when we're not there!

We've got a competition in Blackpool soon. We're part of theBritish Cheerleading Association and there are fourcompetitions a year. We haven't competed before, so wedon't know what our opposition is like.

We've been teaching ourselves, really. We've had a look atsome DVDs to prepare for the competition, but we thinkwe're loads better. We wear blue and white jeanie pants, ablue and white top and we've got blue and white stripedpompoms."

So what's the chant? Everybody...We've got Bangor spirit,Come on ya'll let's hear itI said it's cold out hereI said there must be some blues in the atmosphereI said Bangor, Bangor, BangorBangor City blues!!!




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Our patchLast updated: 28 December 2007

From puddles on the pitch to evenings in 'the gaol', here'swhat young people from Maesgeirchen have to say abouttheir estate.

Healthy Living Centre

1 2 3 4 5

Sophie: "On Mondays we do Showzone where we practisefor a show we hold in Theatr Gwynedd every year. On

Thursdays we have cheerleading and Youngzone on Fridays.It's great here."

Kieren: "Thank you to Lesley and Kendra and everyone forrunning the HLC."

your comments

KevinMaesgeirchen is a complete dump. Its a good example ofhow the police in the area are afraid to confront anyone,they are awful. And as for those who walk round thinkingthey're gangsters, get a job, get a life. Maes-G representsthe state of this country.

Geraint, BethesdaI lived in Maesg from when I was born until I was 16 (1971until 1987) and I loved the place, went back last year to seerealetives and had my car vandalised.I lived in FFordd YCastell and to me it was the best street in MaesG, you couldleave your door unlocked at night and you could leave yourbike in the garden without fear of it being nicked. I lived inthe top part of Ffordd Y Castell which was known as theposh part. My visit back to MaesG brought back so manyhappy memories and I was sad to see how bad the estatehas become now.

Sharon Williams - as was!




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I used to live in Maesgeirchen back in the 1960s and Iremember the place being one that had real communityspirit and where people had pride in their homes andgardens. My family lived at 9 Queen's Avenue and my Nanaand Grandad lived at 3 Gwern Las. Nana always kept herfront room parlour for visitors only so most people visitingwill have had the stunning mountain views. I remember thebluebell wood and the old disused railway line which formedplay areas for the local kids and recall many a summers dayroaming around with my friends Maria Goldmith, Diane Balland Maureen Lee whilst trying to shake off my little sisterJulie from the gang! I daydreamed through much of myschool life at Garth and Glancegin about church trips to Rhylwith the Sunday school. Whilst the area was never rich wehad a taxi driver across the road (with the only car around!)an excellent community life and good friends always in andout of each others houses. I'd love to hear from any of myold friends or from friends of the family. I read thecomments on this page with interest and hope that theresidents can move Maesgeirchen forward.

Kath, Maes GI have lived here for 10 years and, although there is trouble,it is no more than anywhere else, especially those placeswith a lot of people and nothing to do. Instead of moaningabout it let's get on and do something about it. It's not justMaes G, it's Bangor too. There's nothing to do here unlessyou are a student.

Susan Johnsen-JacksonI was born and raised in Maesg, now I live in the U.S. I wassad a few years ago when I was home to see how bad someof the streets have gotten. People no longer take pride inthere property. When I was a kid it was a great place tolive, now you couldn't pay me to live there.

anonnothing bad in maesg - you dont get anywhere whith loadsof people living together. ive seen things get loads better inthe past few years or so and lets face it theres stuffhappening here like youth club, healthy living activities thatthey don't get in other places. if you don't like it there's aroad called penrhyn which you can follow to some whereelse.

SarahI've lived in Maes-g all my life (14 yrs) Maes-g is a horribleplace. I live in Ffordd Castell. There are some people whothink they own carparks there - some people there really doneed to get a life!

royston, maes . g.i have lived on the maesgeirchen estate for over 50 years,and for a lot of that time in ffordd y castell, when i livedthere it was a nice place to live, where people took pride intheir homes and gardens and cared for each other. ifanyone was silly enough to let their hedges grow out ofcontrol they would face a letter from the council telling themof the consequences of their idleness (eviction, as agreed inthe tennancy agreement).

