Author: Rhys Gregory

Proposals to continue a pioneering private sector leasing scheme have been endorsed by Caerphilly County Borough Council’s Housing and Regeneration Scrutiny Committee. Scrutiny Committee members considered proposals to continue delivering the council’s Caerphilly Keys initiative during a remote meeting held on 9 February, as an alternative to adopting a new Welsh Government leasing scheme. Caerphilly Keys has been successfully delivered by the council’s Housing Solutions team for over three years.  The scheme matches people to suitable properties, then offers free support to both the tenant and landlord to sustain the tenancy. There are currently over 100 properties registered with the…

Monmouthshire’s leisure provider MonLife is gearing up for the exciting February half term, with plenty on offer to keep children and young people active and entertained over the school holidays.  The activities wil kick off on Monday 21st February and run  until Friday 25th. As part of the Winter of Wellbeing funding from Welsh Government, MonLife Learning will be carrying out a number of different sessions across Monmouthshire including making a ‘mindful mosaic’, creating a wellbeing jar as well as mindful colouring inspired by the museum’s collections. MonLife will also be staging a wide range of play events for local…

Monmouthshire County Council has today – Wednesday 16th February – launched a survey seeking views on how residents, business and visitors currently use and would like to use Chepstow High Street and the surrounding shopping area. High Street in Chepstow has been closed to vehicles since March 2020 other than for access to the disabled parking bays on Bank Street and for deliveries between 4pm and 10am.  This change was made to enable shoppers to socially distance, to support outdoor trading and to support walking and cycling. There have been wide ranging opinions on this closure, so now as the council…

A Merthyr Tydfil town centre retailer has been fined £4,000 for selling fake designer label clothes following charges brought by the County Borough Council’s Trading Standards Service. Hardial Singh, Company Director of Pure Image, pleaded guilty at Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates’ Court to four charges under the Trademarks Act 1994 relating to the sale and possession for sale of counterfeit items. The Court heard that officers carried out a test purchase of two t-shirts on sale at the High Street store bearing the logos ‘Calvin’ and ‘Superdry’. On examination, they were identified as counterfeit. Officers carried out a further inspection of…

Welsh Government funding has helped secure cutting edge automated machinery for Bridgend-based TBD Ltd, securing 20 jobs, improving efficiency and providing new growth opportunities, Economy Minister, Vaughan Gething, has announced. TBD (Owen Holland) Ltd is a Welsh business founded in 2003 and based in Bridgend. It has become one of the UK’s leading suppliers of Ground Support Equipment (GSE) and specialist access solutions, including Specialist Airside vehicles, passenger and crew boarding steps, a wide variety of maintenance access steps for all aircraft types. The £183,267 in funding from the Welsh Government will safeguard those 20 jobs and lead to the…

Hodge has appointed former Ascentric chief executive, Rob Regan as its new chief operating officer. Rob brings a wealth of experience to the role having previously held roles as chief operating officer at Legal & General (L&G) and group operations director at Royal London Group. In his most recent role, Rob was chief executive of digital savings, pensions and investment firm, Ascentric for three years. Cardiff born and bred, Rob is delighted to have role based back in Wales for the first time in almost 30 years. He is excited to start working closely with his new colleagues at Hodge…

The Adventure Bar Group, the company behind venues such as Adventure Bar, Blame Gloria, Bar Elba and The Escapologist, have announced plans to launch their latest Tonight Josephine site in Cardiff. Formerly known as Charleston’s Steakhouse, the Caroline Street location will be receiving a trademark bubble gum pink makeover to welcome the highly-anticipated cocktail bar. The concept and its Instagram-worthy interiors, has three sites in London and one in Birmingham.  Tonight Josephine Cardiff will launch in March, date to be confirmed. The pink emporium cocktail bar will enjoy a capacity of around 290. Revellers can expect a lavish cocktail menu, late-night adventures, and extravagant bottomless…

A University of South Wales (USW) lecturer is hoping his efforts to become an astronaut will be an  inspiration to students who may want to follow in his footsteps. Ilias Lappas, who is a senior lecturer in Aeronautics at USW and course leader of the BEng/MEng (Hons) Aeronautical Engineering courses, is waiting to hear if he has reached stage 3 of the selection process to become a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut. Just over 23,000 people from UK and the European Union applied after the ESA last summer started looking for a new team of astronauts for future space missions,…

Protected local dark skies will light up the end of the month as part of a national inaugural event. As part of the very first Welsh Dark Sky Week 2022 (19th – 27th February), the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB will be hosting a week full of dark sky activities and events to celebrate our protected dark skies. On average 95 percent of the three national parks and five AONBs of Wales fall within the highest two categories of dark skies, including the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB. Cllr Tony Thomas, Lead Member for Housing and Communities and the…

A man and a woman from Pyle have been handed a suspended prison sentence and disqualified from keeping dogs for 10 years after they neglected 21 dogs. James Steven Daniel Gilheaney, and Joanne Denise Gilheaney both of Cae Garw Travellers Site in Pyle, Bridgend, attended Swansea Magistrates Court on Friday (11 February). They both pleaded guilty to all three offences under the Animal Welfare Act in that they both caused unnecessary suffering to 12 dogs by failing to provide adequate or effective professional veterinary care and attention for their skin diseases, that they failed to meet the needs of 21…