Author: Rhys Gregory

Art historian and exhibition curator, Peter Lord, has been exploring the myth that there is ‘no Welsh art’ since the 1980s, discovering and recording examples and artists. On Saturday, November 16, a new exhibition opens in the Gregynog Gallery at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, combining his substantial collection with items from the library’s National Art Collection for the first time to tell this important story. The exhibition challenges a statement made in 1950 by late Welsh novelist, poet and broadcaster Dr Llewelyn Wyn Griffith who controversially said: “So much for the past. No patron, no critic, therefore no painter, no…

A new steam locomotive will be heading the annual Santa Special trains on Corris Railway for one of the first time in decades. For most of the last 20 years, ‘Tattoo’ steam locomotive Number 7, built new for the railway in 2005 has done the honour. This year, however, the starring role goes to Number 10, a “Falcon” class loco delivered new to the Corris in 2023, After a spell as Britain’s newest steam loco, it has had a busy 2024, starring in gala events on both the Corris and the Talyllyn Railways. It also played a leading role in…

Denbighshire County Council will once again be running the ‘Free After Three’ parking scheme in the run up to Christmas. Adding an additional two days to the scheme this year, Denbighshire Council-run town centre car parks will be free to use county wide across Denbighshire every day from 3pm between 18th November – 31st December. This scheme runs alongside the 5 free parking days issued to Town and City Councils each year. The ‘Free After Three’ parking scheme opens over 25 central town centre car parks for residents to use for free after 3pm. This initiative makes the high streets…

Skaters in Cardiff will soon have a new ‘destination’ skate park to enjoy. Work on the approximately 1,000m2skatepark next door to Eastern Leisure Centre in Llanrumney is scheduled to begin before Christmas. Designed by award winning consultants VDZ+A and Newline Skateparks in consultation with the local skateboard community, the new skatepark features a series of ramps, hips, curbs, ledges and rails as well as a quarter pipe and will be suitable for all ages and abilities. Built from concrete, the new skatepark will provide a higher quality, more inclusive, lower maintenance and lower noise facility than the existing timber-framed skatepark…

Work has started as a Swansea construction firm helps bring another of the city’s heritage buildings back to life. A team from Landore-based John Weaver Contractors has now moved on-site at the Lower Swansea Valley’s Hafod-Morfa Copperworks grade two listed Laboratory Building. The company secured the contract to renovate the historic structure after Swansea Council advertised the opportunity. The work, expected to take around 16 months, will see the building made suitable for a restaurant or a number of other possible uses. The building is thought to date from the second half of the 1800s, with the planned work being…

From Friday 15 November, Newport Civic Centre will be closed on Fridays. The one-day per week trial closure is part of a project to consider the future use of the building ahead of a proposed move towards closing the building for two days a week, which was agreed by full council earlier this year as part of the 2024/25 budget savings proposals. Full council agreed to the move to close the building two days a week in order to recoup savings through a reduction in utility costs. During the trial, the council will assess the practicalities of closing the building…

Nick Smith MP (Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney) and Ruth Jones MP (Newport West) visited Rhymney Library Hub to view the new facilities and find out more about the success of the hub model and how it benefits the community. Rhymney Library Hub officially opened earlier this year after an exciting refurbishment thanks to funding from Caerphilly County Borough Council and Welsh Government’s Capital Transformation Fund. The Rhymney Library Hub offers a new holistic support environment allowing our residents an entry point into council services. A range of council support services are available for residents to speak to including; Caerphilly Cares,…

New proposals will allow infrastructure planning decisions of national significance to be taken more quickly. Improvements to the planning system must continue if Wales is to deliver on its decarbonisation, renewable energy and green jobs ambitions, Economy, Energy and Planning Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Evans will say today. Five decisions on major new renewable energy projects have been approved by the Cabinet Secretary since her appointment in September, contributing over 280 MW of renewable energy for Wales – the equivalent to power more than 180,000 Welsh homes. Speaking to representatives from across the renewable energy sector at a packed Future Energy…

More children will soon benefit from a programme aiming to inspire and develop Wales’ engineers of tomorrow, thanks to a £1.2 million investment from Welsh Government. The funding will expand the HiVE (High Value Engineering) Hub programme which is being delivered in partnership with Coleg Gwent and funded through the Tech Valleys programme. The expansion will see additional schools in Caerphilly county borough, Torfaen and Monmouthshire benefit from the STEM scheme, which provides robotics equipment for classrooms and aims to introduce learners to engineering at an early age. The first HiVE Hubs were established in Blaenau Gwent in 2021, with…

The Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government, Jayne Bryant, delivered an update on building safety in Wales in the Senedd.  The update included progress being made to reform the design, construction and occupation of buildings as well as an update on the progress towards repairing buildings in Wales. Addressing the Siambr, the Cabinet Secretary said: “We have introduced tighter regulations of higher risk buildings, as well as a new regulatory system for registration and oversight of the building control profession, including building control approvers and building inspectors working in both the private sector and local authorities. “The next stage…