Author: Rhys Gregory

An expert says the famous Welsh welcome or Croeso will play a key role in reviving the crisis-hit tourism industry in North Wales – but time is running out with 12,500 jobs at stake. Jim Jones, the chief executive of North Wales Tourism, believes the remaining four weeks of the summer season will be crucial with many tourism businesses including attractions, hotels, restaurants and pubs fearing they will go bust unless they make enough money to tide them over the winter. The coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating impact on tourism which is usually a cornerstone of the regional economy,…

A police boss has promised a high-tech crackdown on organised gangs coming on crime sprees to two North Wales towns. North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones has secured an extra £1 million in funding for a raft on initiatives including Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras (ANPR) and increased CCTV coverage in Wrexham and Rhyl. The aim is to target thieves, burglars and robbers travelling in from places like Liverpool and Manchester as well as local criminals as part of the Safer Streets campaign. ANPR cameras can read a registration number and instantly check it against database records of…

A £1m project to modernise street lighting throughout Neath Port Talbot is set to break ground this month, delivering hundreds of thousands of pounds of savings for the council. The replacement scheme, which follows previous works to renew old cables, columns and some lanterns, will see a further 2,000 old style high wattage lamps across the borough replaced with more energy efficient LED lighting. The work includes the replacement of the last few remaining yellow low-pressure sodium lights in the region. Set to begin at the end of July this year, the new lighting is expected to deliver substantial annual…

A new out of hours Sanctuary Service has been launched to help people tackle a range of mental health problems in a safe secure environment. The Mental Health Sanctuary Service is a brand new service provided by mental health charity Hafal in collaboration with Swansea Bay University Health Board. It was developed by the West Glamorgan Regional Partnership, which is a multi-agency group, involving health, local authorities, police, ambulance and service users and carers. The service aims to provide practical, therapeutic and holistic person-centered support to people at risk of mental health crisis through the provision of a range of…

Audiences were delighted last weekend to see their first live performance at the unique Willow Globe theatre in Mid Wales since the COVID-19 lockdown. The energetic and inventive performance of Comedy of Errors was created in less than a week, as four actors from the Wet Mariners opened to the first of five shows at 5pm last Friday. Ingenious staging led to hilarity and delight as each pair of twins was played by a single actor, while Tom the Extra stretched the meaning of characterisation to perform 13 parts in one show. The Wet Mariners is a company of professional…

Welsh Ministers have today announced a funding boost of more than £260m for local councils in Wales to provide them with the certainty they need to plan for the remainder of the year. This latest package takes the total amount of Welsh Government Covid-19 support for local authorities to almost half a billion pounds. It will help cover increased costs, manage loss of income pressures, and will fund additional cleaning requirements for schools in response to the coronavirus crisis. With the real possibility of further peaks during the autumn and winter months this investment will provide local authorities with the…

The Welsh Government has confirmed the essential travel restriction on public transport will be lifted from today (Monday, 17 August), opening up trains and buses to more potential passengers. The essential travel message was introduced to prioritise the travel of key workers, as well as those with no alternative mode of transport. The lifting of the restriction comes as the number of coronavirus cases continues to fall. It is the latest in the Welsh Government’s step-by-step approach to making changes to coronavirus restrictions. Over recent months the Welsh Government has provided funding to support public transport, helping to make up…

The new bridge in Pontypridd Town Centre, which will provide a new pedestrian link between Llys Cadwyn and Ynysangharad War Memorial Park opened on Saturday. Despite significant challenges brought by Storm Dennis in February, followed by the Coronavirus emergency from March, the Council’s contractor Knights Brown has made good progress on constructing the bridge in recent months. Since the contractor returned to the site in mid-May following a short pause due to the pandemic, the structure has taken shape above the River Taff. The new bridge is intended to increase pedestrian access between the Town Centre and Ynysangharad Park by…

RSPCA Cymru has issued a reminder about the law surrounding the ownership of goshawks, after rescuing a stray found in Tonypandy. The male goshawk – who was wearing jesses – was collected by the RSPCA on Saturday 1 August, after he was spotted venturing down the road on foot by a member of the public. Owned goshawks – like some other birds of prey – must be registered by their keeper under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and must be either ringed or microchipped. The only exception is for those rehabilitating a sick, injured or disabled bird of prey,…

Today, The National Lottery Community Fund announced that nearly £3 million has been awarded to communities in Wales to tackle climate change, thanks to National Lottery players. Two organisations in Wales have been awarded grants totalling £2,738,621 from The National Lottery Community Fund Climate Action Fund to enable their communities to tackle the climate crisis. The grants are among 14 grants across the UK totalling over £14 million which are the first that are awarded under the £100 million Climate Action Fund and are made possible thanks to National Lottery players.  North Wales Wildlife Trust receives £2,499,871 to bring together…