Author: Rhys Gregory

Close to £1 million of funding for a project that will see a new urban forest created across Cardiff has been secured by Cardiff Council. The ‘Coed Caerdydd’ (Cardiff Forest) project, a major part of the council’s One Planet Cardiff response to the climate emergency, has secured more than £753,000 of funding through the Welsh Government Rural Communities – Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government. This new funding will be used in tandem with £228,000 of previously announced funding from Coed Cadw/The Woodland Trust in Wales’s, Emergency…

British Food delivery company Deliveroo has announced its early launch in Blackwood this week. This means that locals can now order food from a range of restaurants and grocery retailers in the local area. Deliveroo is an app and website that enables Brits to check out the very best local food in their area. The British company has seen great success and is now available in 12 different markets across the world. Deliveroo works with both the best independent restaurants like Brunchies Pengnam and Glitz & Glam Newport, well-known high street favourites like  KFC, Costa Coffee and Papa John’s, as…

Work on the second phase of an active travel route in the Pencoed area is set to start next week. As part of the £580,000 scheme, existing networks in Pencoed will be connected at Felindre Road with the installation of a three-metre wide footway/cycleway. This section completes the missing link between Felindre Road to the east of Pencoed Cemetery, and the existing network in Pencoed that goes as far as Felindre Roundabout/Pencoed Technology Park. The network will also be connected to Ty Merchant and Penprysg. This will see a new footway/cycleway created on both sides of Penybont Road, a new…

Caerphilly County Borough’s new £755,000 athletics hub opens to the public later this month. The new Caerphilly County Borough Council Athletics Hub is located on the school fields at Rhiw Syr Dafydd Primary School and opened to community athletics clubs on the 1st July and opens for wider community use on Monday 26th July. This facility has been 100% funded by the Welsh Government Community Hub grant. The new synthetic athletics track will be the first of its kind in Caerphilly County Borough and will allow residents to train all year round on the durable surface. As well as featuring…

Angharad Jones, a teacher at Pontllanfraith Primary School has been asked to feature on S4C after amazing people with her Welsh language skills. Angharad has been learning the language for a year via ‘Cymraeg Mewn Blwyddyn’ (Welsh in a Year) through the Sabbatical Scheme, which is available through the University of Wales. She has shared her progress on Twitter through video’s which have received copious amounts of praise and positive feedback, including from the likes of Welsh comedian Tudur Owen, who called her “inspiring”. On top of this, Angharad is also being interviewed as part of the ‘Gabin a’r Gymraeg’…

RCT Council will shortly undertake significant work to upgrade three drainage gullies on the A4059 between Mountain Ash and Abercynon – to give greater resilience at a low spot which has a history of flooding, including recently in Storm Dennis. The scheme includes converting the existing gully covers into larger units and the installation of six new 600mm gully chambers, which will be placed on a new carrier drain. The drain will be carried under the carriageway by using new manholes on either side of the road, transporting rainwater to the River Cynon which requires the construction of a new…

A Rhondda Cynon Taf woman has been successfully prosecuted by the Council’s Trading Standards Department for operating a fraudulent business and having in her possession, for the purpose of selling, counterfeit goods. The 40-year-old woman, from Pentre, Rhondda, who has not been named, pleaded guilty at Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates Court to all nine charges of possessing counterfeit goods for the purpose of selling, contrary to The Trade Marks Act 1994, and one charge of carrying out a fraudulent business, namely selling and distributing counterfeit clothing, footwear, perfume, aftershave, jewellery, candles and accessories, which operated between November and December 2019, contrary…

Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing Lynne Neagle has announced the extension of the Healthy and Active Fund. A total of £991,200 additional Welsh Government funding has been granted to extend the fund for a further year, with services severely impacted in 2020 due to the pandemic. The fund was set up in 2018 to help improve mental and physical health by enabling people to adopt healthy and active lifestyles. Research commissioned by Sport Wales has shown 60% of adults in Wales intend to increase the amount of physical activity and exercise they do as we come out of…

As the Royal Welsh Show gets underway virtually today, Rural Affairs Minister Lesley Griffiths has thanked everyone in the agricultural industry for their resilience and dedication during the Covid19 pandemic. The Minister said: “Farming and agriculture continues to be the beating heart of rural Wales and we are proud to be supporting this year’s virtual Royal Welsh Agricultural Show. “It is, of course, very sad we will not be meeting face-to-face at the show again this year, but public health must come first. “I am extremely proud of the commitment everyone in the industry has shown and ensured the people…

A new programme to help Welsh firms who have never exported before to sell their products in new international markets is being launched by Wales’ Economy Minister, Vaughan Gething. The New Exporters Programme, which is one of the new support initiatives being introduced as part of the Welsh Government’s Export Action Plan, will support companies who have either never exported before or have exported intermittently, to sell their goods and services around the world. Ten companies from a range of sectors across Wales are being recruited to the programme, which will last around 10 months. They will receive intensive support…