Alun Williams

Plaid's Leadership Election comes to Aberystwyth

2012-01-29T18:57:00.000Z

Plaid Cymru's Leadership Election comes to Aberystwyth on February 15th with a hustings at the Morlan at 7pm. Pictured are the four candidates, L to R: Simon Thomas, Elin Jones, Leanne Wood and Dafydd Elis Thomas.

The Morlan hustings is one of eight to be held around Wales and is open to all Plaid members, 1,563 of whom have joined the party in the last four months. After the hustings have taken place, all members will be sent a postal vote and asked to rank the candidates from 1 to 4. The votes of the last candidate are then redistributed according to their second preference and so on until one candidate has over 50%. This ensures the winner has broad support across the party.

Whichever party you support, the leadership of Plaid Cymru is a key position in Welsh politics. My view is that all four candidates would take Plaid forward. The winner will be announced on March 15th.

Mill Street - The Debate

2012-01-24T00:08:00.002Z

There are many different strands to the debate about thedevelopment of Mill Street car park in Aberystwyth. The plans by CeredigionCouncil entail building a multi-storey car park alongside Tesco and Marks &Spencer shops. The scheme entails the demolition of Park Avenue Day Centre - tobe replaced by a much smaller Day Centre in the Town Hall - plus the Drill Halland the 13 houses in Glyndwr Road. Below are all arguments I’ve heard fromdifferent people, which just happen to fit into ten on either side.

No to the development

1/ There was noconsultation with either the general public or Day Centre users before thedecision on Mill Street was made. The Council has no right to make a farreaching decision like this without public consultation.

2/ Tesco rips offfarmers and is a Trojan horse that is destroying towns around the country. Thereare 450 local campaigns against Tesco listed on the Tescopoly website,including 37 in Wales. They should be opposed everywhere.

3/ Aberystwyth doesn’tneed any more supermarkets - we’ve got too many already (Co-op, Morrison’s, CK’s,Lidl, Iceland, Spar)

4/ More chain stores willturn Aber into a clone town, the same as everywhere else, and take businessfrom our small traders that give the town its character.

5/ A multi-storey carpark will look ugly and will bring more cars to the town when we should be tryingto cut traffic and encouraging public transport instead.

6/ The new Day Centrein the Town Hall is much smaller and less inviting than the current one. Ifthey have to pull the old one down they should replace like for like, which theyare clearly not. No to moving until they do.

7/ Glyndwr Road andthe Drill Hall should not be included in the scheme. They are part ofAberystwyth’s heritage and character which itself has an unacknowledged economicvalue that helps to attract visitors.

8/ A potential CompulsoryPurchase Order on someone’s home (in Glyndwr Road) that they don’t agree toleave is morally wrong. That principle should not be broken. If sticking to itresults in the scheme collapsing then that is the Council’s own fault.

9/ Aberystwyth isn’tcentral to Ceredigion and it’s unfair that the Council concentrates so much developmentthere. More money should be spent in the south of the county [point made bypeople in the South of the County].

10/ We don’t want Aberystwythto become bigger. We like it the size it is.

Yes to thedevelopment

1/ Rightly or wrongly,Ceredigion Council is now legally committed to the Mill Street developmentunder European Procurement Regulations. Attempting to get out of it, or alterit, would lead to the Council being sued at huge cost which the taxpayer wouldhave to bear.

2/ Those who wantAberystwyth to stay the same are deluding themselves. Nothing stays the same.The town will either grow or shrink. We have to choose which we want.

3/ Aberystwyth cannotkeep saying no to development. If it keeps saying no it will get nothing and thetown will go into decline. In practical terms, that means fewer jobs and opportunities in the future and less all-round vibrancy.

4/ Aberystwyth Chamber of Commerce,which represents small shops in the town, supports the development because it’sclose enough to the town centre to draw more people in and benefit everyone. Theanti-supermarket protestors say they care about the small traders. Why don’tthey listen to them?

5/ Those people whooppose supermarkets are being elitist. Many people don’t have the luxury ofbeing able to shop in more expensive small shops. They have to buy what theycan afford.

6/ Tesco is a higherstandard of supermarket than currently exists in Aberystwyth whilst Marks &Spencer will take us into the next league in terms of attracting shoppers. Bothwill take the town in the right direction.

7/ The right numberof supermarkets for a town is decided by market forces, not by imposing somesort of ‘supermarket quota’. When there are too many, the least attractive willgo out of business.

8/ Working mothersdon’t have the time to wander from shop to shop. They need to get their shoppingin one hit and that means a supermarket [point made by some working mothers].

9/ Improving theshopping experience in Aberystwyth could actually save carbon because fewerpeople from the area will drive to Carmarthen or Shrewsbury for their shopping.

10/ In the summer Aberystwyth’scurrent car parks regularly become completely full and the town’s streets arecrammed with cars, meaning the town is effectively closed to further visitors.We need a multi-storey to cater for this welcome demand.

Borth Reef

2012-01-22T20:07:00.000Z

I was lucky enough to be shown onto what has been constructed so far of the new Borth Reef this week, a few miles north of Aberystwyth. The £7 million scheme will apparently add fifty to a hundred years onto the life of the village of Borth as well as provide a much better environment for surfers. With the rising sea level, the high street houses backing onto the beach were expected to start sustaining serious damage within ten years. Phase 1 of the reef is expected to be finished by the end of March. More photos can be seen here

Ceredigion goes back to the future

2012-01-11T20:09:00.006Z

The proposed creation of a new Ceredigion & North Pembrokeshire UK parliamentary constituency (plans for which were published earlier today in a review of all Welsh constituencies) brings back memories of 1992, when Cynog Dafis made a historic breakthrough in first winning that seat - with almost the same boundaries - for Plaid Cymru and the Greens.

Ceredigion & Pembroke North was the name of the constituency for 14 years from 1983. When the boundaries shrunk back to just Ceredigion again for the 1997 election I remember the disappointment of friends in North Pembrokeshire who couldn’t vote for Cynog again.

Incorporating the largely Welsh-speaking North Pembrokeshire will, of course, significantly change the political make-up of the constituency. It will incorporate the northern half of the current Preseli Pembrokeshire Constituency (held by Stephen Crabb for the Conservatives), as per the 1983-97 model, with the addition of the wards of Maenclochog in Pembrokeshire and Cenarth in Carmarthen East & Dinefwr constituency (held by Jonathan Edwards for Plaid). The population of the constituency will rise from the current 56,000 to 74,000.

The proposed expansion of Ceredigion is due to take effect for the next UK election in 2015 (unless the current government collapses before then) and is part of the Westminster government’s plan to cut the number of Welsh constituencies from 40 down to 30.

Although the proposals are clearly not going to help Wales’s representation at Westminster, the idea of a reduction in MPs is probably fair enough given the now enhanced powers of the National Assembly and the consequent lessening in importance of the UK parliament to Wales.

The proposals for the new Welsh constituencies are out for consultation until April 4th. Most commentators think the final version will be pretty close to the draft proposals. Click here for the full details.

Nadolig Llawen

2011-12-24T21:35:00.001Z

Nadolig llawen o Aberystwyth

A merry Christmas from Aberystwyth

The Welsh Government's plan to regenerate Aberystwyth

2011-12-21T20:25:00.004Z

A few months ago I was standing chatting on Aberystwyth Prom when we noticed some important-looking men in suits gazing around. We thought we’d be cheeky and went over to ask who they were.

It turned out that it was Huw Lewis, the Welsh Housing, Regeneration & Heritage Minister with his entourage. They were on a visit to discuss what to do with £10.3 million the Welsh Government was thinking about giving to Aberystwyth as one of seven ‘Regeneration Areas’ in Wales. These were set up in 2010 under the then Plaid/Labour administration. The aim of them is to help create attractive and thriving towns, to tackle economic inactivity and to improve accessibility.

After we’d introduced ourselves, Huw Lewis said, “OK then, if we’re thinking about allocating money here, give us your pitch for Aberystwyth”. I had about two seconds to think of a response and came up with this argument: “With the low population density in the middle of the country, Wales is always in danger of being dragged apart and becoming effectively two nations – North Wales and South Wales. In terms of nation-building, what we need is a really vibrant, healthy town in the middle to pull the two together. That’s where Aberystwyth comes in”. They looked surprised and said, “Hey, that’s actually a really good pitch!”. It certainly wouldn’t have cut much ice if I’d tried to tell a housing minister from Merthyr how impoverished we are.

Anyway, a few months on and the Welsh Government has put together a kind of interim report on what’s been a happening with the £10.3 million so far and what’s going to happen next (I’m sure they’d thought of it all before they bumped into me). The full document can be seen here.

The schemes (with Welsh government contribution in brackets) include:

• University to National Library link road to allow expansion of the bus service and improved cycle links (£192,000)

• Multi-use games area (‘Adizone’) at Min y Ddol in Penparcau (£250,000)

• Major improvements to Aberystwyth Bus station and Alexandra Road to make them more pedestrian-friendly and link more easily to the town centre (£1 million)

• Town improvement grant - to improve the appearance of shops in the town centre (£600,000)

Other ideas planned are:

• Revamp of the Prom (consultation covered in a previous post)

• Revamp of Town Clock square (at the junction of Bridge St, Great Darkgate St, Pier St – public consultation to come)

• Revamp of the train station entrance (priced at £3 million so must be big)

• A new youth facility – no details yet

I like all the schemes mentioned, although I’m sure I’ll want to quibble about some of the details. However, although it might sound churlish to say this, it’s notable that the Regeneration Area Board, (the body set up to devise the programme) contains no-one with a democratic mandate to represent the people of Aberystwyth. The nearest thing - and he has only very recently been invited - is Chris Mackenzie-Grieve, the Chair of the Chamber of Commerce, who genuinely represents small shop keepers in the town and should have been on the Board from the start.

Although most members of the Board are perfectly decent people with a contribution to make (like the Chief Exec of Tai Ceredigion and University and National Library reps), the only person elected by the actual people of Ceredigion is Council Leader Keith Evans who was elected to represent the people of....Llandysul. I think that’s a pretty serious omission and very difficult to understand. If they didn’t trust Aberystwyth councillors they could at least have asked the Assembly Member.

Still, maybe we shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. With the current economic climate set to continue for years, once this money’s gone it’s likely to be some time before we get any more. Keeping Aberystwyth vibrant will then be up to us.

Marks & Spencer coming to Aberystwyth

2011-12-15T21:37:00.003Z

Ceredigion Council today played what it hopes will be a trump card in the debate over plans for Mill Street car park in Aberystwyth when it announced that Marks & Spencer is likely to be the second major store to come to the site.

The Council's statement, released late today, says,

"The Council’s preferred developer on Mill Street car park [Chelverton] has negotiated and agreed terms for Marks and Spencer (M&S) to be included in this development opportunity, alongside Tesco. The proposed M&S store will be a full format 54,000 sq ft (gross) variety store comprising 8,000 sq ft net sales convenience (food) and 29,000 sq ft net sales comparison goods (clothing, household goods etc). This agreement has today been approved by the Board of M&S."

Marks and Spencer is intended to go on the land currently occupied by the Park Avenue Day Centre. The Council's original intention, now superceded, had been to place three smaller un-named shops there and this has been the subject of a vigorous local campaign to keep the well-regarded Day Centre on the site.

Northgate student housing application rejected

2011-12-14T22:58:00.005Z

A planning application to turn the former government buildings in Northgate Street, Aberystwyth into student housing was rejected by 14 votes to 6 by Ceredigion Council's Development Control Committee today.

The committee rejected the application by Cantref Housing Association on the grounds that it was incompatible with the high number of elderly residents in the narrow streets around the building and because it would remove a potential employment site close to the town centre. Many local residents had objected. The building was partially occupied by a government passport office until four months ago.

Aberystwyth University had surprised some by not backing the scheme, despite the current student housing crisis. Instead, they aim to solve the crisis within two years by building new, environmentally-friendly student halls near the top of Penglais Hill where they say their accommodation can be better managed as a block.

In making the application, Cantref seemed to have moved from their core remit of providing housing for people on the local housing waiting list but without bringing the university on board with their plans. The University are expected to make an application to substantially extend the Penglais student village early in the new year.

Ceredigion agrees cruelty-free purchasing policy

2011-12-11T20:44:00.002Z

Ceredigion Council have adopted a cruelty-free purchasing policy for cleaning products. The Council agreed the policy on Thursday, "...whereby only cleaning products that have not been tested on animals would be used".

The adoption came after I asked the Council to look into a cruelty-free policy back in June. Council officers investigated and produced a supportive report saying the idea was perfectly feasible if an electronic ordering system was set up to monitor the purchases of all departments.

The Council will now set up the system for ensuring that only cleaning products conforming to the policy will be used in its many establishments across the County, including schools and offices. The new policy was agreed unanimously.

The adoption of this policy brings credit upon Ceredigion in a similar way to the Fairtrade motion I first proposed in 2006 and which was finally adopted in 2008. Individuals can only do so much with their purchasing power. It's when large institutions such as councils take these ethical steps that real change in industry practice occurs.

Aberystwyth Prom Consultation

2011-12-05T23:20:00.003Z

An exhibition of suggested physical improvement projects to Aberystwyth Promenade, using Welsh government Regeneration Area funding, will be on display at the Bandstand on Tuesday 6th December from 11am - 8pm. This will include ideas for a new bandstand.

Ceredigion Council and Welsh Government reps will be there to discuss the initial proposals.

The exhibition will also be at Morrisons supermarket, Parc y Llyn on 10th and 11th December and then in the window of 53-55 Terrace Road (previously Boots). Comments can be sent to aberystwythregeneration@wales.gsi.gov.uk

Update: The consultation can now be seen here

Plaid announces County Council candidates for Aberystwyth

2011-12-04T17:24:00.005Z

Plaid Cymru have selected their prospective candidates for the six Aberystwyth wards in next May's County Council elections. The candidates are:

Canol / Central – Chris Mackenzie-Grieve

Chris owns MGs Café in Chalybeate Street and is the Joint-Chair of the Aberystwyth Chamber of Commerce. He has a degree in corporate finance from the London School of Business and runs his own company which consults on how business can improve profitability. Chris said: "My mission is to make the town centre into a vibrant and thriving place. I think I can use my skills to improve the transparency and efficiency of the Council."

Gogledd / North – Mark Strong

Mark lives in the ward and works at the National Library. He is chair of the Ceredigion Care Society / Cymdeithas Gofal Ceredigion and has been a Town Councillor for the past eight years, representing them on the board of Menter Aberystwyth and on the Prom Forum. He is committed to maintaining services, protecting the environment and supporting sustainable development.

Penparcau (2 seats) – Steve Davies and Lorrae Jones-Southgate

Steve is a Town Councillor who lost by just 14 votes at the last County Council election in 2008. He works at the Rheidol Hydro-electric power station and is keen on rugby and rowing.

Lorrae was Mayor of Aberystwyth in 2007-8. She works in respite care and is particularly concerned with care for the elderly. Both she and Steve were active in the campaign to save Bodlondeb.

Plaid's current sitting councillor in Penparcau, Rob Gorman, is stepping down due to pressure of work in his fishing business and fully backs Steve and Lorrae.

Rheidol – Endaf Edwards

Originally from Pontrhydfendigaid, Endaf works for Coleg Ceredigion as an Information and Learning Technologies Co-ordinator. He was active in the successful campaign to save Bodlondeb residential home for the elderly. His priorities as a councillor will be education and learning, environment and planning, leisure and recreation.

Bronglais – Alun Williams

Er...yep, that's me. You know the sort of thing...sitting councillor, likes trees, tries to keep people informed....

Ceredigion Assembly Member Elin Jones AM said:

"We have a great team of candidates standing in the Aberystwyth area in the forthcoming Ceredigion Council elections. I’ve no doubt that every single one of them would be a strong voice for their respective wards in the Council chamber".

The Local Government elections will take place on May 3rd 2012

The picture shows, back row left to right: Steve Davies, Chris Mackenzie-Grieve, Mark Strong, Endaf Edwards.

Front row left to right: Lorrae Jones-Southgate, Elin Jones AM, Alun Williams

Hundreds march through Aberystwyth against public sector pension changes

2011-11-30T20:11:00.001Z

Over 600 striking public sector workers marched through Aberystwyth today against the UK government's planned major changes to pensions.

The march, organised by Ceredigion Against the Cuts, included workers from Bronglais Hospital, local schools, Coleg Ceredigion, the National Library, the County Council and the National Assembly. Photos of the march, which ended with a rally in the Morlan, can be seen by clicking this link.

Over 40% of Ceredigion's workforce are employed in the public sector with many more reliant on the services they provide.

Llanbadarn Council asked to sell more land for Sainsbury’s

2011-11-28T23:54:00.005Z

Llanbadarn Fawr Community Council has been asked to sell its land next to the Llety Parc playing field outside Aberystwyth to add to land reportedly being sold to Sainsbury’s for development.

The land, which comprises a football pitch and a play area next to the railway line, would add approximately 50% to the land available for a supermarket.

The Community Council is now writing to all residents in the village to ask for their views. Their letter says,

"Dear All,

A developer has expressed an interest in purchasing the community playing field and children’s playing field that lie between the railway line and Llety Parc fields for a proposed supermarket development.

"Preliminary advice confirms the Council is free to sell this land if it resolves to do so, and the Council members will need to decide in the near future whether to enter into negotiations with the developer concerned.

