Automatrics receive more calls for help from clients in South Wales following the theft of a Bomag 100 Roller. The local police are keen to help and suspect one possible location.
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Autistic youngsters get their own Prom at Swansea stadium
Autistic youngsters get their own Prom…..
Many Autistic teenagers across Swansea and Neath and Port Talbot didn’t get a Prom or a school leavers event because they often struggle to cope with the noise, lights and number of people. Swansea Autism Movement are making up for this by organising an autism friendly Prom just for them.
With a silent disco, sensory room, quiet areas, the adaptations at the Swansea.com stadium for this event will support the particular needs of these young people. There will still be a disco, red carpet entrance, buffet and plenty of photo opportunities, but the focus of the evening on Friday 21st April is to ensure the best time is had by all and memories are made.
Swansea Autism Movement CIC is a peer-to-peer project of parent-carers who have autistic children and those waiting for a diagnosis. We support autistic children, their siblings and parent carers by connecting families through fun activities and regular contact. SAM is managed by a team of volunteer directors led by Chair Suzanne Cranmer-Ford.
SAM wish to thank everyone involved in assisting us with staging the event, especially Nicky Price at the Events team at Swansea.com, InHouse Entertainments, thesilentdiscocompany.co.uk, Play and Leisure Opportunity Library, Mara Cabral & John Minopoli for offering to take photographs at the event and especially the young people who have worked together with us to plan this event..
SAM would also like to thank those who supported our fundraising including Andrew Scott, Mardi Gras Party shop, Carltons Hair Design, Rachel Jenkins, Anne Melik, Lush Swansea, Daniel Perkins, Swansea City AFC, Kara Rees, all the individuals who have offered theirs or their family members Camper Vans, Cars and Harley bikes to be outside the event for photographs and everyone who has bought a sensory bag or phone holder from Jack.
For further information: info@swanseaautismmovement.org
James Harvey – Under investigation from University Wales Trinity Saint David
Readers will recall our posts earlier this year regarding a certain James Harvey, a new figure in the motley ranks of those knuckledragging hatemongers at the so called ‘Voice of Wales’. Pleased to report then that our efforts seem to have born fruit with Harvey now under investigation by the authorities at University Wales Trinity Saint David (where Harvey is a student).
The attached pic includes screenshots of Harvey’s recent rantings on telegram and suggest Harvey isn’t best pleased that we have brought his appalling activities to wider scrutiny. Activities which can be seen in this video here www.facebook.com/FRWWales/videos/1207390309892071 (harvey appears 1 min 27 seconds in) and which have included promoting holocaust denial, white supremacism, peddling anti-semitic conspiracy tropes and likening people in Cardiff of somalian origins to apes.
In keeping with the british far right’s current insidious efforts to whip up hatred towards the trans community Harvey has also recenly taken to descending on shops in Cardiff and scouring them for items that offend the far right’s transphobic ‘sensibilities’ (with these revolting exploits filmed and uploaded to Harvey’s twitter for his cerebrally challenged cronies ‘enjoyment’).
One such Harvey crony hails from riverside in Cardiff in the shape of Hugh Thorne aka ‘Based Welshman’ on youtube and various online platforms used by the extreme right. Indeed Thorne has frequently acted as ‘cameraman’ when Harvey has been harrassing and intimdating retail workers in Cardiff.
We first brought Thorne to peoples attention in this facebook post 4 years ago www.facebook.com/FRWWales/posts/580193245828960 . Thorne has regularly participated (and filmed) efforts by british far right groups to intimidate and terrorise asylum seekers in places like Dover and West Wales and has travelled to Europe to attend events organised by neo fascists in europe.
While Harvey also operates the deranged and hopelessly misnamed ‘Students against Tyranny’ twitter account. Before linking up with VoW he was behind covid denying stunts in Cardiff and Swansea.
Homelessness help & support
Homelessness
The amount of people who find themselves with financial problems and who might end up homeless have risen over the last few years, including families and young people. Some organisations here offer support for people in that situation.
SHELTER CYMRU
An organsiation that campaign to fight for better housing provision in Wales but can also give practical advice if you’re in difficulties, with a comprehensive set of resources on the website.
08000 495 495
THE WALLICH
A charity which has several projects helping the homeless across Wales. The website has details of these in your area.
LLAMAU
A long-established charity which gives support to homeless young people and women. Based mainly in South East Wales, it has offices and projects in Cardiff, Barry, Bridgend, Newport, Caerphilly and Monmouth.
