Author: Rhys Gregory

Monmouthshire County Council has announced a significant upgrade to the all‑weather pitch at Caldicot Leisure Centre, marking an exciting step forward for community sport in the area. The project will see the current 2G synthetic surface replaced with a state‑of‑the‑art 3G pitch, delivering a safer, more durable, and high‑quality playing experience for schools, clubs and local residents. This investment forms part of the council’s ongoing commitment to enhancing sport and play facilities, creating vibrant and accessible spaces that inspire participation and enjoyment for all ages. The development is being made possible thanks to the support of key funding partners: the…

More than 100 Powys residents are to receive a letter from the county council inviting them to claim a one-off £100 cash payment to help with winter energy bills. The funding, from Welsh Government, is for low-income households with a disabled resident. The council is writing to those it thinks are eligible, and asking them to confirm or supply bank details, so it can pass on the money. There are no restrictions on how the £100 Low-Income Disabled Household Winter Payment (Wales) can be spent. “This payment is intended to help households with higher winter energy costs, reduce financial pressure,…

Final preparations are underway for the launch of new NHS services in all parts of Wales to improve access to vital healthcare services for women. The first pathfinder women’s health hub will open before the end of January, with hubs in place in each health board area by early March. The hubs are a key commitment in the NHS-led Women’s Health Plan. They will provide integrated women’s health services, focussing on three priority areas: menstrual health, contraception, and menopause. The hubs will be tailored to local needs, but all will be based on a core set of values and principles…

The Welsh Government will today publish its Final Budget for 2026 to 27, setting out £27.5bn of funding for people, public services and businesses across Wales. The budget represents an increase of £1.2bn compared to 2025 to 26 and will confirm how funding is allocated across government departments ahead of the next Senedd election. The final package follows the Draft Budget published in the final quarter of 2025, which Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford described at the time as “just the start”, as he urged cross party cooperation to ensure the budget was agreed. When the draft plans were unveiled, the…

The Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning, Rebecca Evans, has championed the strength and innovation of Welsh manufacturing and reiterated the Welsh Government’s unwavering support for the vital sector on a visit to one of the largest private sector businesses in the Mid Wales region. NIDEC Drives, formerly known as Control Techniques, has been a cornerstone of Mid Wales’ economy for over five decades. The business, which designs and manufactures advanced electric motor control technology, was founded in 1973 as a small start-up and has since grown into an international success. With a turnover of around £125m, the company…

Community groups across Wales are being reminded that there is still time to apply for the Perthyn grant, which supports communities to develop social enterprises or community-led housing projects. Grants of up to £5,000 are available from the Welsh Government’s Perthyn fund to help groups take their first steps in establishing their work and putting plans into action. Since 2022, the scheme has supported Welsh-speaking communities, with 64 grants awarded to groups in Gwynedd, Conwy, Anglesey, Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. This year, the scheme has been expanded so that communities across Wales can apply. With support from the Perthyn grant,…

Welsh businesses are increasingly digital, yet many are still relying on email infrastructure that’s simply not fit for purpose. You might be using whatever email came bundled with your domain, or a free service that wasn’t designed for business use. Your email constantly gets lost in spam. Messages go missing. You’re struggling to manage communications effectively because your email system is working against you rather than supporting you. Sound familiar? For a growing Welsh business, email isn’t just a communication tool. It’s your primary business infrastructure. Clients contact you via email, invoices arrive there, and important documents get sent through…

Not so long ago, a matchday followed a familiar rhythm. You bought a paper programme outside the ground, folded it under your arm and scanned the team news with a biro mark beside the starting XI. You listened to the radio on the drive or in the kitchen, catching snippets of punditry and crackling phone-ins. If kick-off was early, it shaped the whole day: pints before noon, a rushed sandwich, the sense that the football dictated the clock rather than the other way around. Those rituals weren’t just habits. They were social glue. Matchday began hours before the whistle, often…

Kitchen flooring used to come with a familiar trade-off. Choose something practical and it often looked dull. Choose something stylish and it rarely stood up to daily life. Thankfully, that line of thinking is fading fast. Today’s kitchens are busier, more lived-in, and more design-led than ever. Flooring has had to evolve to keep up and it has. Modern kitchen floors are proving that durability and good design can happily coexist. What “Practical” Used To Mean For a long time, practical kitchen flooring meant playing it safe. Think cold tiles, shiny vinyl or anything that could survive spills but added…

GCSE revision can be a stressful time for both students and parents. As a parent, you want to help, but it’s not always clear what support really makes a difference. The good news is that you don’t need to be a subject expert to help your child succeed. With the right routine, resources and encouragement, you can support effective GCSE revision at home without adding pressure. When Should GCSE Revision Start? Most students benefit from starting GCSE revision around three to six months before their exams. For Year 11 pupils, this usually means beginning after mock exams in December or…