Item 5 on the agenda are the 90-second statements. Vikki Howells. 

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. A hundred and twenty seven years ago on 23 June 1894, a tremendous explosion occurred at the Albion colliery in Cilfynydd. The blast was heard four miles around. It and a thick volume of sulphurous smoke were the terrible omens of the devastation that had occurred. Iron structures were stripped, bent like wire and propelled significant distances by the force of the blast. More traumatic still was the loss of live. The Cardiff Times and The South Wales Weekly News described Cilfynydd as resembling a city of the dead. Two hundred and ninety men and boys were killed that day, the youngest just 13 years old. It was the second-worst mining incident in Wales after the 1913 Senghenydd disaster. Whilst most of the victims were identified, the names of 11 remained unknown. In 1907, a memorial was unveiled in their honour at Llanfabon cemetery by Mabon, the well-known president of the South Wales Miners Federation.

Last week, I held the first of what I hope will become an annual event at that memorial in honour of those who lost their lives in the Albion. In a moving service led by Father Gareth Coombes, and along with representatives from Cilfynydd Primary School and Pontypridd High School, we laid floral tributes and had a moving service to remember the impact on their families and the wider community. The miners, their families and the community suffered a grievous loss that day. The least that we can do is to remember that tragedy.

With the Wimbledon tennis championships having begun this week, I'm delighted to congratulate a group of Neath residents who have undertaken the refurbishment of the town's tennis courts. And they've been recognised by the LTA, the Lawn Tennis Association, at their annual awards as one of the best community tennis projects in the UK. Quite a feat. 

Neath Tennis was formed in 2018 by the residents of Dyfed Road, with the intention of reopening the tennis courts that had been closed for 10 years. In less than three years, the group of volunteers managed to raise over £100,000 to resurface the court and to put fences in place. The group is very proud of having ensured that this facility is available for the whole community, and has kept the price of hiring courts within reach of everyone.

The courts are used by the Urdd and local schools, including Ysgol Gymraeg Castell-nedd, who play on the courts every day during the summer term. Also, tennis training has been provided to children regularly, and there's a social tennis session for adults held every Saturday afternoon for those who want to play and make new friends.

It's a pleasure therefore to congratulate the group formally for their work here in the Chamber, and to wish Neath Tennis every success in the future. Thank you.

I was saddened to hear this week that Bryn Seion chapel in Ystrad Mynach will be closing its doors for the last time on Sunday. The chapel has served the area since 1906, and has been a focal point of Welsh life not only in the town of Ystrad Mynach itself, but throughout the valley as a whole. It was a branch of the old chapel in Hengoed, and over many years generations of families marked the milestones of their lives within its walls: baptisms, weddings and funerals. So many of us attended a youth club, the Band of Hope, in the vestry when we were little, and took part in nativity plays—sometimes as Mary, sometimes as a shepherd, sometimes as a star in the heavens.

Bryn Seion wasn’t just a building, but the heart of a community: a place for celebration and devotion, a place to remember and to grieve. It was a building where you would like to see the walls not just speaking but dancing, singing their songs of praise. Its loss will not just be felt in the Baptist community, but among families and streets the length and breadth of the valley. And, although the numbers at the service on Sunday will be limited, in spirit the chapel will be full of old friends.

Thank you.