"The councillors recognise the sale of this land would mean the loss of popular public facilities which are conveniently located within the village. However, subject to identifying an alternative site, the proceeds of sale could be used to acquire similar facilities elsewhere within the community and provide a surplus enabling the Council to fund other capital projects now or in the future.

"The decision whether to sell the land will be made by the Council but it was resolved at the last meeting to canvas local opinion on the proposal by inviting comments from every household within the community. The Council would welcome hearing from you with your views by 18th December 2011."

The interest in the land by Sainsbury's adds a further layer to the debate about Mill Street car park in Aberystwyth.

Llanbadarn Fawr Community Council can be contacted at ccllanbadarnfawr@hotmail.co.uk or Llygad y Fro, Rhydyfelin, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 4QD

Aberystwyth Day Care Centre - the case for keeping what we have

2011-11-25T11:07:00.004Z

One of the casualties of Aberystwyth’s Mill Street Development debate has been the Park Avenue Day Care Centre. The Centre is now planned for demolition to make way for new shops and a multi-storey car park and the service is to be moved into a converted section of the Town Hall alongside the new town library (plans are explained here). Whilst there are obvious benefits to placing the new day care centre in the same building as the library, it is clear that the space allocated exclusively to day care is going to be significantly reduced compared to what we have now.

Ceredigion Council has handled the Day Care Centre process extraordinarily badly. The decision was rushed through by the Council’s Cabinet, with no opportunity for input from Day Centre users or the wider public.

With the Council now legally committed to allowing the developer Chelverton to build on the site, and with the Town Hall conversion well underway and due for completion in March, hopes of saving the existing Day Centre seem optimistic to say the least. However a growing group of campaigners has come together to oppose the move to the Town Hall and their demonstration last Saturday can be seen above.

This blog has so far published statements by Ceredigion Council and by Aberystwyth Chamber of Commerce, who support the Mill Street development. In the interests of balance and debate, it’s only fair therefore to publish the views of the Day Centre campaign. Gerald Morgan, Chair of the Save Aberystwyth Day Centre Committee, writes below.

“Save Aberystwyth Day Care Centre

“Members of the Aberystwyth Day Centre Support Group oppose the plans for the Centre proposed by Chelverton Developments Ltd and the Ceredigion County Council and wish to see the retention of the Day Centre with its present facilities for the following reasons:

1. The present Day Care Centre is an admirable, purpose-built resource for the benefit of needy elderly people in the Aberystwyth area, and for their carers.

2. The Centre offers its own car parking.

3. Bus services, taxis and cars can put down or pick up clients without causing danger to other road users.

4. There is a nearby controlled pedestrian crossing for those coming from the bus station or centre of town.

5. There are no stairs, lifts or ramps in the Day Centre; it is entirely safe to enter and leave. It would be easy to evacuate in case of fire.

6. The Day Centre offers enough space for more than one kind of activity to take place simultaneously.

7. The Day Centre offers good hygiene facilities.

“All the above statements are facts.

“However, the intention to move the Centre to the old Town Hall is open to criticism for the following reasons:

1. It offers less accommodation room than the present number of clients warrants.

2. There is no room to park cars.

3. There is no safe place for buses, taxis or cars to stop for put-down/pick-up purposes.

4. There is no pedestrian crossing at this seriously dangerous road junction.

5. Access is difficult. The ramp to the basement has a 180 degree turn which will make wheelchair use difficult or impossible for the elderly. Evacuation in case of fire would be a nightmare.

6. The reduced space will exclude the most vulnerable clients and preclude alternative activities.

7. The hygiene facilities are greatly inferior to those in the current Day Centre.

“All the above statements are facts. We believe that these objections are sufficient to warrant the withdrawal of the threatened closure and destruction of the Day Centre.

“Additionally we believe:

1. that at every level the Council Council’s consultation process has been seriously inadequate

2. that had the County Council taken better advice the Day Centre could have been preserved or replaced on its present site with the full cooperation of the development company and its main client.”

Gerald Morgan

Chair, Save Aberystwyth Day Centre Committee

Photo by David Kirby

Hywel Dda plans 'listening period'' before new options are put

2011-11-24T22:15:00.004Z

Hywel Dda Health Board have announced they won’t yet be going out to public consultation on their plans for the health service in Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire & Carmarthenshire but will, first, be opening an extended 'listening period'.

Under the heading, “Your health: Your Future. The Health Board is listening”, today’s statement says,

“Because of the rumours circulating, misinformation, coupled to the leaking of draft documents which is undermining public confidence, the Board has decided that it will add an additional stage to the clinical services review in Hywel Dda prior to formal consultation. This will provide the opportunity for the public to form their opinions from an informed position and for the Health Board to be able to listen to their views.

“It is therefore our intention to undertake a period of pre-consultation engagement with our staff, our population and our neighbours who use our services. This exercise will enable us both to listen and inform our population on the current position, the case for change and the potential options for healthcare in the future. We recognise that any change can be challenging and we want to ensure there is a wider understanding of both the issues and potential solutions.

“There will be an extensive programme of activities, events and information sharing across all three counties. This listening programme will commence prior to Christmas and will continue well into the new year.

“We have been working closely with our clinicians to look at the potential options we have around our services. We are now at a stage where we believe this work, if shared more widely, will help shape the options for consultation. We will openly share the work we have done so far, listen to any concerns and take into consideration any alternative suggestions.

“No formal decisions have been reached and we hope the public will help us to shape the future of the local NHS.”

With the programme set to continue ‘well into the new year', it now seems clear that no decisions will be made before the local elections in May.

The statement goes on,

“Within Hywel Dda we are clear that no change is not an option. We must look at how we use the funding we have more effectively so we can provide our population with high quality, safe and sustainable services for the future.

“Once the listening period is completed, we will analyse the information we have received and this will influence any options we put forward for formal consultation.”

It’s difficult to argue with what reads as a genuine attempt by the Health Board to engage in dialogue in the face of almost continuous criticism in various local papers throughout the three counties in defence of their local hospitals, although the decision is almost certainly also influenced by a desire by the Welsh government to avoid difficulties for the Labour Party in South-west Wales in the lead-up to the elections.

For those campaigning to retain services at Bronglais Hospital, it’s interesting to note that campaigners for Llanelli Hospital turned up at today’s Board Meeting in Carmarthen. Llanelli is 11.5 miles from the next nearest hospital at Morriston in Swansea, roughly the distance from Aberystwyth to Llanon, Furnace or Ponterwyd. Bronglais Hospital, on the other hand, is 49.6 miles from their nearest hospital at Glangwili in Carmarthen. By any geographical consideration, Bronglais ought to be as safe as houses.

Parc Natur Penglais - 20th anniversary

2011-11-20T13:55:00.003Z

The Parc Natur Penglais Local Nature Reserve on the north side of Aberystwyth celebrated its 20th anniversary yesterday with a work day and ceremony.

In the last 20 years the Parc has been transformed, by a partnership of local residents and the County Council, from an abandoned quarry and neglected woods into a venue that now receives 30,000 visits a year, according to the hidden counters on the site. The Parc contains a wide variety of environments, including secluded woodland paths, a well, impressive beech clearings and stunning views of the town like the picture above taken yesterday by David Kirby.

During a break in the work of gorse-clearing by the University's Conservation Volunteers and others, Saturday saw the raising of a Green Flag, the parc's latest award for being one of the best green spaces in the UK.

The Parc Natur Penglais AGM, featuring a talk from Mel ab Owain, will be held on Wednesday 23rd November at 7.30 at St Paul's Methodist Church, Queen Street, Aberystwyth.

Olwen Davies 1924-2011

2011-11-10T22:40:00.004Z

The tribute below is by Jill Gough

Olwen Davies (pictured here meeting Desmond Tutu) died peacefully in Bronglais Hospital, Aberystwyth last week.

Many will have known Olwen locally through Aberystwyth CND and the Aberystwyth Peace Network, as a stalwart of CND Cymru (Vice Chair for 20 years) and a representative for Cymru on British CND Council (and on the International Advisory Group) as well as her work for the Chernobyl Children's Project. I have been privileged to call Olwen a comrade and fellow campaigner over many of these years.

Olwen was a determined woman who was always truly alive. Her family came from Blaenpennal in Ceredigion. Although Welsh in her heart and her language, she spent her early years in the Old Kent Road, London where her family were part of the London-Welsh dairies. Olwen said that her mother had told her that she was always singing, even as a baby. Later she returned to Wales - I believe in 1939 - and went to school in Tregaron, and being a musical young lady was encouraged to go to College and take up singing as a profession. For several years she lived abroad, working for a while as a translator (and singing) for the UN in Rome.

When her mother became infirm in the 1980s Olwen returned again to Wales and cared so gently and tirelessly for Mary. She also taught singing in Aberystwyth University. She was well known around the town for her individual style of dressing (she made her own clothes) and her CND headgear and jewellery.

Olwen's campaigning heart for peace and justice - and a nuclear free world - are notorious. I personally recall leafleting in the town with her in 1986 raising awareness of the approaching Nuclear Free Wales Festival in Aberystwyth Arts Centre. She was dressed as Margaret Thatcher - and I as a parrot. (That was Olwen's idea). Around 2,000 people attended the festival that year - there was also a contribution for the newly declared 'Nuclear Free Aoteroa' I remember. Of course there was music at the conference - Olwen made certain of that.

Olwen visited the Soviet Union with the peace delegation and represented us at European Nuclear Disarmament conferences. Whenever on a demonstration, at a conference or a meeting, Olwen would urge us to sing. She would confidently conjure up a protest song and we, at first slightly embarrassed, but eventually, by the end of the verse, confident and strengthened by the music, would join in. I have sung (as a protestor) alongside Olwen at events at Aldermaston, Molesworth and Greenham and on the streets of London, Carmarthen, Aberystwyth, Brawdy, Cardiff and at Trawsfynydd.

Writing of Olwen, more is always omitted than can be included! When I told Olwen's friend Bruce Kent that she was no longer with us he wrote: 'an indomitable woman.... She will go on singing somewhere.'

Olwen wished her 'funeral' to be quiet and wanted instead for there to be an 'Olwen Party' - in Aberystwyth Museum (time and date to be confirmed). There will, of course, be music.

Jill Gough

A link to her 80th birthday BBC interview in 2004 is here

Opening democracy - BBC allowed to film Aberystwyth Town Council meeting

2011-10-25T10:57:00.003+01:00

Aberystwyth Town Council struck a small blow for a more transparent democracy last night when they allowed a BBC cameraman unrestricted access to film their meeting for the first time.

A few weeks previously the Council had altered its standing orders to allow the possibility of filming at meetings in the wake of the controversy surrounding Carmarthenshire Council which resolutely continues to ban all cameras and has had a transgressor with a mobile phone arrested. Aberystwyth Town Council voted unanimously last night to allow the filming. Ceredigion Council is currently considering its own policy.

The BBC were filming as part of a programme about the planned development of Mill Street car park.

Ceredigion health projects put on hold

2011-10-23T12:54:00.005+01:00

The Welsh Government’s Health Minister, Lesley Griffiths, has put all unstarted health service building projects on hold until at least the new year because she is new to the health portfolio. That was the surprising announcement made in an Assembly debate last week. The stoppage may affect plans for Aberaeron, Tregaron and Cardigan hospitals in Ceredigion, but not Bronglais Hospital in Aberystwyth which already has a major A&E extension scheme well underway.

Elin Jones, Ceredigion's Assembly Member and Plaid Cymru's Shadow Health Spokesperson, said in a statement,

“This amazing admission by the Health Minister suggests mind-boggling ignorance of the economic crisis that we’re in. Here in Ceredigion, everybody knows that there is a real need for new healthcare facilities to replace the ageing buildings which we currently have in Cardigan, Tregaron and Aberaeron. This revelation means that local people will have to wait even longer for these proposed new buildings to materialise, and I fear that the longer they’re put off, the less likely they are to see the light of day.

“The previous One Wales government outlined priority projects for the NHS in 2011-12. Although there’s a £17m reduction in next year’s capital budget, this in no way merits putting all projects on hold in this way”.

As everyone knows, the change that’s taken place in the Welsh Government since the election in May has been from a Labour/Plaid coalition with a Labour Health Minister (Edwina Hart) to a soley Labour government with another Labour Health Minister (Lesley Griffiths). With that degree of continuity you might think that the process of government would be able to continue, and that the new Labour Health Minister might stick to the decisions made by her predecessor. However the more significant change might be the absence of Plaid Cymru in government to stand up for Ceredigion.

The Bronglais Hospital development managed to secure full funding just before the election and can now be seen heading skywards from my bathroom window (see photo, although it is, of course, possible to view the development from places other than my bathroom).

The general funding disarray around election times leads professionals working in a range of fields dependent on public funding to despair. With everything having to stop before an election and, it seems, for some time afterwards, and with an Assembly election normally taking place every four years with other elections in between, it means that no-one can plan anything more than three years ahead at most. One might expect a slightly smoother transition with the same party holding the health portfolio but apparently not. There has to be a better way of doing government.

The County Council elections next May could be the next funding complication with ministers unwilling to make any announcements that could hit their party in the polls.

Meanwhile the £38 million Bronglais scheme continues on schedule. The new building will reach its full height in November and work will then commence to the external walls and interior. The new building should be completed by February 2013. The remaining work will then be internal, with the whole scheme scheduled for full completion and ready to open by November 2015.

The new Health Minister's announcement underlines how important it was that Bronglais funding was agreed before the election and what might have happened if it hadn't been...

Aberystwyth's Mill Street plans - Ceredigion releases details

2011-10-14T21:57:00.000+01:00

Ceredigion Council have released details of Aberystwyth's planned Mill Street development, incoporating a multi-storey car park, a large Tescos supermarket and three other shops. The Council's press release reads as follows:

"Ceredigion County Council is pleased to confirm the appointment of Chelverton Deeley Freed as the Council’s preferred developer to deliver a strategic development of Mill Street Car Park Aberystwyth.

"This appointment results from an extensive UE compliant competitive dialogue process that has been ongoing for the last 18 months, culminating in three bidders submitting final tender proposals within the deadline of 18th July 2011.

"The three proposals were evaluated against four substantive areas of assessment:

• Planning content and design

• Economic Benefit

• Deliverability

• Financial proposal.

"Chelverton Deeley Freed’s proposal scored the highest against the agreed evaluation matrix, resulting in the Council’s decision to award the contract to this party.

"The development of Mill Street Car Park has been a key strategic aim of the Authority for some time. This is on the basis that increased car parking provision in Aberystwyth would support the needs of the town and some form of commercial development fronting Park Avenue would strengthen the town’s offer and support its vitality and viability.

"The Chelverton Deeley Freed proposal includes an anchor Tesco store comprising some 25,000 sq ft of net food sales space and 12,000 sq ft of non food net sales area. Three additional retail units are proposed fronting Park Avenue, with the proposed Tesco store located behind these units. The 3 retail units have a total ground floor area of 14,500 sq ft with the potential to double this floor space with a first floor mezzanine level. The scheme will also include 7 residential units and 500 car parking spaces – almost doubling the existing parking provision.

"The proposed public car parking spaces comprise 134 spaces over three levels which will be transferred to the Council to run as appropriate and 366 spaces will be operated by the Tesco store as a short stay car park providing 3 hours free car parking for shoppers visiting both the Tesco store and the town centre. The availability of this number of free car parking spaces in such close proximity to the town centre will be of significant benefit to retailers in the centre.

"In addition to the benefits of free car parking, the proposal will generate well in excess of 200 FTE jobs within 12 months of the scheme being created. The close proximity of Mill Street car Park to the town centre will result in significant linked trips between the proposed development and the town centre - estimated at between £1.6 and £3.5m net additional turnover per annum for the core town centre.

"The support for this proposal from Aberystwyth Chamber of Commerce demonstrates the positive benefits for traders in the core town centre that will result from this proposal.

"Ceredigion County Council is very pleased to confirm that the commercial element of the scheme will be developed to the highest possible BREEAM Excellent standard [note, BREEAM is the envivonmental sustainability building standard] and the development will incorporate a minimum 10% of recycled material in the construction phase. The Council will be working with the developer to deliver additional community benefits in terms of recruitment and training long term economically inactive persons as part of the construction workforce whilst also creating training and apprenticeship opportunities."

"It is anticipated that the development will be complete by mid 2014 and the developer will be invited to provide further information via stakeholder engagement events in advance of the statutory planning process."

Major block of student flats planned near Aberystwyth town centre

2011-10-12T22:41:00.000+01:00

A planning application has been submitted to convert the former Department of Work and Pensions and Passport Office (pictured) in Northgate Street, Aberystwyth into 62 student flats.

The plans to change of the use of the four-storey building, currently open-plan office space, have been put forward by the Cantref housing association. The plans include the provision of 13 common rooms across the site alongside the single-person flats. There are 12 parking spaces at the building. The offices have been vacant since August after the Passport Office closed.

Comments on the application, which is currently out for consultation, can be sent to Ceredigion Council’s Planning Department at Penmorfa, Aberaeron, Ceredigion, SA46 0PA.

Aberystwyth, the Romani and the Daily Mail

2011-10-09T20:39:00.012+01:00

In 1991, the then Cyngor Dosbarth Ceredigion (Ceredigion District Council) agreed to put the flags of 20 stateless nations on the North Prom in Aberystwyth. They published a booklet about the flags (pictured) which explained,

“When a Welsh person visits another country it is often the case that a display of flags is encountered adorning some public building or space. More often than not, the Red Dragon of Wales is not found amongst them. Realising that inhabitants of minority nations throughout Europe probably experience similar disappointments, the District Council of Ceredigion has resolved that as many as possible of the flags of Europe’s minority nations should be flown at Aberystwyth every summer.”

