Author: Rhys Gregory

Toe tapping entertainment is coming to Cowbridge this September, as Cowbridge Music Festival announces the line-up for its first ever Festival Fringe. Running alongside the Cowbridge Music Festival, the upcoming Festival Fringe (13-16 September) will boast an array of exciting events celebrating young local musical talent and showcasing community groups. [aoa id=”1″] Kicking off the Fringe festivities on the 13th September will be a jazz supper at The Bear Hotel. The hotel’s Cellars Restaurant will be transformed into a jazz club, giving locals a taste of local talent with a live performance from jazz saxophonist Ffion Wyn and a two-course…

Inspire Wales and BeTheSpark officially open applications for their first Pitch It event held in Wales, taking place on Thursday 17th October at Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff. [aoa id=”1″] This event captures BeTheSpark’s vision in action as it will attract people and organisations from across three of BeTheSpark’s five stakeholder groups – academia, risk capital and entrepreneurs. Pitch It was pioneered by Inspire Wales who recognised there was a gap in the market for entrepreneurs raising seed rounds of investment ranging from £10k-£50k. [/aoa] “Inspire Wales are aiming to make the investment landscape more accessible to SME’s. Innovation-driven entrepreneurship is…

Welsh Government has been urged to adopt best practice guidelines that are already in place elsewhere in the UK to help deal with issues around the leasehold system in the residential property market in Wales. RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) says that adopting the Service Charge Residential Management Code, which has already been approved by the UK Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, would bring a range of benefits for the housing market in Wales. The potential benefits would include a reduction in the causes of disputes between tenants and landlords over lease service charges and…

Guinness PRO14 games will be shown in Welsh on S4C for the next three years. An agreement between S4C and Celtic Rugby means that there will be Guinness PRO14 games every week on S4C during the regular season. Matches will be broadcast live on television and online via the S4C Clic service, and commentary will be through the Welsh language only.17 games will be live on S4C during the season, including Christmas and New Year derby matches and, should a Welsh region be involved, live coverage of the Guinness PRO14 final. Further coverage will also be available on an as-live basis.…

Keep Wales Tidy is launching an ambitious new campaign to clean up every public beach in Wales, in partnership with McDonald’s. The All Wales Beach Clean will take place from the 14th to 30th of September, with clean up events planned forevery public beach in Wales. Marine litter poses a growing threat to our aquatic and coastal environment. Up to 12.7 million tonnes of plastic enters the world’s oceans every year, equivalent to dumping one bin lorry of plastic per minute into the world’s oceans. Community groups, schools and businesses from across Wales will be joining the two weeks of…

A woman from Cardiff is taking on the 1 Million Step Challenge for Diabetes UK Cymru, one year after being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Jennie Humphreys, 36, from Roath, was diagnosed with the condition in May 2017. She wanted to take on the challenge to do something positive for the charity. Jennie, a dietitian, had some knowledge of diabetes but still didn’t expect to get a diagnosis, as she thought the chances of being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in adulthood were slim compared to childhood. However, 1 in 5 cases of the condition are diagnosed in people aged…

Brexit is a hot topic at the Royal Welsh Show this week, as farmers across Wales seek assurances from Welsh and UK Governments over the uncertainty of the sector post-leaving the EU next year. More than two-years has passed since the Brexit referendum and the only apparent certainty for farmers since then has been the prevailing sense of uncertainty. We caught up with Roddy McLean, Director of Agriculture at NatWest, about the future of Welsh farming sector and Brexit and why he is optimistic for the future. I am optimistic about the future of farming in Wales This might seem like a…

The Welsh Ambulance Service Non-Emergency Patient Transport Service (NEPTS) has been recognised for their commitment and support for carers and their families. The NEPTS team have achieved the Investors in Carers Bronze Level award; a scheme which is delivered by Hywel Dda University Health Board and supported by the local authority and third sector partners in Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire. The Investors in Carers initiative was originally designed to help health facilities such as pharmacies, GP practices and hospitals improve their carer awareness and enhance the help and support that they can offer carers. The scheme has now been developed…

Superfast Cymru has provided almost 733,000 premises across Wales with access to fast fibre broadband, Leader of the House with responsibility for digital Julie James has announced. Of these 717,000 can achieve speeds of at least 30Mbps with the remainder achieving speeds of at least 24Mbps. Wales has also been at the forefront of deploying fibre to the premises technology with nearly 48,700 of the total number of premises given access this way, all of which are now capable of receiving speeds of over 100Mbps. None of the almost 733,000 premises would have received access to fast fibre broadband without…

Revolutionary youth employment app, miFuture has been launched in Wales this week to help combat Generation Z unemployment levels.  [aoa id=”1″]It was reported that there were 808,000 young people aged 16-24 not in education, employment or training in 2018. With these figures in mind and the overall aim of reducing unemployment levels in the UK, miFuture is on a mission to mobilise 100,000 disengaged 16-24-year-olds into employability and prosperity by swiping yes or no to available opportunities through the recently launched app.[/aoa] Starting in Wales, miFuture has already recruited several employers to help make its mission a reality with the likes of GoCompare, PlaySports,…