Tai HanesyddolO blastai crand i ffermyddgwledig, camwch drosdrothwy rhai o dai mwyaf

hanesyddol yr ardal

today however, as a short trip down this part of the estatewould proove this no longer seems to be the case. you mustalso remember that fford y castell is a street of two halves,and only the lower half seems to cause the problems,socome on bangor and gwynedd council do us all a favour andget these people to see the error of their ways or get rid ofthem from the estate. maes g is not a bad place to live ,but it could be a lot better, and remember there is a lot ofgood hard working people up here. we deserve better.

kevin jones maesgI have lived in maesg for the past 20 years and i have seensome major inprovements like the matra team. we have hadour streets cleaned from local volunteers and some of theprobation service team. i think that maesg is getting a littlebit better but we still have some problems with drugs,though maesg isnt the only place where there is drug users.When we say to people where we come from they hate itbut you dont dis a place until you have lived there.

SBI lived on Maesg for 3 years in the early 90s. Like all largeestates there were good and bad, sadly most of the badseemed to live in our street. I miss Bangor but I couldn'treally say I miss Maesg, but there are far worse places outthere.

Bizzle BRX, Maes GMaes G is a horrible place. I hate it so much. I don't feel thepolice do their job around here, my friend's house wasbroken into 3 times and nothing was done. I have lived hereall my life (13 years) and I truly hate it, I get abuse all thetime because I don't dress like everyone else and kids fromFfordd Castell have thrown sticks, stones and even bottles atmy house in the past 6 months. I cannot wait until I canmove!

Grumps Maesgeircheni wrote a comment yesterday about the state of maesg, andlo and behold, today a street cleaner went past. this iswithout my original letter being posted on this site.remarkable.

Jamie Oates AKA Barlowell i have gone through all of the comment's that are onthis site, and think all you older,nagging people should wakeup and smell the coffie, get out more. there is nothin badabout MAES G. In fact i realy enjoyed my time livein inqueens avenue. now im in the army with one of my bettermate's Terry Williams AKA Gonzo. but every chance i get tocome HOME to MAES G i sure will do. I LOVE IT.

Anon, ConwyI have had the opportunity to work in Maesgeirchen and Ican tell you, having been brought up on a huge, notoriouscouncil estate, MaesG is like Noddy Land in comparison.There are problems on every estate, especially those wheredeprivation is rife, but there is a sense of community inMaesG and I certainly didn't feel threatened, victimised orshocked by attitudes, residents or dwellings. This is workingclass life and if anything, the people I was privileged to

know, if only for a short time (including residents, supportstaff, community projects etc), were nothing less thanwelcoming, friendly, down-to-earth and open minded (opento ideas). Let's not forget that the teenage child who shoutsabuse may not be getting much positive influence fromhome (abusive parents, mental health issues, drug abuseissues, the list goes on). Surely we should concede thatthese youngsters need the support and encouragement ofpeers and role models, not judgement and punishment?Inan affluent family this is easy, in a more deprivedenvironment, not so. The efforts of Matra and CommunitiesFirst should be praised for encouraging residents to takecontrol of their futures and the general wellbeing andresilience of an estate and residents with stamina, potentialand as mentioned previously, a community spirit.

meas-g residenti have lived here for donkeys years. sometimes you getquiet and peaceful days but the rest of the time you getpeaple ( not just kids) throwing abuse at you from everydirection. i know loads of people too scared to go up ffroddcastell. this street used to be the best street on the estate!whats happened?

as for living here... im doing my best to save to move awaybut everytime i get close to saving a decent amount mytyres get slashed and my windows get done in - peoplebreaking into my house. and what do the police do? Nothing.I think i know who has done it" and then ill never hear fromthem again waste of time i tell you. I CAN'T WAIT TO GETOUT OF HERE!

Max, CyprusGot a problem with where you live? Then move. I did. Justthe cost of a plane flight.

kira, bethesdawe moved from maesgeirchen last year and really miss it. itwas a great place to live and i miss it like mad. you have tolive there to really know what its like. my nanna and auntielive there and wouldnt live any where else. so lay off all ofyou who slag it off.

anonMaesgeirchen is not such a bad place, I was born here 30years ago and think it's great. Yes there are problems withdrugs and a few tearaways, but you tell me what estatedoesn't suffer the same? As for children going up the longstraight road in front of the bungalows on their mini motors,the council should supply them with one of the surroundingfields, there's plenty of them. To all that don't like the place,just stay away.


