Author: Rhys Gregory

RCT Cabinet Members have agreed a £27.665m Capital Programme for Highways, Transportation and Strategic Projects in 2023/24 – continuing the Council’s significant investment in these priority areas into the next financial year. Cabinet approved the programme at their meeting on Monday, March 27, making capital allocations of £10.725m (Highways Technical Services) and £16.940m (Strategic Projects) for the financial year starting April 1, 2023. The funding will help maintain, repair, improve and future-proof Rhondda Cynon Taf’s highway and transportation network, with targeted investment to respond to people’s changing travel demands and the effects of Climate Change. The programme complements major external…

Caerphilly Council is exploring ways to boost recycling rates and create a greener county borough for all as part of an ambitious waste and recycling strategy for the future. Local authorities are required to meet strict Welsh Government recycling targets and Caerphilly is working hard to ensure it reaches the current target of 70%, as well as even higher rates announced for the coming years. Leader of council, Cllr. Sean Morgan said, “We need to be bold and ambitious in our revised approach to improve current recycling performance as we are not meeting the 70% rate. The world is facing…

Cllr Shayne Cook, Cabinet Member for Housing was joined by Leader of Council, Cllr Sean Morgan and local ward Councillors, Colin Gordon, Mike Adams, Pat Cook and other members of Caerphilly County Borough Council in touring the Chartist Garden Village development in Pontllanfraith, with leading developer Lovell and its partner Pobl Group. Chartist Garden Village is a design and build scheme being delivered by Lovell on the former council office site, consisting of 123 properties, including 40 one, two, three and four-bedroom homes for open market sale, 40 affordable shared ownership homes and 43 affordable homes for rent. The development…

Llangattock Litter Pickers and staff from Powys County Council and Monmouthshire County Council came together on Thursday (23 March) for a community clean up the local area as part of Keep Wales Tidy’s Spring Clean Cymru campaign. Working together, a team of 17 volunteers removed over 20 bags of litter and recycling from in and around Llangattock, a beautiful area on the Powys and Monmouthshire border. They were joined by Keep Wales Tidy Chief Executive Owen Derbyshire, who is traveling across the country to carry out clean-ups every day during this year’s Spring Clean Cymru (17 March to 2…

At the Growing Mid Wales Board meeting held on 28 March, key documents have been approved, moving the Mid Wales Growth Deal a step closer to unlocking £110m combined funding from both the UK and Welsh Government. The updated Strategic Portfolio Business Case, which is the overarching document detailing how the Growth Deal Portfolio will be delivered and meet its objectives, will now be submitted to both Governments along with vital supporting documents so that they can consider issuing the first tranche of funding for the Mid Wales Growth Deal. Part of this process has included an independent assurance review…

The Welsh Government is progressing with plans to expand the compound semiconductor cluster in Newport following a successful trade mission to California’s Silicon Valley, Economy Minister, Vaughan Gething has announced today. The Welsh Government is working with the SPTS division of KLA Corporation – a division that provides wafer processing solutions to semiconductor and microelectronic device manufacturers – to support its plans to expand operations in the city as part of an already announced $100M investment. The company, which currently employs a highly skilled workforce of over 550 people in the city, is developing its new base at Newport’s Celtic…

First Minster Mark Drakeford will visit the Basque Country this week to meet the Basque President, government Ministers and the President of the Basque Parliament. The First Minister will also meet with CAF and Gestamp – two Basque companies with strong links in Wales. CAF expanded into Wales in 2017 to manufacture rail stock for the UK network. It employs 220 people at its base on the former Llanwern steel site in Newport. Gestamp is a multi-national company, which employs 255 people in Llanelli. It specialises in the design and manufacture of components for vehicle manufacturers. The First Minister’s visit…

The Senedd has formally refused consent for the UK Government’s Retained EU Law Bill in a vote yesterday evening [Tuesday 28th March]. Mick Antoniw, the Welsh Government’s Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, said the proposed legislation threatens food standards, environmental protections, workers’ rights, and business and consumer certainty. The Retained EU Law Bill seeks to repeal or replace more than 2,400 pieces of former EU law that were converted into domestic legislation as part of the EU exit process. The plans in the Bill would lead to most of these laws dropping off the UK statute book by…

People who take a holiday in Wales say they’re very satisfied with their experiences in the country, new research published by Visit Wales today shows. The reports from the Visit Wales consumer re-contact survey provides information on the trip-taking behaviours and intentions of Visit Wales’ consumer contacts. Consumer contacts are people who engaged with and provided their contact details to Visit Wales in 2022 – they are also referred to as ‘enquirers’. Some findings on enquirers from the UK and Ireland include: 61% of Visit Wales enquirers from the UK and Ireland took a holiday or short break in Wales…

Police have found a body in the search for missing local man, David Evans, from Llantrisant. Mr Evans, aged 77, is from Llantrisant in Rhondda Cynon Taff and was last seen in Ynysangharad Park, Pontypridd and 10.15 on Thursday. Known locally as Russell, he was last seen wearing a full-length green raincoat, blue jeans, black shoes, glasses and possibly a scarf. Detective Inspector Dan Michel said: “A body of a man was found near the River Taff in Taff’s Well at around 3.20pm on Monday. “Although formal identification has not yet taken place, the family of missing man David Evans,…