The nations originally included in the display were Alsace, Brittany, Catalonia, Cornwall, Corsica, Estonia, the Basque Country, Latvia, Lithuania, Isle of Man, Galicia, Occitania, Val d’Aosta, South Tirol, Friesland, Sardinia, Wales, Scotland, Flanders, Wallonia. Since then, Lapland has been added.

The South Prom has a further 30 flags of a more random selection of recognised states.

Recently Plaid Cymru councillor Mark Strong suggested in an Aberystwyth Town Council meeting that it would be in keeping with the spirit of the project to add a Romani flag, which has existed since 1933.

Although the Romani, more colloquially known as gypsies, are dispersed across most countries of Europe, the majority live in central and eastern Europe, often on the margins of society and facing considerable discrimination.

However in Wales, the Romani played a key role in helping to preserve Welsh folk music at a time when the Methodist establishment was trying to extinguish it. The descendants of Abram Wood, thought to be the first Romani in Wales in the 17th century, were trilingual in Welsh, English and Romani and contributed significantly to the Welsh harp tradition, one of them teaching Nansi Richards who became one of Wales’s greatest harpists .

Following Mark Strong’s suggestion, local paper the Cambrian News, published a small responsibly-written article about the idea on page 9 that week.

The Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph then picked up on the story. The Mail reported, ‘Council chiefs are planning to fly a gypsy flag on Aberystwyth's seafront promenade” (it’s interesting how a suggestion by a community councillor can end up being portrayed as clear plans by ‘Council chiefs’).

All hell then broke loose on the newspaper’s message board. There followed an avalanche of misinformed, abusive comments, many directed at Aberystwyth, which ironically provided living proof of the persecutory attitudes that Romani often suffer:

“My wife and I were in Aberystwyth not three weeks ago and to be honest it will be the last - what a dump.”

“Deranged Liberal elite crackpots”

“Another local council full of left wing Civil Service Nutters.”

“Political correctness gone bonkers again. The only flags that should be flown, are the flags of the four Nations that make up the United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Northern Ireland. I hope their tourism suffers, until they repent of their folly.”

“How the hell do these left wing liberal wets get in to positions where they can influence soppy decisions like this.”

“How many hours of council staff time has it taken to come up with this initiative, design it, discuss it further, develop it and implement it, plus what is the cost of "raw materials" and "construction"?”

“When you thought these loony council officials couldn't get any more stupid they jump up and prove us wrong. Sack them now without their gold-plated pension.”

“Why don’t they just go ahead and replace the whole lot with the hammer and sickle, that’s the ultimate goal of these silly seaside Labour councils.”

“The obvious solution is to take down the Union Jack. It will fit in with the ongoing policy of trashing anything British wont it?”

“Why not just fly it over Downing Street! I give up with this country, run by the left loonies and has been for years...”

“How about taking down all of them flags and replacing them with the British Union Flag.”

“How about remove the flag of St. George. I wouldn't want it flown in a country like yours.”

“This place is a complete dump and why anyone would want to go there is beyond me.”

“I bet that the Union Jack will be removed to accommodate this”.

Many comments equated Romani with the residents of Dale Farm in Essex, who have been in the news recently but are not Romani.

More positively there were these:

“I'm glad that Wales have seen sense and welcomed this community. We should all be treated as equals, there has been too much bad publicity since the Dale Farm fiasco. I am not a traveller but feel too much is being done to turn these people into monsters. “

“I salute Aberystwyth Town Council for this very small but important recognition of the role the Roma people have played in the local community and the Welsh nation. Thank you.”

The world of the current UK press is a surreal one. It apparently only takes a community councillor to make a suggestion one night in a small meeting room in an Aberystwyth side street for a twisted version to end up at the breakfast tables of millions of people, some of whom, for whatever dysfunctional psychological reason, then feel the need to expound their intolerance on newspaper message boards.

Now clearly the Romani are a different category to most of the stateless nations on the Prom in that they don’t claim any particular territory. And I’m prepared to give at least some credence to the popular view that a few Romani must accept a degree of blame for the discrimination they’ve experienced. That, though, wouldn’t be the same thing as saying their significant contribution to European culture shouldn’t be acknowledged. And whether or not the Romani flag ends up on the Prom, the issue has highlighted how unique Aberystwyth’s minority nation flags are.

Lib Dem Town Councillor Alec Dauncey has had this to say on his blog.

“Frankly, this sort of thing makes me glad I live in this strange and interesting town.”

Supporting Mark Strong, he’s now suggesting that the Aberystwyth small nation flags project should be extended to stateless nations outside Europe like Palestine (alongside Israel), Tibet and Southern Sahara.

So here we have representatives of the two major political parties in Ceredigion on the same side of the debate in support of small and stateless nations. That probably says something about the different perspective on the world that apparently peripheral Welsh towns like Aberystwyth have to offer.

Anyway, when actual ‘council chiefs’, i.e. those Ceredigion officers who are responsible for putting up any flags, heard about it, they quickly put out a blunt, dampening statement saying, “Ceredigion County Council has no immediate plans to amend the current display of flags”.

Whatever flags are put up in the future, I’ll leave the final (slightly misinformed) comment to someone on the Daily Mail message board from Chesterfield,

“Well done to the tourist board of Aberystwyth, for the cost of a flag and a flag pole tourist officials have managed to gain thousands of pounds of free publicity for the town. I didn't know about all the flags until I read this story but now I do know about the display I will definitely visit the town when I'm next in the area.”

To people like this, ‘different’ equals ‘interesting’. Hopefully there are more out there like him.

Aberystwyth Chamber of Commerce backs Mill Street plans

2011-09-28T19:04:00.008+01:00

Aberystwyth's Chamber of Commerce, which represents around 60 town centre small businesses, has given conditional backing to the building of a multi-storey car park and major supermarket on the town's Mill Street car park.

A letter from the Chamber, sent last Friday, says,

"The Aberystwyth Chamber of Commerce would like to express their support for the decision made to appoint a Tesco-led development on Mill St.

"This support is conditional upon there being sufficient municipal car parking provision that is available for all users of the town centre and not exclusive to the users of the Mill St development.

"Whilst Tesco may not be an ideal choice for a lot of people the primary consideration must be to ensure that the Mill St development takes place as quickly as possible to provide a regeneration fillip to the town. We are hopeful that this can be a catalyst to attract other quality retailers such as Marks and Spencer onto the other available sites within or close to the Town Centre.

"As ever the devil is in the detail in these deals and we would appreciate being kept informed of progress so that we can maintain a supportive role in the process.

"As an aside, it would have been a considerate gesture from the developer if consideration could have been made to relocating or retaining the day centre within the development."

Meanwhile, this morning's meeting of the Council's Economic Development Scrutiny Committee voted, following a lively and lengthy discussion on all the ramifications, to back the Cabinet's decision last Tuesday (see story below) to support the Mill Street scheme with the additional recommendation that, "All capital receipts be retained by the Council to sustain and enhance the retail provision of the town". The discussion was held after six councillors (including this one) signed a motion to 'call-in' the Cabinet decision for more scrutiny.

Open public discussion of the scheme has been beset by commercial confidentiality and procurement regulation restrictions. Full details are now expected to be made public in the next couple of weeks.

Mill Street decision called in

2011-09-22T21:05:00.001+01:00

The decision of Ceredigion Council's Cabinet to appoint a developer for Aberystwyth's Mill Street Car Park Scheme has been 'called in' by backbench councillors.

Under the Council's standing orders, a Cabinet decision can be called back for discussion by the wider Council before being enacted. The Cabinet decided, at their meeting on 13th September, to appoint the highest scoring tender for the site ('Bidder A') using a matrix for deciding competing bids set up by the Council under strict European procurement regulations. The Cabinet voted to authorise Council Officers to agree and finalise all contracts associated with the development and to authorise officers to also explore any further development opportuniites emerging elsewhere in the town.

Six councillors are required to sign a call-in request and that number was reached only a few hours before today's 5pm deadline. The wider Council will now discuss the plans atv a meeting within the next couple of weeks, although commercial confidentiality rules will prevent this being held in public. The issue will then go back to the next meeting of the Cabinet who will take on board the views of the wider Council but still have the final say.

Update:
Following the call-in, the issue will be discussed in a closed session towards the end of a meeting of the Economic Development, Tourism and Europe Scrutiny Committee on the morning of Wednesday 28th September. The motion to call-in the decision was signed by councillors Ellen ap Gwynn, Alun Lloyd Jones, Ian ap Dewi, Gareth Davies, John Roberts and myself with support from the committee chair, Liz Evans.

Surprising things about Aberystwyth #1 - Topiary in Penparcau

2011-09-20T23:20:00.000+01:00

Mill Street Plans to go public soon

2011-09-11T23:46:00.004+01:00

Ceredigion Council Officers have chosen a preferred scheme for the Mill Street car park in Aberystwyth – but won’t make it public until the scheme is discussed and agreed by the Council Cabinet.

In February the Cabinet resolved, “To promote the development of a multi-storey car park on Mill Street as a key strategic aim of the authority”, and authorised officers to undertake a procurement exercise to select a company to develop the idea. The Officers have now chosen a preferred bidder, out of three companies submitting tenders, by a process of ‘competitive dialogue’ which involved judging the bids against a ‘matrix’ of criteria. These included the planning content and design, the ability to deliver the plan, the financial package proposed and the overall economic benefit.

The officers’ report will be discussed at a closed session of the Council Cabinet on Tuesday morning.

Update
Following Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, the Mill Street decision will not now be made public before 5pm on Thursday 22nd Sept as this is the deadline for the decision to be 'called in' (i.e. challenged). If no call-in is received, the decision will probably be announced the following day. If the decision is called in, the result will not be announced until this process is complete, probably in a week or two's time.

Plans to close Defra Veterinary Laboratory in Aberystwyth

2011-09-05T22:45:00.002+01:00

More public sector jobs are under threat in Aberystwyth following the recent revelation that the Defra Veterinary Laboratory on the Buarth has been earmarked for closure.

The Prospect trade union has revealed that the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) has submitted proposals to the Westminster Environment Secretary, Caroline Spelman MP, which would see both Aberystwyth and Carmarthen laboratories closed by April 2013.

Ceredigion's Assembly Member Elin Jones AM said:

“I’ve long suspected that a move to close the vet lab at Aberystwyth was on the cards but those closure plans have been resisted until now. Losing good science-based jobs will be a big blow to Ceredigion.

“In Aberystwyth there is a longstanding expertise in agriculture and land-based jobs with the University and IBERS, but this would be eroded by the closure of the vet lab.

“Closing both the labs at Aberystwyth and Carmarthen will leave Wales without any such facilities. Given the high livestock numbers in Wales, the work carried out in these Defra centres is essential in the fight to eradicate animal diseases such as Foot and Mouth, Bovine TB and Bluetongue”.

The closure would mean people having to go to Shrewsbury for the service in future. There's been no local consultation on the proposals and seemingly no consideration of how the closure might affect the local area. Aberystwyth can't afford to lose another key public sector facility with the knock-on effects for the wider local economy.

Aberystwyth and the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation

2011-09-05T22:18:00.004+01:00

Aberystwyth’s standing in the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation, published last week, contains one or two surprises.

The Index divides Wales into 1896 areas of about 1,500 people each and places them in order. Here’s how the different areas of Aberystwyth fared in the overall result, 1896 being the best possible score and 1 being the worst:

Bronglais - 1822
Gogledd / North - 1584
Rheidol 2 - 1369
Rheidol 1 - 1203
Canol / Central - 1076
Penparcau 2 - 747
Penparcau 1 - 652

To make up these overall figures each area is scored on a range of indicators. Out of the 1896, Bronglais Ward is number 23 in Wales in terms of employment and number 56 in terms of income.

What is really surprising is the results for the town centre. Central Ward is the second best in Wales for proximity of access to services but the very worst, bar none, for quality of housing.

Elin Jones to stand for Plaid leadership

2011-09-01T13:28:00.005+01:00

Elin Jones, Welsh Assembly Member for Ceredigion, today announced her intention to stand for the leadership of Plaid Cymru. Full statement below:

"Today I am announcing my intention to stand for election as Plaid Cymru’s next Leader. I believe that I have the strength of character and clarity of vision to be the party’s Leader, and I have spoken to many members and supporters over the summer weeks to gauge views on the party’s future and my role in that future. I will now be putting my name forward to stand for Party Leader when nominations open.

"Plaid Cymru has achieved a great deal for Wales over the past few years. This year saw the establishment of Wales’ first legislative Parliament and the completion of Plaid’s first-ever term in Government. Now a new chapter is opening for Plaid Cymru. Our task is to strengthen our country’s autonomy and economy, and to make the case to the people of Wales that our nation is better served by independence than dependence.

"Unlike the British parties, our job is never to manage Wales, but to build Wales. Sometimes Plaid will contribute to that work from within Government, sometimes from outside. However, our aims remain clear: that we build our country’s independence and that we work to achieve economic prosperity and social justice for our people.

"We need, as a Party, to reach out to a wider array of voters. We cannot just speak to ourselves, we need now to go out and talk to, and for, everyone in Wales. Over the coming months I will outline clearly how I believe we can reach out to people and build our support.

"I have held many offices within Plaid Cymru, both locally in Ceredigion and nationally, as Party Chair and now Director of Communications. I have been a Town Councillor and, since 1999, an Assembly Member for Plaid Cymru. I began my working career as an Economist, and politics has been a lifelong interest and passion.

"I am a West Walian and a proud Cardi. Had I lived in any other country in the world, I would still have been a republican and a socialist. But as a Welsh citizen, then I am also a Welsh nationalist. I speak both languages of Wales.

"I am passionate and ambitious for my country. An occasional Welsh Grand Slam or Gold Medal is great, but is not enough for me. I want to see Wales as a self-governing nation placed among the best countries of the world in terms of its education, economic and environmental achievements too.

"If elected its Leader, then my party can expect 100% dedication from me. I am a hard-worker and a team player. Winning a tough marginal seat such as Ceredigion four times on the trot would not have been possible without those characteristics.

"I enjoy meeting people and working for people. My constituents know that I am there for them – whether in a formal surgery, on the end of a phone or in the supermarket aisle on a Saturday afternoon. Gaining people’s trust is a necessity for any politician. I have done so in Ceredigion and in my recent role as Rural Affairs Minister. I can do it again as Plaid’s Leader.

"I can be trusted to listen, to take tough decisions and win arguments. But, most importantly, I have learnt that there is little point in taking those tough decisions or winning those arguments in isolation. I can take people with me.

"Today is my 45th birthday. I was born in Carmarthen, in 1966, on Gwynfor’s birthday, September 1st. That makes me acutely aware of the longer-term struggle by Plaid members and supporters in seeking to establish an independent nation. Many have known darker political times than me. However, realising the ambition of national freedom should continue to unite and motivate us all.

"Plaid Cymru has achieved so much for Wales over its 86 year history. But so much remains to be done. As we begin our party’s next chapter, and Wales’ first chapter with its legislative Parliament, I am ready to lead Plaid Cymru."

Paul jumps for safety

2011-08-29T22:56:00.006+01:00

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Plaid Cymru councillor Paul James on one of three bungee jumps this weekend to raise money for CCTV cameras on the Llanbadarn to Aberystwyth cycle path.

It has to be said there are mixed views about the desirability of CCTV cameras on the path. The campaign was started following two robberies at knifepoint on the path in September and November last year, attacks that came as a huge shock to a town entirely unused to crimes of that nature, having one of the lowest crime rates in the country.

Since they haven't been repeated anywhere in the area, there is a view that the attacks may have been the work of outsiders who have moved on. The question is being asked whether the apparently diminishing need to act to prevent further attacks is outweighed by concerns about loss of privacy and how extensive CCTV coverage looks like becoming in our society.

What isn't in doubt, though, is the commitment to the safety of local residents shown by Paul, a County Councillor for Llanbadarn Fawr Sulien Ward, just outside Aberystwyth. In April he arranged a 3-day bag pack with Communities First at Morrison's supermarket, which borders the path, raising £4,922.

This weekend's series of three jumps, one after the other, was taken from the highest bungee platform in the UK at Windsor, measuring 100 metres. At 50-odd years of age, that's no mean feat and the jumps are set to raise well over another £4,000 in sponsorship. I'm just glad we're not looking at a by-election.

Anyone wishing to donate money to the campaign can e-mail Paul at paulj@ceredigion.gov.uk

Bodlondeb saved

2011-07-27T00:12:00.000+01:00

Ceredigion Council yesterday agreed not to close Bodlondeb residential home in Aberystwyth. The decision was taken at a closed Budget Workshop.

The meeting heard a range of options for finding the extra money required and, although a final decision was not taken on this, council officers agreed to go away and work on it. One option could be to increase Council Tax.

Council Leader Keith Evans, an unapologetic fiscal conservative, made his unhappiness at the decision clear but accepted the overwhelming view from both sides of the Council that Bodlondeb should remain open in response to a sustained public campaign of support. The Council are due to put out a press statement later today.

Gelli Anwen

2011-07-21T23:38:00.003+01:00

Former mayor of Aberystwyth Afan ab Alun today unveiled the new name for the 200 metre footpath leading from North Road in Aberystwyth up to Castell Brychan, the home of Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru, the Welsh Books Council. The footpath is named Gelli Anwen after his late wife Anwen Tydu. The plaque, funded by Aberystwyth Town Council, explains, in poetry and prose, how she used to climb and descend the 107 steps of the steep path four times a day over a period of twenty years, adding up to over thirty thousand passages.

