Author: Rhys Gregory

More than 600 people attended Newtown Summer Fayre on Saturday, creating a festival-like atmosphere as local talent and opportunities in and around the town were showcased. The successful event, co-hosted by Open Newtown and Oriel Davies on the gallery green, delivered a day full of creativity, curiosity and connection.  A highlight for many was the Rinky Dink bicycle powered sound system, a legendary part of Glastonbury and many other festivals over the years. Rinky Dink meandered around the green space showcasing its eco-conscious design whilst filling the ears of attendees with music throughout the day. The event was attended by…

Swansea is to get a new green park that will help bring even more nature in the city centre. Projects such as the planned development of Castle Square will benefit from the temporary pop-up park that’s about to be installed in front of the Iceland supermarket in the former St David’s Shopping Centre. The pop-up, being created by Swansea Council as a mechanism to demonstrate some future urban planting options, will be a boost for health and well-being and will improve the area’s biodiversity. Council leader Rob Stewart said: “We plan a number of major city centre developments over the…

Swansea Council has completed a £750,000 upgrade to the marina’s inner lock gates to provide the important equipment with a further 10-15 years life span. The vital improvements have kept boat owners from entering or exiting the marina for the last few months while the gates were being given their new lease of life. The main entrance to the marina features two sets of lock gates – inner and outer. The outer gates were fully refurbished around 10 years ago. The inner gates have not had any major works completed on them for the last 40 years and were in…

Students from Treorchy Comprehensive School were invited to join the First Minister of Wales, The Rt Hon Mark Drakeford MS at the Wales National Srebrenica Commemoration Event at Cardiff and Vale College on Wednesday  6th July, after being awarded Youth Ambassador Status for a series of innovative projects and campaigns aimed to educate peers and the community. The students were awarded the status last week at a presentation evening hosted at the Parc and Dare Theatre, Treorchy, by Rhondda Cynon Taf Mayor Councillor Wendy Treeby, after taking part in an innovative new pilot programme run by RCT Community Cohesion Officers.…

Local schoolchildren and other residents visited Merthyr Tydfil’s Glynmil Caravan Park recently to learn about traveller culture. More than 20 pupils from Abercanaid Primary school were treated to a community event held to celebrate Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month, which featured folk music played on the lawns and cinema, crafts and play. The children enjoyed an exhibition of boxing – which has been developing at the site for a while with support from the Pride Boxing initiative – along with circus skills and tightrope activities, face painting, Gypsy Traveller scrolling craft and balloon animal creating. The activities were organised by…

First Minister Mark Drakeford will today (Friday July 8) join other British and Irish leaders in Guernsey as the crisis around the future of the UK Government continues to unfold. The leaders will meet to discuss the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, climate change, support for people from Ukraine and the Northern Ireland Protocol at the 37th British-Irish Council summit. The summit is the first meeting of UK First Ministers, Chief Ministers and the Irish Taoiseach after the Prime Minister announced he would resign. Speaking ahead of the summit, First Minister Mark Drakeford said: “The British-Irish Council is designed to foster strong…

New aluminium furnaces, which will play a key part in cutting carbon emissions at Toyota’s Deeside plant, were officially turned on today by Economy Minister Vaughan Gething as he marked National Manufacturing Day. With a 20-year life span these furnaces achieve almost 100% metal yield together with an industry leading reduction in energy usage for melting aluminium. The £1.6m furnaces have been supported by £375,000 from the Welsh Government’s Economic Futures Fund. The project will further lower the environmental impact of the site and will support Toyota in meeting its ambition of being net zero in carbon emissions from manufacturing…

The Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport, Dawn Bowden visited Ratio:Production in Aberbargoed to see how the Creative Wales Music Capital Fund has helped to grow the business and their services to the music and events industry. Creative Wales, through the Music Capital Fund awarded more than of £524k to 58 music venues across Wales. The fund has assisted small and medium sized music businesses to improve and increase their commercial outlook and sustainability and contribute to the development and growth of the music industry in Wales. Ratio:Production received funding through the Music Capital Fund to develop a purpose-built recording…

Exciting developments are taking place across Rhyl town centre as projects, backed by the Welsh Government’s Transforming Towns fund and delivered in partnership with Denbighshire Council, take shape. Transforming Towns is supporting work to the value of nearly £25m within Rhyl town centre, improving and adapting underutilised commercial and residential property. Minister for North Wales Lesley Griffiths visited some of the projects in the town centre including the site of the Queen’s Market where the old derelict building has been demolished and work is set to begin on a new facility. This will include a new indoor market hall to…

UK timber importer Premier Forest Products is celebrating the end of a successful financial year with several key appointments and promotions. Premier’s like-for-like turnover has grown by 35 percent to £120M in the last 12 months and the strategic new appointments will be integral for helping the company to keep pace with its continued success and rapid expansion. Terry Edgell, Co-Founder and CEO said: “We are in a good position and preparing for growth despite challenging market conditions. The new appointments will enable us to become more focused in some areas of our expertise, enabling us to better support our…