Glynneath in dispute with Council over Uniforms

The Glynneath and District Silver Band is suing its town council after their highly prized gold-braided uniforms were apparently thrown in the bin by mistake. The uniforms were put into storage at a local community centre 15 years ago during a hiatus. But last year, as plans were hatched to reform the group, members discovered that 27 hand-stitched jackets with epaulettes, waistcoats and bowties had disappeared. The trustees said it would cost £14,000 to replace the uniforms with similar ones and have made a claim against a local town council for compensation to buy new ones, and for their legal costs.
 
Billy Shulver, the band’s former secretary and an ex miner who spent 50 years underground, said: “We had permission from Glynneath Town Council to store them at the (community) centre. The council wouldn’t tell us anything at first, I then found out they’d been dumped and I was told it was because they were all rotten.”
 
The band was originally formed in 1888 and has won numerous championships over the decades. In the early nineties it disbanded but then reformed in 1996, going onto win the Welsh Regional Championships for three consecutive years. In 2005, the band folded again and a number of instruments and uniforms were put into the Bethania Community Centre, a former Methodist chapel, for safekeeping.
 
Former band manager John Evans discovered the uniforms were missing last November, during a visit to the old chapel to collect some of the instruments to take to local schools. He said: “I called the police immediately and the officer came and said she couldn’t find any sign of a forced entry. It wasn’t their (the town council's) property, they had no right to throw them away whatsoever. We had a letter saying they would be safe in the chapel. The uniforms were dusty but they could have been dry-cleaned.”
 
The trustees are now concerned about the remaining instruments left in the centre and its sheet music - saying the items are also worth thousands of pounds. The town council’s Independent mayor Simon Knoyle said: “All I can say at this stage is there is an ongoing case with regards to the Silver Band uniforms and it is with Glynneath Town Council’s insurance company.”

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