The occasion was filmed by the S4C TV programme Wedi 7.

Ceredigion Cabinet split as Bodlondeb decision delayed

2011-07-12T21:57:00.000+01:00

Ceredigion’s Council Cabinet today voted to defer any decision on closing Bodlondeb residential home in Aberystwyth until further meetings and discussions have been held. But the Cabinet was split after a proposal to abandon the plans altogether was defeated.

A coach load of local residents had travelled down to Aberaeron to witness the debate on the Council’s Feasibility Report into plans for transferring residents at the Council-run Bodlondeb in Penparcau to the site of the privately-run Hafan y Waun at Waun Fawr on the other side of Aberystwyth.

The split came when Council Leader Keith Evans proposed that the item be deferred until a Budgetary Workshop meeting involving the whole Council was held. This would discuss the proposals in the context of the overall council budget. However this proposal seemed to surprise some Cabinet members, who had already met for a ‘pre-Cabinet meeting’ earlier in the morning.

Hag Harris, Cabinet Member for Social Services and therefore the councillor with the portfolio for the issue, proposed that plans to close Bodlondeb be abandoned altogether. The proposal was greeted by huge cheers and a standing ovation from the public gallery.

He was supported by Ceredig Davies, Cabinet Member for Education, whose portfolio could be in the frame for providing some of the extra money needed to maintain Bodlondeb. However they were outvoted by other Cabinet members who all backed the Council Leader’s proposal to discuss the plans further. Those voting against the proposal to abandon the closure included Carl Williams, Lib Dem councillor for North ward in Aberystwyth, along with his Lib Dem colleague, Eurfyl Evans and the various Independents on the Cabinet.

It was an emotional roller coaster for the dozens of people in the public gallery who momentarily thought their campaign to save Bodlondeb had succeeded following Hag Harris’s intervention. The sight of the Council Leader clashing publically with the responsible Cabinet Member, having first had the opportunity to agree a mutual stance at a preliminary meeting, is very unusual and it was clear there was annoyance on both sides.

Councillors were later notified that the Budgetary Workshop to discuss the plans further will be held on the morning of Tuesday 26th July. It’s not yet clear if the public will be allowed to attend.

Rheidol ward by-election candidates declared

2011-07-11T22:00:00.003+01:00

Candidates have been declared for a Town Council by-election in Aberystwyth's Rheidol ward.

Plaid Cymru's candidate is Samantha Mackenzie-Grieve, the well-known co-owner of MG's cafe in Chalybeate Street. The full list of candidates is:

Sam Mackenzie-Grieve (Plaid)

Tim Foster (Greens)

Wendy Morris-Twiddy (Lib Dem)

Martin Shewring (Independent)

The election has been called after Martin Shewring, a sitting town councillor, resigned from both the Lib Dems and the Council following an internal argument within his party. He's been strongly criticised for wasting council money (up to £1600 to hold the election) in resigning only ten months before the next full round of local elections in May 2012.

Most people who leave their parties stay on under their new label until the next election. On the other hand, those councillors, AMs and MPs who've done exactly that are habitually told they should have put their new allegiance to their electorate. So it could be argued that he's acted with integrity.

Rheidol ward was a safe Lib Dem ward for many years until Aled Davies caused the biggest shock for some time in Aberystwyth politics by winning a County Council by-election there for Plaid Cymru in June 2008.

The election will be held on August 4th.

Bodlondeb - Cabinet decision due on Tuesday

2011-07-08T23:20:00.006+01:00

Ceredigion Council’s controversial Feasibility Study into closing Bodlondeb Residential Home in Penparcau in favour of a new facility at Hafan y Waun has concluded that the idea is...wait for it....feasible. Well, what else did anyone expect from a Feasibility Study?

However the study, published yesterday, seems to show that the cost of re-furbishing Bodlondeb and avoiding the closure would not be the £300,000 first talked about but, in fact, only £268,000 over many years. The cost in the first four years is put at total of £113,400, a relatively small amount in terms of the County Council’s budget. On the other hand a new facility at Hafan y Waun would apparently cost £74,000 less per year to maintain.

The report includes submissions from a number of organisations critical of the proposals. Ystwyth Medical Group said,

“The local demographic is of an aged population with the trend likely to continue. The trend will lead to an increased demand for residential services in the future....The empty wing at Hafan y Waun gives an ideal opportunity for local EMI services to be provided as previously promised. At present vulnerable EMI patients are sent out of county, causing distress to the patients and their carers/family.”

The study concludes by saying that the move to Hafan y Waun, owned by Methodist Homes Association, is feasible but goes no further, simply recommending that the Cabinet gives this 'consideration'. The decision will therefore be a political one by members of the Council's Independent/Lib Dem/Labour Cabinet.

Another packed meeting in Penparcau last night, organised by Ceredigion Against the Cuts, agreed to demonstrate outside the County Council Offices in Aberaeron on Tuesday morning when the Council’s Cabinet meeting will be discussing the report. The meeting begins at 10am.

The feasibility study can be seen via this link. In the list of agenda items, click on Adroddiadau Adrannol Gwasanaethau Cymdeithasol or Social Services Departmental Reports (depending on language) and go to page 80.

Filming council meetings – Ceredigion set to join the revolution

2011-07-01T07:48:00.008+01:00

Ceredigion Council looks set to open up its meetings to film and sound recording, following a discussion by the full Council yesterday.

The issue was discussed in the light of the incident in Carmarthen on June 6th in which someone filming a meeting on their mobile from the public gallery of Carmarthenshire Council was led away in handcuffs and put in a police cell (see story three posts down, with links).

Since then, a Wales-wide campaign to open up council meetings to recording has taken off, recognising that both the Assembly and Westminster governments allow this and the technology that the average person in the street possesses has now moved ahead of council policy and practice.

The clear consensus of the Ceredigion meeting was that the Council should open up, although within the consensus there were different views. Most supported the Council arranging for the filming of meetings and making that available to the public. But many strongly opposed allowing ad hoc recording on mobile phones, believing this could be made to show a distorted picture by editing.

My feeling is that this fails to understand that anything publically available can be copied and edited in any case. There would be little point in the Council bothering to prevent mobile phone filming and the easy availability of a better quality version would make it less likely anyway. The possession by the Council of an original version would act as a safeguard.

There was a slight suspicion that the occasional press reporter might already have resorted to sound recordings themselves (citing accurate reporting of detailed speeches without apparently writing them down).

I made the point that having a recording of meetings can actually help the Council in some circumstances (for example, legal challenges) and would be more likely to lead to accuracy of reporting.

One councillor proposed consulting S4C on the best system to use, something that could perhaps open up a new avenue for them.

At the end of the debate the Chief Executive agreed to put together a report on the options for the electronic recording of meetings for the Council to consider within a couple of months and some kind of provision looks certain to be set up.

Talking to senior Ceredigion officers, it’s clear they would not have reacted in the draconian way that Carmarthenshire Council did in the first place. But it’s interesting how that over-reaction now looks likely to lead to positive change across Wales, with many other Councils and public bodies due to debate the issue in the next few weeks.

Ceredigion to pursue cruelty-free cleaning policy

2011-06-30T18:31:00.002+01:00

Ceredigion Council today agreed to look into adopting a policy of only using cleaning products which have not been tested on animals.

Having been lobbied by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection at the last Plaid Cymru conference, I presented a motion to the Council proposing that only products approved under the BUAV’s Humane Household Products Standard would be used in future.

Council officers see little problem with the idea and think there would be minimal cost implication. The scheme works in a similar way to Fairtrade which Ceredigion is already signed up to.

Councillors at the meeting wanted to check out the practicalities but agreed to the principle and directed their officers to produce a report which will hopefully lead to the idea becoming Council policy.

Aberystwyth developers request more greenfeld land for housing

2011-06-23T21:57:00.002+01:00

Developers in the Aberystwyth area have proposed a number of greenfield sites for housing development in addition to those proposed by the Council in the deposit version of their Local Development Plan. The new sites proposed are:

* Land at Ropewalk Fields at the foot of Pen Dinas off Penparcau Road in Trefechan (pictured).

* Land on the seaward side of Pen Dinas, this time behind the new houses towards the far end of Felin y Mor Road, Trefechan.

* A substantial area of land on the north side of Primrose Hill in Llanbadarn Fawr

* A small section of land between the new hospital car park on Clarach Road and the existing Plashendre

* Land 'for various uses' opposite Bryncarnedd Caravan Park on the Clarach Road

* A large section of land just past Midfield caravan park on the Southgate–Capel Seion Road

* A large section of land on the north side of Capel Seion

* A small section at the Llanfarian end of the Rhydyfelin-Llanfarian cyclepath

The proposals are currently out for consultation. A link to have a closer look and submit views is here. Click on the 'Aberystwyth settlement group'.

The deadline for submissions is July 12th.

Update
One reader has pointed out this on-line petition to the Welsh Government about over-inflation of housing numbers in LDPs which may be of interest.

Council meetings should allow filming

2011-06-18T23:55:00.011+01:00

I was talking at Friday's Aberystwyth bloggers meet-up about Jacqui Thompson, the blogger who was ejected from a Carmarthenshire Council meeting for filming on her mobile phone and subsequently handcuffed and put in a cell by Carmarthen police. The incident has now been picked up by the wider press and the general outcry looks likely to lead to a change of thinking by Councils.

A journalist/blogger from Cardiff said she was used to going to Assembly meetings and seeing those fully televised so couldn't understand how Councils could be any different. I must say I agree. Councils allow public and press to attend most meetings so there would really be no difference in principle if council debates were televised, if anyone was sufficiently interested, that is.

There's no doubt that being filmed can be stressful, and most local councillors aren't really geared up for that degree of limelight, but, now we're in a new technological age, I think it's something that has to be accepted at all levels of government in the interests of openness and transparency in the 21st century.

I don’t buy the idea, promoted by some elements of the English press, that anyone taking part in democracy effectively has no right to a private life, but a general rule of thumb should be that any meeting open to the public should allow filming from the public gallery, whether by professional broadcasters or the general public. At least there won't be any misquotes.

Update: Since writing this post I've come across this petition to the Welsh Government which takes the idea a step further.

Aberystwyth loses its traffic wardens

2011-06-14T23:18:00.005+01:00

Ceredigion, and Aberystwyth in particular, has come in for an unaccustomed spot of UK-wide publicity recently (here and on tonight's One Show) with the story about the breakdown of street parking control (covered regularly on this blog). This is my take on it:

Councils across the country are taking over control of street parking from the police. It’s called Civil Parking Enforcement. All of Ceredigion’s immediate council neighbours have either already done this or have announced firm plans to do so.

Money that police traffic wardens claim in parking fines goes straight to the UK Treasury. It’s not even retained by the local police force. The great advantage of Civil Parking Enforcement is that, unlike the police, Councils can use the money from parking fines to reinvest in local traffic management according to local needs. It’s a complete no-brainer.

Ceredigion Council have, uniquely, over a period of many years, and for reasons of what I’d describe as stubborn conservatism (others have described it as burying their heads in the sand), simply refused to take up these powers.

The police, under increasing financial pressures, and having given up on the nice approach, finally lost patience with Ceredigion Council and announced it was withdrawing its traffic warden service.

Shocked out of their complacency, and never actually believing that the police would take such drastic action, despite all the warnings, the Council then belatedly agreed to take on the responsibility for street parking that they’ve tried for years to avoid. The problem is, the whole scheme takes a year to put together.

I must admit I thought that, once the police had a firm date from the Council for taking on their enforcement role, they might delay their withdrawal. Apparently not. The police have stuck to their decision and made their traffic wardens redundant on May 31st, although have said they will still prosecute people causing an actual obstruction.

Some people have initially welcomed the loss of wardens. My feeling is that they’ll change their minds as the realities unfold. Already the disabled are finding people parking in their bays. Shops are starting to worry that cars parking all day in the two-hour parking bays meant for shoppers will start to affect trade. One or two narrow streets have already come close to being blocked to large vehicles by cars parked on both sides. In the remaining ten months or so before the Council gets its act together, the streets of Aberystwyth look like being an interesting experiment in anarchism.

Bodlondeb

2011-06-13T22:47:00.010+01:00

Around 90 people packed into St Anne’s Church Hall in Penparcau, Aberystwyth tonight for a meeting on the possible closure of the much valued Council-run Bodlondeb residential home. This has arisen because the current building doesn’t meet CSIW (Care Standards Inspectorate for Wales) standards.

The meeting, called by Ceredigion Against the Cuts, heard there were three possible options being considered:

1/ Upgrade the current building at a cost of around £300,000

2/ Close the place and move the residents to Hafan y Waun, the Methodist Homes Association accommodation at Waun Fawr, by leasing a wing from them under the control of the local authority.

3/ As above but transfer residents and staff to the Methodists Homes Association.

Council Officers who attended to present the issues, together with the Cabinet Member, were on the ropes for much of the meeting and it was made very clear that Option 1 was the overwhelming preference if the meeting.

The next key date in the process will be when the feasibility study is presented to the Council’s Cabinet on 12th July in Aberaeron. Concerned residents were encouraged to lobby their councillor with their views leading up to that meeting.

The photos show Elin Jones, Assembly Member, holding forth and Hag Harris, Council Cabinet Member for Social Services, explaining the Council's position.

New Park & Ride for Aberystwyth agreed

2011-06-08T22:17:00.002+01:00

A major new Park & Ride car park for the north-east side of Aberystwyth was today agreed by Ceredigion’s Development Control Committee.

The site will be a 200-space extension of the current hospital & university car park in Clarach Road, near the top of Penglais Hill, which opened earlier this year. This has proved to be well-used by hospital staff, many of whom have stopped using the shuttle and now use the walk from the car park to work as part of their fitness regime. The new extension will be opened up for use by the general public

The new car park, which will be funded by the Welsh government, is intended for long-stay commuter parking to relieve traffic congestion on the northern approach to town and to reduce the pressure on street parking which makes the lives of town residents very difficult and has led many people to move out of town altogether. It's viewed as a key part of the traffic management programme for Aberystwyth.

The plan is that the car park will operate from 6.30am–8pm with a bus service into town to support it. The site will be barrier-controlled with no access after 8pm and car park lights switched off to avoid nuisance to local residents. The parking area will be shaped to preserve the wood close by.

The next priority for the Council’s Highways Department is now to find a site for a similar Park & Ride to the south of the town.

Aberystwyth Street Cycle Race 2011

2011-05-29T10:43:00.006+01:00

The televised Halfords Tour Series street cycle race came to Aberystwyth on Thursday with professional cycle racers, including some expecting to be in the Olympics, competing around a tight track along the Prom and through the old town. Cold, gale force winds hampered the event, with the main race having to be shortened. However, although those from further afield were put off by the weather, there was a good turnout of local people to watch what turned out to be a really spectacular event for the town. Televised on ITV 4, The race, organised by the Ystwyth Cycle Club, will be returning to Aberystwyth again next year.

Photos of the event here
ITV 4 iplayer here
Full report from a cycle sports perspective here

Aber is Green 2011

2011-05-24T17:17:00.000+01:00

Lib Dem town councillor resigns

2011-05-23T00:31:00.001+01:00

As if the Lib Dems didn't have enough trouble elsewhere, one of their town councillors in Aberystwyth, Martin Shewring, has resigned from both his party and the Council. It's understood that the resignation is due to internal tensions within the local party and that he now intends to call a by-election in the town's Rheidol ward and stand again as an Independent.

New Court planned for Aberystwyth Harbour

2011-05-11T23:08:00.002+01:00

The Courts and Tribunals Service has earmarked Y Lanfa in Aberystwyth harbour as the proposed new County and Magistrates Court for the area. Detailed conversion and extension plans have been drawn up to convert half the building, which has been vacated by the Welsh Assembly, into a combined court to serve Aberystwyth and Mid-Wales. A formal public consultation is due to take place in the next few months. Plans to site a new court on derelict land next to the Welsh Assembly Government office in Boulevard St Brieuc have now been abandoned in favour of the new proposals.

Ceredigion Against the Cuts Rally

2011-05-08T14:24:00.003+01:00

Ceredigion Against the Cuts staged a highly successful rally in Aberystwyth yesterday when 250 people marched through the town centre led by the local samba band before holding a rally at the Castle.

Newly elected Assembly Member Elin Jones was one of the speakers, alongside members of the PCS and Unison Trade Unions who had organised the rally together. Other speakers included Huw Diprose from Aber Students Against the Cuts, Bethan Williams from Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, Jill Evans the Plaid Cymru MEP, Mark Ferguson from Unison Scotland and Sian Wiblin, Wales TUC President. A group of campaigners for the retention of Coastguard services in Wales travelled up from Milford Haven.

40% of the Ceredigion workforce are employed in the public sector. More photos of the event can be seen here

Elin wins Ceredigion again

2011-05-06T08:38:00.015+01:00

Plaid Cymru's Elin Jones retained her Ceredigion Assembly seat fairly comfortably last night with a majority of 1,777 over the Lib Dems. The turnout was 51.9%, the second highest in Wales.

Elin is pictured above making her victory speech at Aberaeron Leisure Centre. Liz Evans (Lib Dem) and Luke Evetts (Conservative) are standing behind.

