Author: Rhys Gregory

Have you ever given much thought to the type of tyres you have on your car? Or do you always replace them with identical versions? It’s worth taking the time to discover more about the different tyres that are out there and what they can do. By doing this, you could improve your driving experience and enjoy a smoother drive. So, what are the different tyre types to look out for? There is a wide range to choose from, so having a quick-look guide to what’s on offer can come in handy. To help you choose, here’s a look at what’s available. Do I need…

People buying their main homes in Wales costing less than £250,000 will not pay any tax under temporary measures announced by the Finance Minister today. The starting threshold for land transaction tax will increase from £180,000 to £250,000 for the residential main rates when this new measure is introduced on Monday 27 July. This is a tax reduction that will last until 31st March 2021. The new threshold will further reduce the tax burden in Wales. Around 80% of homebuyers liable to the main rates of land transaction tax will not pay any tax. This will be a tax reduction of…

A 20 year-old man from Mountain Ash was jailed for causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving last week. Ethan Roberts, of Jeffrey Street, was jailed for six months at Cardiff Crown Court on Friday, 10 July, 2020. His cousin, Ryan Hamer, also 20, was a passenger in the blue Toyota Yarris which Roberts was driving when he lost control of the car when taking a bend on the A4059. The car swerved across the road and into a ditch, flipping over before it came to rest. Ethan Roberts had just picked his cousin up from a party at the…

PEOPLE across Wales are being urged to shop to save lives, as Cancer Research UK stores re-open after three months of devastating closures.  The majority of the charity’s shops– including Penarth, Cowbridge, Cwmbran, Canton, Bridgend, Swansea, Camarthern, Neath, Merthyr Tydfil, Colwyn Bay, Bangor, Shotton, and Wrexham– are getting back to business to tackle a shortfall in funding caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. With its shops typically contributing more than £25m every year to vital research, Cancer Research UK has suffered a dramatic loss of income since they were forced to close temporarily at the end of March. Highlighting the scale…

Amber Energy, the energy management consultancy and utilitech pioneer, has launched AMBER, the UK’s first business energy strategy bot, to help businesses identify inefficiencies, cut costs and reduce their carbon footprint.  AMBER, which has been developed using advanced machine learning principles, will benchmark a user’s current energy performance against three criteria: Lean, Clean and Green. Lean, Clean and Green make up amber energy’s proprietary Utilities Trilemma® methodology, which is used to understand how businesses measure up against these three key areas of energy management, so that strategies can be developed to optimise energy use. How does it work? Visit https://www.amberenergy.net/benchmark…

Professor Mike Maguire, Professor of Criminology at the University of South Wales (USW), has been presented with the Outstanding Achievement Award 2020 by the British Society of Criminology (BSC). The award is in recognition of Prof Maguire’s life’s work of criminological research and teaching, which has seen him take his expertise widely into the policy and practice world. Prof Maguire has published widely on many crime and justice-related topics, including policing, prisons, resettlement of offenders, crime victims, burglary, criminal statistics, and the role of the third sector. A former member of the Parole Board and Wales Probation Trust, Prof Maguire…

A backlash against globalisation in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis can reignite a powerful North Wales manufacturing sector still reeling from the shock waves of over 1400 Airbus redundancies, according to a top expert. Bangor University economics lecturer Dr Edward Jones says that a boom in cutting edge technologies like 3D printing can boost the area’s recovery despite the fear that there may be more immediate pain to come. He predicts that when the dust settles more businesses and governments will want to have their supplies closer to home as they emerge from months of unprecedented lockdown. Dr Jones,…

A brother and sister whose parents are on the frontline of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic in North Wales have used their break from school to create a Lockdown version of board game favourite Monopoly. Now Giovanni Bugelli, 11, and his sister Julia, 16, from Prestatyn, hope their bright idea will raise money for the North Wales NHS charity Awyr Las. They came up with the idea after telling their mum, Ysbyty Glan Clwyd psychiatrist Tania, that they were bored with all the usual board games. She challenged them to come up with something fresh and Lockdown Monopoly was…

Richard Selby, co-founder and Director of Pro Steel Engineering has been named as the new Chair of IoD Wales. He will take up the position on 1 November 2020. As an ambassador of IoD Wales, patron of the Prince’s Trust and Chair and co-founder of the Torfaen Strategic Economic Forum, Richard is a highly respected and active member of the business community in Wales. He is also a Board member of the Regional Economic Growth Partnership – Cardiff Capital Region – and member of the CBI Enterprise Forum. Having begun his career with Mabey Bridge, Richard established Pro Steel Engineering…

Work-based learning providers across Wales are logging on to online workshops during the Covid-19 pandemic to improve the ways they are supporting autistic learners. Ninety people employed by 18 work-based learning providers have signed up for the two latest workshops organised by Humie Webbe, strategic equality and diversity lead at the National Training Federation for Wales (NTfW). The workshops are led by the National Autism Team, which is funded by the Welsh Government and hosted by the Welsh Local Government Association, working in partnership with Public Health Wales. The team provides support and guidance to help improve the lives of autistic…