Author: Rhys Gregory

A Swansea city centre food store, specialising in the sale of international foods, has been fined thousands of pounds for selling out of date food. Trading Standards Officers in Swansea Council inspected Swansea Food Centre, High Street, in November 2020 and found 50 items of food in the store’s reduced price section, all having expired. One item was found to be 41 days out of date. A close inspection of the food items also found reduced price stickers had been placed over the original expiry date on the packaging. Further visits to the store by officers in January and September…

Staff shortages have forced temporary changes to the 352 bus service between Ryeland’s Lane, Kilgetty and Tenby. Taf Valley Coaches has informed Pembrokeshire County Council that changes have had to be made to the timetable of the 352 service, including a reduction in the Saturday service. The changes come into force today (Friday 28th January). Notices are being displayed on the buses used on the 352 service to inform existing service users. Passengers are asked to note that the 381 service (Haverfordwest to Tenby) operates on an hourly basis and covers all of the 352 route, apart from Ryeland’s Lane, Heywood…

A ‘handyman’ who took money from two elderly couples but never turned up to do any work has admitted a series of unfair trading charges. Denzil Michael Thomas – also known as Mick Thomas – took deposits for the work before firing off a host of excuses and ignoring calls and questions from the victims. Thomas appeared before magistrates in Haverfordwest on 13th January and pleaded guilty to five offences under the Consumer Protection Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 following an investigation by Pembrokeshire County Council’s Trading Standards team. Magistrates heard that this was Thomas’ fourth appearance in court for breaching…

Councillors have given the go ahead for public consultation on plans for a new Welsh-medium primary school in Neath. If approved, the proposed school, which would also feature a 45-place nursery and a 12-place childcare setting, would be located on the St Johns Terrace, Neath Abbey Primary site soon to be vacated by the English medium Abbey Primary School. At their meeting on January 19th, 2022, members of Neath Port Talbot Council’s Education, Skills and Culture Cabinet Board agreed the Welsh Medium school plan should go out to public consultation. The backround to the proposal is that in recent years,…

A new piece of equipment vital for the £100m expansion of the WEPA UK Bridgend Paper Mill at Llangynwyd is due to be delivered overnight between Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 February 2022 as part of an abnormal load convoy. While the delivery will take place between 11pm and 5am to minimise inconvenience and disruption, drivers and residents who live along the route of the delivery are being urged to plan ahead. Known as an MG cylinder or ‘Yankee Dryer’ and designed to remove excess moisture from pulp that is about to be converted into tissue paper, the equipment has…

Bridgend County Borough Council has confirmed that free parking will remain available at two council-maintained town centre car parks to support traders until the end of the current financial year. Drivers will be able to continue to park for free for the first three hours at the Rhiw multi-storey car park in Bridgend, and between noon and 3pm at John Street in Porthcawl. Throughout the pandemic, Bridgend County Borough Council has been doing all that it can to support local businesses and shoppers. That support has ranged from processing millions of pounds in financial funding, making free equipment, signage and…

A Monmouthshire woman has described how an exercise referral scheme operated by MonLife has helped change her life following a serious health condition that put her into a three-week induced coma. 65-year-old Sheila Viner was referred to the National Exercise Referral Scheme (NERS) at Chepstow Leisure after being admitted into intensive care and spending over 11 weeks in hospital in 2020. The NERS, which operates across all 22 local authorities, is an evidenced based health intervention programme that incorporates physical activity and behavioural change to support people improve their health and wellbeing. Sheila joined the MonLife scheme at Chepstow Leisure Centre…

Merthyr Council has been informed by Dwr Cymru Welsh Water that a section of the Taff Trail at Abercanaid will be closed next week for tree felling work. The section running from Quay Row to Pond Row (see map) will close for two days on Monday 31 January to the end of the day on Tuesday 1 February.

A planning application to build a new replacement special school in north Powys will be considered next month (February), Powys county council has said. Powys County Council is planning to build a new £20m school for Ysgol Cedewain in Newtown. The planning application for the build will be considered by the council’s Planning, Taxi Licensing & Rights of Way Committee on Thursday, February 3. As part of the proposed development, the new Ysgol Cedewain school will have purpose-built and state-of-the-art facilities including a hydrotherapy pool, sensory and physiotherapy rooms and garden as well as a community café. The new school…

Caerphilly County Borough and Blaenau Gwent Councils joined forces with Coed Cymru in 2018 to encourage and promote the use of locally sourced timber. The Wood LAB Pren project falls under the wider rural development project, Cwm a Mynydd, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government. Based in Aberbargoed the project aims to improve the county’s timber supply chain network through information and knowledge sharing, research and development. The project will come to an end in December 2021. The project to date has focused on timber used in furniture, to highlight how…