Ely riots, two years on: A Cardiff community pulling itself back together holds lessons for Britain

Riots sparked by the deaths of two young boys in Cardiff in 2023 put the area of Ely into the national spotlight. But afterwards, something remarkable happened as a community worked out how to rebuild.

Two years ago on the night of 22 May, two teenagers died riding an electric bike. Up to 150 people gathered in the wake of the crash, setting cars on fire and wounding 12 police officers. Police initially blamed the disorder on “false rumours” that they’d been chasing 16-year-old Kyrees Sullivan and 15-year-old Harvey Evans. But CCTV later showed a police van following them. Forty-two people have been charged in relation to the riots.

Get the latest news and insight into how the Big Issue magazine is made by signing up for the Inside Big Issue newsletter

The events of the night are still a live issue, and investigations by the Independent Office for Police Conduct are ongoing. But those who woke up the next morning to devastation on their streets could not wait for any official verdicts. Big Issue spoke to those who picked up the pieces. What they did next matters – not just to an underdog part of Cardiff, but to any community striving to improve itself and a nation trying to turn poverty around before it leads to something darker.

Liam Mackay predicted the riots, in a way. He runs Caerau and Ely Mini and Juniors rugby club and works for Cardiff Metropolitan University to support young people. Back in 1991, Ely was engulfed by the bread riots, as local youths battled with police. In 2021, Mackay warned: “We could be one night away from that happening again.” Less than two years later, his prediction came true.

Like most others, he watched the riots unfold on his phone. “One part of me sort of thought, ‘Go on boys.’ I’m an Ely boy, I feel the same grievances everyone else does,” he said. “And the other part of me thought, ‘Fucking hell you’re going to be in trouble tomorrow.’”

The next morning, pupils turned up to Cardiff West Community High School as normal. Assistant head Rhys Pritchard told us: “It was a very quiet day afterwards. We thought it’d be quite an uprising and it wasn’t. I think there was a level of shock from the pupils. And although they probably knew people involved, a lot of them were frightened.”

Read more:

• Wales’ first minister Eluned Morgan: ‘We all have to be the change we want to see in the world’
• Reform or Plaid Cymru? Labour could lose Wales for the first time in over 100 years, voters say
• Wales’ future generations commissioner warns we’re not doing enough for people yet to be born

After a meeting between teachers, community organisations, the Welsh government, police and the council, a plan was formed to listen. Becky Matyus, of local charity Action in Caerau and Ely (ACE), was tasked with this. They went to any group they could think of, asking open questions: What needs to change? What are you concerned about? Between these sessions, an online survey, and a physical survey on the back of postcards in shops, they listened to 1,200 people’s concerns.

“It’s been a really hard time for a really long time; 15 years of austerity. People in communities like ours are struggling. So many people were saying the same thing,” said Matyus.

The stakes were high. “There was quite a big risk in taking on this work, that we would end up making promises that we couldn’t keep. That’s absolutely central to our role as a long-term charity that runs community centres in our area. We can’t do that. We can’t break promises,” she said.

‘Sometimes it turns to anger and desperation’

For those already working and living in the community, there was little mystery. “It’s quite easy to start from the riots and say what’s the impact of that. But really when you live in a community and work in a community, the story’s much longer than that. That event happened in the context of whatever else was already happening,” said Matyus.

West of Cardiff’s centre, Ely used to be one of Europe’s largest council estates. Welsh first minister Eluned Morgan, Shakin’ Stevens and Ryan Giggs all hail from here. But in recent years, two major employers have been lost: Arjowiggins Paper Mill and Ely Hospital. Ely has the highest proportion of children eligible for free school meals of anywhere in Wales. Economic inactivity is about twice the average of Cardiff. “Our pupils are quite worldly in an insular way. They know a lot about what goes on in the area, but they don’t look outside the area much,” said Pritchard.

The challenges faced by Ely will be familiar across the UK. “Once communities are driven into deep poverty, despair, with nowhere to turn, unfortunately sometimes it turns to a bit of anger and desperation. When people are desperate they do silly things,” said Mackay. Riots, said Martin Luther King Jr, are the “language of the unheard” .

What developed from the listening sessions was a community plan: 40 different initiatives, funded for a year. It came with £2 million of grant funding. The schemes included mental health provision for young people, practical support for families, youth mentoring, more places for teenagers to go, a community fridge, and careers advice. “Things like this have been done before” said Matyus. “What is rare is the level of that collaboration, particularly between local authority and local people, and bringing everybody together in this organic but quite structured way.” 

A football club has also formed out of the tragedy. K&H Forever Young FC, named for Kyrees and Harvey, play matches against teams from the Cardiff area. Elsewhere, sport can provide a point of pride, said Mackay of his rugby club: “We play rugby on a Sunday, and it’s the only time some of our children are on a level playing field with the rest of the city.”

‘The time for talk is done. We need action’

The year of funding is up now, and a final report details the numbers coming from the £2m investment. Pupils at six schools have taken part in a Food Hour, developing positive relationships to food and nutrition. Staff at nine schools have been trained to support families in crisis. Young people got to attend a Wales rugby game. A targeted employment service helped 156 people into employment.

It has also revealed challenges: mentoring has seen young people saying they’d rather use their time for socialising. And funding for mental health referrals ended on 31 March.

Beyond the individual statistics, Matyus believes it can have a legacy. “This work has helped people to lift their heads up a bit from the grind and realise there’s a lot we can do for ourselves if we work together,” she said.

Pritchard, whose school counts 70% of its pupils as eligible for free school meals, also sits on the steering group tasked with carrying the community plan forward. The aftermath of the riots has opened his eyes. “People were working in isolation. They were doing good things, but what the community plan did was give an opprtunity to bring all those people together,” he said.

“For us as a school, it was an important part for us to change the perception of education in the area. I think that gave us a vehicle to help us do that.”

While poverty does not inevitably bring riots, data shows it’s unusual to have riots where there isn’t poverty. An investigation from the 2011 London unrest showed the majority of those to appear in court lived in poor areas. Child poverty, another report found, was “stubbornly high” in areas where riots flared. When riots broke out in the summer of 2024, it was the same story. Seven of England’s 10 most deprived areas saw unrest, analysis by the Financial Times showed. Ely holds lessons for the rest of the country.

“In a weird way, it might be a good thing because it shows people care, they want better. When things are not going well, I’m not saying we should riot, but what I do say is we should stand up for what we believe, which is fairness and equality across the city,” said Mackay.

He believes residents need to be given more of a stake in decisions. “We can only go so far on our own, so we need to engage with officials, we need to engage with the council,” he said. “There are a lot of people where I live with a huge amount of potential to make a change if they were listened to, and given the keys,” he added. “The time for talk is done now. We need action.”

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. Big Issue exists to give homeless and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income. To support our work buy a copy of the magazine or get the app from the App Store or Google Play