Author: Rhys Gregory

A nine-year-old pocket rocket from Anglesey is aiming to make a big splash in his second season in the mad and muddy world of motocross – on a bigger, more powerful bike. Kyle Jeffcoate, from Holyhead, cut a dash in his first year in the rough and tumble of this fast-paced sport and is looking ahead to more competition when the new season starts this spring. He has been backed by leading storage company Lock Stock Self-Storage who have 20 storage parks across North Wales and Cheshire including one in Holyhead where Kyle’s dad, Darren, provides the security service. Kyle…

A mum of two from Gwynedd who was paralysed from the waist down by a rare condition has gone on to run a 10k and become a weight-loss champion. Lois Morgan-Pritchard battled Guillain-Barré Syndrome to climb out of a wheelchair then and now the 33-year-old beautician was successfully put through her paces for S4C’s popular FFIT Cymru series, made by Caernarfon-based Cwmni Da. But for anyone fighting a losing battle with the scales after the festive season there’s good news as Cwmni Da are looking for new entrants for the next series of the popular reality show. Cwmni Da’s Siwan…

The headline NatWest Wales Business Activity Index – a seasonally adjusted index that measures the month-on-month change in the combined output of the region’s manufacturing and service sectors – registered 53.4 in December, down from 57.6 in November. Although solid, the expansion in business activity was the slowest in the current ten-month sequence of growth. Nonetheless, the rate of increase was broadly in line with the UK average, with firms linking the upturn to sustained client demand. Private sector firms in Wales registered a solid expansion in new business during December, albeit at the slowest pace in the current ten-month…

Business advisory firm Quantuma has appointed new managing director Tim Sloggett, to further strengthen its offering in the South West and Wales region. Tim helps businesses that are underperforming and/or facing a cash flow crisis. Sloggett brings with him more than 20 years’ experience of helping businesses that are underperforming or facing a crisis, across a range of sectors and from local owner-managed businesses to large international corporates. He has spent most of his career working in Big Four firms, as well as five years at Barclays Bank in its turnaround and restructuring team. Sloggett has a wealth of experience…

Three directors, led by co-founder Ashley Davies, have completed the management buy-out of Bridgend-based A&R Services.  Ashley is joined by 25 year-old Chloe Stanford who first joined the company as an apprentice at the age of 18, and operations manager Dora Vasarhelyi. The deal was funded by the Development Bank of Wales with a loan and equity investment package from the Wales Management Succession Fund and Wales Business Fund.  With a background in finance, Ashley is a co-founder of A&R Services while Dora first joined as a commercial cleaner in 2014 before progressing to become a commercial manager then operations…

Wilko is to close 16 stores across the UK in what GMB Union describes as ‘another nail in the High Street’s coffin’. More than 330 jobs potentially lost as the shops shut over the next 12 months. The affected stores are Bournemouth, Stockton, The Fort, Shipley, Scunthorpe ,Narborough Road, Grantham, Redditch, Rotherham, Skegness, Sutton, Coldfield, Orpington, Edmonton Green, Llanelli, Merthyr Tydfil and Cleethorpes. Each store will have a 30-day consultation period, while permanent recruitment in the vicinity of each site will freeze. Roger Jenkins, GMB National Officer, said: “These closures are devasting for Wilko workers and the communities who use them. “It’s yet another nail in the High Street’s coffin and GMB calls on councils and landlords to review commercial leases and offer lower…

A British shorthair kitten is expected to make a full recovery after being abandoned in a “terrible” state in a supermarket car park in Cardiff. The male ginger kitten, who is thought to be no more than six months old, was spotted by a shopper at the Wilko store in Colchester Avenue. His back end was covered in diarrhoea and he had painful urine scalding on all four pads, suggesting he could have been kept in cramped or dirty conditions. A puppy pad – covered in faeces – was found nearby. The RSPCA is appealing for information about the incident…

Charities, volunteer and community groups tackling food poverty in Swansea were directly supported with almost £200k by the council last year. More organisations than ever applied for help from Swansea Council’s Food Poverty Fund. Among those to make successful bids were foodbanks, community food growing projects, crisis support such as Matthew’s House and schemes to help residents increase their cookery skills and nutrition knowledge. Swansea Council’s Cabinet Member for Better Communities Alyson Pugh said: “In Swansea we are very fortunate to have some amazing charitable, voluntary and not-for-profit organisations working hard to help people facing food poverty. “There is a…

Public toilets in Pembrokeshire experienced a high level of vandalism throughout the Christmas period. Several facilities in the County suffered vandalism including Haverfordwest Multi-story, Fishguard West Street, Fishguard Ffordd Yr Efail, Saundersfoot and The Green in Tenby. This resulted in facilities being out-of-use to the public while they were being repaired. In Haverfordwest the incidents were occurring on a daily basis. Damage included toilet roll holders being ripped off walls, large toilet rolls stolen from facilities, toilet seats and taps superglued, door closures ripped off, water pipes ripped off walls and of most concern, fires being started repeatedly in the…

Over the past 4 years, Caerphilly Council has invested significantly into infrastructure to ensure Caerphilly is a Great Place to do Business. The Place Shaping programme has focused a staggering £500m worth of investment to date, across a number of projects to support growth in the business and tourism of the county borough as part of an ambitious transformation blueprint. A fine example of this investment is the ambitious regeneration blueprint to transform Caerphilly town centre. A sum of 36million will see the development of new business park, the development of a transport interchange, virgin media roll out to introduce…