The Plaid and Lib Dem candidates showed there was no personal animosity with kind words about each other in their speeches. Liz Evans said Elin Jones was, "Someone I like and respect". This picture was taken of them together after the result was declared. More photos of the night can be seen here

Both Plaid and the Lib Dems lost some of their vote share with Labour, Conservatives and Greens all increasing theirs. The Greens, with candidate Chris Simpson, scored their highest ever stand-alone vote in Ceredigion, saving their deposit for the first time. However they did not achieve their aim of winning a Regional List seat anywhere in Wales.

On the Mid & West Wales Regional List, the big story is former Plaid Cymru MP for Ceredigion Simon Thomas getting back into front-line politics after he was elected on the top of the Plaid Cymru list for the region. Nick Bourne, Leader of the Welsh Conservatives, lost his seat. Labour's Joyce Watson was re-elected whilst Rebecca Evans (Labour) and William Powell (Lib Dem) were newcomers elected on the list.

Four good reasons to vote for Elin Jones in Ceredigion on Thursday

2011-05-03T08:06:00.002+01:00

1/ All outside observers agree that Elin has performed extremely well as an Assembly Government Minister. Having relaxed into the role, she has developed an engaging combination of being utterly committed to Ceredigion, the seriousness and gravitas expected of a minister, alongside a refreshing and sunny informality unusual amongst politicians.

2/ The One Wales Labour-Plaid coalition government in Cardiff has worked well for Wales because it has provided a vital balance between urban and rural areas. If Labour win this Assembly election outright that balance will be lost. Attention will be focussed on the geographically small urban areas of the country and the gains made for Ceredigion in the last few years won’t happen again. Labour are unlikely to go into alliance with any other party. It’s vital for Wales as a whole that Plaid are back in government.

3/ If it wasn’t for Plaid Cymru we wouldn’t even have an Assembly to vote for. If it wasn’t for Plaid activists we wouldn’t have won the Yes vote to devolve more powers from Westminster in March. If it wasn’t for Plaid over the last 80 years the Welsh language would be all but finished. This is a party with vision that achieves things.

4/ I don’t know of any perfect political parties. But Plaid give a much-needed alternative and left-of-centre perspective to the stale, moribund Tory/Labour/LibDem parties who have increasingly coalesced until it’s hard to tell the difference . It’s only us here in Wales who can vote for Plaid Cymru. Let’s make sure we do.

My top six reasons for voting Yes to AV

2011-05-03T00:47:00.005+01:00

1/ Looking at the people who support a Yes vote (Plaid, Greens, most of Labour, oh yes the Lib Dems) and those campaigning for a No vote (Conservatives, BNP, Rupert Murdoch), it’s very clear who the good guys are.

2/ The Conservatives have been in power in the UK for two-thirds of the last 100 years. And yet only once in that time have they actually won a majority of the vote. Is that how democracy should work? AV would keep the Tories out for good unless they can get over 50% of the vote – that’s why they’re funding the No campaign. Anyone even mildly left of centre should vote Yes to AV

3/ The BNP know they’ll never get more than 50% of the vote anywhere. They can only get elected under First Past the Post (FPTP) – that’s why they’re backing the No campaign.

4/ The utterly dishonest and scaremongering tactics of the No campaign.

5/ If the No campaign wins that’ll be the last chance to get a better electoral system in a generation. The idea of voting No in order to hope for a referendum on a better system next time is absolutely mistaken. There won’t be a next time, at least not in the next decade.

6/ First Past the Post may work best in a horse race but politics is about real life, and too important to be treated like a sport. Most people agree our political system is not working well. We need a better way of finding a genuine consensus on how we want to be governed. Instead of electing an MP who the majority oppose, as in most FPTP elections, AV produces that community consensus in each constituency. Instead of sticking with yah-boo politics, we can then work together for genuine solutions.

Super Saturday in Owain Glyndwr Square

2011-04-30T21:38:00.006+01:00

Aberystwyth's Owain Glyndwr Square was turned into a political and cultural festival this morning as, in the space of a couple of hours, no fewer than eight different groups spent time there on the Saturday before election Thursday. The groups included Plaid Cymru and Elin Jones, Yes to AV, Ceredigion Against the Cuts and two choirs.

Parti Dawns yr Aelwyd show their steps. Elin Jones, Plaid Cymru's Assembly Election candidate, can be seen chatting on the far left.

More photos of the morning in the square can be seen here

Ceredigion Poll - Plaid well ahead. Big swing from Lib Dems to Labour.

2011-04-11T22:59:00.008+01:00

A dramatic poll on the Assembly Election in Ceredigion, which local activists have been talking about for days, has tonight been published at Wales Online.

It puts Plaid Cymru, represented by Elin Jones, well ahead on 42% but also shows a huge loss of support by the Lib Dems to Labour.

The Conservatives and 'Others' (predominantly the Greens) also increase their share of the vote, bringing the constituency closer to the four-way contest it was a few years ago when all the main parties regularly achieved double-figure percentages.

Plaid Cymru 42% (-7%)
Lib Dems 23% (-13%)
Labour 20% (+15%)
Conservatives 11% (+3%)
Others 4% (+2%)
Figures in brackets compare to the last Assembly election in 2007

The poll hasn't been conducted by a conventional polling company but by students at the International Politics department at Aberystwyth University, bringing it some detractors. I understand the Lib Dems have been furiously contesting its validity and trying to prevent publication, as might be expected. The Wales Online article is transparent in including discussion on how the poll was conducted. Nevertheless, the University's record of getting similar polls right in the past, and the very large number of voters questioned (1,195) in a constituency with a small population means it will be taken seriously by most.

The poll is also backed by canvassing results from different parties which are showing that the left-leaning swing voters who helped the Lib Dems win Ceredigion in last year's Westminster election are dropping the party like a stone since their alliance with the Conservatives at Westminster.

Ceredigion Against the Cuts

2011-04-10T21:42:00.011+01:00

The new organisation, Ceredigion Against the Cuts / Ceredigion yn Erbyn y Toriadau, staged a successful rally in Owain Glyndwr Square, Aberystwyth yesterday against cuts to public services. The rally was organised by trade unions and community groups within the county.

Around 40% of Ceredigion’s workforce is employed in the public sector so it’s clear that financial cuts imposed by the Westminster government are likely to affect us much more than most. This high proportion means that cuts would have an enormous knock-on effect on the private sector here also.

Three Assembly Election candidates were there to support the rally - Elin Jones from Plaid, Richard Boudier from Labour and Chris Simpson from the Greens.

As an alternative to cutting into the public sector, the rally called for the Westminster government to raise money by clamping down on tax evasion and non-payment of taxes coupled with a small tax on international financial transactions.

Public sector workers in Ceredigion include people working in:
Ceredigion County Council
The Welsh Assembly Government
Tai Ceredigion
Health
Schools
Aberystwyth and Lampeter Universities
The National Library
Aberystwyth Passport Office
Job Centres
The Post Office

Ceredigion Against the Cuts can be contacted at ceredigionagainstthecuts@gmail.com

Further Ceredigion Against the Cuts events in the next month will be:
Thursday April 21st – Assembly Election Hustings in the Old College, Aberystwyth 7-9pm
Saturday May 7th – March and Rally in Aberystwyth

Diolch i Iolo ap Gwynn am y llun

Major Cycle Race for Aberystwyth

2011-04-03T20:57:00.001+01:00

Aberystwyth is set to host a major pre-olympic street cycle race next month, with another likely to follow in 2012.

Following the successful round-the-houses races last year involving local riders (see photo), a consortium led by the 140-member Ystwyth Cycle Club looks to have succeeded in getting Aberystwyth designated as the only Welsh leg of the Halfords Tour Series. This is a professional series of races for top riders, including Olympic athletes, taking place in ten towns and cities around the UK and will be televised on S4C and ITV 4. Last year, when there were no Welsh legs, the various events attracted between 4,000 and 18,000 spectators. An average of 130,000 people watched the races on TV, attracting considerable attention for each town.

The Aberystwyth event, which has yet to be formally announced by the Halfords Tour organisers, is due to take place on May 26th. The televised professional race, which will take place on a street circuit around the Prom and Old College area, will be held at 7pm, at the end of a day of cycle races which will include local youth groups and schools.

Ceredigion Cabinet finally says Yes to Civil Parking Enforcement

2011-03-23T23:51:00.005Z

Ceredigion Council’s Cabinet voted on Tuesday to take on Civil Parking Enforcement. The decision, some 13 years after it was first discussed by the Council, will next year see the Council taking over the role of traffic wardens from the police, who have said they will withdraw their service from the end of May due to the lack of Council progress on the issue.

During the debate, the Cabinet Member for Highways, Ray Quant, acknowledged that he had begun to feel, “like King Canute” in trying to hold back the tide of opinion running in favour of the measure, whilst surrounding Councils all adopted it. He also acknowledged that it had been the action of the police that had finally made the decision unavoidable but also mentioned that Council officers had been, “pushing me and pushing me” on the issue.

Although non-Cabinet councillors like myself aren’t allowed to vote on the issue, we were allowed a peripheral role in the Cabinet debate on Tuesday. Although I’ve been a constant critic of Ray Quant on this issue, I did try to strike a striking a conciliatory note by acknowledging that he had made the right call on some other controversial issues (like weekly recycling collections and street lighting). I also asked the Council to seek a meeting with the police in the hope that they may find a way to maintain their traffic warden service until next year now that they are assured the Council will take it on after that.

As discussed here, here and here, Civil Parking Enforcement will allow the Council to recycle money from parking fines into improved local traffic management, whereas fines currently go straight to the UK Treasury. Civil Parking Enforcement is now likely to be introduced in Ceredigion around June 2012. It is also hoped that the measure will eventually enable the Council to adopt residents parking schemes around Aberystwyth town centre.

One interesting anecdote from the debate; In Blackpool, Civil Parking Enforcement was opposed by shop owners as they believed that improved parking enforcement in streets with short-term parking would discourage trade. When a survey was done, it was found that the majority of parking spaces in these streets were actually taken up all day, not by shoppers, but by the shop owners and workers themselves. When Civil Parking Enforcement came in and the shop workers had to park in the car parks, retail increased by over 15%.

Major Bronglais funding announcement

2011-03-22T20:24:00.005Z

Press statement on Bronglais Hospital released today:

MAJOR INVESTMENT IN BRONGLAIS HOSPITAL

"Plans for improvements to west Wales health services also move forward.

"The Welsh Assembly Government will invest £38million in Bronglais Hospital, Aberystwyth, Health Minister Edwina Hart announced today [Tuesday, 22 March].

"The final plans include:

• New emergency department, clinical decisions unit, and GP out-of-hours services – speeding up access to treatment and reducing inappropriate hospital admissions;

• Purpose-built day surgery unit, incorporating two day case theatres;

• New short-stay surgical ward;

• New maternity unit, including relocating antenatal and paediatric clinics;

• Refurbish existing accommodation to relocate pathology services to establish an integrated blood sciences department to improve turnaround times; and,

• Refurbishment of the main theatre suite.

"Work to demolish old workshops and stores and the development of a new multi-storey car park and off-site car park has been completed to pave the way for the major improvements.

"Construction work on the new build is expected to begin in May 2011 and completed by February 2013 followed by refurbishment of the existing emergency department and outpatients and the development of the new maternity unit.

Mrs Hart said:

“This major investment in modernising Bronglais Hospital secures its long-term future. This demonstrates the Welsh Assembly Government’s commitment to provide first class district general hospital services for the residents in mid and west Wales.

“The new facilities will improve patient care by ensuring the Health Board can sustain and improve on our waiting times targets and improve the working environment of staff.”

Hywel Dda Health Board is developing business cases to improve health and social services in West Wales including plans for:

• £20m for new critical care and emergency assessment facilities at West Wales General Hospital, Carmarthen;

• £6m for a new renal unit at Withybush Hospital, Haverfordwest;

• £20m for the development of a new hospital in Cardigan;

• £18m for increased capacity for Prince Philip Hospital, Llanelli to improve facilities for short stay and day surgery;

• Developing an integrated health and social care facility in Aberaeron to replace Aberaeron Hospital; and,

• Plans are progressing on the development of a new health and social care facility in Tregaron.

Chris Martin, the Chair of Hywel Dda Health Board, said:

“This is wonderful news for the people of Ceredigion, South Gwynedd and North Powys. This significant funding approval made by Welsh Assembly Government secures the future of Bronglais as a District General Hospital. I hope this will reassure the public about our commitment to ongoing investment into the future of health and social services in Ceredigion.

“The Health Board’s other business cases in development will make sure that patients in Hywel Dda healthcare area are provided with modern, high quality services for the 21st century.”

Notes:

The Health Minister, Edwina Hart, has approved the Final Business Case (FBC) for the re-development of Bronglais Hospital, Aberystwyth. The Welsh Assembly Government is fully funding the £37.978 million capital cost of this development.

The FBC is the final phase of a three-stage business case process for significant capital investment in the NHS in Wales. "

Update 23/3/11

Ceredigion’s Assembly Member Elin Jones has now also commented:

“I’m very pleased that this project has been signed-off by the current One Wales government.

“In going into government in 2007, Plaid Cymru ensured that the then hospital centralisation plans were dropped and I’ve fought hard to ensure that Bronglais remains as a District General Hospital.

“This funding confirmation now ensures Bronglais’ future as the major hospital serving all of Mid Wales and it will be almost impossible for the next Assembly Government to reverse a decision of this magnitude.”

Welsh tweeters at number three in the world's small languages

2011-03-19T11:34:00.001Z

Welsh has the third highest number of Twitter users of all the world's minority languages, according to the blog Indigenous Tweets, with users in Aberystwyth being central to the scene.

The most prolific minority language group on Twitter is Haitian Creole with Basque next and then Welsh, followed by Frisian and Setswana, a South African language. The site, which lists all Twitter users of minority languages in incredible detail (for example, apparently 29.5% of my tweets are in Welsh), records 1598 people as using Welsh on Twitter. The next highest Celtic language is Irish Gaelic on 771.

The Indigenous Tweets project aims to increase further the use of minority languages on Twitter. Any Welsh tweeters not on their lists can get themselves added. More information here.

Diolch i Hacio'r Iaith am adnabod y stori.

Assembly agrees funding for five more projects in Aberystwyth

2011-03-15T23:08:00.004Z

The Welsh Government's Deputy Minister for Housing and Regeneration, Jocelyn Davies, has announced that the Aberystwyth Regeneration Area Partnership Board have approved a variety of projects for the town, including an ‘Adizone’ and multi-use games area at Min y Ddôl, Penparcau and a £1 million scheme to improve housing and living conditions in properties along the promenade.

Funding for improvements to Aberystwyth’s bus station and the area around the town’s train station was also granted, as well as an approval in principle for the development of the Mill Street car park site.

Following the announcement, Ceredigion's Assembly Member, Elin Jones, said:

“I’m very pleased that the Deputy Minister is now in a position to officially confirm that five projects in Aberystwyth have been approved for funding under the town’s SRA scheme.

“These are very welcome projects which will improve the town’s amenity for both local residents and visitors alike, and I look forward to seeing tangible progress on these schemes in the near future”.

Ceredigion votes Yes by 2:1

2011-03-04T21:18:00.012Z

The Yes for Wales campaign in Ceredigion achieved two thirds of the vote in yesterday’s historic referendum to extend law-making powers for the Welsh Assembly. The decisive victory for the Yes campaign across Wales, in which 21 of the 22 local authorities voted Yes, greatly shifts the balance of power from Westminster to Wales and paves the way for Wales to plough a much more distinctive political furrow than we’ve previously been allowed.

Ceredigion achieved the second highest turnout in Wales, just 0.29% behind Carmarthenshire, with what Radio Wales today described as, “one of the best organised and disciplined Yes campaigns”. This maintains the county’s tradition as a good participator in the democratic process. Ceredigion also had the second highest turnout at the referendum which established the Assembly in 1997.

In keeping with the pattern across Wales, the gap between the Yes and No votes in Ceredigion widened by 14% compared to 1997 to over 32%.

Although the referendum question appeared to be something of a technicality, and the campaign a low-key one due to the No campaign’s refusal to allow government funding for a proper debate, the long-term significance of the vote will be far greater than that of the coming Assembly elections on May 5th.

The result in Ceredigion:
Yes 16,505 (66.24%)
No 8,412 (33.76%) Turnout 44.07%

1997 Ceredigion Result
Yes 18,304 (59.2%)
No 12,614 (40.8%) Turnout 57.1%

Yes for Wales - the story from Aberystwyth

2011-02-28T23:48:00.006Z

Cliciwch yma am dolen i'r fideo You Tube am yr Ymgyrch Ie Dros Gymru yn Aberystwyth. Diolch i Trystan Morris-Davies a Glyn Langham am y ffilmio

Click here for a link to the You Tube video about the Yes for Wales campaign in Aberystwyth. Thanks to Trystan Morris-Davies and Glyn Langham for the filming.

Civil Parking Enforcement moves a step nearer in Ceredigion

2011-02-17T22:06:00.002Z

Civil Parking Enforcement moved a step nearer in Ceredigion today after the Council’s Highways Scrutiny Committee voted unanimously to recommend the measure to the Council’s Cabinet after viewing detailed costings. I was particularly pleased to be able to propose the motion since I’ve been banging on about this issue ever since I became a councillor.

The Cabinet is expected to discuss the issue in March. An agreement then would be likely to see Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE) coming into force around June 2012. That, in turn could see a Residents’ Parking Scheme, the holy grail for many residents in Aberystwyth, being introduced a year later, in 2013.

