However, following intervention from Bridgend County Borough Council, that might be about to change.

Cllr Charles Smith, cabinet member for education and regeneration at the council, says change cannot come quickly enough. “Salt Lake is not attractive and it lets down Porthcawl, which in most other ways is a very attractive place to live,” he says. “Porthcawl is a seaside resort but one that hasn’t had the same problems as you see in many English resorts. Places like Blackpool are a bit down at heel and have all sorts of problems, but Porthcawl isn’t at all like that, apart from the Salt Lake site.”

The site’s troubles date back to the end of the Second World War, when Porthcawl’s status as a coal port was coming to an end. At that time, the site was occupied by the substantial railway infrastructure required to move the coal to and from the port. When the coal industry dried up in the town, the then-nationalised British Rail sold up and did so in a manner that created difficulties for decades to come.