I sought the debate to draw attention to the restoration of the Newbridge Memo, in my constituency. That extraordinary building, which includes a 1920s art deco cinema, is not a museum as so many other miners institutes have become. It is the living, pumping heart of the town of Newbridge and the surrounding area. It is open seven days a week, and 28 local organisations use it for everything from tea dances to meetings of the Royal British Legion.

The Memo’s dance floor is said to be the best in Wales. Over the past eight decades, great names ranging from the Joe Loss orchestra to James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire of the Manic Street Preachers have played there—James Dean Bradfield used to serve behind the bar. Tom Jones had a pretty rough time when he sang there at the start of his career. One of the Memo’s bouncers went on to become head of news at ITV. Ricky Valance, the first British singer ever to have a number one in the United States, with “Tell Laura I Love Her”, is a local lad and performed at the Memo only last year.

The Prince of Wales visited. He asked that his visit be extended to more than two hours and said that he would come back to reopen the Memo when the restoration was complete. The Memo was runner-up in the final of the BBC’s “Restoration” programme. Hundreds of Newbridge folk marched behind members of the local colliery band and others to Hampton Court palace for the final. The Memo is no royal palace, but it is the palace of the valleys. Ruth Madoc, the actress, named it that when asked where her palace would be if she were Queen of Wales. She said, “The Newbridge Memo.” The Memo was used as a key location for the shooting of the film “Very Annie Mary”. “Flick”, starring Faye Dunaway, was partly filmed there, and last year it played host for the filming of a full-length episode of “Doctor Who”.

The Memo or, to give it its full name, the Celynen collieries institute and memorial hall was built and paid for by the pennies of miners and their families. It was built in memory of the boys from Newbridge who went to the great war of 1914 to 1918 and never returned. The name of every serviceman from the town who answered the call to serve our country is listed on the walls of the Memo—not just those who gave their lives, but everybody who was ever called to the colours from that town. I think that that is probably unique.

After such a build-up, one might ask, “Why this debate?” Well, the answer is simple. The Friends of Newbridge Memo need money to carry on the restoration. They need £4.9 million to start and they have been turned down by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Let me say at this stage that I am very disappointed that no Minister from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which after all is the Department responsible for the HLF, could be bothered to reply to this debate. However, I am hugely encouraged by the presence of my constituency next-door neighbour—he represents Caerphilly—and good friend the Under-Secretary of State for Wales. Although the Wales Office has no direct responsibility for this matter, I know that, with him and the Secretary of State for Wales, my pleading will not fall on deaf ears.

I am very glad to be able to pledge my support for the cause. People throughout Wales took an interest when the Memo was on television. It was an interesting programme and it was very disappointing that the Memo came second. Does the right hon. Gentleman share my disappointment that so much lottery funding is being diverted from Wales? The sums required in this case could easily be met from the £107 million that I understand has been diverted from Wales to the Olympics.

I will certainly come to that point shortly. It is a matter that I wish to develop in my argument.

Both Ministers in the Wales Office come from true working-class stock and know only too well the debt that we owe the mining communities of Wales. Just as the whole community came together to build the Memo in the first place, they now rally behind the Friends of the Memo and their chairman, Howard Stone. The Friends of the Memo are all volunteers. All give endless hours of their time and all make a contribution to the quality of life of the people of Newbridge that is beyond measure. Their last application was turned down by the Heritage Lottery Fund, but they have not been deterred. They have already embarked on a second bid with determination and grit. My worry is whether the pot will be empty when their bid goes in. So much money for good causes has been diverted to the 2012 Olympics—as I well know as a member of the Public Accounts Committee—that I fear the cupboard will soon be bare.

The permanent secretary at the DCSF and David Higgins, chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority, appeared before the PAC on 14 November 2007. The PAC was told that the national lottery fund would have to contribute £2.17 billion to the Olympics—an increase of £675 million. Surely that cannot be good news for projects such as the Newbridge Memo, which need lottery funding so badly. We heard in the PAC that a £5 billion error had been made in estimating the true cost of the Olympic games, and the national lottery—or should I say worthwhile projects such as ours—will pay the price for that error. I am concerned that the Heritage Lottery Fund will be squeezed, that people who work hard to restore amazing buildings such as the Memo will become discouraged and that those worthwhile projects that celebrate working-class history will be lost for ever.

The 2012 Olympics will, I am convinced, be a time of great celebration and success for this country, and I want the Olympics to succeed, but I hope that those celebrations will not leave a bitter aftertaste for the Memo if our further bid is to fail. The truth is that funding for causes such as the Memo has been pillaged to help the Olympics and that has to stop now. Today, I am seeking a cast-iron assurance from the Government that no more lottery money will be siphoned off, thus putting projects such as the Memo restoration at risk.