The issue was brought to a head at the beginning of this month when the police announced their intention to abandon their traffic warden service from the end of May in frustration at the Council’s lack of action (see post below).

Todays’ committee meeting heard that ten out of 22 Welsh authorities have already adopted CPE, with Pembrokeshire going live 17 days ago and Powys due to start on April 1st. Of those remaining, six Councils are now working towards it with only those in Gwent still holding back.

Under CPE, the money re-couped from parking fees has to be ring-fenced to be spent on traffic management within the Council's area instead of going into the UK Treasury as street parking fines do now.

Street parking enforcement set to break down in Ceredigion

2011-02-01T15:45:00.003Z

Street parking enforcement is set to break down in Ceredigion after Dyfed-Powys Police announced their intention to withdraw their traffic warden service from the end of May.

The move follows years of frustration in which both the police and Plaid Cymru councillors have repeatedly asked the Council Cabinet to take over parking enforcement from the police, known as Civil Parking Enforcement. The great benefit of this is that money from parking fines would go back to the Council and can be re-used for improving local transport services whereas the current fines from parking tickets simply go straight into the UK Treasury.

The sense of such a move was highlighted recently when the Council's own Finance Department pinpointed taking on parking enforcement as a way for the Council to save money and avoid additional cuts. Civil Parking Enforcement is also a pre-requisite for Residents' Parking schemes, something constantly requested by local residents within Aberystwyth

The reasons for the Council Cabinet's stubborn refusal to act have never been made entirely clear and they have become increasingly isolated as other Councils all around them have taken on the role.

At a meeting yesterday, when councillors were first told of the situation, I asked how long it would take for the Council to take on the Civil Parking Enforcement role, now that it looks as if they will have no alternative. I was told that, if the Council Cabinet agree to this in March (a big 'if'), the practical and legal issues will take at least a year to work through. The period between the and of May and that taking place could be very interesting.

A statement today by Dyfed-Powys Police said,

“In relation to enforcement during the transition, officers will respond to calls from the public to deal with parking problems in Ceredigion and will assist with pre-planned events. This will not be the service currently provided by the wardens and any calls relating to parking will have to balanced with other operational demands”.

Poll backs Yes vote by more than 2:1

2011-01-26T23:59:00.004Z

An opinion poll published today by Yougov into the referendum on giving the National Assembly more law making powers shows people in Mid & West Wales backing a Yes vote by a majority of more than two to one, the largest majority of any Welsh region.

Yes 56%

No 25%

Don’t know 11%
Not voting 7%

The figures for the whole of Wales show Yes voters leading by 49% - 26%. The referendum will be held on March 3rd.

When asked how they were planning to vote in the Assembly elections on May 5th the figures for Mid & West Wales gave Plaid Cymru a clear lead:

Plaid Cymru 34%
Labour 28%
Conservative 26%
Lib Dems 6%
Greens 2%
UKIP 2%

The figures were adjusted to take into account likelihood to vote
Full details of the opinion poll are here

Conservatives out on the streets of Aberystwyth backing the Yes for Wales campaign

2011-01-22T13:26:00.001Z

As part of the spirit of harmony and co-operation pervading politics in Ceredigion in the Assembly Referendum campaign, here's a photo of Nick Bourne, Leader of the Welsh Conservatives, out campaigning with all the other parties on the streets of Aberystwyth this morning for a Yes vote on March 3rd. Next to him is Lisa Francis, former Conservative Assembly Member.

This is a vivid illustration of how far Welsh politics has come since the vote to establish the Assembly in 1997 when the Conservatives backed the No campaign.

Similar Yes for Wales street campaigns were held in Aberaeron, Llandysul, Lampeter and Cardigan this morning.

Aberystwyth Renewal Area

2011-01-21T22:19:00.000Z

A proposed Aberystwyth Renewal Area will be the subject of Open Days on Monday and Tuesday 24th and 25th January.

Aberystwyth’s designation as a 'Renewal Area' is part of the Welsh Assembly Government's Strategic Regeneration Area funding and follows the success of the Cardigan Renewal Area, which has been on-going for the past seven years and has revolutionised the look of the town. Another Renewal Area has recently been declared for Tregaron and Neighbouring Villages.

The Aberystwyth Scheme will concentrate on housing issues and aims to upgrade the town’s dilapidated properties and public areas, improve energy efficiency in the town’s oldest houses, reduce the number of vacant properties and improve access for the disabled.

The open days are an opportunity for people to find out about the scheme and put their views about exactly what’s needed. They'll be held at Canolfan Morlan in Queens Road on:

Monday 24th Jan 10am – 8pm

Tuesday 25th January 10am – 4pm

Aberystwyth builders fined over unsafe cliff

2011-01-17T22:26:00.003Z

Aberystwyth developer Merlin Homes was today fined £10,000 with £7,000 costs over the controversial Infirmary Road cliff (story last covered on this blog here). The fine was for contravening a Prohibition Notice by the Health & Safety Executive supposed to prevent further work on the area to the rear of the new flats at the foot of the hill whilst the cliff behind remains unstable. The cliff is part of Parc Natur Penglais, a local nature reserve owned by Ceredigion Council and run by local people.

The cliff developed major cracks in 2009 after local residents reported it being eaten into by JCBs and is thought to be in danger of collapse. The developer will need to agree a solution to the problem with the Council before work can continue.

Photo by David Kirby

Ysbyty Bronglais - old maternity wing demolished

2011-01-12T17:10:00.000Z

The old Maternity Block at Ysbyty Bronglais in Aberystwyth has been in the process of being demolished over the past couple of days. The work is being viewed with some sadness by the many people in the area who were born in the building in Caradog Road. However, over the next couple of years, in its place will be built an Assembly-funded three-storey extension to the hospital incorporating a much-needed new Accident & Emergency department, a 14-bed clinical decisions unit and a day surgery unit.

On the same site, a new layer on the car park is due for completion by the end of February. The overall work at Bronglais represents the largest Assembly health investment in the whole Hywel Dda Health Board area.

Yes for Wales campaign kicks off in Aberystwyth

2010-12-30T00:36:00.003Z

Ceredigion’s Yes for Wales referendum campaign kicks off in Aberystwyth at 7.30pm on Wednesday 5th January at the Morlan in Queens Road.

That’s when representatives of all (and that means all) the main local parties will hold a public meeting to set out their vision for law-making powers for Wales and their plans for the campaign which will culminate just eight weeks later with the vote on March 3rd.

The meeting will be chaired by former Labour MP Lord Elystan Morgan, with contributions from Richard Griffiths of the Richmond Hotel, Assembly Member Elin Jones and MP Mark Williams. With former Conservative Assembly Member Lisa Francis chairing the local campaign and the Green Party also in support, the whole thing has a refreshingly co-operative feel and shows how far the Assembly has come in the thirteen years since the historic vote to set it up.

Simultaneous events will be held in Aberdare, Bangor, Newport and Wrexham, with Swansea launching the following week.

In the 1997 referendum Ceredigion played an important role as the fourth largest Yes vote of the 22 Welsh counties.

Nadolig Llawen Aberystwyth

2010-12-24T17:58:00.000Z

Parc Natur Penglais, with Aberystwyth behind, taken yesterday

Nadolig Llawen to everyone who's read this blog in 2010

LDP plans another 2,400 housing units for Aberystwyth

2010-12-22T23:21:00.007Z

Ceredigion’s Local Development Plan (LDP), launched for public consultation today, is set to open the way for extensive housing development around the outskirts of Aberystwyth.

Areas around Aberystwyth proposed for housing development in the Plan include:

* Three blocks of land for an estimated total of 325 housing units at the Southgate end of Penparcau. A developer has already applied for planning permission for the Piercefield Lane section.

* A further four blocks of land for a total of over 1100 units in the Waun Fawr/Llanbadarn area.

* Land for 1,000 student units at Penglais Farm on Clarach Road to the north of the town.

The plans are likely to receive opposition from people concerned about the further erosion of the countryside around the town. However it is actually environmental arguments, and the need to reduce car travel, that have led to such a large proportion of the development planned for the county being in the town areas.

The total number of housing units believed to be needed for Ceredigion is based on population trends. But where those houses actually go is increasingly being guided from Cardiff by a desire to site new development close to services or on public transport routes so that car use can be minimised. At the macro level this makes absolute sense but doesn't feel so good if you like the countryside around your town.

The LDP will provide a development framework for the area for the next 15 years. The public consultation period will last until 17th February. Full details are here. Before anyone mentions it, the consultation period has been extended for an extra two weeks to take account of the Christmas period.

Aldi to receive go-ahead for new supermarket in Aberystwyth

2010-12-10T23:56:00.008Z

Aldi will receive the go-ahead to build a new supermarket in Park Avenue, Aberystwyth following a meeting of Ceredigion’s Development Control Committee this week (artist's impression right).

The plans involve the demolition of the derelict former Kwik-Save building and car showroom and the building of an Aldi store facing the police station with two storeys of hotel on top and a car park on the town side of the development. A previous application which didn't include the hotel element was rejected last year (previous posts here and here).

This is a key site on the eastern approach to Aberystwyth. In a presentation to the Town Council last year Aldi themselves acknowledged that their presence wouldn't add to the retail provision in Aberystwyth but would just challenge existing supermarkets. The planning report describes them as catering for the 'deep discount market’. There’s certainly a demand for that from the many low-waged in the area, and one member of the committee spoke strongly in favour of the application on that basis. However many people feel it’s a demand well catered for in the town already. And the decision won't please those hoping to raise the standard of Aberystwyth or those opposed in principle to more supermarkets.

On the positive side, the site has been an eyesore for some years now and it could be said that almost anything would be an improvement visually. The regret is that Aberystwyth is still not capable of attracting anything better.

The meeting gave planning officers the go-ahead to approve the scheme once conditions, such as creating a pedestrian refuge in Park Avenue, are agreed.

Minister shelves Local Government Boundary Review

2010-12-08T19:26:00.002Z

In a surprise announcement, Carl Sargeant, Assembly Minister for Social Justice and Local Government (pictured), has shelved the Local Government Boundary Reviews, which were due to come into force before the next local elections in 2012.

In Ceredigion’s case, the Review had recommended a reduction of five County Councillors in order to create more equal representation across the County. As well as saving the Council a significant amount of money, this would have corrected the current situation whereby rural areas in the south of the county are ‘over-represented’ at the expense of Aberystwyth.

The 2012 elections will now go ahead using the current council ward boundaries. The statement talks about implementing the Review's recommendations in time for the 2016 elections. However I suspect a much more far-reaching review may be on the cards by then.

The Minister’s full statement, with reasons for the decision, is below.

"Under directions issued by my predecessor, the Local Government Boundary Commission for Wales is conducting a review of the electoral arrangements in each County and County Borough Council. They have a duty to conduct such reviews at intervals of not less than 10 and not more than 15 years and to consider making proposals to Welsh Ministers for a change to those electoral arrangements.

"To date the Commission has completed the electoral reviews of seven local authorities and has published the final reports for these areas. I will be considering the proposals for each area in due course.

"The directions included a requirement for the Commission to complete all the reviews by June 2011, with the intention that this would allow for orders to be made in good time for candidates to be selected and for local authority registration officers to make necessary adjustments to the electoral register in good time for the local elections of 2012.

"Despite allocating adequate resources to complete the reviews within the timescales specified in the directions the Commission has fallen considerably behind schedule. I have over the past year re-iterated to the commission the importance of delivering to these timescales. However, it has now become clear that the Commission will be unable to meet this date in respect of a number of counties.

"In considering the reports I do have before me I also have concerns about their consistency of the reports which have been issued and it is clear that in a number of cases considerable amendments would be needed in order to protect the link between councillors and the communities they represent, which I consider to be extremely important. Concern has also been expressed about administrative errors which have occurred in the process of carrying out these reviews.

"In light of these issues, in particular the delays in producing reports for a number of counties I have concluded that I will not make any orders in respect of the boundary reviews for any local authorities in Wales take effect for the 2012 elections. I do not wish to create a situation where some local authorities will conduct elections in 2012 under new arrangements and others under existing arrangements because of the imbalance inherent in such a situation. I am making this announcement now to provide certainty to local government and others concerned with the electoral process.

"Cleary the fact that the Boundary Commission has failed to deliver this programme of reviews consistently and within the agreed timescales gives me cause for concern. I have therefore instructed my officials to establish an independent review to identify why these failures have occurred and indentify actions that can be taken to ensure that the programme can be delivered efficiently and to a high standard in time for the 2016 elections."

Carl Sargeant, Minister for Social Justice and Local Government

Plaid win Ciliau Aeron by-election

2010-12-01T08:36:00.000Z

John Lumley last night won the Ceredigion Council by-election in Ciliau Aeron for Plaid Cymru with a majority of 120.

Plaid Cymru 367 (55%)

Lib Dems 247 (37.5%)

Conservatives 43 (6.5%)

The result takes Plaid back up to 20 councillors in Ceredigion, with the ruling independent/Lib Dem group on 22.

Tai Ceredigion looks for local builders to take on contracts worth £40 million

2010-11-30T23:03:00.000Z

Tai Ceredigion, the housing association for Ceredigion, is calling for local contractors to get in touch and express their interest in work on all sizes of contracts, including their heating, windows & doors programmes.

Over the next five years the local not-for-profit housing association based in Lampeter must bring all their 2,229 properties in Ceredigion up to the Welsh Quality Housing Standard - quite a task. It will entail a massive £40m improvements programme which the organisation has been in consultation with its tenants and leaseholders about during the past year.

Llyr Edwards, the Director of Property Services said,
“We're looking for all qualified contractors in the area to get in touch with us. We've split all the work into different sized contracts accessible for small, medium or larger firms. We are focused on employing as many local contractors as possible so if anyone is interested they must express an interest first and then a Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) will be sent to them.”

The closing date for the application for a PQQ pack is the 16th December and then all completed PQQs must be returned by 28th January.

Interested parties can express an interest and order a PQQ pack by e-mailing pss@taiceredigion.org.uk

Ceredigion does better than most in local government settlement

2010-11-29T23:44:00.002Z

The Provisional Local Government Revenue Settlement published on Friday by the Welsh government following the previous week’s draft budget shows that Local Government in Wales will face a cut of 1.4% over the coming year. In England local government is facing a cut of 7.1% each year for the next 4 years.

Ceredigion has received the second lowest cut in its budget of all 22 local authorities in Wales. Ceredigion’s cut in budget is well below the average at -0.7%, although is still, of course, a cut.

As Ceredigion's Director of Finance says in a report to this week's Council Cabinet meeting:
"It would only be fair to say that the provisional settlement for Ceredigion is better than had been anticipated. However, a provisional RSG decrease of 0.7% for Ceredigion is clearly the worst settlement since the inception of the Council as a Unitary Authority in 1996. The Council’s budget for 2011/12 will need to be formulated within the available resources, and work is on-going to determine how resources are to be allocated in order to ensure that services are protected as far as practicable."

Elin Jones, Assembly Member for Ceredigion, said:

“I’m pleased that Ceredigion has fared better than most local authorities in the budget settlement. This will help local councillors running services for people in Ceredigion. The Assembly Government has given priority to education and social services, and I hope that Ceredigion County Council will also honour this priority as they design their budget.

“Councils in Wales will face an overall cut of 1.4%; far lower than the 7.1% cuts for local council authorities in England. With the Conservatives and Lib Dems making savage cuts to public services, drafting the Welsh budget was always going to mean some difficult decisions. With Plaid Cymru in government we have been able to ensure that the things most important to the people of Ceredigion and Wales have been looked after as best they can.”

Students besiege Lib Dem HQ in Aberystwyth

2010-11-24T22:01:00.004Z

Around 80 students besieged the Lib Dem headquarters in Aberystwyth today in protest at the Westminster government's proposed drastic increases in university tuition fees. The protest was one of a series of actions across Wales and the rest of the UK.

Although the police kept a low presence at the front of the demonstration, 70 officers were kept on standby in case of serious disorder. In the event the demonstration was noisy and colourful but peaceful. Lecturers held a seminar in Owain Glyndwr Square and drama students danced and staged short performances.

The issue of student fees looks likely to dog the Conservative / Lib Dem government in Westminster for years to come and is likely to seriously affect the votes of those parties in university towns.

Aberystwyth - Rhywbeth i Bawb

2010-11-20T21:13:00.001Z

A series of images, including the one above, has been put together to provide direction for all marketing activities associated with Aberystwyth. The exercise, commissioned by the organisation Menter Aberystwyth, also includes the typeface and strapline above which can increasingly be seen on flags and posters around the town.

Some of the graphics will be used on information boards to be placed around the town soon, depicting its various aspects and giving directions.

The several hundred images, together with the branding guidelines, are available free of charge as high resolution downloads for use to support any promotional activities. Their use is unrestricted but users first have to register with the site - see here for access. They were taken this year by local photographer Guy Taylor.

The project is part of a scheme by Menter Aberystwyth to, 'develop and implement a coherent sense of place in Aberystwyth'. It's being funded by a number of local organisations through the Rural Development Plan scheme.

Aberystwyth Town Councillors get stuck in

2010-11-13T21:02:00.000Z

These are Aberystwyth Town Councillors planting bulbs in the garden of North Road Bowling Club today. This kind of volunteer work could become more important in the future as the County Council's popular town centre flower displays are likely to be one of the first victims of pending cuts.

Pictured from the front are town councillors: Ann-Marie Hinde, Sue Jones-Davies, Samantha Hearne and Mark Strong.

