Author: Rhys Gregory

Thousands of meals have been provided to people in need this Christmas thanks to customer donations at Tesco stores across Cardiff. Generous customers in the area donated nearly 18,000 meals for food charities FareShare and The Trussell Trust during the Tesco Food Collection, which ran in stores from 29 November to 1 December. Tesco asked its customers to donate long-life items to help people in need as part of their usual shop, with the supermarket announcing its delight that customers were more generous than ever with an increase on the previous year’s collection. With this year’s UK-wide total of 3.5…

A pioneering scheme to divert low level offenders away from a life of crime is being launched in North Wales. The idea has been championed by North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones who says it will cut reoffending rates as well as reducing police and court time. It’s anticipated part of the Checkpoint programme will be piloted in a selected area of North Wales in the New Year with the aim of rolling it out across the region over the next 12 months. The scheme, which has been developed by Cambridge University, has been successfully trialled in Durham.…

The Christmas spirit is well and truly alive in Wales as a record-breaking 13,250 gifts have been donated to the St David’s Toy Appeal, smashing the original target of 10,000 that had been set and beating the donation record set in previous years. Supporting over 20 incredible charities this year, St David’s wanted to ensure that no child in South Wales is left empty handed this Christmas, and thanks to the generosity of shoppers, the initiative has generated thousands of donations for charities across Wales. Since the appeal’s launch on December 1st, charitable shoppers have been out in force, picking…

Firefighters from South Wales Fire and Rescue Service Barry Station, Red Watch, are set to deliver donated gifts from the community to the children at Ty Hafan on Christmas Day. Ty Hafan, a Welsh registered charity, provides holistic palliative care for children with life-limiting conditions and their families throughout Wales. “We are constantly amazed by the extra mile our friends in the community will go to and the Barry Fire fighters are testament to this.  Over the Christmas season, Ty Hafan will ensure that the little ones with us will receive round-the-clock care from our brilliant nurses but thanks to the kindness of people like…

It’s a good job Santa has his magic sleigh, because if he was to rely on normal methods of transport, children around the world would be left present-less for an awfully long time. [aoa id=”1″] New research from TeamSport Karting, the UK’s largest indoor karting operator, has calculated the sluggish delivery times of each everyday mode of transport were Santa to trade in his vehicle for a non-festive alternative. With 2.2 billion children across the planet, spread between 916 million houses, Father Christmas has to travel a mammoth 424,843,108 miles to deliver gifts each year. This means his sleigh travels…

Christmas is a time filled with cheer and good food, with many families across the UK going all-out with a festive feast on the big day itself. [aoa id=”1″] Now, new analysis from British Gas has revealed just how much energy households will use cooking a traditional Christmas dinner on Tuesday, including data on yuletide favourites such as turkey, pigs in blankets and Brussels sprouts. The traditional turkey dinner and trimmings, including roast vegetables, stuffing, pigs in blankets and sprouts uses 56kWh of energy to cook – the same amount that an average household would normally use in a whole…

Wild Water Group, South Wales’ largest bespoke temperature controlled storage and distribution company, have signed an alliance agreement with global supply logistics giant, GAC, to support Wild Water Group’s international freight forwarding requirements from January 2019. [aoa id=”1″] The signing of this agreement comes after Wild Water Group’s purchase of a 130 000 sq ft building on a 12-acre site in Aberbargoed (September 2018), which will potentially generate up to 120 new work positions across management, supervisory, warehousing staff and apprenticeship roles. The purchase of this facility was funded by Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking and the Development Bank of Wales,…

A RECRUITMENT agency has big plans for 2019 after celebrating one of the most successful and dynamic periods in its long history. [aoa id=”1″] Supertemps is coming up to its 40thyear in business, but few have been as busy as the last 12 months. The Colwyn Bay and Bangor-based company opened an office at Menai Science Park on Anglesey, took on fresh faces and revealed plans for a new base in north east Wales. Its executive division – S2 Recruitment – will be focused more on engineering and IT, as well as senior and managerial roles in a multitude of…

Almost one in five Welsh festive dinners are likely to include a nut roast (18 per cent) – more than any other region in the UK. [aoa id=”1″] Breakfast at 8.54am, opening presents at 10.06am, dinner by 1.36pm and settling down for a 3.48pm nap makes up the perfect typical Christmas Day, according to new research by specialist lender Together. The study, part of Together’s “New Normal Christmas” campaign, found many Brits still enjoy a very traditional day, with the first alcoholic drink coming at 12.18pm before finally sitting down in front of the television at 2.42pm. However, an increasing…

The Winner of a national Entrepreneurial Award attributes her success to a Bangor University School of Education Masters course. Ms Ayan Aliyeva, of Baku, Azerbaijan, has been awarded the British Council Entrepreneurial Alumni Award for Azerbaijan. In addition to being the founder and CEO of a highly successful and growing education centre, with several branches providing education in Baku, Ms Aliyeva has introduced modernising initiatives, such as professional development opportunities and mainstreaming pupils with special educational needs, both of which have had transformed Azerbaijani education. She says: “Studying at Bangor University had a paramount impact on the development and expansion…