Author: Rhys Gregory

A rundown former railway building on the walkway at Meliden, Prestatyn, is undergoing a £1.2 million revamp, transforming it into a community hub with a café, heritage, bike hire facility, and business start-up units. [aoa id=”1″] The Grade II listed building – Y Shed – is set to open next year and project leaders, charitable housing association Grŵp Cynefin and Meliden Residents Action Group, are keen to ensure the project reflects Meliden life. Village artefacts and old photos could be displayed within the building and people are being asked to help unearth hidden historical treasures. [/aoa] Mair Edwards, Grŵp Cynefin’s Community Initiatives Manager, said: “We all keep…

RUGBY star and testicular cancer survivor Matthew Rees is backing this year’s Stand Up To Cancer campaign alongside his Cardiff Blues teammates to help speed up life-saving research. [aoa id=”1″] Stand Up To Cancer, a joint fundraising campaign from Channel 4 and Cancer Research UK, unites celebrities, scientists and communities from across the UK. Every hour, around two people are diagnosed with cancer in Wales. Matthew, who was diagnosed with the disease when he was just 32, said: “Cancer is a word that scares everybody and it’s a word that certainly scares me. [/aoa] “I hope that by speaking out…

Caerphilly-based recycling and energy-from-waste business, Bryn Group has made an application to vary its operating hours, so it can meet the Council waste department’s requirements and better serve the needs of local residents. The family-run company holds a number of contracts with local authorities to process household and commercial food and green compostable waste at its recycling and anaerobic digestion centre near Gelligaer. The current planning permission limits the hours of operation at weekends and public holidays. Bryn Group manager, Jennifer Price, explained: “The local authority needs to be able to empty its collection lorries whenever they are operating and…

A PIONEERING IT business is going for gold in alliance with a global computing giant. [aoa id=”1″] Risc IT Solutions in Llandudno is one of Microsoft’s key UK partners for cloud services, employing 16 people at their innovative Church Walks complex. Risc is looking to further reinforce their profile by investing in four technical consultants to complete Microsoft’s rigorous Gold standard in Business Productivity, an accreditation that will strengthen their position as a first-class provider of cloud and IT solutions. [/aoa] Managing Director Jeremy Keane says the standard will build on their current Silver status, and act as a benchmark,…

Cash seized from criminals is being used to help combat anti-social behaviour at a beauty spot in Colwyn Bay. [aoa id=”1″] Local people were being put off going to parts of the 50-acre Eirias Park because they were being blighted by petty crime and drug dealing. Now two environmental projects have secured a £2,500 grant from North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones. The money has come from the Your Community, Your Choice fund administered by Mr Jones, the Police and Community Trust (PACT) and North Wales Police. [/aoa] Half the money was recovered through the Proceeds of Crime…

The latest group of GE Aviation Wales apprentices have successfully completed their courses and are now in the process of joining one of Wales’ leading aircraft engineering businesses. Celebrating at a gathering of over 100 friends, family members and employees from all parts of the business, the graduating apprentices received their certificates and awards from Managing Director Nick Blakeney and special guest, Lucy Owen from BBC Cymru Wales. [aoa id=”1″]The GE Aviation Wales apprenticeship programme is delivered in partnership with Coleg y Cymoedd. This relationship allowsGE to equip apprentices with the academic and technical qualifications they need to thrive as…

A new collaborative research project between the UK and India led by Aberystwyth University, aims to transform waste streams from the Indian sugarcane industry into a range of valuable new products that can address tooth decay, obesity and diabetes. [aoa id=”1″] BIOREVIEW is a £1.99M Newton Bhabha Fund Industrial Waste Challenge project, a collaboration of scientific research and business from India and the UK in order to create innovative solutions to global challenges. Dr David Bryant leads BIOREVIEW and the team at the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences. [/aoa] Dr Bryant said: “India is the world’s second largest…

Manufacturing output at leading Welsh facility Sony UK Technology Centre (UK TEC) has soared to over six million products annually according to the latest statistics. [aoa id=”1″] As the business celebrates the 25th anniversary of its Pencoed-based factory, it has reported that the number of innovative products it manufactures has leapt from 20,000 units in 2005/06 to just over 6.4 million this year. This significant increase has been driven by ongoing success across both the facility’s core Sony UK TEC manufacturing operation, along with its innovative third-party Contract Manufacturing business. [/aoa] Since Queen Elizabeth II opened the 26,000 sq m facility…

This weekend sees the much-anticipated return of Cardiff’s International Film Festival, with an impressive jury of local and global faces set to crown the winners from ten different categories. Judges include British actresses Kimberley Nixon and Maria Pride, Sci-fi author and screenwriter Marc Zicree, director, writer and producer Anurag Kashyap, script consultant and video conceptualist Keith Williams and award-winning documentary filmmaker Florence Ayisi. [aoa id=”1″]The main event will again be hosted in the historical Pierhead Building in the heart of Cardiff Bay, taking place Friday 19th – Sunday 21st October, with additional events at the Senedd and the Atrium of…

WORKERS in Wales are playing ‘Russian roulette’ with flu after two-thirds of employees said they would clock on even though they are still ill. Guilt, fear of being judged and not having enough paid sick days mean 65% of staff in Wales would still turn up for work even if they had the flu. [aoa id=”1″] As a result, three in five (61%) workers in Wales say they have caught a cold at work, while a quarter (26%) say they have caught the flu from colleagues who have turned up sick. And two-thirds (66%) of parents in Wales with kids…