New Cemetery Conservation Plan

2010-10-19T23:08:00.000+01:00

Aberystwyth Cemetery in Llanbadarn Road has a new conservation plan. A report written by the Greener Aberystwyth Group, and now adopted by the County Council, recommends a number of measures to maintain wildlife around the cemetery. These include putting up bird and bat boxes, preserving the arch of trees along the entranceway (above) and steps to encourage the growth of wild flowers.

The cemetery is a substantial space of almost seven acres which can make a significant contribution to the network of green sites around the town if managed in the right way. Its most famous grave is that of Gwenallt, one of the most important literary figures in the Welsh language.

Aberystwyth Passport Office to close

2010-10-16T18:37:00.001+01:00

It pales into insignificance compared to the 245 job losses in Newport, where there was a major demonstration today, but four part-time jobs are under threat at the Aberystwyth Passport and Identity Office in Northgate Street (above) which currently opens two days a week. It's now been announced that the Aberystwyth office, together with local offices in Swansea and Wrecsam, will close in September 2011. The passport service are apparently looking to provide mobile facilities elsewhere in the area, although where or how has not yet been established.

Student fees and Ceredigion

2010-10-15T17:49:00.002+01:00

The student fees issue is clearly going to be huge in Ceredigion in the next few years. Ceredigion’s Plaid Cymru Assembly Member Elin Jones has now warned of the dire consequences for both students and universities at Aberystwyth and Lampeter if Vince Cable’s plans to reform their funding are allowed to proceed.

Reacting to this week’s Browne Report on student and university funding and Vince Cable MP’s subsequent response, Elin said today:

“The ConDem Government intends to introduce a wholesale market into the world of Higher Education. They intend to slash the university teaching grant and force universities to make up that gap by charging higher fees to students in a competitive market.

“This will act as a huge distinctive for students from lower-income families to attend universities. Ceredigion has one of the lowest average wage levels in the UK and our young people will be particularly hard-hit by the prospect of fees increasing to £7,000 or even £12,000 per year.

“Both Aberystwyth and Lampeter universities could be severely disadvantaged in a more market-orientated system. Future students will be looking to cut costs to a minimum and may well chose to study closer to home – that could have a damaging impact on recruitment to Aberystwyth and Lampeter.

“While the Assembly Government will take the policy decision on this matter in Wales, our hands here will be tied behind our backs because the public funding cut to universities which is now being proposed for England will automatically cut the funding to Wales.

“It's not surprising that the Tories in the UK coalition favour introducing market forces into the Higher Education sector. However, it's a complete turnaround for market-driven fees to be introduced in the name of the LibDems and Vince Cable – especially since the LibDem posters campaigning to ‘Scrap Tuition Fees’ are still up in some windows in Aberystwyth (example above). These posters tell a sorry tale of betrayal.

“To represent the interests of Ceredigion, we need to oppose the Westminster Government’s savage cuts to university funding as well as opposing introduction of market-driven student fees.”

Vote for faster broadband in Aberystwyth

2010-10-13T00:55:00.002+01:00

A councillor from the ruling group on Ceredigion Council sent me the following e-mail today:

"Please forward this e-mail to as many people as you can. Put it on that biased blog of yours if you want."

"VOTE FOR FASTER BROADBAND IN ABERYSTWYTH ON BT'S SITE."

http://www.racetoinfinity.bt.com/

Delighted to help

The continuing growth of Aberystwyth

2010-10-08T23:54:00.011+01:00

Tonight’s news that the passport interview office in Northgate Street, Aberystwyth is under threat, on the back of the loss of the main passport office in Newport, may be the start of things to come. Certainly we’ve become used to Aberystwyth shopkeepers saying, “the town is dying”. However what is actually remarkable about Aberystwyth right now is the number of major building projects either going on or about to start around the town.

As I write, and off the top of my head, the following developments are happening, or being planned, around the town, many of them with funding from the National Assembly:

* An extra storey on the Bronglais Hospital car park is currently being built (pictured) and is due to be completed in November

* The building of a new Accident and Emergency block and 14-bed medical assessment unit at the hospital is due to commence next year - the largest capital investment in Hywel Dda Health Board.

* A major extension to Ysgol Plas Crug school is continuing

* A new university and hospital car park has recently been completed in Clarach Road

* Aberystwyth Town Hall is currently being converted into the new town library in a £1 million scheme

* The building of a new medical centre, including GP Surgery, pharmacy and crèche, has recently started on the west side of Penglais Hill

* Work has started on a new building for the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) at Aberystwyth University, heated by ground source heat pump

* An application for 28 new homes (a combination of flats and houses) at Llys Ardwyn, just off Llanbadarn Road, is going through the planning process. At the same time the conversion of the old Penweddig school building into flats is continuing on the same site.

* Eight new flats in the old antique showrooms in Maes Iago at the top of Great Darkgate Street have just been approved.

* A major extension to the Llety Parc hotel at Parc y Llyn seems likely to receive planning permission

* A planning application has been submitted for 79 new houses in Penparcau between Piercefield Lane and Maesycrugiau

* Plans are being developed for more student accommodation buildings along Clarach Road

* Firm interest is being shown by developers in the planned multi-storey car park at Mill Street with the possibility of a planning application in the new year

* £1 million will be spent on environmental transport schemes this financial year.

That's quite a list. And there are probably one or two others I've forgotten. Of course, I fully expect the Westminster government's cuts to hit Aberystwyth hard, like everywhere else, at some point, maybe quite soon. I'm also aware that not everyone welcomes all the developments listed above. But right now, relative to others, I'm not sure Aberystwyth has too much to complain about economically. We've got the National Assembly to thank for much of that.

New plans for Post Office site

2010-10-02T09:18:00.007+01:00

New plans have been drafted for the controversial Post Office site in Aberystwyth town centre. The plans involve a five-storey development with 2,275 square metres of sales area on the lower two floors and flats on the top three. Crucially, all shops in the surrounding streets are maintained on the draft plans with the exception of the post office in Great Darkgate Street (pictured) which forms an access to the site along with the existing sorting office entrance in Chalybeate Street. Delivery lorries will access the development via an existing rear entrance in Queen Street.

Aberystwyth Chamber of Commerce has issued this press statement following a meeting with the owner of the site:

“CHAMBER BACKS DEVELOPMENTS”

“At a special meeting of the Aberystwyth and District Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday [22nd Sept] Mr Meirion Ellis Jones addressed members with a summary of events surrounding the proposals for the former Royal Mail Sorting Office site in the town centre.

“Members agreed that the Chamber should support proposals to develop the Sorting Office site into a property for retailing. Chamber members also acknowledged that existing businesses in Great Darkgate Street and Chalybeate Street, where the proprietors wished for their premises to be incorporated into any development, should not be prevented from doing so. It was stressed however, that any properties added to the original site should be on a voluntary basis by the owners and that support should be conditional on this basis.

“Chairman Cyril Baker said, “The Chamber would like to thank Mr Jones for meeting us and explaining the past events and current situation regarding the old Royal Mail Sorting Office site. The Chamber will wholeheartedly support a scheme that is fully consulted upon and does not involve businesses being forced to participate”.

The Chamber's statement is carefully worded and appears to rule out compulsory purchase orders on surrounding small shops for any expanded scheme, the threat of which caused so much controversy last year. However the threat was, of course, a County Council measure apparently required by the National Assembly as an assurance before their quite substantial funding could be released. Although the Assembly pulled out after seeing the weight of opposition in the town, the attitude of many on the County Council Cabinet doesn’t appear to have changed. The statement clearly still sees some kind of expanded scheme as a possibility, although emphasises that this should be voluntary and involve proper consultation.

There are actually a wide spectrum of views within the Chamber of Commerce on the Post Office site, ranging from those wanting a sensitive scheme preserving all the current small shops and architecture to those traders who would support just about anything on the site because their shops are in another part of town and they don’t personally stand to lose anything. The press statement represents an uneasy compromise between those factions.

Plaid Cymru's Mid & West Wales Assembly list declared

2010-09-25T20:07:00.006+01:00

Plaid Cymru have selected their candidates for the Mid & West Wales Regional list in the National Assembly elections on May 5th.

Following the final hustings meeting, held at a packed Canolfan Morlan in Aberystwyth (and subject to final ratification by the Party’s National Executive), the list candidates will be:

1/ Simon Thomas – well-known former MP for Ceredigion who lives in Aberystwyth

2/ Angela Elniff-Larsen – an experienced campaigner on rural, community and women’s issues

3/ John Dixon – Chair of Plaid Cymru until recently and the writer of a regular excellent blog

4/ Rhys Davies – a Carmarthenshire County Councillor and Community Development officer in Cwm Gwendraeth

Regional list candidates for the Assembly elections are part of the additional member system of proportional representation whereby the 40 Assembly Members elected in each constituency (for example Elin Jones in Ceredigion) are topped up by a further 20, according to the support each party has received, in order to achieve an Assembly that more truly represents the way the population has voted. In practice only the top one or two from each party’s list has any chance of being elected. The current Assembly Members for the Mid & West Wales region are Plaid Cymru's Nerys Evans, Joyce Watson and Alun Davies for Labour and Nick Bourne for the Conservatives.

Ever since he narrowly lost the Ceredigion Westminster seat in 2005 people have been wondering if/how/when Simon Thomas will get back into public political life. I’ve spoken to several politicians from other parties who have been full of praise for his work in parliament, especially on the green agenda. There’s a strong argument that people of his calibre are wasted at Westminster and that Wales’s most capable politicians need to be in the Assembly. Depending on how the constituency votes go on May 5th, this looks like his way back.

The picture shows Simon with John Dixon after the result was announced today.

Traws Cambria consultation

2010-09-24T09:20:00.002+01:00

Traws Cambria have launched a consultation on planned improvements to their cross-Wales bus services. Their plans include:

* Reduced journey times between key centres

* Better connections between Traws Cambria services and the Welsh rail network

* Potential new services to provide a wider range of choice when travelling between key towns across Wales

* The introduction of more comfortable coach-style vehicles better suited to longer distance services

* Improved on-board facilities for passengers

* Improved ticketing and fare options

Details of the consultation and questionnaire are here. In addition there'll be a road show at Aberystwyth University all day on Tuesday 28th.

Will this be the shape of the new Ceredigion?

2010-09-21T00:50:00.006+01:00

It looks as if we’ve seen the last Ceredigion Westminster election as we know them. When the Conservative/Lib Dem government proposed cutting the number of UK parliamentary constituencies from 650 to 600 it became clear this would affect Wales more than anywhere else. Because we’re reckoned to be ‘over-represented’ compared to the rest of the UK (i.e. have fewer electors per constituency), MPs here are set to be cut by a quarter.

Above, therefore, is a rather ungainly-looking map of a proposal for an expanded Ceredigion constituency drawn up by the Electoral Reform Society Wales. It adds north Pembrokeshire, south-west Montgomeryshire and west Radnorshire to the current Ceredigion, not all areas that readily sit together.

The problem with setting constituency boundaries purely on numbers rather than local identity is that it becomes very hard for people to relate to the seat. Ceredigion constituency currently very helpfully has the same boundary as the County Council which makes it easy to feel a part of.

Another map, drawn up by the Electoral Reform Society UK looks more plausible, involving a large part of north Carmarthenshire along the Teifi Valley.

Of course, there is a recent precedent for a different boundary. Between 1983 and 1997 Ceredigion was part of a larger Ceredigion and Pembroke North constituency.

Whatever is finally adopted, there’s no question the plans will lead to the loss of a considerable number of Welsh MPs. If the Assembly were to get substantially more powers that could be a reasonable exchange. But many of the 11 Welsh Lib Dem and Conservative MPs who, like Ceredigion's MP, supported the measure were effectively voting themselves out of office.

The Welsh Clone Town list

2010-09-17T23:45:00.002+01:00

Let's start with the positives. Bangor and Penarth (in that order) have the most distinctive and diverse high streets of the medium-sized towns in Wales, according to the latest survey conducted by the New Economics Foundation (story also covered by Caredig i Natur and the Western Mail).

The NEF this week published their survey of the extent to which towns have become filled with chain stores indistinguishable from anywhere else, labelling the worst offenders ‘Clone Towns’ and those with the most characterful, independent local shops, like Bangor and Penarth, as ‘Home Towns’.

Of the four Welsh towns judged to be Clone Towns, Llanelli was the worst example, coming sixth in the UK. The full list of Welsh Clone Towns and their UK rankings is:

6/ Llanelli

7/ Bridgend

17/ Carmarthen

19/ Aberystwyth

If the Ceredigion Council Cabinet plan to demolish 16 small shops in Aberystwyth town centre in favour of chain stores had been successful Aberystwyth would, of course, have been higher up the list in future years. And it’s interesting that Carmarthen, the town that supporters of the plan seemed to aspire to, was judged as less distinctive and interesting than Aberystwyth.

The report goes on to highlight how those places given the accolade of Home Towns didn’t just achieve this by accident but have often done so by consciously working to bolster their local independent sector.

Aberystwyth gets £1 million for green transport

2010-09-14T17:56:00.001+01:00

Aberystwyth has secured funding of £1 million towards green travel projects. The funding is part of Ceredigion’s bid for Aberystwyth to become one of the Welsh Government’s three new ‘sustainable travel towns’, building on the experience of the Cardiff Sustainable Travel Town initiative.

The £1 million must be spent this financial year and includes:

Parcyllyn bus and cycle lanes and pedestrian facilities £20,000

Public rights of way £10,000

Walking and cycling infrastructure improvements at Parcyllyn / Boulevard St Brieuc £80,000

Pedestrian islands £60,000

20mph speed limit for roads on the seaward side of Aberystwyth town £75,000

Aberystwyth town centre accessibility scheme £40,000

Additional Park & Ride facilities £304,000

Aberystwyth to Penrhyncoch cycle route £45,000

Llanbadarn Fawr to new government buildings cycle route £20,000

Improvements to Rheidol cycle path £15,000

Bus service improvements £40,000

Electric bus purchase £190,000

Ron Davies at the Plaid conference - the full speech

2010-09-13T00:12:00.005+01:00

With a few sections edited out for space, this is the text of Ron Davies's historic speech to the Plaid Cymru conference in Aberystwyth on Saturday. The former Secretay of State for Wales in Tony Blair's government announced his intention to stand for Plaid in Caerffili in next year's Assembly elections and set out a vision for Wales's economic future. You Tube versions are here and here.

".....I want to say a huge thank you to those Plaid members in Caerffili, many of them here today, that I’ve worked with and alongside over these past couple of years for the support they’ve given me to work with them and to join Plaid. And it’s never easy to single out individuals but I do want to say a very special thankyou to Lindsay Whittle [Plaid's many-times candidate there]. I’ve known Lindsay for almost 40 years and we fought election after election against each other. And I’m proud to say in all of those times there was never a cross word between us. We disagreed obviously on many, many occasions but there was never any personal acrimony and he was the very first person to urge me to consider putting my name forward to stand for Caerffili for Plaid. So it’s a very great debt that I owe him and I’m very proud to acknowledge that. It’s not only me but there’s a debt owing to Lindsay from Plaid members, supporters, voters and thousands of ordinary men and women who he has supported and helped during a lifetime of service to Plaid and to the people in Caerffili. So thank you very much Lindsay. .....

"The best way that I can repay that friendship and that trust would be to repay the debt in the way that he would want most. And I will do that with our colleagues in Caerffili.

"And we will score a famous victory for Plaid Cymru in next year’s Assembly Elections . We’ll win it and we’ll keep it and we’ll fight and we’ll campaign and we’ll organise and we’ll persuade until we make voting for Plaid Cymru in Caerffili as natural as drawing breath. That’s the campaign that we’ll launch. We’ll base it on a marvellous bunch of individuals. But it won’t just be a victory of organisation – it’ll be a victory of ideas. And, because it will be a victory from Labour in a key heartland seat, it’ll send shockwaves through the political establishment. It’ll send a message that Plaid is in the mainstream. It will give the lie to the false claims that Plaid only represents the north or the west or the countryside or the Welsh-speaking part of Wales. Plaid represents every part of Wales. Plaid can uniquely claim to represent all of Wales, wherever they live, and all of the people, whatever language they speak.

"The key values of Plaid, of fair play, of equality, of community of taking responsibility as individuals and as a nation, of wanting to use our democracy to bring about change to improve the lives of ordinary men and women. Those are the values, not only of Plaid, but those are the values of the people of Wales as well.

"Now for decades, generations of people in valleys like mine , the one that I grew up in, have automatically looked to the Labour Party. I know, from my own background, that was the path that I first chose. I don’t make any apologies for that. I believed that Labour could deliver lasting change. But it hasn’t. I don’t want to talk about that personal experience, because that’s history now. And there are too many compromises and too many sell-outs and failures of policy and resolve from the Labour party, that the Labour Party is now left as the busted flush of British politics. Labour talks the rhetoric of enduring values but put the rhetoric to one side and look at the reality. Thirteen years of unbridled power, with record parliamentary majorities and they’ve left Britain this year with tainted politics , a broken economy, the rich richer, the poor poorer, and, above all, the stench of an illegal war in Iran (sic) and a pointless and unwinnable war in Afghanistan.

"If we are going to transform our politics we have to challenge that record and we have to establish Plaid unquestionably as the strong and legitimate voice for progress and change in Wales.

