Author: Rhys Gregory

Education charity, Into Film, has announced dates for this year’s UK-wide Into Film Festival – known as the world’s biggest youth film festival. [aoa id=”1″]Taking place between 6 and 22 November, all teachers and pupils aged 5-19 years will have the chance to go free, with venues the length and breadth of Wales showing a portion of the Festival’ s 3,000 free screenings and special events. [/aoa] However, with screenings and events usually snapped up fast, Into Film Cymru is urging educators in Wales to sign up to the priority bookings system. This will offer schools an additional one-day priority booking period, allowing them the opportunity to book…

A young farmer in Powys has secured a six-figure finance package from HSBC UK to build a new, mobile free-range egg unit which can house up to 4,000 birds. 24-year-old Aled Jones, farmer at Penrhiw Farm in Llandinam, has grown up on the farm alongside his parents and has always had a passion for farming. After conducting market research to identify ways of developing the farm, Aled and his partner Rachel diversified by starting up their own poultry unit in 2018. [aoa id=”1″]The HSBC UK funding has been used to build the new mobile egg unit and install a Vencomatic…

It’s close to 250 years since the first building society was formed and despite widespread demutualisation’s at the end of the 20th century, traditional building societies still hold a sizeable share of the mortgage market and there is no sign of them slowing down, according to local building society, Swansea Building Society. [aoa id=”1″]In 2018, the UK’s 43 societies lent £68.9 billion, according to the Building Societies Association (BSA), with net lending up 12% on the year before. As a result, the BSA says that building societies now grant nearly a third (31%) of all new mortgages.[/aoa] It’s not just the…

Lesley Griffiths AM, the Welsh Assembly’s Minister for the Environment, Energy & Rural Affairs together with children from Mount Stuart Primary School in Cardiff Bay visited Mermaid Quay this week (17 June 2019) to mark the launch of the new REFILL Mermaid Quay scheme …. just in time for National Refill Day (19 June 2019). [aoa id=”1″]Refill is a UK-wide campaign to reduce plastic pollution by making refilling a water bottle as easy, convenient and cheap as possible, with Refill Stations on every street. The Refill app shows you where you can refill your water bottle for free.[/aoa] A total…

Work has commenced on South Wales’ only comprehensive scaffolding training facility.  Led by the Construction Wales Innovation Centre (CWIC) in partnership with Construction Industry Training Board Wales (CITB), the new centre will be located at a purpose developed facility on Fabian Way in Swansea Bay.  The new facility means that students based in Wales wishing to gain extensive scaffolding training will no longer have to travel to England or beyond to acquire a full set of skills. [aoa id=”1″]The Building is currently undergoing approximately a £1.5million refurbishment to create an Access Hall of 2,000 m2 including classroom and IT facilities. The…

The coordinator of the Porth branch of Men’s Sheds in Rhondda, Gerwyn Davies, says that being involved in the social project has changed his life. [aoa id=”1″]Men’s Sheds is a social enterprise that was set up to support the growing number of people suffering from feelings of loneliness, isolation and suicidal thoughts with the aim of restoring a sense of purpose in their lives. National Loneliness Week takes place between 17-21 of June 2019 in an attempt to reduce the stigma around loneliness.[/aoa] Before retiring, Gerwyn worked as a team leader. He said: “I had a full life, I had…

It includes images from an official booklet that fans bought when they sang and danced to rock legends The Who at the Vetch Field in 1976. There’s an evocative booklet called Those Saturday Nights that tells the story of Townhill’s old Tower Ballroom. Other items include an old newspaper advertisement for The Kingsway’s Top Rank venue promises: “A top-line band; luxurious surroundings. Disc jockey. Dancing to suit all tastes.” The items are among those being submitted by music fans eager to contribute to a unique exhibition and film, both being created this year to help Swansea mark its first 50…

Transport for Wales has signed a £1.9 million contract with multinational information equipment and service company, Fujitsu, to upgrade ticket office machines and mobile handsets across the rail network. In addition to this, the partnership includes a five year support and maintenance agreement for the new hardware, which is worth an additional £5.1 million. [aoa id=”1″]As the first train operator in the UK to commit to the upgrade, the rail company’s new Star Ticket Office Machines(TOMs), installed by Fujitsu, will provide a more efficient ticketing system for customers at railway stations, enabling tickets to be issued faster. [/aoa] The machines will…

Connexas Group has secured a contract to provide its innovative telematics platform, complete with vehicle tacking, driver behaviour and on-board camera technology, to the entire fleet of vehicles operated by one of the UK’s leading independent food wholesalers, Castell Howell Foods. [aoa id=”1″]Based in Carmarthenshire, Castell Howell Foods operates a fleet of 282 vehicles, including 178 heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), delivering fresh and processed food products to customers across the UK. Operating a number of set routes, as well as ad hoc journeys, the fleet covers an average 61,000 miles per week.[/aoa] Previously operating with multiple fleet management systems across…

Welshpool-based Cambrian Training, one of the Wales’ leading work-based learning providers, is urging employers who are creating new job opportunities to consider applying for support from the Jobs Growth Wales (JGW) before the programme ends. [aoa id=”1″] The programme aims to help growing businesses across Wales to create sustainable job opportunities for unemployed and job ready young people between the ages of 16-24 years old. New recruits will be paid at least the national minimum wage for a minimum of 25 hours a week and the programme reimburses half of their wage cost for the first six months. [/aoa] The JGW…