Author: Rhys Gregory

Bridgend County Borough Council’s Leader Huw David has warned that the upcoming budget setting process for 2024/2025 will be the toughest of his time in local government. At the end of the first quarter of the financial year, the council has a projected year end overspend of approximately £10 million. The main financial pressures are in the service areas of Home to School Transport and Social Services and Wellbeing. The sustained high levels of inflation are having an impact on the cost of Home to School Transport while Social Care is particularly affected by an exponential increase in demand. The…

An abandoned dog found wandering the streets of St Mellons in Cardiff, and taken in by Cardiff Dogs Home, has become one of South Wales Police’s newest recruits. The team at the Dog’s Home work closely with South Wales Police, who spotted that the Belgian Malinois, called Sid, had all the attributes needed to become a police dog. When Sid became available for adoption, it was decided he would join South Wales Police temporarily to see if he could pass the assessments. With the dedicated help of his handler and the other instructors, Sid successfully passed and is now a…

The Mayor of Neath Port Talbot’s Remembrance Concert, which returns to the Princess Royal Theatre on Friday October 27th, will be hosted by popular singer, songwriter and radio and TV presenter Mal Pope. This year, Mal Pope is celebrating 50 years in showbusiness – his career beginning in the 1970s when as a schoolboy he sent a tape of his songs to Radio 1 DJ John Peel It led to Swansea born Mal signing to Elton John’s Rocket Records and over the years he has written songs for Cliff Richard and the Hollies, duetted with Bonnie Tyler, toured with Art…

The RSPCA is marking International Rabbit Day 2023 with a plea for prospective owners to give new homes for hundreds of unwanted bunnies. The animal charity’s centres are packed with abandoned and unwanted pets given up by their owners, with both the cost-of-living crisis and owners becoming overwhelmed by pet overbreeding thought to be contributing to the problem. RSPCA branches, along with the charity’s national animal and wildlife centres are under pressure because rehoming rates have fallen in recent years, which has left them with many more rabbits waiting to start new lives. The numbers of rabbits rehomed by branches…

Principality Building Society are delighted to share that applications for the third Future Generations Fund in partnership with Community Foundation Wales are now being accepted. The fund provides financial grants to community groups and social projects across Wales and is delivered in partnership with Community Foundation Wales. A £300,000 fund will be made available in this cycle, with grants of up to £25,000 available, taking the total of donations made by Principality past the £1m milestone , since the Future Generations Fund was launched in 2022. The fund will look to support young people preparing for the world of work,…

Swim Wales, the National Governing Body for Aquatics in Wales, has announced a landmark partnership with Swansea University. This new multi-year collaboration marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Swim Wales and Swansea University and reinforces our shared commitment to nurturing talent, driving innovation, and promoting aquatics at all levels. Together, Swim Wales and Swansea University are committed to creating programs and pathways across the aquatic landscape, from supporting the world-class performance environment at Wales National Pool Swansea, to exploring collaboration opportunities that will allow us to push the boundaries of knowledge and innovation in our sports. By…

Tickets are now on sale for a series of special events from the Wales Broadcast Archive and its partners, BBC Cymru Wales, ITV Cymru Wales and S4C. The Wales Broadcast Archive Presents… series will celebrate Welsh broadcasting, its stars and their contribution to the country’s screen and sound heritage. The first three events give a platform to individuals from the world of drama, comedy, presenting and journalism, with stories about their life, work and career drawing on rare clips from the archive. The world renowned actor and star of Y Gwyll / Hinterland, Richard Harrington, will be interviewed by presenter…

The Principality Cardiff Half Marathon descends on the streets of the Welsh capital on Sunday (1 October) as it celebrates its 20th anniversary. And organisers have today revealed that it will be the biggest Cardiff Half to date, with more people than ever before gearing up for the course which starts at Cardiff Castle and finishes in the Civic Centre. Matt Newman, Chief Executive of Run 4 Wales, event organisers of the Cardiff Half, says that the event has grown into one of the key dates in the city’s calendar:  “The race has sold out for the sixth time with a…

More than 5,000 new businesses were set up in Wales this summer, according to new research from R3, the UK’s insolvency and restructuring trade body. R3’s analysis of data provided by Creditsafe shows there were 5,014 start-ups in Wales over the summer months – an increase of 7.1% on last year’s figure of 4,683. Welsh start-up numbers peaked in August of this year, when 1,693 firms were launched, after falling between June (1,672) and July (1,649). This was a change on the trend in 2022, when numbers decreased during the summer months. Wales’s yearly increase in start-ups has been mirrored…

A North Wales container-based storage company has opened its first site in Liverpool. The move is part of a major expansion into the North West by Denbigh-based Lock Stock which also has 27 storage parks across North and Mid Wales and the border counties. The new site, just under an acre in size, is on the Chapel Brook Trade Estate on Wilson Road, Huyton, and will have an initial capacity for 116 containers for self-storage. Regional Manager for Lock Stock Self Storage Mike Trow said: “This is our first time on Merseyside and we do see a gap in the…