Author: Rhys Gregory

Two Council owned sheltered housing schemes in the Caerphilly county borough are set to benefit from almost £220,000 of improvements. Caerphilly County Borough Council has approved the investment to enhance outdoor spaces at Ynsywen, Pontllanfraith and Tredegar Court, Crosskeys. The improvements are being delivered as part of the Council’s £260 million Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS) programme; which includes an investment of over £10 million in sheltered housing schemes across the county borough. Ynyswen has already received extensive improvements, as part of the WHQS programme, both internally and externally.  The additional investment will be used to carry out improvements to…

Essential work by Openreach requires a road closure at Penycoedcae Road from February 13-21. A free shuttle bus service will be in place as the NAT Group Service 404 between Pontypridd and Bridgend will be unable to take its normal route. Openreach requires the closure of Penycoedcae Road – north of its junction with Heol-y-Beddau, for around one mile (in a northerly direction). The closure will be manned at all times and access will be provided to residents living within the closure area, as well as for emergency services and pedestrians. The closure will be in place from 8am-5pm, from…

Residents and road users are advised that Castell Ifor Bridge in Hopkinstown will be closed this week as the contractor for a recent repair scheme carries out minor corrective work, at no further cost to the Council. The bridge, which supports Ford Road off the A4058, reopened in 2020 after the completion of a significant scheme to replace the weak bridge deck with a new reinforced concrete deck, along with further future-proofing measures. RCT Council’s contractor Alun Griffiths (Contractors) Ltd will now return to the site in order to correct minor defects. This work will require the one-way bridge to…

The Welsh Ambulance Service (WAST) will receive 84 new operational vehicles thanks to a £10.9M investment from the Welsh Government. The Minister for Health and Social Services, Vaughan Gething has also announced a further £1.6m in funding to the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service (EMRTS) to expand the service into a 24/7 operation and establish the Critical Care Transfer Service. This is additional money following the £1.7m already given to the service. This service will support the national transfer of critically ill adults across Wales. The Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service (EMRTS) provides consultant and critical care practitioner-delivered…

Detectives investigating a number of indecent assaults in the Singleton Park area, Swansea, on Friday (12 Feb) have arrested a 27-year-old local man. Detective Inspector Peter Collins said: “We are thankful for the support we have received from the local community so far and I would appeal if anyone has any information that they have not yet shared with us please do so now.” The man remains in police custody at this time. Anyone with information should contact 101 or email [email protected] and quote occurrence 2100050725

Transport for Wales is delighted to announce the opening of the new Bow Street station. The first train stopped at the station in Ceredigion, mid Wales, at 9.12am on Sunday 14 February, providing a link to the national rail network for the community of Bow Street for the first time since the former station was closed in 1965. It is the first station to open in Wales since Pye Corner in December 2014 and Transport for Wales’ first since taking over the Wales and Borders network franchise in 2018. The development has been funded by the Welsh Government and the…

Lidl GB has announced plans to deliver a new store on Gorseinon Road in Penllergaer, Swansea, to replace its existing store currently on the same road. The multi-million-pound investment will see Lidl commit to building a new supermarket on the site of the former Poundstretcher. The store will have a 1,414m² sales area, with plans to create around 10 new full and part time jobs, as well as retaining all the existing employees from the current store. The supermarket will include an instore bakery, customer toilets and ample parking for both cars and bicycles. Lidl GB’s Regional Head of Property,…

SWANSEA Council is set to invest a massive £59m building new homes and improving hundreds of others in the coming year. Under proposals being considered by Cabinet next week, the council is looking to spend more than £7m during 2021-22 building a new generation of homes including in Hillview Crescent and West Cross. More than double that – £16m – is also being earmarked to insulate and weatherproof hundreds of existing homes making them warm and efficient. The Council will also trial the introduction of renewable technologies to selected properties as part of its ambitions to make home more efficient, reduce…

In a new  TV series Pizza Boys, two Welsh pizza chefs set off on an epic adventure across Europe on route to the biggest challenge of their lives: competing in the Pizza World Championships in Parma. Travelling in their old Italian pizza van ‘Smokey Pete’, best mates Jez Phillips and Ieuz Harry eat and cook their way across the continent sampling some of the best food and culture it has to offer. Their stop offs include San Sebastian, Bordeaux, Monaco, Bardi, Rome and Naples. Jez said: “It was the ultimate road trip, driving our teeny-tiny van across Europe, eating, drinking…

Swansea University is spearheading the fight against online child sexual exploitation after securing major funding for an innovative new project focused on online child sexual grooming. The two-year Project DRAGON-S (Developing Resistance Against Grooming Online – Spot and Shield) will see experts develop vital Linguistics and AI tools to help identify online grooming. This project is financially supported by the End Violence Fund, which has invested $44 million in 52 projects dedicated to preventing and ending online sexual abuse across the world. The project will also relay specialist knowledge through a learning portal and chatbot to strengthen child safeguarding professionals’…