Author: Rhys Gregory

His new venture, Ollywood, employs mainly ex-Forces staff who design and create imaginative, eye-catching installations and furniture for clients around the UK. Such is the demand that Oli plans to take on five full time staff in the next three years, employing ex-Forces and creative people where possible, and working with local colleges to create apprenticeships. Ollywood launched a year ago with the help of a £1500 Business Support Grant funded by Tata Steel subsidiary UKSE and administered by Newport City Council. “The grant was very helpful and enabled us to buy IT equipment and tools. We really appreciate the…

A series of key projects to help shape the Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) as one of the most investable areas in the UK have been approved by the CCR Regional Cabinet. The projects, all submitted through the Investment and Intervention Framework, will see investments ranging from initial sums totalling £215k to progress next steps business cases, through to a £30m commitment of City Deal funding for a Housing Investment fund, and £1.5m to scale up the CCR graduate programme. The Framework, launched by the Economic Growth Partnership, focuses on the region’s three priorities, innovation, infrastructure and challenge, enabling maximum leverage…

Two Cardiff reservoirs, which are currently undergoing major restoration work, have secured a financial boost to support the ecological resilience of the site whilst reconnecting people with the well-loved area creating a future hub for health and wellbeing in the capital. Lisvane and Llanishen reservoirs, which are the responsibility of Welsh Water, have been successful in securing a £930,000 grant from the Welsh Government’s ‘Enabling Natural Resources and Well-being (ENRaW)’ Scheme.  The grant supports projects that improves the quality of the local environment and biodiversity, developing resilient ecological networks, whilst broadening access to sustainable green infrastructure linked to the wider…

With a sell-out crowd, Wales will be taking on Scotland on Saturday March 14 at the Principality Stadium. With the kick off taking place at 2.15pm, there will be a full city centre road closure from 10.45am until 5.15pm on grounds of public safety. The gates to the stadium will open at 11.15am and all supporters are advised to get into the stadium early, to avoid missing kick-off. Those attending the rugby match are strongly advised to leave large bags at home and pay attention to the prohibited items listed at  principalitystadium.wales  before they travel into the city. Road closures From early…

First Minister Mark Drakeford will today unveil the exciting concept for a National Forest running the length and breadth of Wales. Backed by £5m in this year’s Budget, the National Forest will create areas of new woodland and help to restore and maintain some of Wales’ unique and irreplaceable ancient woodlands. And a further £10m of Glastir Woodland creation and restoration funding will be available to increase tree planting across Wales. The National Forest will be a connected ecological network running throughout Wales, which will play an important role in protecting nature and addressing biodiversity loss. It will also help…

Economy, Transport and North Wales Minister Ken Skates has announced that global, award-winning design and technology consultancy and product developer Keytree Ltd is creating 38 new jobs at its site in Port Talbot with support from the Welsh Government. The Welsh Government is providing £500,000 which will see the company expand at its base in Port Talbot and create new high quality jobs, almost doubling its headcount. Headquartered in London, Keytree has projects spanning 100 countries with offices in Sydney, Madrid and Bangalore in addition to Port Talbot. Today’s announcement will see a major expansion of the Port Talbot office…

Traveling to the United Kingdom would not be complete without a trip to Wales, the region that is known for its beautiful outdoors. Taking a holiday trip to Wales is an exploration of a magical landscape of coasts and mountains whose people maintain a rich culture. There is a timeless atmosphere in Wales. What’s more is that it is also a very friendly place to travel, not only for humans but also for their dogs. Where to Stay in Wales Wales lets you have the best of both worlds because it has one foot firmly in the past with well-maintained…

PR & content agency BrandContent is giving free tampons to all staff in defiance of the ‘sluggish’ response by the government to abolish the tampon tax. After years of lobbying, the government announced in today’s budget that it will abandon the tampon tax with a zero rate of VAT applying to sanitary products from 2021. However, the 10-person agency says the announcement doesn’t go far enough and further delays to the abolishment of this tax ignores the root cause of the problem; discrimination against women which will still continue for months to come. As a reaction to this slow response,…

Olympians Tessa Sanderson and Iwan Thomas will take on sports broadcasters John Watson and Manish Bhasin in a BBC Bargain Hunt Sport Relief special. Which team will bag the best bargains and raise the most money for Sport Relief?  Presenter Eric Knowles will referee the celebrity sporting teams as they search for antiques and hidden gems at Newmarket Racecourse. With just one hour on the clock, the red and blue teams must each find three items which they hope will make a big profit for the charity at auction. On the red team, antiques expert Caroline Hawley will be guiding…

A mother-of-five, who is chief steward of the Officers Mess at Beachley Barracks in Chepstow, has won an Apprentice of the Year Award. Emma Hooper received the honour at the annual Apprenticeship, Employment and Skills Awards organised by Cambrian Training, one of Wales’ top work-based learning providers. Emma Hooper, who works for Compass Group, is using all the things she has learned doing an Apprenticeship in Hospitality Supervision and Leadership in her role. She says the Apprenticeship has pushed her to be the best supervisor possible and she hopes to progress to a Higher Apprenticeship in a future managerial role.…