Author: Rhys Gregory

The redevelopment of the County Borough Council’s Neighbourhood Learning Centre (NLC) at Gurnos has been shortlisted for two national awards. The building, which will open before Christmas as ‘a unique accommodation centre’ providing both housing and on-site training for residents aged 16-24, is one of the finalists in the Chartered Institute of Housing Cymru’s Welsh Housing Awards. Shortlisted in the ‘Working in Partnership’ category alongside Merthyr Valley Homes, this award ‘celebrates partnership and collaboration across the housing spectrum’. The ‘Positive Placemaking’ category acknowledges ‘the critical importance of a range of bodies, organisations and local groups in revitalising and regenerating local…

The Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE) has reached a major milestone with the formal acquisition of the former Nant Helen opencast site and Onllwyn Washery in South Wales from opencast mining company Celtic Energy, Economy Minister, Vaughan Gething announced today. The 700-hectare site at the head of the Dulais Valley in south Wales  will now be transformed and developed to become the UK’s ‘one stop shop’ for railway innovation, from research and development, through testing, verification and certification, to applied innovation on mainline passenger and freight railways. Outline planning consent for GCRE was granted by Neath Port Talbot Council…

Updated goals for the pharmacy profession have been published this week, as the transformation of pharmaceutical care in Wales continues. The Welsh Pharmaceutical Committee’s vision for pharmacy, Pharmacy: Delivering a Healthier Wales, was first published in 2019. Developed by the pharmacy profession, the 10-year plan aims to provide a clear direction for pharmacy professionals in every part of the NHS, focusing on meeting patients’ and the NHS’s needs now and in the future. The new goals refresh expectations of what the pharmacy profession can achieve in the three years to December 2025, including: undertaking a comprehensive review of how the…

Living rooms are an essential part of any home. Whether you’re a family, a couple, or single, it’s where you spend most of your time and is usually where you can relax, unwind, and even entertain friends or guests. Whether you have a modern or traditional style living room, you may feel that from time to time, you want to make some subtle yet effective changes to freshen the room up a little. Living rooms are an essential part of any home. Whether you’re a family, a couple, or single, it’s where you spend most of your time and is…

New York is a tremendously popular tourist destination for a reason. There are an endless number of things to do, landmarks to see, and shows to attend. To help you make the most of what is likely a limited time in New York we have comprised a list of some of the top attractions that will definitely make it a trip to remember. Yankee Stadium If visiting during the spring or summer, then a day spent at a New York City ballpark is a classic activity that will provide you with a quintessentially American experience. And if baseball is your…

‘Things aren’t what they were,’ states the tagline to Bob Dylan’s latest Rough and Rowdy Ways tour – and to be frank, Bob, that’s putting it mildly after the challenges and madness of the past gruelling three years. Things will never again be what they were – except it did seem like they could be for this 1 hr 40 minutes set, which provided very welcome and pure, unadulterated relaxation. This was a phone-free gig – which is a new one on me – and was more of a delight because of it (even if it meant delays checking in…

Occupier and investor demand for commercial property in Wales fell, according to the latest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Commercial Property Monitor. The survey points to a weakening in the market as the prospect of further interest rate rises weigh heavily on the outlook over the year ahead. On the occupier side, overall tenant demand in Wales fell to a net balance of -17% of respondents, the lowest figure since Q4 2020. There has been a downward trend in occupier demand for both office and retail space (net balances of -22% and -37% respectively). And tenant demand for industrial…

Every child and young person in Wales will have free access to a new bilingual digital music platform to help them discover their first musical notes. Charanga Cymru is a digital platform which is now available free of charge to all schools in Wales as a teaching and learning resource to support the National Plan for Music Education. The bilingual platform has been developed through partnership work between the Welsh Government, Charanga and the Welsh Local Government Association. To help teachers become familiar with the new platform, a resource pack for six weeks of work will be provided initially for…

Adwaith has won £10,000 at this year’s Welsh Music Prize for Bato Mato (Libertino Records), becoming the first band ever to have won the prize twice. Adwaith, from Carmarthen, Wales, were thrilled when accepting the £10,000 prize at the ceremony, presented by BBC Radio 1 presenter Sian Eleri. The band said: “We’re absolutely ecstatic. We were not expecting it whatsoever! To win a second time – and the first people to have won it twice, is just amazing and we’re very grateful.” The Welsh language indie rock group, formed in 2015, consists of Hollie Singer, Gwenllian Anthony, and Heledd Owen. Bato Mato was released in July…

A medical device manufacturer in Cardiff has expanded its business into the Middle East for the first time after securing a contract in the region with the help of the Welsh Government. Eakin Surgical, which produces high-quality, single-use surgical instruments from its site in Llanishen, set its sights on entering the Middle East market as part of the company’s strategy to grow its global presence and sales through exports. The company has appointed a new distributor in the region after attending the Arab Health exhibition in Dubai as part of a Welsh Government trade mission. The deal will see Eakin…