I said earlier that the Memo was the palace of the valleys, and so it is, which makes me wonder: if it were a royal palace or a great family’s stately home, would it be treated better by the Heritage Lottery Fund when bidding for money? This palace celebrates the history not of royalty or great families, but of the working class of Britain—the people who put the word “Great” into Great Britain. Sadly, many people no longer have an idea of how important coal mining was to the communities that we grew up in. It is important that the restoration of the Memo goes ahead, because for some of us it is our last link to the historic past of the valleys in which we were born.

It is important to support the social and historical heritage of working people embodied in such places as miners institutes. They are fast disappearing from our towns and villages. If we want to prevent that, we must ensure that when restoration projects are proposed, the funding bodies give a fair share to those projects as they do to stately homes, palaces and castles. Many of those institutes have either gone to rack and ruin or become one of the many faceless Wetherspoon’s pubs that we see throughout the country.

I am determined, as are the Friends of the Memo, that we will not let that happen to the Newbridge Memo. Even though the Memo lost out on the £3 million prize from the “Restoration” programme, they made an application for £4.9 million to the Heritage Lottery Fund. Following advice from the officers of the HLF to turn the restoration into a two-phase project, they made an application for £3.2 million, which was turned down by the HLF trustee board.

I met Jennifer Stewart, head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in Wales, following the failure of the last bid, and I was told that there was nothing wrong with the bid but the Memo lost out because there was just £6.5 million left in the pot because of funding having to go elsewhere. I thank Jennifer Stewart and her team, because they have been very encouraging and supportive to the Friends of the Memo, who, as I said, are all volunteers. I spoke to her only this morning, and she told me how impressed she had been that the Friends of the Memo, having been turned down by the HLF just recently, have come back determined to fight back and make a further bid. They have a very positive approach. Jennifer Stewart is encouraged by that, and so am I. What concerns me, however, is the criteria used by the Heritage Lottery Fund when judging bids. Indeed, when I asked that very question of the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, I was told:

“The Heritage Lottery Fund assesses all applications against its strategic aims. In addition, the Heritage Lottery Fund considers project planning and delivery, projects costs and partnership funding, long-term viability and value for money.”—[Official Report, 15 September 2008; Vol. 479, c. 2024W.]

Does the Newbridge Memo not have long-term viability? Of course it does. Does it not give value for money? Yes, of course it does.

I am sorry, but I still do not understand how the Heritage Lottery Fund can decide that one project should be judged more worthy than another. Perhaps it should apply common sense—although I remember my mother saying to me as a lad, “Son, in life you’ll find that sense isn’t that common.” A little common sense should be applied, so that if two projects of equal merit are being considered, preference or added weight ought to be given to projects in county boroughs such as Caerphilly—I share the borough with my hon. Friend the Minister—that have not had their fair share of lottery funding.

The Memo has probably had one of the highest profiles of any heritage project restoration in Wales. I am sure that the hon. Member for Caernarfon (Hywel Williams) will confirm that. It is seen in headlines almost every week. However, the popular vote seems to count for nothing for the trustee board of the Heritage Lottery Fund. The borough of Caerphilly has had just 38 Lottery awards, totalling £566,000. It is the second lowest supported area of Wales. We have been let down. All we want is a fair share so that that wonderful project can go ahead.

In a couple of weeks, we will be marking the 90th anniversary of the end of first world war. The historical importance of the Memo needs to be recognised, of course it does; but more important is the fact that the Memo is no museum. It is the very heart of a very special town. The people of Newbridge and the Memo deserve better treatment with the new bid. I hope my that my hon. Friend will have something encouraging to say. I invite him and the Wales Office to stand shoulder to shoulder with me and the community of Newbridge as we make a renewed bid for funding to restore the Memo. It is a palace for the valleys—a palace for working people to enjoy and celebrate. It deserves a great future.

I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Islwyn (Mr. Touhig) on securing this debate and on his tireless campaigning for the restoration of the Newbridge memorial hall.

On Friday evening, I chaired a public meeting in my constituency of Caerphilly—as my right hon. Friend said, I am a neighbour of his—the purpose of which was to encourage members of the public to join together to save the Caerphilly workingmen’s hall. In giving guidance to the meeting, a speaker from the Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation went out of his way to pay tribute to what had happened in Newbridge. He said that it was a good example to follow and a model of good practice. That is certainly true: the community as a whole pulled together in support of the Memo. We should all take note of the fact. It is something of which to be proud.

The Newbridge memorial hall and institute—the Memo as its affectionately known locally—is an historic expression of the collectivism that made the south Wales valleys truly special. It was paid for by the local miners; and it was, and remains, one of the finest statements of south Wales when coal was truly king. Not only did it have a fine library and reading rooms, there was also a superb cinema decorated in the art deco style, a large dance hall and four billiard rooms.

