COMMUNITY leaders have spoken of the hope the Circuit of Wales has given residents of Blaenau Gwent, calling the need for the project a matter of “survival”.

A group of Blaenau Gwent community leaders, including the chief executive of Tai Calon Housing Association and the chair of Blaenau Gwent Business Forum, yesterday met to discuss the highly anticipated Circuit of Wales race track.

The £315 million Rassau-based project is expected to create up to 6,000 jobs with an assurance made by developers Heads of the Valleys Development Company that 80 per cent of these jobs will be local.

Last year it was revealed the Circuit of Wales is set to host prestigious motorsport event MotoGP and is hoped to draw in around 750,000 visitors a year.

Jen Barfoot, CE of Tai Calon and Phil Edwards, chair of the business forum, yesterday met with John Sexton, Campus Director for Blaenau Gwent Learning Zone, Dai Davies, former MP and manager of the Ebbw Vale Institute and Rev Geoff Waggett, Parish Priest at Christchurch, Ebbw Vale.

The group spoke about the “overarching support” the project has received from local residents ahead of a public inquiry into the building of the racetrack on Monday. [March 9] Former MP Mr Davies said: “As someone who presided over the closure of the steel works, this is the greatest opportunity in Blaenau Gwent since 1938 when the new works were commissioned. That’s what we have suffered from since – the poverty of opportunity.

“You see us at the top of all the league tables you don’t want to be top of. But this is going to give many people a new hope, a new inspiration and a new sense of purpose.

"My son is 17 but it breaks my heart to tell him he has to move away to get a job. But for every person employed on the Circuit of Wales site you are talking about four other jobs because of the industry the circuit will bring. There is a lot of hope on the ground.”

Despite recent Welsh Government investment in town centre regeneration, Mr Sexton said the CoW is “the last piece in the jigsaw puzzle” for Blaenau Gwent.

“At the learning zone we are training people to a very high standard. The area needs people to stay here and they picked this area because there’s an employment resource”.

Rev. Geoff Waggett, representing Ebbw Vale churches, said here is a “hopelessness” about the current situation, something he sees every Friday night in Blaenau Gwent’s towns when he works as a Street Pastor – talking and making sure young people are safe as they go out for the night.

He said: “There’s only one word here which we can use to sum it all up and that’s survival. If it does not go through the public inquiry, what will happen to the people?

“But this project gives hope and aspiration. Someone had an aspiring vision and they have had the nerve and the guts to do it and we just want to support them wholeheartedly.

“The dream is in five or 10 years’ time you are going to see a drop in unemployment, an increase in the average wage, an increase in house prices, an increase in hope for the future.”

Last month it was agreed Silverstone is to host this year’s MotoGP after planning obstacles meant building work has not yet started on the Ebbw Vale site. Circuit of Wales will host its first MotoGP in 2016.

The eight-day inquiry on Monday, March 9 will decide whether to grant HVDC permission to de-register the 250 hectares of common land.

Organisations including the Gwent Wildlife Trust and National Resources Wales have said they oppose the proposal.

Ms Barfoot, of Tai Calon, said: “It’s just so exciting. Between 4,000 and 6,000 jobs - it’s a no brainer. The infrastructure has been put there for the education and leisure, now all we need is the circuit.

“It’s a draw for people who have left the area to come back.”

Phil Edwards said the project is set to increase the footfall in towns in Blaenau Gwent, which have been “haemorrhaging customers”.

“The people of Blaenau Gwent deserve this employment and should not be denied it.”