Author: Rhys Gregory

A campaign by philanthropist and businessman Steve Morgan to help charities affected by Covid-19 has now handed out £5m. The Steve Morgan Foundation’s Covid-19 Emergency Fund has clocked up another milestone after making more than 500 awards to charities in North Wales, Cheshire and Merseyside. The founder of the Steve Morgan Foundation announced in March he would be giving up to £1m a week to local charities faced with a cashflow crisis as a result of the pandemic and recently announced he would be extending it until the end of September. In addition to the £5m, Mr Morgan has also committed to give up to another £1m in match-funding…

Jazz singer Nia Lynn is the next special guest to hold a live online event for the Willow Globe at Llanwrthwl near Rhayader on Monday, July 13 from 7pm to 8pm. Originally from the Brecon Beacons, Nia is one of the UK’s leading vocal coaches who has worked with the Donmar Warehouse and Young Vic. Resident voice coach at the Royal Shakespeare Company(RSC), she is one of the UK’s pre-eminent vocalists and songwriters. Nia has been a jazz singing tutor at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama since 2005 and has a flourishing song writing career, having released two…

The Welsh Government will provide an additional £29 million to schools to boost support for learners at crucial stages in their education from September. The equivalent of 600 extra teachers and 300 teaching assistants will be recruited throughout the next school year, targeting extra support at Years 11, 12 and 13, as well as disadvantaged and vulnerable learners of all ages. This will support learners taking their A level and GCSEs in 2021 and those known to have been affected most while many schools have been closed since March. Professional learning resources will be provided to support the new and…

Award-winning Welsh homebuilder Llanmoor Homes has called on the Welsh Government to follow England’s lead by cutting the Land Transaction Tax to kickstart the housing market. Chancellor Rishi Sunak today announced the stamp duty threshold would be increased to £500,000 as part of the UK Government’s coronavirus recovery package. The measure will take effect immediately and last until March 31st 2021. It is hoped the measure will offer support to those looking to enter the housing market and encourage the housebuilding industry to continue building to protect the economy from potential recession. However, the measure will only apply in England as…

A REGIONAL celebration of food and drink will take place virtually this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The second annual Blasu/Taste North East Wales event was to be held in October after a successful debut in 2019 saw more than 30 businesses and 400 visitors take part in a series of activities over 40 days. Organised by Clwydian Range Food and Drink and Llangollen and Dee Valley Food and Drink (formerly the Good Grub Club), with the support of rural regeneration agency Cadwyn Clwyd, the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB and the local authorities of Flintshire, Wrexham and…

Cardiff’s Tudor Street is set to benefit from a multi-million pound regeneration programme designed to create an attractive and vibrant shopping area for the local communityand visitors to the Riverside area. Phase one of the development, which starts on site next month, will see £1m invested in commercial premises which have signed up to take part in the Tudor Street building improvement scheme. Further funding of approximately £3m has been earmarked for work in early 2021 which will enablea large transformation of the whole street environment. Consultation on the 2021 project is about to commence and the scheme aims to…

The Health Minister has this week announced that video consultation services will be extended to dental practices, opticians and community pharmacies. This follows the successful roll-out of the service in primary care, community and secondary care during the coronavirus pandemic. Video consultation has rapidly expanded during the last few months and has helped to transform how people access healthcare services during the COVID-19 response. To date over 6,400 GP video consultations have been undertaken and over 8,800 video consultations to support community and secondary care. 97% of patients who have used the service have rated it as excellent, really good…

The Welsh Government’s bespoke Economic Resilience Fund (ERF) has provided vital support to a key engineering business to help it deal with the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, Economy Minister Ken Skates has announced. MII Engineering Limited in Caerphilly supports a diverse range of industries, including steel, power, food production and rail. The company is a significant employer in the area and the £417,000 grant funding it has received from the ERF will help protect hundreds of jobs. The ERF, which is part of the Welsh Government’s £1.7bn support package for business, is providing significant financial support to companies across…

A public consultation for the Planning Application to build a new Fitzalan High School opened this week, Tuesday 7, July and members of the public are invited to share their views. If progressed, the new Fitzalan High School will represent a £63.5m investment in the local community and would see the existing school replaced with a new-build school on land next to the Leckwith Stadium in the Canton area of the city.  It would be a 10 form entry, accommodating up to 1,500 students between the age of 11 and 16, plus a sixth form. The new school would offer…

An animal sanctuary in the Brecon Beacons is preparing to re-open in good health, following support from Lloyds Bank and the general public. Wales Ape and Monkey Sanctuary, which is home to more than 200 rescued animals, has secured £50k of emergency funding via the government’s Coronavirus Bounce Back Loan scheme for small businesses. The loan, provided by long-standing banking partner Lloyds Bank, will provide a long-term safety net for the charity alongside ongoing fundraising activity as it continues to meet basic running costs of £25k a month. In addition to meeting the welfare needs of the sanctuary’s animals, which…