Author: Rhys Gregory

There is a new man at Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway, and one of his first tasks is planning the popular Mid Wales tourist attraction’s 2021 operating season. James Brett has been recruited to succeed retiring Charles Spencer as the railway’s general manager. The railway lost a significant part of its 2020 season to the Covid-19 pandemic, but was able to operate trains through the summer. These attracted many visitors who provided much positive feedback for the extensive procedures put in place to ensure the safety of visitors and staff. “We are currently working towards reopening as soon as we…

Staff and pupils at a Neath primary school have received a £1,000 donation from the Amazon fulfilment centre in Swansea. Crynallt Primary School aims to create a caring and creative learning environment where pupils develop as ambitious, capable learners and ethically informed citizens. The school ensures that every child feels valued as an individual, and that all members of the school are creative, healthy and confident. The school runs many projects for its pupils including a film club, an ECO committee, a Rights Respecting Council, a School Council, and a pupil-led Welsh language website. The donation will go towards developing…

Figures from a Wales Omnibus Survey show that less than half of Welsh adults are confident in giving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Further data shows that one of the main reservations behind not performing CPR is that the people are worried that they would make matters worse. This National Heart Awareness Month, people across Wales are being encouraged to become BLS certified or refresh their lifesaving CPR skills, to help increase survival rates after cardiac arrests. A patient’s chance of surviving a cardiac arrest either at home or in the community will decrease by 10% with every passing minute if CPR is…

Scores of care homes in South and West Wales will go bust and be forced to close unless there is a significant increase in funding from local councils. That’s the grim warning from Mohammad Mazhar Ali, who runs Wellcome Care Homes that operates three homes in Caerphilly, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire. Mr Ali painted a bleak picture of the challenges providers face in trying to balance the books. Things were so bad that his company had pulled the plug on £7m plans to open  fourth care home with 96 beds in Llanwenog on the Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire border which would have…

A top music festival that’s going virtual for the first time in its history will be paying homage to globally renowned harpist Osian Ellis who died earlier this year. The 2020 Wales Harp Festival had to be cancelled at the last minute following the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic but this year the organisers are determined that the show will go. In a marathon effort of ingenuity and technical know-how, from their headquarters in Caernarfon, Canolfan Gerdd William Mathias (William Mathias Music Centre) orchestrated a way to transfer the entire programme of festival events online. They were more determined than…

An urgent shake-up of the way £6 billion of public funds is spent in Wales is needed, according to the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales. Money spent by public services on new building projects, goods and services is often not being used in the interests of future generations, and Welsh Government is failing to show clear, joined-up leadership on spending, said Sophie Howe. The Well-being of Future Generations Wales Act puts an obligation on public bodies including Welsh Government, to make decisions today that don’t harm the abilities of future generations to meet their needs. The commissioner, whose Manifesto for the Future asks the next Welsh Government to commit to a green and just recovery from the pandemic that closes inequality gaps, used one…

Sixteen social entrepreneurs who embarked on the School for Social Entrepreneurs’ (SSE) Start Up Plus programme in June 2020, in partnership with wealth manager Brewin Dolphin, have successfully graduated. The cohort completed all the requirements of the six-month programme (June-December 2020) amidst the confines of Covid-19 restrictions and national lockdowns. Among them is Denbigh-based (North Wales) social entrepreneur Marguerite Pearce, who founded Y Tŷ Gwyrdd (The Green House – www.ytygwyrdd.cymru) a grassroots bilingual community hub intended to help revive the town through economic, social and environmental initiatives. Facilities include a shop offering locally sourced, re-fill and zero-waste products, room hire,…

Mobile testing units will be on the move across Powys to two new locations in Crickhowell and Rhayader from Monday 1 March. The two units will be relocated to Cwrt Y Gollen, Crickhowell, and Rhayader Rugby Football Club for residents in the upper Wye Valley. Workplaces have contributed to a recent rise in outbreaks of COVID-19 where they have provided an opportunity for infection to spread, especially in settings where people work in close proximity to one another. A new variant that can pass more easily between people is also contributing to the recent rise in positive cases. Testing teams…

First Minister Mark Drakeford has announced the inspirational people shortlisted for a St David Award. Among this year’s finalists are a group who rescued people caught in the sea at Aberdyfi last summer; a volunteer group that supported their local community throughout the coronavirus pandemic and an artist whose painting of NHS workers became an iconic image of the past year. The St David Awards are Wales’s national awards, which celebrate the extraordinary achievements of the people of Wales. Announcing the finalists, the First Minister said: “This year’s St David Awards finalists are an inspiring group of people that we…

People living in Swansea and Neath Port Talbot can now go for a free Coronavirus test if they have a wider range of symptoms. As well as the three classic signs: fever, a new continuous cough or a loss/change of taste and smell; people are now able to get a test if they have other symptoms too. These are: Flu-like symptoms including any or all of: myalgia (muscle ache or pain); excessive tiredness; persistent headache; runny nose or blocked nose; persistent sneezing; sore throat and/or hoarseness, shortness of breath or wheezing; Generally feeling unwell and a history of being in contact…