On the demise of the coal industry, the memorial hall and institute went into decline. However, because of the vision and hard work of local people, working alongside my right hon. Friend, their local MP, enormous progress has been made in making the Memo the focal point of community life in Newbridge. It is heartening and inspiring to see people in the community working so hard for such a good cause.

I am pleased to say that the hall is once again returning to its former glory—its former central community position. My right hon. Friend referred to the large number of organisations that now make use of the hall’s facilities. A good example is that family events are now taking place there. A Halloween party is due to take place this weekend, and a ghost-hunting event is taking place in November for those of a more open and inquiring mind.

We should not forget the passion and hard work that went into the campaign that saw the Memo winning a place in the final of BBC’s “Restoration” programme in 2004. With real dedication and sheer hard work, the Memo saw off some strong Welsh competition from Llanfyllin union workhouse and Cardigan castle, and it came close to winning the final prize. Although it lost in the final to the Old Grammar School and Saracen’s Head, a 15th century school building and tavern, in Kings Norton, Birmingham, the Memo nevertheless captured the interest of the nation—including the Prince of Wales. I am pleased to be able to say that members of my family, many of my constituents and I all cast votes with enthusiasm. As my right hon. Friend would say, they voted early and often.

Programmes like “Restoration” have renewed interest and pride in our communities and their history. We only have to think of the time, effort and determination of the campaigns, whether successful or not, to see the pride and dedication that people put into them. Who could not agree that it re-instilled co-operation and hard work across the community? History is made real once again by that collective effort. That is not happening only in Newbridge; it is happening elsewhere in Wales and throughout the length and breadth of the United Kingdom. Indeed, I venture to suggest that the Memo has reinstated the values that had originally paid for and built the hall and institute. In an age when there is always some trouble or story of woe on the news, it is extremely heartening to hear the value of community shining through.

The Memo’s importance as a historic structure has been recognised through all that hard work. Cadw, the Welsh Assembly’s historic monuments body, has funded the first phase of repair, focusing on the roof and associated works—lead work and waterproofing against the elements. I am told that major restoration works to secure the building and make it the focus of the community will cost in the region of £3 million. The Heritage Lottery Fund has also provided funds through the project planning grant scheme to support the cost of developing specialist reports to help the conservation repair works. Owing to the nature of demand-led funding such as that of the Heritage Lottery Fund and because other projects also required similar sums, it was not possible to fund the Memo project during that funding round.

The Olympic Games have been mentioned. I emphasise that they are not the London Olympics or the English Olympics: they are the United Kingdom Olympics. It is only reasonable to expect all members of the UK, in one way or another, to make a contribution to ensuring that the 2012 Olympics are successful for the whole country.

Whenever we mention the Heritage Lottery Fund, we are talking about intense competition. For example, during the last funding period bids were made that amounted to more than five times the available resources; it is not simply that support is not being given by the lottery. The fact is that such competition is a good thing. People who are enormously enthusiastic are trying to tap into the Heritage Lottery Fund to ensure that their bids are successful. However, in January, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he was at the relevant Ministry, gave a cast-iron commitment that no further lottery resources would be going to support the Olympics. We should take note of that.

Although the Memo’s bid was not successful in June, it is important that we recognise that all hope is not lost—far from it. I understand that the Heritage Lottery Fund has discussed the application with the Memo’s trustees and the reasons why the bid was not initially successful. The trustees will be submitting a second bid next month for consideration in early 2009. I also understand that an important meeting of the Heritage Lottery Fund board of trustees will be taking place in November and that due consideration will be given to the bid then and afterwards.

On the remarks that the Minister made on further lottery funding for the Olympics, I emphasise that I believe that the Olympics are for the whole country, and we want them to be a huge success. However, if the Prince of Wales can come and spend two hours at the Memo, why is it not possible for officials of the Heritage Lottery Fund, who sit in London to take decisions, to come to look for themselves? I have invited them, but I have not had a positive reply. Will the Minister and the relevant Secretary of State intervene and get those people, who take their decisions far away in London, to see for themselves what a jewel that wonderful building is? It is used seven days a week, so they can come any day.

My right hon. Friend makes a very good point. When I have visited the Memo in the past, I was enormously impressed with the building, but more by the work that is being done there by the local community. I shall give him an assurance that I will immediately make representations to officials of the Heritage Lottery Fund, so that they do not consider the application in abstraction but go down to Newbridge and the Gwent valleys to see for themselves what a good project it is and its well worked-out plans.

Moreover, I am sure that, like me, the House collectively will wish the Memo every success this time around in securing the funding that it needs to return the building to the heart of the community, not as some kind of mausoleum, but as a practical manifestation of the strength of community spirit in Newbridge. I am sure that we all hope that the bid will be successful in the not-too-distant future.