Author: Rhys Gregory

Law firm Blake Morgan has appointed Rob Thomas as a new partner to strengthen its corporate tax expertise. Rob joins the firm’s Cardiff office from his previous role as an associate director within a corporate tax practice. As well as being a specialist in UK domestic and international corporate tax, Rob is also a chartered tax adviser and a previous winner of a prestigious legal prize, LexisNexis, for his specialist tax knowledge. Rob has experience working with clients ranging from private equity funds and large multi-national businesses to start-ups and individuals. Covering a variety of industries and sectors, his advice spans issues…

Students at a Cardiff secondary school are preparing for the school trip of a lifetime to New York City. A group of 16 year 10 students from Mary Immaculate High School will be jetting off to the United States for a six-day visit to ‘the Big Apple’ next month (February). The students will spend much of their time at Riverdale Country School, an independent school in the Bronx. There they will spend three days working closely with art students and a day shadowing sports students to compare and contrast their own school curriculum with that of their host school. During…

Paramount has won a contract to continue the transformation of one of the most prominent buildings on Cardiff’s commercial landscape, Hodge House. The Cardiff-headquartered design, build, fit-out and refurbishment specialist will spearhead the ongoing refurbishment of the city centre’s Hodge House for owners Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM). Paramount has been given the approval to lead on the renovation of the first and second floors of Hodge House in a project that will provide 43,000-sq ft of prime office space. Stride Treglown is the architect for the scheme, with a project team including JLL, Currie and Brown and Hoare…

Barclays and the Development Bank of Wales have awarded a syndicated facility to Bluestone. It’s Barclays’ second sustainability-linked financing to Bluestone and the largest ever strategic funding deal for the Development Bank. The total loan facility will enable Bluestone Resorts, which operates Bluestone National Park Resort in Pembrokeshire, to continue with a major sustainable investment programme that is already underway, including the ongoing development of the resort and the development of a 5-hectare solar farm that will generate 3.2 megawatts of electricity a year. The new solar farm is expected to provide up to 30% of Bluestone’s annual electricity usage.…

This week, on the first episode of Steve Lamacq’s Teatime Session (Mondays, 4-7pm, on BBC Radio 6 Music), Steve was joined by Huw Stephens (Tuesdays – Fridays, 4-7pm) to announce 6 Music’s plans to celebrate Independent Venue Week 2024 – the UK’s annual, seven-day celebration of venues and the people that own, run and work in them. From Monday 29th January – Friday 2nd February, 6 Music once again takes the tour bus around the UK, with Steve and Huw broadcasting their 4-7pm shows from a different independent venue each day, bringing listeners performances from those sites by artists including…

Specialist business property adviser, Christie & Co, has announced the sale of Towy Castle Care Home in Carmarthen, Dyfed. Originally built as a residential mansion in the eighteenth century, for the last 35 years Towy Castle has operated as a care home with a strong ethos and a dedicated, well-trained staffing team. The home, which is ideally set on three acres of land and offers spectacular views over the Towy Estuary and surrounding countryside, is registered to provide personal care for up to 60 people over the age of 65. For the last 25 years, the business has been run…

On Saturday night, Drop Bear Beer Co. – the world’s largest LGBTQ+ brewery – celebrated a major achievement with the official launch of its new brewery in Swansea. Founded by wives Joelle and Sarah Drummond, the alcohol-free beer specialist acquired the 16,000 sq ft former Tomos Watkin facility to bring production in-house. The launch solidifies Drop Bear’s status as both the largest LGBTQ+ and female-owned brewery in the UK. After raising £2.1 million from investors, the team has spent months upgrading equipment to produce up to 25 million cans per year of their popular 0.5% ABV brews. “As the world’s…

The Classic Rock Show are all set to kick-off the opening leg of their extensive 2024 world tour next week via a series of new UK live dates, which includes a show at Cardiff Utilita Arena on 17th January. Promising to be bigger and even better and celebrating, once again, the very best of classic rock, the acclaimed band will thrill audiences on their new 27-date run of British shows throughout January & February 2024, in conjunction with CMP Entertainment. The Classic Rock Show perform with note-for-note precision, bringing every rock fan’s favourite original iconic and era-defining recordings back to…

There are scores of free and subsidised activities taking place in Swansea this winter for children and young people and families as well as residents aged over 50. In the autumn groups and organisations were invited to apply to the council for grants under the new Enabling Communities fund. In total 105 were successful and they are offering a huge range of sessions including sport, health and wellbeing, cultural and art activities. This funding is also supporting disadvantaged areas and people struggling with the cost of living crisis including providing food, play schemes, mental health support, substance use issues, young…

Neath Port Talbot Council’s Chief Executive has announced that she will retire towards the end of 2024. Karen Jones has worked for the Council in a variety of senior roles for over 20 years and took up the role of Chief Executive in 2020 where she has led the Council from the height of the pandemic into recovery. Reflecting on her decision Karen said: “I have had a wonderful experience working for Neath Port Talbot Council. It really is an organisation that is committed to serving its communities to the best of its ability and where officers and councillors continually…