IT takes all sort as the saying goes and that's certainly the case for Maesglas Road, Newport.

In this week's Our Street Sam Rkaina talks to residents from very different walks of life.

MAESGLAS Road is a residential area with a strong sense of community and a wide range of interesting characters.

From an amateur radio enthusiast to a woman with 17 brothers and sisters, all human life can be found there in more than 130 houses.

The Argus to spoke a number of people in the street, from recent arrivals to others who have spent most of their lives there.

All praised their neighbours and said it was a great location with easy access to Tredegar Park, local schools, shops and the city centre.

Christine Palmer, 62, has lived in Maesglas Road for 40 years, but was born in Pill as one of 18 children.

She said: "There are only eight of us left now but I remember when there were 10 of us sat round the table when we were younger.

"The 18 included two sets of twins.

"My husband and I moved here in 1968, there's been big changes since then.

"The houses have all changed as they were all old red brick buildings when we came and everyone had privet hedges."

Mrs Palmer was a member of the former Maesglas community group and helped run a local playgroup in the 1970s.

To fund the group they held a number of fundraising events including a walk from Newport to Cardiff wearing shoes two sizes too big and a men versus women rugby match.

The former cleaner at St Josephs School said the women won because they got the men drunk.

Shamin Malik, 47, moved to Maesglas six years ago, coming all the way from Glasgow.

She said she couldn't imagine a warmer welcome from her neighbours.

She said: "We moved because there's better living here, Glasgow was getting very rough.

"I love it here. I think the people are friendly".

Mrs Malik's husband was left brain damaged after a cardiac arrest four years ago and now spends most of her time caring for him at Llanbedr Court in Langstone.

She said her neighbours had all been very supportive of her during this difficult time.

Her 12-year-old son Haroon likes the area too.

The Duffryn pupil said he had made quite a lot of friends since moving to Maesglas.

Ian Giles, 44, and Leah James, 31, are relatively new to the area, having moved to Maesglas a year and a half ago.

They live in a council property with Miss James's 15-year-old son and four-year-old daughter Aleisha.

Miss James said: "I like it here it's near for my son to go to school at Duffryn, most of my family live here and it's easy to get into town.

"We seem to get on well with everyone."

Animal lover Peter Curley has lived in the area for 19 years, with his dalmation Penny who he regularly takes to Tredegar Park.

He gets on well with other people in the street but believes more should be done to give young people in the area something to do.

Mr Curley said: "My neighbours are good as gold, we look after one another.

"But I don't like the area as much as I used to, there's a lot of kids in hoodies about, which creates a bad atmosphere.

"There's no facilities for kids, they need something to take them off the streets in the winter."

Hugh Duggan, 63, has lived in Maesglas Road for 20 years and is a ham radio enthusiast.

He and his wife Jenny, 60, also make dolls houses together, and moved to Maesglas from Llanwern Street.

They have three children and 11 grandchildren, all of whom live in the Newport area.

He said: "I'm a member of Newport Amateur Radio Society, we meet once a week and arrange to meet on remote islands in the middle of nowhere to speak to people all over the world.

"We've been up to Scotland and done Lundy Island a couple of times.

"The beauty of ham radio is that you never know who's going to be on, because of weather conditions and other factors it's random.

"The furthest person I've ever spoken to was in Australia.

"The group's been in the doldrums a bit lately due to computers which is a shame, but I was still on the radio on Christmas Day."