Author: Rhys Gregory

A brand new childcare setting has been completed at Waunceirch Primary School as part of Neath Port Talbot Council’s bid to offer more childcare facilities for working parents. The £700K setting was jointly funded with Welsh Government providing a grant of £610,000, plus an additional £90,799 from the Council. It is the first of a number of settings to be based within schools, totalling more than £4m of investment via Welsh Government’s Childcare Offer for Wales Capital funding and the 21st Century Schools programme. Further childcare settings planned at Abbey Primary School (Neath) and Rhos Primary are underway in readiness…

Major road improvements are underway in Bridgend county borough as part of a £2.7m investment into the local highway network. Work on 40 local roads is being carried out with resurfacing works having already been completed on: Gordon Avenue/Highfield Avenue, Porthcawl West Road, Porthcawl Carlton Place, Porthcawl Cheltenham Road, Nottage North Street, Caerau, Fron Heulog, Cefn Glas Coegnant Close, Brackla Industrial Estate Next week work is due to start on the A4063 Maesteg Road in Tondu with preparatory works planned first and then resurfacing getting underway at the start of July. Over the next few weeks, resurfacing works will also…

On Wednesday 16th June, 2021, it was approved at a Full Council meeting to appoint Ellis Cooper as the new Chief Executive of Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. The appointment of a Chief Executive requires a formal Council decision, and on 19th May 2021 Full Council agreed the shortlisting and interview arrangements to assist with this recruitment process. Merthyr Council commissioned a leading external recruitment agency Penna to assist with the recruitment process. Given the importance of the position to the Council, another Welsh Chief Executive, with particular experience of the requirements of the role, also worked alongside the recruitment…

RCT Council will deliver two Welsh Government-funded drainage schemes in the coming weeks – starting on Monday at Ty’n-y-Wern in Tonyrefail, to be directly followed by a scheme at Standard View in Ynyshir next month. The £125,000 scheme at Ty’n-y-Wern will be carried out by DT Contracting, with the Council benefitting from an 85% Welsh Government contribution. The scheme will include lining works to an existing drainage network, to improve its condition and ensure it is as efficient as possible during heavy rainfall. The work will begin from Monday, June 21, lasting around one month in total, with minimal overall…

Historic buildings on Flat Holm island will be repaired and renovated, island habitats improved for wildlife, and a range of community and visitor engagement activities provided, after the island’s owners, Cardiff Council, successfully secured more than £600,000 of delivery funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The ‘Flat Holm: A Walk Through Time’ project, which will now also benefit from £200,000 of capital funding from the council, alongside further investment from partner organisations including RSPB Cymru and the Flat Holm Society, seeks to breathe new life into the island and attract more visitors to this hidden jewel in the Bristol…

Local Welsh hero Llywelyn Bren’s medieval struggle against the oppressive Sherriff of Glamorgan is the subject of ‘Black Tower Tales,’ a new immersive family attraction at Cardiff Castle. The great-grandson of Ifor Bach, Llywelyn Bren rallied the locals and led an uprising against the cruel regime of the English Sherriff. It was this fight for the rights of his fellow countrymen that would lead to Llywelen’s imprisonment and murder in the very spot where, more than 700 years later, his dramatic story is now being re-told. Narrated by the evil Sherriff, Payne de Turberville with the help of his dungeon…

A ‘Summer of Fun’ to support children and young people take part in a range of sporting, cultural and play based activities has been announced by the Deputy Minister for Social Services, Julie Morgan. Launching the £5m Summer of Fun project at Romilly Park in the Vale of Glamorgan, Julie Morgan said it was important we look at the full range of our children and young people’s needs and imbed social and emotional wellbeing in the pandemic recovery. Summer of Fun will be run by local authorities from 1st July until 30th September and will provide a range of free…

Global battery manufacturer GS Yuasa is creating 105 new jobs and protecting a further 360 positions at its production plant in Ebbw Vale thanks to £2.5m support from Welsh Government. The company is one of the world’s leading global manufacturers of Valve Regulated Lead Acid (VRLA) and Lithium-ion batteries. The funding will help the company increase production volumes and upgrade processes so they are more energy efficient. GS Yuasa is a market leader for a wide range of vehicle and industrial batteries, with applications spanning everything from cars and caravans to security and telecom. Their Ebbw Vale factory manufactures VRLA…

Owners of ferrets and Mustelinae in Wales are being encouraged to sign up to a new voluntary register to help contain any possible outbreak of the virus which causes COVID-19 and to provide advice to owners on how to keep themselves and their animals safe. In Autumn 2020, events in Denmark confirmed it is possible for mink to infect humans with SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19. Whilst mink farming is banned in the UK, other mammals in the Mustelinae family, such as ferrets, are now known to be highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2. Research has demonstrated new variants can arise…

A £3m fund piloted by the Welsh Government in four North Wales town centres to encourage entrepreneurs to set up there is now open for expressions of interest and will open for applications next week The fund will assist entrepreneurs to set up businesses in Bangor, Colwyn Bay, Rhyl and Wrexham.  The funding will be a combination of grant funding and loans to help entrepreneurs who are starting out. The pilot aims to encourage entrepreneurs while also helping revitalise town centres which have been hit hard during the pandemic.  The scheme will run for a year initially The loan element…