Author: Rhys Gregory

A pioneering £40,000 project is being launched to help prevent homelessness among young people in Gwynedd, after a huge 575% rise in cases over the past 20 years. Homelessness support charity GISDA has been commissioned by Gwynedd Council in a bid to reach young people in crisis, before they become homeless. Councillor Dilwyn Morgan, Gwynedd Council Cabinet Member for Children and Young People said: “When we talk about homelessness, we may often think about people living on the streets in big cities. But the fact is that a number of young people may have no permanent home and are couch-surfing…

Richard Murphy, International Partner and Head of Cushman & Wakefield’s Cardiff office said: “2020 Vision is ironically more difficult than it has ever been, when looking forward to the New Year. The outcome of the General Election brings a degree of much needed political stability, with at least some of the unknowns now being known. However, there remains considerable uncertainty for Wales and the UK as a whole. We anticipate a rekindling of cautious activity within the occupational and investor markets in the first quarter of the year. The latter being driven by the volume of money still available to…

Rapidly-growing self-storage giant Lock Stock are heading way out west to open their 18th storage park at Caernarfon this month. The new facility on the town’s Cibyn Industrial Estate will offer space for over 150 units on a 1.1 acre site. It confirms the Denbigh-based company as the UK’s biggest containerised self-storage company and gives them close to 3,000 units at their sites which extend from Holyhead on Anglesey along the North Wales coast down to Shrewsbury and Newtown in Powys. The Caernarfon move follows the recent openings of storage parks on the Glendale Trading Estate at Sandycroft, adjoining Go Outdoors…

A record number of trainees have accepted pre-registration pharmacist training places in Wales this year, totalling 155 – an increase of 60% from 2019/20. Following an extensive recruitment process 97% of the places available have been filled across health boards throughout Wales.  Recruitment for the pre-registration pharmacists was supported by the promotion of a #Train Work Live campaign and HEIW attendance at university careers events across the UK focusing on pharmacy students who were deciding where to undertake their pre-registration training. Margaret Allan, Pharmacy Dean at Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) said “I am delighted that undergraduate students across…

A new adult subscription service has launched for those looking to try something new in the bedroom. Welsh entrepreneur Liza Fitzgerald has launched Feeling Foxy boxes – an adult toy subscription service which has launched this month. Feeling Foxy founder Liza, based in Newport, has put together collections of the most in-demand toys for couples or singles looking to try something new. She fills the surprise boxes with sexy products ranging from vibrators to bondage gear and customers only find out what thrills lie ahead when it lands on the doormat. Subscribers can choose from either a £40 ‘Playtime’ box,…

The 30 members of the Youth Commission – the first of its kind in Wales – are helping to draw up a new plan for the way the region is policed. The scheme was set up by North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones and is being overseen by his deputy, Ann Griffith, whose portfolio includes children and young people. All of the members are aged between 14 and 25 and the four main topics identified by them as major concerns are the relationship between young people and the police, drug issues, anti-social behaviour and mental health issues. The…

Two new apprenticeship frameworks have been developed thanks to an exciting collaboration between health bodies across Wales. Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW), Skills for Health and Welsh health boards and trusts have worked together to create the new schemes aimed at training more assistant practitioners who will work in healthcare support roles and healthcare science and therapy areas. Assistant practitioners are essential and valued staff who carry out roles which align to individual professions or cross professional boundaries to meet the health and social care needs of people of all ages in communities throughout Wales. The apprenticeships, which start…

The £135m Swansea Central Phase One scheme will take two more big leaps forward on Monday. Contractors on the major transformative project are set to start work on the whole of the project’s northern site, next to the Tesco Marina store. Monday will see: a reduction in the size of the temporary St Mary’s surface car park near St David’s car park; the closure – and subsequent removal – of the old footbridge over Oystermouth Road. Nearby ground level pedestrian crossing controls remain available. Also from Monday, a cut-price offer for the St David’s multi-storey takes effect. Parking will be…

The Big Retreat Wales, an annual wellbeing festival set in Britain’s only coastal National Park in Pembrokeshire, is on course for an early sell out in 2020, just four years after it was first launched.  The festival, which delivers hundreds of carefully curated fitness and wellbeing classes, workshops and talks from some of the industry’s leading practitioners, advocates the power of the great outdoors to deliver life-changing experiences and boost mental and physical health. Set in parkland on the site of a former mansion in one of the most stunning locations in Wales, the festival has quickly become a favourite…

As anyone who lives in Swansea will know, there’s very little by way of gaming venues. People often compare the City and County of Swansea to the more populous Cardiff, in which there are three casinos to Swansea’s one. It has been this way since 2012 – when the city’s largest casino was closed down. The closure was put down to the operation not being commercially viable without the scope granted by a licence – which hadn’t been issued for tender by the local government. However, according to the WalesOnline website, there is still a chance that another casino could…