Author: Rhys Gregory

Every year, more than 100 artisan producers, independent food traders and street food vendors pitch up in Cardiff Bay on the first weekend in July for the Cardiff Food and Drink Festival – but this year the food (and a taste of the festival experience) will be delivered straight to your door. A new festival website will host recipes, music, and an online market place where visitors can order a range of premium quality local and international food and drink – things like delicious cakes, marinades, flavoured oils, preserves, speciality gins and cider, and more – directly from the people…

Dental and optometry practices across Wales are gradually reintroducing a broader range of services as part of the phased recovery of health services from the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike in England, many dental practices in Wales have remained open during the pandemic to provide emergency care. Over 16,500 patients have been seen in-practice by dentists in Wales since mid-March, with a further 180,000 patients being assessed remotely by phone or video. 87 of Wales’ 400 optometry practices have also kept their doors open during the pandemic, providing urgent and essential eye care to over 19,000 patients through in-practice and remote consultations.…

Construction companies are to have the chance to develop a ground-breaking building designed to attract innovative tech and creative businesses to the heart of Swansea city centre. Tender documents for the multi-million pound project have been published for the construction of a glazed building rising six storeys on the site of The Kingsway’s former Oceana nightclub. It aims to bring new vitality to the city centre. More than 600 people could work in what aims to be a high-quality digitally-enabled and flexible work space for a wide variety of companies, educational institutions and individuals. The scheme will help stimulate employment…

“It is a tremendous boost to all our families at the most difficult time imaginable.” That was the reaction from Tŷ Hafan Chair, Martin Davies, at the news that His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales has agreed to extend his Patronage of the children’s charity for a further term.   His Royal Highness has a long association with Wales’ first children’s hospice – officially becoming Patron in 2001, just two years after the Charity opened its doors.   The Prince of Wales last visited Tŷ Hafan in 2018 when he met with life-limited children, their families and staff at…

Philanthropist and leading businessman Steve Morgan has extended his campaign to help cash-strapped charities through Covid-19 until the end of September. The founder of housebuilder Redrow launched the Covid-19 Emergency Fund in March for an initial 12 weeks through his Steve Morgan Foundation. The campaign has already handed out in excess of 450 awards across  Merseyside, North Wales and Cheshire totalling more than £4.5m while Morgan also committed to give up to another £1m in match-funding to Cheshire Community Foundation’s Covid-19 Response Fund. Morgan said: “I’m proud of how the Covid-19 Emergency Fund has supported those charities that have stayed open during the pandemic…

A Powys care homeowner is so disillusioned with the unfair postcode lottery system of residential care funding in Wales that he’s calling for an urgent investigation. After spending 14 years battling for change, Doug Leach, who runs the Bryngwy care home in Rhayader says he is fed up with the chronic underfunding of social care. Mr Leach wants an  inquiry into the way residential homes receive widely differing fees from local authorities and says sweeping changes are needed. He spoke out after Care Forum Wales, which represents nearly 500 social care providers, presented a “terrible ten” local authorities with Cheapskate…

Business confidence in Wales fell five points during June to -40%, according to the latest Business Barometer from Lloyds Bank. Companies in Wales reported that confidence in their business prospects had fallen month-on-month to -32%. When taken alongside their views on the economy overall, this gives a headline confidence reading of -40%. The Business Barometer questions 1,200 businesses monthly and provides early signals about UK economic trends both regionally and nationwide. When asked about the impact of coronavirus on their business, more than a third (37%)  said they expect to be operating at more than 50% of capacity by the…

Cardiff solicitor Molly Fensome-Lush has been named a finalist in the Rising Star of the Year category in the prestigious Wales Legal Awards 2020. Molly, 25, who joined Clarke Willmott LLP as the first member of the private capital team in their office in Pierhead Street in November 2019, specialises in health and welfare matters in the Court of Protection. She regularly advises vulnerable adults (who may lack capacity) and their representatives, or family members in health and welfare matters and complex deprivation of liberty cases. Molly said: “It was so exciting when I discovered I was a finalist. It’s…

Tesco has donated 3.3 million meals of surplus food across South Wales, the supermarket revealed today, as it hit a milestone of 50 million meals being donated across the UK. Enough food to give everyone in Wales a meal, the food has been donated through the Community Food Connection scheme it operates with food redistribution charity FareShare. Every Tesco store in the UK participates in the scheme, which is celebrating five years of helping communities across the country, and sees more than a million meals donated every month. Since the start of the pandemic almost 700 new groups have signed up…

A graduate programme created in response to the last recession is warning Welsh businesses to learn from the lessons of 2008 or risk weakening their recovery. With concerns a generation of graduates could be lost to the market, the organiser of Graduate Programmes Wales is cautioning that businesses who overlook graduate recruitment will be denying themselves the opportunity for new talent to support their Covid-19 recovery. First launched as a pilot scheme in 2013, the Graduate Programme Wales (then known as the Welsh Financial Services Graduate Programme) was itself initially created following the 2008 financial crisis as a strategy to…