"Now I believe that devolution will prove to have been the game-changer. Who knows what our politics would have been like if Labour had chosen to use devolution to help build a nation, to champion the cause of a proper parliament, to use the talents and resources of the people of Wales according to our needs to create a more dynamic economy and a more sustainable level of public service? Well, that might have been, if the Labour Party could identify itself with Wales. But the Labour Party is a London party and London would not allow the Labour Party to follow the natural course of action here in Wales.

"I know, from my own experience, the tremendous work which has been put in by our Plaid ministers in the present Assembly, and the Plaid group in the Assembly. And, without doubt, the influence of One Wales has brought the first real sense of an assembly setting its own agenda for Wales.

"We now live in an era, I think we all accept, where coalition politics are becoming the norm. But let’s never forget that the priorities and the politics of any coalition are the priorities and the politics of the party that leads the coalition. And our ambition has to be, whatever else it is, to make sure that, after next year’s Assembly Elections, Ieuan Wyn Jones is not the Deputy First Minister but Ieuan Wyn Jones is the First Minister and that Plaid Cymru is the party that leads whatever coalition we have.

"Nobody believes that that’s going to be an easy task. No doubt Labour will say, as that always do when elections come along, “Vote Labour and keep the Tories out”. Well, Wales voted Labour in May and now we’ve got the Tories in. And, if anybody ever wanted a brutal lesson in political treachery, it’s those thousands of decent people who were conned into voting Lib Dem in Wales in the last general election. They won’t fall for it next time.

"No doubt Labour will try, “Well you’ve got to vote for us as a party. We know we’re rubbish, but the Tories are even worse”. Now, can you imagine that as a battle cry for political inspiration? You start off by saying, “We’re rubbish, but we’re the best of a bad lot”. Well, we can do better than that. It doesn’t even work in practice. They might even try, “Vote for us and oppose the Tory cuts”. Well, we all know what the reality is. The cuts are coming and they would be coming whatever the stripe of the London government. If its Tories or Labour, Wales would be facing those cuts.

"The real question is why Labour did so little for Wales when they could have done something about it in their 13 consecutive years of office. Look at the state of the Welsh economy. Investment down. Enterprise down. Innovation down. Little wonder that our national wealth is down even from where it was 12 years ago when we first won Objective 1 status for Wales.

"Economic inactivity, the curse of modern Wales, is as bad now as it was 10 years ago when the Assembly was created and as bad now as it was 20 years ago under the Tories. We’ve had a decade of increased welfare spending but nothing has been done to prepare us for the storm that we now face. Labour’s legacy of failure has made us even more vulnerable to the cuts to come. Because we in Wales depend, like no-one else in Britain, on the public purse, and that is where the cuts will bite deepest. And, forget the propaganda, it’s not going to be cuts on bankers or cuts on bureaucrats. It’s going to be cuts on teachers and cuts on nurses and it’s our patients and our children who will pay the price of Labour’s failure. Labour’s crocodile tears... there’s a lot of unanswered questions that we have to ask them time and time again . After all those years of government in London and in Cardiff, why did you leave us vulnerable to the Tories? Why did you leave us vulnerable, at the bottom of almost every economic and social league table? Why didn’t you sort out a fair funding formula when you had the chance? You had a Labour government in Cardiff, you had a Labour government in London and , if you believe the Labour government in London, they were awash with money and, for ten years, despite all the claims, despite all the evidence, despite all the arguments and all the debates, Labour refused to move.

"And now, less than six months after the election, they want to position themselves as the champion of reform. Well, if anybody buys that I’m afraid they will have the same sort of awakening that those thousands of people had when they were conned into voting Lib Dem at the last election.

"The worst thing, after all the opportunities, was the failure to create a proper parliament. And, again, we’ll see the positioning. We’ll now see Labour saying we need a parliament to defend ourselves against the Tories. The time to create a parliament, to defend yourselves against the Tories is when you’re in power and you’ve got a majority on the floor of House of Commons of over 100 and you can get any piece of legislation that you want through the House of Commons to create a proper parliament for Wales, if only you’re prepared to stand up to the sceptics in the Labour Party in Wales who are too frightened at the loss of your own jobs to want to see a proper parliament of our own here in Cardiff.

"Now, as a result of those failures, we have been bequeathed a dependency culture in Wales – nearly 30% of people in Caerffili County Borough Council, for example, who are living in economic inactivity. And a dependency culture could be a death knell for any nation with ambition and with aspiration.

"Nobody should want anybody to live in a cocoon of wrap-around health and social care, because that denies the needs of men and women to make their own choices and the rights to fashion their own lives of learning and work and to take responsibility for their own lifestyles and the legacies that they leave for their children.

"Plaid has the courage to say that, of course we need properly funded services, and that must go hand in hand with developing enterprise and building up personal responsibility. As a species, millions of years of evolution have hard-wired us. We want to explore. We want to invent. We’ve created industry, science and technology, food production , manufacturing, communications, all on a world-wide scale. We’ve created languages, lifestyles, politics, culture, sport , music, art, drama, literature, poetry. And that’s why we have global diversity, with the richness that it brings, if we had the sense to learn to value it.

"The more passionate that we are about our own history, our own culture, the more likely we are to understand and value other people because we know why they cherish their own history and their own culture. And we must understand the way that we relate with people right throughout the world, with shared ambitions for a world where we can put to one side the jealousies and the rivalry that lead to war and famine and poverty.

"Now, the achievements of men and women haven’t been created by governments, they haven’t been created by kings and queens.... Individuals have done these things. Individuals have done these things because we’re motivated. As people we all have our own motivation. We have our own personal needs. And Plaid has the courage to say, take responsibility and create a society which cherishes your culture, which respects diversity, wherever it is, and challenges the potential of all people to fulfil their lives. Plaid has the courage to say, let’s end the dependency culture. We don’t need to seek solutions elsewhere or to blame all our ills on other people or other institutions. How many times have you heard it said, “They should do something about it”, when people are describing a problem. “’They’ should do something about it”. That’s wrong. It’s not ‘they’, it’s ‘we’. We should do something about it. And only Plaid has the courage to say that, in this complex, competitive, interrelated world, decisions are best taken by the people most closely involved and as a nation we should take responsibility for our own affairs and draw down from Westminster the sovereignty to chart our own future.

"Now, let me just give you one example. In our old mining valleys, an area that I come from and know and love best, we‘ve got the greatest concentration in western Europe of poverty and deprivation, which is based on worklessness and poor health. 150 miles up the M4 we have the south-east of England, Europe’s richest region, sustained by one of the world’s richest cities. Now, what logic is there that says you have to have the same set of rules for both of those regions? They couldn’t be more different. And yet you have the same policies for the economy , for expenditure, for finance, for regulation, for encouraging enterprise. Who believes that a set of rules designed to meet the overheated and overcrowded south-east of England has the sensitivity or the ability to tackle the deep-seated problems in our mining valleys? There is no logic, there’s no argument, there’s no economic or financial argument, which says that those immense differences of geography, of economy, of society, can be dealt with by the same regime. But, as long as we lack the political clout, we can’t do anything about it.

"We have a vision of our nation which is based on its own right to democracy and self-determination. Not just for its own sake, important though that is, but for the sake of the sort of Wales we want to see."

Picture of the Day - Ron Davies and his new membership card

2010-09-11T19:25:00.000+01:00

Ron Davies, the 'Architect of Devolution' as the then Labour government's Secretary of State for Wales, holds up his new Plaid Cymru membership card at the Plaid conference in Aberystwyth today.

Ceredigion councillors to be cut by five

2010-09-07T23:51:00.004+01:00

The expected cull of Ceredigion councillors for the 2012 elections will be less drastic than once thought but the number of councillors will almost certainly be reduced from 42 to 37 following the publication of draft proposals by the Boundary Commission for Wales.

As suggested on this blog in December, the Commission’s proposals, designed to produce more equal numbers of residents across wards, will significantly change the balance of power between the north and south of the county as all the five losses are south of Tregaron. The Commission’s conclusions demonstrate the extent to which the population of the Aberystwyth area has been under-represented in the county in recent years.

Although the loss of a seat in the Aberystwyth area was half-expected in the report, in the event the only significant change at this end of the county is that Padarn and Faenor wards will be amalgamated into a two-seat ward in order to equalise their numbers which had become unbalanced. Gareth Davies (Plaid) and John Roberts (Lib Dem) can therefore both retain their seats.

The main changes proposed in the document are:

* Llangeitho, represented by David Evans (Plaid), is being lost with half going to Tregaron and half to Llangybi.

* Llandysiliogogo, represented by Gareth Lloyd (Ind), is being split between Llanarth and New Quay.

* Capel Dewi ward, represented by Peter Davies (Ind), is being divided between Llandysul and Troedyraur.

* Lampeter and Llanwenog wards are to be amalgamated. Lampeter currently has two councillors and Llanwenog one. The two wards will become a single two-seat ward – a loss of one member overall. If they all decide to stand again, Haydn Richards (Plaid), Hag Harris (Labour) and Ifor Williams (Ind) will contest for the two seats.

* Aberteifi/Cardigan – The current three wards within the town will be amalgamated into a single, two-member ward. If they all decide to stand again, Catrin Miles (Plaid), John Adams-Lewis (Plaid) and Mark Cole (Lib Dem) will contest the two remaining seats.

Looking at the Council’s political balance, this means two certain losses for the Independent/Lib Dem alliance and one loss for Plaid with interesting, difficult-to-predict contests in Cardigan and Lampeter.

The Boundary Commission's draft proposals are open to amendments submitted by 9th November but they're now thought unlikely to make significant changes.

Ceredigion names recycling switch date

2010-09-01T23:10:00.001+01:00

Ceredigion Council have named week commencing November 15th as the date on which recycling collections will switch to weekly and residual waste to fortnightly.

A letter sent to community councils says:

“You may be aware that the Welsh Assembly Government has produced new and tougher targets for recycling, aimed at ensuring that Welsh local authorities achieve European Union targets limiting the amount of waste sent to landfill over the coming years. Failure to meet the new targets will result in Ceredigion County Council incurring substantial financial penalties

“The new Ceredigion household waste collection service will involve a weekly recycling collection service as well as the introduction of a weekly food waste collection service, covering the entire county. The little waste that households will then have left over should be deposited in black bags and will be collected fortnightly.

“Recycling and food waste will be collected on the same day using a split-bodied vehicle. This vehicle is specially designed to accept the two different materials without contaminating either of them. Both materials will then be taken to one of the County Council’s transfer stations for bulking up prior to further treatment elsewhere. The food waste will subsequently be treated to produce energy and compost. The recyclate will be sent to reprocessing plants."

It’s going to be interesting to see how it all works out in Aberystwyth town centre where there are particular concerns about the practicalities of the scheme in blocks of flats. Although I’m broadly supportive of the scheme, for the obvious pressing environmental reasons, I do think some of these concerns are being underestimated by the Council (“The little waste that households will then have left over...” ?) and they’ll have to be pretty pro-active in dealing with them.

One big flaw from an environmental perspective is that the Assembly aren’t encouraging Councils to promote home composting for those with space in their gardens alongside the food waste collection. According to council officers this is because the Assembly wants to know exactly how much waste is being diverted from landfill and it’s not possible to measure the amount of home composting – surely a case of the auditing overiding the objective.

Diolch

2010-08-31T19:52:00.000+01:00

Thanks to anyone who voted to help this blog achieve the giddy height of number 31 in this year's Top 50 Welsh Blogs (up from 45 last year). And congratulations to Blog Menai for winning top place.

Aberystwyth University voted best in Wales again

2010-08-19T23:49:00.001+01:00

Aberystwyth University has been voted the best in Wales for student satisfaction for the sixth consecutive year. It was also rated the fifth best in the UK.

The results are from an annual survey of students aiming to help inform the choices of prospective applicants about where and what to study. A total of 252,000 students participated in the survey this year, a response rate of 63.1%.

Overall satisfaction at Aberystwyth University remains very high at 92% - an increase of 2% on 2009 and 10% higher than both the Welsh and the UK average.

Students were asked questions grouped into seven areas: ‘the teaching on my course’, ‘assessment and feedback’, ‘academic support’, ‘organisation and management’, ‘learning resources’, ‘personal development’ and ‘overall satisfaction’.

Aberystwyth University subjects achieving a very strong performance in the survey for ‘Overall Satisfaction’ were:

• Agriculture

• Biology

• Celtic Studies

• English

• Physical Geography

• Sports Science

In 2008 a survey of students showed Aberystwyth was the top town in the whole of the UK for providing a sense of community and student safety.

Apart from the obvious quality of teaching and organisation at the university itself, the consistently excellent results in all fields are thought to be partly due to the relative size of Aberystwyth University in a small town, helping to create a community feeling and allowing students to interact well with local people.

Aberystwyth Roundup

2010-08-15T23:15:00.007+01:00

It was good to hear it’s been agreed that the former Conservative Assembly Member Lisa Francis will chair Aberystwyth’s campaign for a Yes vote for in the coming referendum on more powers for the Assembly. Having been on Aberystwyth Town Council with her, I know she’s good at working with members of other parties and, unlike some in her party, has always been enthusiastic about Wales. She’s ideally suited to bringing local parties together in a united campaign and convincing Assembly sceptics.

On Monday (16th) there’ll be an 8-foot pair of wellies in Aberystwyth town centre as part of a flood awareness campaign by Environment Agency Wales. Further campaigns will focus on Tregaron and Capel Bangor.

Compassion in World Farming will be holding a meeting in the Morlan on their vision of the future of farming in Wales. The meeting is on Thursday 18th at 7.30

Many people will regret that the one-day Castell Rock festival isn’t happening in Aberystwyth this year. However the idea hasn’t gone away and the festival could be back another year.

Despite the pending cuts, development continues apace around Aberystwyth:

Planningpermission was given last week to convert the old antiques showroom in Maes Iago (next to the Academy) into 14 flats. I argued that it would be more suitable for offices and the ground floor should be retained as retail but lost the vote by 8 – 6.

Work has finally started this week on the planned new GP surgery, pharmacy and creche on the west side of Penglais Hill. Padarn Surgery in North Parade will eventually move there.

A planning application has been submitted for 79 new houses at Piercefield Lane in Penparcau

The extra layer on the Bronglais Hospital car park is on schedule for completion in the Autumn. Despite recent press reports, it’s hoped that the building of the new A&E Dept can start in the new year.

Ysgol Plas Crug, already engaged in a substantial building programme to replace current portacabins with proper classrooms, Have put in a planning application for a new staff car park due to the horrendous parking problems in the area. They then withdrew it after parents complained it would reduce the children’s play area.

Just opposite, Aberystywth Rugby Club has received planning permission for an extension to their clubhouse.

Work is also re-commencing on the second block of flats at Yr Aelwyd, the former Urdd building in Llanbadarn Road.

Council leader still getting it wrong on Aberystwyth shops

2010-08-11T08:02:00.006+01:00

It’s good to see some strongly-worded letters in today's Cambrian News, critical of last week’s comments on shops in Aberystwyth by Council Leader Keith Evans. He'd been presented with a petition by 1,000 people calling for large chain stores to come to the town. Unfortunately he had entirely misinterpreted this as support for last year's plan by the Council to demolish the heart of Aberystwyth and specifically criticised Cadw Calon Aberystwyth's successful campaign to save the 17 small shops in Chalybeate Street and Great Darkgate Street. Cadw Calon's campaign attracted a petition of 2,300 signatures.

In fact, many of the small traders who joined the Cadw Calon Aberystywh campaign themselves want to see appropriately placed larger stores coming to the town and have consistently said so. But not at the cost of their own businesses and the entire character of the centre of Aberystwyth. With the post office redevelopment scheme currently dead, the Council’s plans now revolve around the much less controversial Mill Street car park area.

Ceredigion third in Wales recycling league

2010-08-10T11:50:00.003+01:00

Following on from the post about recycling on 1st August, figures published today show that Ceredigion is currently third in the Wales recycling league with 47% of waste recycled.

Denbighshire and Ynys Mon are top on 51% and 49.3% respectively. Bottom are Blaenau Gwent on 29.2%, with the Welsh average at 39.2%.

The Welsh government's target for the last year was 40% which Ceredigion achieved comfortably. But the target increases to 52% by 2012/13 with financial penalties for those councils not making it, so the pressure to improve further is very much on.

IBERS redundancies cut by half to 35

2010-08-08T22:07:00.003+01:00

A feared 70 redundancies at IBERS (Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences) at Capel Dewi near Aberystwyth is now finalised at 35 after involvement from Assembly Member Elin Jones and a campaign by students. Although good news, it has to be remembered this still can't be fun for the 35.

The Facebook group ‘Aber Students against cuts to IBERS’ has posted the following closing message:

"It now appears that the redundancies and cuts proposed for IBERS at Aberystwyth University have been finalised and implemented, with only 35 redundancies of the original 70 being made.

"This group was started to allow people to register their objections to the proposed cuts which at first outlined a significant number of teaching positions to be cut and also at the frustration and anxiety caused by the conflicting information released by the University’s senior management team.

"Though it took the University a while to fully start to engage with and listen to students, I think through the Facebook group and the petition presented to the University’s Council, we really did have an effect on the University’s attitude during the whole process.

"It was always my intention to close down the ‘Aber Students Against Cuts to IBERS’ Facebook group when I felt its existence was no longer necessary, and this message is just to let you all know that I will be closing the group down from now.

"I do hope that this whole process has brought about a sea change in the attitude of the University towards student engagement, as they can see how effective the Guild of Students is at lobbying, and how passionate and committed Aberystwyth Students are when the quality of their education is threatened."