Author: Rhys Gregory

The Executive Board of Royal BAM Group NV has announced that Ian Parish, Executive Director, BAM Nuttall, has decided to retire from the business on 31 December 2022. Huw, a chartered civil engineer, joined BAM in 2009 following previous roles with both contracting and client organisations in the industry, initially joining as a project manager in the South West of England before moving on to various roles across the rail division. Huw subsequently became the Division Director for Rail in 2017 before being promoted to his current role as Managing Director for Transport in April this year. He is married…

Dan Stanley, the award-winning founder of the BetterMen organisation and author of Rethinking Masculinity is sending a message to all men this festive season – share your feelings, don’t bottle them up. The festive and New Year period puts a lot of pressure on people. From festive films to TV shows, from advertising to Christmas cards, everyone seems to be enjoying themselves and living their best life. But the reality is often different.   In a recent YouGov poll, 88% of respondents said that they felt lonely at Christmas, 81% said they found Christmas stressful and 47% were worried about debt.…

The UK’s largest canine charity offers advice to dog-owners for upcoming firework celebrations and is calling for volunteers to take part in ground-breaking study. With many people planning to see in the New Year with fireworks, Dogs Trust which has rehoming centres in Bridgend and Cardiff, is issuing advice to help owners prepare their pets who might be scared by the unexpected bangs and blasts of fireworks as the clock strikes midnight on 31 December 2022. Angela Wetherall, Dogs Trust Wales Manager said: “Dogs have approximately four times more sensitive hearing than humans, so the loud cracks and bangs of fireworks can often…

A Welsh fuel supplier has spread Christmas cheer to the elderly in Wales donating in excess of half a million pounds worth of fuel to keep them warm over the festive period.  Earlier this year, Oil 4 Wales announced it would be donating a one-off delivery of 800 litres of oil to its customers aged 80 years old or over to ensure they were kept warm over the winter months.  Since then, the family-run company, which has depots across Wales, has been inundated with requests and despite initially forecasting to pledge £75,000 worth of fuel, it has now donated over…

Swansea Council’s Cabinet has agreed to go out to consultation on a programme of investment that will see an average £1.9m a day spent on key services like schools, care and community services next year. Despite services facing huge national energy and inflation pressures totalling £44m and a real-terms cut in Government funding, the council is aiming to spend millions of pounds more in services like education, care and community services the council deliver every day. A Cabinet meeting today (December 22) agreed proposals for the budget for 2023/24 that will go out for consultation from January 3. After that…

Neath Port Talbot Public Services Board has published a draft Local Well-being Plan and is asking for feedback to help ensure that the final plan will help to improve well-being across the county borough. The Board brings together public, private and third sector organisations to improve the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of Neath Port Talbot. Cllr. Steve Hunt, Council Leader and Chair of the Neath Port Talbot Public Services Board said: “Earlier this year, the Board published a well-being assessment that captures the strengths and assets of people and communities across the county borough. “The assessment told us…

Reduced Parking charges are to be reintroduced in CCBC pay and display car parks from Monday 2 January 2023. Parking charges in council owned town centre car parks were suspended in June 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and remained free throughout 2021/22 to encourage residents to shop local and help business recover as they came out of lockdown. The changes will affect all the main town centres in the county borough: Bargoed, Blackwood, Caerphilly, Newbridge, Risca and Ystrad Mynach. In order to support our town centres, visitors will now be charged a reduced rate of 40p for the first hour…

Following extensive engagement with communities and stakeholders, the county’s Active Travel Network Maps (ATNM) have now been officially approved by Welsh Government. The maps, which show current active travel routes and details of aspirational future routes within the county’s 11 designated active travel localities (as defined by Welsh Government), can be viewed on the Welsh Government hosted DataMapWales site here: https://datamap.gov.wales/maps/active-travel-network-maps “The Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013 aims to make Wales a walking and cycling nation.” explains Cllr Jackie Charlton, Cabinet Member for a Greener Powys. “Essentially, this means that we are endeavouring to make it possible for us to…

Community facilities across Wales are set to benefit from ‘crucial’ additional Welsh Government funding enabling them to complete refurbishment works. The projects had struggled to stay within their original budgets due to rising costs of building supplies. More than £303,000 will go towards additional funding for five larger projects. In total fifteen projects are receiving funding totalling £467,000 in this round of the Community Facilities Programme. This included £164,000 towards ten smaller projects, all receiving under £25,000 grants. Small amounts of grant funding can provide a big change for community facilities. The programme funds the purchase and improvement of facilities…

It’s been a blockbuster year for film and TV in Wales with productions from the world’s biggest studios making Wales their home. The Welsh Government’s creative agency, Creative Wales reports £14.2m of production funding has been successfully awarded to 22 projects since its inception in January 2020, and spend from brands such as Lucasfilm, Netflix and Bad Wolf has generated over £155.6m of production spend into the Welsh Economy. With shooting for big-budget films like Havoc which recently wrapped and Wales-made series like Willow, His Dark Materials 3 and the fourth season of Sex Education poised to hit screens, the…