GISDA
A charity which offers support and opportunities for young people, including the homeless, in North Wales. They have a range of projects that focus on developing the skills needed to live independently.
CHANGE STEP
Delivered by veterans for veterans, Change Step offers peer mentoring and help to access relevant services — including support with mental health, substance misuse, criminal justice and housing issues.
0300 777 2259
MENTAL HEALTH AND MONEY ADVICE
A service which can support and advise you if you’re living with a mental illness and worried about money.
CITIZEN’S ADVICE
There are over 3,000 Citizens Advice Bureaux in the UK, and they can give you free help with legal, money, work and other problems. Find out about your local service either through the website or you telephone directory. The guides on the site also have a lot of very useful information on a variety of subjects.
MEIC
Bilingual helpline and online service about any subject, if you’re between 0 and 25.
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080880 23456
CYMORTH CYMRU
Cymorth Cymru connects providers of housing related support, homelessness and other services which enable people to build independent lives in their community.
Information provided by Dale Fischer, Richard Taylor and Megan Poppy Lloyd.
Morrisons supermarket overcharging for purchases, repeatedly ignores complaints
I am writing an article showing how it is possible to purchase food items from an app called “TooGoodToGo”, I will link and update here when this is published.
To explore the app, I selected well known retailers such as Morrisons, Greggs, OneStop & Spar. I also selected several local outlets. Multiple purchases were made at each of the stores in order to ascertain whether the value of products was as described in the app.
From all the retailers tested, everyone exceeded my expectations apart from Morrisons. To provide one example, Greggs bakery sell items through the app for £2.59 for what I estimate to be well over £10 in value from each purchase.
However, Morrisons have consistently failed miserably, not only through the sales through the app but also in their customer care response. Several purchases were made from Morrisons, each purchase made was less than the value as advertised in the app. For example, the last test purchase cost £3.09 through the app and contained 3 bags of potatoes and 49p each, 2 packs of putrid pears at 7p each and a half loaf of bread in date but damaged packaging. The bread was not of merchantable quality due to the packaging. Each magic bag from Morrisons has been abysmal, with most below the advertised price.
In light of the above, I made a customer complaint to Morrisons who replied that “A member of the customer service team will be responding to your email as quickly as possible”. However, this was over a week ago. I have chased Morrisons up for a response and I was told that someone would contact me back. Chasing up Morrisons again, I was informed that they could log my complaint but they can not deal with it and it would not be dealt with. Chasing up Morrisons again, I explained that I intend to write an article in relation to what is in my opinion Morrisons clearly selling products not at the advertised price, the fact they have been consistent in this abysmal practice for a multitude of test purchases over a period of time in addition to any complaint raised is ignored – their response is that a manager would contact me back. Nobody has done so.
Morrisons press office have also been contacted in order to request a comment from them. However, after waiting several days, they too have also failed to respond.
TLDR: Morrisons supermarket repeatedly overcharging through app and purposefully ignored customer complaints of being overcharged.
This is a live blog – it will be updated when necessary.
Ukraine refugee crisis – how can I help?
It has been over a year since the conflict in Ukraine began and Carmarthenshire is still playing its part to help support some of the refugees coming to the UK from Ukraine.
Nearly six and a half thousand Ukrainians have relocated to Wales since March 2022 and as a county we have welcomed over 360 individuals and families; and are continuing to work with Welsh Government to help families fleeing the conflict.
We value all the support that has already been shown by residents, but we are still looking for people who can help us in helping families to adjust to their new home and life here, in Carmarthenshire.
We want to be able to offer a full range of support, both for Ukrainian families and host families. This will include housing, employment, education, safeguarding and emotional support.
Here are some of the things you may be able to do to help:
- Welcoming a Ukrainian family into their home for a few months until a permanent home can be found. If you can offer a safe place to stay for a Ukrainian household, please contact us so we can give you more information on what is involved. We can help you to match with a family or you can find a match yourself.
- Making a home available to rent to a Ukrainian family.
- Interpretation and translation in Ukrainian or Russian languages
If you have any questions or would like to help, please email us: Ukrainecrisis@Carmarthenshire.gov.uk
To find out more about how we use your information, please read our Privacy Notice.
Weather alerts
Clean-up operation underway following Storm Eunice
A massive clean-up and recovery operation is underway to deal with the aftermath of Storm Eunice which battered Carmarthenshire.
Council highways crews have had an extremely busy few days as extreme winds brought down trees, branches, roof tiles and electricity cables on Friday and throughout the weekend. To date, they have received 295 weather-related highway reports, and this figure continues to rise.