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Youth Club

1 2 3 4 5

Kieren: "This is the Youth Club. We call it the gaol becausethere's loads of fencing round it."

Stacey: "We just go there and watch TV because they don'torganise much for us to do. We'd like more facilities,

especially for girls."Steph: "I'd love a dance machine. There's snooker, pool andair hockey for the boys, but only dancing for girls and that'sonly if you're practising for a competition. You might as well

stay home and watch TV."




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Bus stop

1 2 3 4 5

Scott: "It's not very sheltered and rain can get in and soakyou. We have to wait for the school bus, sometimes where

there isn't a shelter at all - it's horrible in the winter." Sophie: "Every time it gets graffitied, Alan the warden hasto repaint it. They always write abusive writing on it, like

MGM - MaesG Massive, or other swearwords - it isn't nice."




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Social club

1 2 3 4 5

Stacey: "We've not allowed in it all the time because it's formembers only, but they do let us in to perform shows, hold

raffles and have bingo, so they do do a lot for us really."




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The Cage

1 2 3 4 5

Keiren: "It's supposed to be an all-weather pitch, but everytime it rains the cage starts flooding and if you touch the

metal of the railings you get splinters."




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On stageLast updated: 28 December 2007

Would you be brave enough tohit the stage at TheatrGwynedd and do someimprovised acting? Staceytells us about putting on ashow MaesG-style.

"Every Monday we do Showzone and we practise for aperformance at Theatr Gwynedd. Last year, in the first halfwe acted out our own funny version of Snow White. Stephwas the wicked queen, I was Snow White and the otherStacey was Freddie the Slappa woodsman, all dressed inleather!

We had seven dwarves, but instead of a poisoned apple wehad a manky banana and I had to eat it! Instead of thehandsome prince, Grumpy the dwarf woke me up, and I hadto kiss her.

We did practise a lot, but it was all improvised. We didn'thave a script, we just did it off the top of our heads as wewent along - so it was different each time. As long as westayed on the same track, it didn't matter.

In the second half we did disco dancing, singing and thenthemed stuff like Michael Jackson, Meat Loaf andcheerleading.

It was really sweaty back stage - your hair gets all greasyunder your hat and we had about 25 girls getting ready in aspace for ten. We did everything ourselves, the make-up andthe clothes and lots of people came. It is scary - you can'tsee anyone from the stage, but you know they can see you.

We're going to do another show on May 13 2006 and we'repractising hard. We're doing Snow White part II, one year on,and we'll be doing more dancing and singing - so come andsee us."




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Polish adventureLast updated: 28 December 2007

Tricia and Steph had theopportunity to get to knowother young people fromEurope a bit better, but whatdid they think?

Steph: "Six of us who were all from MaesG and over 15 wentto Poland with two helpers, Kendra and Zoe. We were chosenbecause we're the most reliable and responsible.

We went to Katowice in Poland to meet people from differentcountries - there was us from Wales, and young people fromHungary, Germany and Poland. We were there tocommunicate with them, see how they live and tell themabout Wales."

Tricia: "We went to see their churches, which were amazing.They looked fantastic."

Steph: "People break intochurches here but they respectthem so much there -everything's all gold, clean andamazing.

"We also went shopping,especially in Krakow. We gotloads of things."

Tricia: "It was quite poor where we were based but when wewent to Krakow the fashion was great and really cheap."

Steph: "The food there was disgusting though. The worstthing was pig's stomach. We also had these dumplings - theywere round like mashed potato, but when you put your forkin them they just bounced, they were full of chewing gum-type stuff! And they cook their sausages in beer. So webought lots of crisps and bread."

Tricia: "The Polish people were really friendly, although theGermans were a bit off with us - we had to always make theconversation. The Hungarians were OK, but the Polish peoplewere definitely the best. They were all crying when we left.Some had great English, though some could only count tosix!"

Steph: "They're coming here next year. They're going tostay in a youth hostel and we're going to make their stay alot more fun than ours. We did a lot of walking and going toworkshops - like learning about their traditional mimedancing. It was interesting, but we're going to find lots more




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to show them, like our churches and the university and ourcheerleading at the football match. There's loads to do roundhere with them." Tai Hanesyddol

O blastai crand i ffermyddgwledig, camwch drosdrothwy rhai o dai mwyaf

hanesyddol yr ardal

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goodes01

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