Author: Rhys Gregory

Further feedback sessions have been arranged for January as part of the no-one left behind project. Duffryn has been chosen as the first area to benefit from a £500,000 fund and it is important that residents have their say before the money is allocated. It follows the great success of a first event, held earlier this month, to ask residents what they felt was missing in their neighbourhood. Now three more sessions are being held in Duffryn Community Centre, including one on a Sunday, to try and reach as many people as possible. Come along for a cuppa and a…

Monmouthshire County Council has announced the opening of the final section of the active travel route connecting Kingswood Gate to Monmouth town centre. The new walking and wheeling route, running from Midsummer Way, Kingswood Gate, to Wonastow Industrial Estate Road, is now open for use, and completes the route to Monmouth via the already-constructed Williams Field Lane active travel route. The route has been constructed to provide an accessible route away from the highway, to connect homes and destinations. MCC was awarded £338,000 for the construction of this scheme from the Welsh Government (WG) Safe Routes in Communities (SRiC) Fund…

Women will benefit from groundbreaking research and innovation designed to eliminate health inequalities at Wales’ first Women’s Health Research Centre. To mark the first anniversary of the landmark Women’s Health Plan for Wales, First Minister Eluned Morgan and Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing Sarah Murphy met staff, researchers and the communities collaborating with them at the £3m centre. The research centre, led by Women’s Health Research Wales, is designed to strengthen investment in women’s health research, including representation in clinical trials. The centre brings together researchers, NHS partners, industry, policy makers, and communities to develop more effective treatments and ensure…

Trial pilots across Wales have successfully registered over 16,000 new voters automatically, an independent evaluation has found, paving the way for a more accessible democracy. Wales became the first part of the UK to trial automatic voter registration earlier this year, working with four local authorities – Carmarthenshire, Gwynedd, Newport and Powys – to test how locally held data could be used to register voters without requiring an application. The Electoral Commission’s evaluation, published today (17 December 2025), found the pilots added just over 14,500 new voters to the registers (which represented between 2-8% of the register in each local authority area). Crucially,…

The westbound A55 Conwy tunnel will close from the 10th to the 19thJanuary for essential road safety works. The work in the tunnel has been scheduled at a time when traffic is traditionally at its lowest to minimise disruption. A contraflow system through the eastbound tunnel will be in place between those dates, and the tunnel is scheduled to fully reopen at 6.30am on 20th January. Safety work includes replacement of LED lighting and safety barriers, as well as repairs to evacuation walkways which is routine to address wear and tear, and not connected to the recent fire While the road closure…

Cardiff Metropolitan University was delighted to welcome Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs Huw Irranca-Davies onto campus this week, for his announcement of Welsh Government’s £15 million plus Digarbon loan scheme supporting the tertiary education sector to reach carbon net zero by 2030. Deputy First Minister Huw Irranca-Davies said: “We are pleased to see the continued efforts of the tertiary education sector in Wales in driving ambition to decarbonise. This latest investment through Digarbon reflects our commitment to supporting Wales’s tertiary education sector in cutting emissions, reducing energy costs, and accelerating progress towards net…

The second phase of a new housing development in St Clears, Carmarthenshire is nearing completion following a £6 million investment by the Development Bank of Wales. The loan from the Wales Residential Property Fund has been provided to Solitaire, a joint venture established specifically to deliver the scheme, known as Priory Fields. Construction is being led by Obsidian Homes – a fast-growing housebuilder which now employs some 40 local people in West Wales. Phase two of the Priory Fields development, located to the west of High Street in St Clears, comprises 29 new homes. These include 7 two-bedroom semi-detached houses,…

Careers Wales have announced the employers shortlisted for the prestigious 2026 Valued Partner Awards. A total of 38 organisations have been shortlisted in eight categories for providing outstanding careers support to pupils in schools. These awards celebrate employers who have worked with Careers Wales to deliver impactful and engaging careers experiences to pupils in Wales over the last twelve months. By working closely with schools, these organisations help young people make links between what they learn in school and the world of work and understand more about the opportunities open to them. Nikki Lawrence, chief executive at Careers Wales, said:…

A lifelong passion for learning has driven Bernice Juxon-Jones to continue her studies into her retirement. Now at the age of 92 she has just been awarded a Master of Philosophy degree in Medieval German from Swansea University. Moving to Swansea at the age of six, Bernice worked as a teacher before emigrating to Bermuda where still lives. Over the course of a busy professional life, she continued to study and already held two BAs and two MAs when she enrolled on her latest academic quest in 2019, investigating the medieval epic poem Parzival. Professor Julian Preece, chair in German…

IPM (International Power & Marine) Group has signed a Memorandum of Understanding as the UK’s only service partner for Tokyo-based hibot and the company’s robotic Squid technology system. With its focus on infrastructure maintenance, hibot’s new robotic system Squid can offer a more enhanced inspection for industrial boilers with its differentiator being that tubes can be scanned continuously from the inside. 2D maps of the pipes indicate wall thickness by colour, and any areas where that data falls under pre-defined limits can be meticulously identified, making repair works more efficient and faster. Randall Smith, Chief Executive Officer, IPM Group said: “As…