Not only was the Folly Tower one of the coolest places to be last Thursday, it also gave me a chance to look out over much of the rest of Torfaen and beyond.

I was able to re-open the tower and nearby shell grotto after the council invested in their refurbishment, to allow future generations to enjoy them.

Thank you to the landowners and to Friends of Pontypool Park for working with us and for enabling them to be open to members of the public on Bank Holiday Monday, August 29.

I know times are tough at the moment and Torfaen and Gwent have their fair share of challenges, but I’m proud of our area. Proud of its natural beauty, of its heritage and culture and most of all of its strong communities. We should talk up our area more – it is a great place to live and to visit.

We’ve seen that strength of community recently at events like Party in the Park in Pontypool, Heritage Day in Blaenavon and at The Big Event in Cwmbran. I saw it again at the weekend at the fun day and ceremony celebrating the reaffirmation of the Freedom of the Borough to the Royal Welsh and to the Royal British Legion.

It's been 10 years since the freedom was granted to The Royal Welsh - the highest honour a local authority can bestow - in recognition of their service. In June 2021 the council also awarded the Royal British Legion the Freedom of the Borough in recognition of their charitable work and support of ex-servicemen and women within the borough.

Times are tough at the moment with the rising cost of living. We’re determined to do everything we can to help, within our available budgets and powers.

That’s why we made the £150 cost of living payments to all residents in Bands A-D as quickly as possible earlier in the year, benefitting nearly 40,000 households.

An additional payment is being made this month to nearly 3,000 families in receipt of free school meals, as we know the summer holidays can be an expensive time with children at home.

From September, school meals will be free to all nursery, reception, year 1 and year 2 pupils thanks to Welsh Government funding and the work of our catering teams.

We’ve invested £84,000 to reduce the cost of community meals by £2 per meal until February 2023, helping cut costs for that group of local residents.

We’ve extended our work with FareShare Cymru, delivering food every week to community centres, foodbanks and food share schemes right around Torfaen, providing help to those in need.

We’ve increased funding for Financial Inclusion and advice teams, working with agencies like the CAB to help people experiencing financial difficulties.

Last week, we announced £138,000 set aside for winter energy support for households, with more details to follow in the autumn.

None of this is on its own sufficient. We know more needs to be done, and I would appeal to the UK Government to help households facing another rise in energy bills in October. We cannot and will not walk on by as a cost of living crisis causes hardship and suffering.