The council’s property teams dealt with over 300 calls, mainly from housing tenants, reporting damage to their homes, such as loose roof tiles, or fences blown down, as well as from some schools including Llandeilo and Pencader, as well as weather-related issues reported at Richmond Park, Bryngwyn and Ffwrnes.
Winter weather information and advice
A member of our team will get back to you as soon as possible. Please note this will be during office hours, Monday – Friday 08:30 – 18:00.
Outside normal office hours Delta Wellbeing provides an emergency service on 0300 333 2222. This phone number is for emergencies and is available after 6pm and up until 8:30am on weekdays, and on Saturdays, Sundays, and Bank Holidays.
Preparation work for Machynlleth’s new street trees to begin
6 March 2023
Preparation work, in readiness for the planting of 27 new trees in the autumn, on the streets of Machynlleth town centre will begin this week.
Following last year’s engagement exercise and the subsequent removal of some of the existing trees, works to begin improving the conditions of the remaining and the planned new street trees along Heol Maengwyn (A489), Penrallt St and Pentrehedyn St (A487) will begin this week (week commencing 6 March).
Work will include improving the street surfaces and the planting conditions of the remaining trees as well as creating underground planting pits for the 27 new trees which will be planted in the autumn. The majority of the activity will take place on or around the pavements and planting areas and will be undertaken in small areas at a time to minimise any disruption. Access to shops properties will be maintained at all times.
“The loss of any trees can be very emotive, but through our engagement exercise we have bought together the proposed professional views and the thoughts and wishes of the local community to create a robust future-proofed plan of action for the street trees in Machynlleth town centre.” explains Cllr Jackie Charlton, Cabinet Member for a Greener Powys.
“The removal of some of the original damaged and/or ill-placed trees has provided us with an ideal opportunity to improve the conditions of the remaining trees and a chance to replant the felled trees in a more appropriate way – ensuring we choose the right locations, tree species and method of planting to guarantee their survival and presence within Machynlleth for years to come.
“We are aware of the many benefits of urban planting. Trees not only improve our environments by looking beautiful, but they can also play a vital role in combatting the climate and nature emergencies we are currently facing by providing a haven for wildlife, offering shade, absorbing excess water, and improving air quality.
“We are really looking forward to this work beginning and thank all who have contributed to this project for their time and input. Once the street surfaces and planting areas have been improved during this stage of the works, the bit we are all waiting for, the planting of the new trees, will take place in the autumn.”
Mid Wales businesses – tell us what you need for the future to meet your business goals
6 March 2023
Grow – Define – Deliver Together, an engagement event hosted by the Mid Wales Regional Skills Partnership will take place on the morning of 23 March to give you, the businesses of Mid Wales an opportunity to come together and tell us what you need for the future to meet your business goals.
Come and understand the support and guidance available to you in procurement, tendering, recruitment, skills, and training. If you are a Ceredigion and Powys business thinking about your future workforce needs, come and join us for the morning at the Metropole Hotel, Llandrindod Wells.
Be inspired by other businesses who have faced similar challenges. Network and explore the opportunities around upskilling, training or apprenticeships to help your business now and for the future.
Councillor Bryan Davies, Leader of Ceredigion County Council and Councillor James Gibson-Watt, Leader of Powys County Council, jointly said: “Over the last couple of years there has been little opportunity for businesses in Mid Wales to get together. If you are a business just starting out or even an established business, of any size, and you are unsure of the options that are available to you in recruiting or upskilling staff, then this event is for you. Powys and Ceredigion officers will be on hand to share the support and solutions available, for example tendering and procurement. We welcome this chance to bring businesses together to help prepare Mid Wales for the future.”
Key topics that will be explored include Green Skills and Net Zero; looking at ways to prepare and adapt your organisation and supply chains for the green economy, identifying the green skills your workforce needs to succeed and how these can be achieved.
Emma Thomas, Chair of the Mid Wales Regional Skills Partnership said: “We’re pleased to invite Mid Wales Business Employers to join us at the ‘Grow – Define – Deliver Together’ event. Help us to understand your barriers to skills and recruitment, enabling the Mid Wales Regional Skills Partnership to be your voice when and where it matters. You will have the opportunity to join a round table discussion with fellow employers and experts in the field of employment, skills, and training. They will be on hand to listen to your needs, and the challenges your businesses are currently facing, and to offer advice and guidance. This is an important opportunity not to be missed.”
The event will be followed by a networking lunch.
To attend the event, businesses must register their interest through the following link: bit.ly/GrowDefineDeliverTogether2023
