Article
Celebrate Neath Port Talbot’s Notable People, Places, and Events as Blue Plaque Scheme Opens
16 January 2025
A COMMEMORATIVE Blue Plaque Scheme to celebrate notable people, places and events across Neath Port Talbot is now open.
Known as the Neath Port Talbot County Borough Blue Plaque Scheme, it will play a valuable role in promoting conservation, by highlighting people and buildings with historic associations in our communities.
Blue Plaques are a source of information, education and celebration, they will create opportunities for future activities such as Blue Plaque Trails and QR code links to website stories of significant people, places and events in our shared history. They have the capacity to promote the heritage of each community with Neath Port Talbot. The scheme is also a key priority of the council’s recently adopted Heritage Strategy 2024-2039 (Restore, Regenerate, Repurpose).
The council will fund two plaques per year. However, if a business, group, or individual can self-fund a blue plaque, they can submit their nomination online to the Heritage NPT Team’s selection panel: https://www.npt.gov.uk/business/regeneration/commemorative-blue-plaque-scheme/
The panel will check and vet all applications to ensure that all criteria has been met and that the application is appropriate with the panel’s recommendations being reported to Cabinet Members for a final decision.
Cllr Cen Phillips, Neath Port Talbot Council’s Cabinet Member for Nature, Tourism and Wellbeing said: “Blue Plaques are an excellent way of celebrating what makes our places special.
“Plaques connect the past and present, they can increase a sense of pride among local communities and can educate about history and heritage, making both more accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds.
“They can also play an important conservation role, helping to highlight buildings with cultural and historic associations and to preserve them for the future.
“I encourage anyone to come forward and submit their nominations to help us celebrate the rich history of Neath Port Talbot.”
Ceramicist Ned Heywood will make the plaques at his Chepstow studio. Ned and his working partner Julia Land make ceramic blue plaques for English Heritage, Historic England and many more.
The submission window for the first tranche of Council funded applications will be open from 1st April 2025 to 30th September 2025.
For more information about the scheme, contact the Regeneration Team on regeneration@npt.gov.uk