Robert Lloyd - a Sir Gar Blog of random news . . . and some Clecs!

An Ammanford woman has been ordered to pay £175 by the courts after throwing litter from a car at McDonalds in Cross Hands. Natasha Paul, aged 21, of Parc Penrhiw, Betws, was convicted for an offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 at Ammanford Magistrates Court. The prosecution was brought by Carmarthenshire County Council. The court heard that the council’s environmental enforcement officers were on duty on Thursday, January 14 when they saw a woman throw litter from a car parked in the McDonalds car park in Cross Hands. The officers approached the vehicle and explained what they had seen and issued a fixed penalty notice of £75. However, Paul failed to pay the penalty by the specified time. A reminder letter was sent, but no payment was received. Magistrates fined Paul £75 (reduced from a £105 because she had pleaded guilty at the first hearing) and ordered her to pay £100 towards prosecution costs. The council hopes this latest case will now act as a warning to would-be...

Dropping litter has cost a Kidwelly man £250. Andrew Lee Thorton, aged 30, of Heol Dyddgen, Crwbin, Kidwelly, was convicted in absence for an offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 at Ammanford Magistrates Court. The prosecution was brought by Carmarthenshire County Council. The court heard that the council’s environmental enforcement officers were on patrol in an unmarked vehicle at Old Oak Lane near Priory Street roundabout in Carmarthen on January 11 when they saw a man put a plastic bottle behind a green electric/telephone exchange box. The officers stopped the car and approached them man explaining what they had seen. He immediately apologised and retrieved the bottle. The officers explained that they could either issue a fixed penalty notice for the offence or the matter could be dealt with in court. Thorton elected to accept the fixed penalty notice of £75. However, he failed to pay it by the date specified, and ignored a reminder letter that was sent. Magistrates f...

A campaign to get to grips with chewing gum litter on the streets and pavements of Carmarthenshire is to be launched this summer. Carmarthenshire County Council is one of 12 councils nationwide that has been selected to take part in this year’s annual campaign to reduce chewing gum litter, run by the Chewing Gum Action Group (CGAG). The campaign which will be run during August and September will target gum-chewers with striking posters ‘Bin your gum or it could cost you £75’. The aim is to make chewers aware of the fines associated with irresponsible disposal of gum. The CGAG has been running successful campaigns to change the behaviour of irresponsible gum-chewers since 2006. Previous campaigns have shown a positive shift in chewers’ attitudes and resulted in significant reductions in gum litter in the areas where the campaign was active. The 2009 campaign achieved an overall reduction in gum litter of 48% and it is hoped that this years’ campaign will be another success and persuade ...

Carmarthenshire is streets ahead of other local authorities in the Wales ‘litter league’. Official figures from the Local Government Data Unit Wales have been put into a league table by the GMB union. It shows Carmarthenshire has the second cleanest streets in Wales out of all 22 local authorities with 99 per cent of highways and land inspected of a high or acceptable standard of cleanliness. Torfaen was named the cleanest in Wales and Blaenau Gwent the dirtiest. Carmarthenshire County Council’s Director of Technical Services Richard Workman congratulated cleansing staff for all their hard work. He added: “The council is responsible for removing litter from pavements, streets and public land and our cleansing staff do a fantastic job all year round in all types of weather conditions. “The Street Scene division has a cleansing staff of 60, along with a number of mechanical sweeping machines and on average 40 tonnes of litter is removed every week at a cost of over £2.1 million per year....

Plans to bring some 2,000 empty homes in Carmarthenshire back into use have been approved by Carmarthenshire County Council. Carmarthenshire Housing Services has drawn up an Empty Property Action Plan for 2010-2012 to tackle the issue. It was discussed at last week’s meeting of the full county council. The first Empty Property Strategy was launched in 2005 to tackle the problem and has resulted in 150 properties being brought back into use as a result of direct action by the council. A survey of empty property owners has provided information to help shape future plans to deal with empty properties. It showed that two thirds of owners do not have outstanding loans or mortgages on the properties; that three quarters have some concerns about the properties being left empty, and around a third indicated that the properties were in a reasonable condition. A revised action plan has been developed to provide support, advice and awareness raising for empty property owners, help owners to decid...

Has your kettle run out of steam? Is your TV facing the final credits? Don’t bin it, bring it! Many of us are already recycling everyday items such as newspapers, cans and plastic bottles but did you know that old and unused electrical items can also be recycled? This Recycle Week, from June 21-27, Carmarthenshire County Council is raising awareness on the range of small electrical items that can be recycled. That means anything with a battery or plug: from broken toasters and kettles gathering dust in the loft, to old mobile phones in drawers and disused power tools cluttering up the garage. Research shows that just under 30 per cent of us simply throw broken or unwanted items away in the rubbish, whereas if we switched to recycling these items we could divert over 100,000 tonnes of valuable waste electricals from UK landfills each year - the equivalent weight of 14,000 double decker buses! Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is one of the most harmful waste streams still...

A drugs summit is being held later this month to help young people in Carmarthenshire. Council leader Meryl Gravell has asked the Community Safety Partnership to organise the event. She said the aim was to bring together a range of experts and services to look at how they could all work together to combat the county’s drug problem. A number of organisations have been invited to take part in the summit which is taking place at the end of June. Councillor Gravell said: “We must work together to find practical solutions and ways of supporting young people, not only to help them beat the addiction but also to prevent them trying drugs in the first place. “By involving housing, children’s services, youth services and other organisations we can take a holistic approach to improve support services for young people and their families.”

Llanelli Reds AFC have drawn KF Taurus, Lithuania home on 01/07/10 and away 08/07/10 in the Fist Round of the Europa League. FK Tauras is a Lithuanian football team from the city of Tauragė. The team plays in the A Lyga, Lithuania's highest football division. During its history the club has changed its name several times: * 1922 – Tauragės Sporto Sąjunga * 19?? – Šauliai * 1942 – Tauras * 1947 – Žalgiris * 1957 – Maistas * 1959 – Maisto Sporto Klubas (MSK) * 1962 – Tauras * 1990 – Elektronas * 1992 – Tauras-Karšuva * 1995 – Tauras * 2005 – Tauras ERRA * 2008 – Tauras In the Second Round, if the Reds win through, they will play Apoel Nicosia Cyprus home on the 15/07/10 and away 22/07/10.

A Llanelli residents' group has won national acclaim for its work to revive the community spirit in a deprived part of town. Morfa Residents and Tenants Association has worked tirelessly to boost the area and improve facilities for young and old alike. Members have helped to reopen a local park closed by vandalism, raising more than £114,000 to transform it and beating off competition from across Wales to win £50,000 in the Big Lottery People’s Millions live television final. Their efforts have now been rewarded in the Wales Council for Voluntary Action Volunteer of the Year Awards where they scooped first prize in the group category. The group was formed in 2006 and this year decided to get the community more involved by organising family fun days and exercise classes, as well as securing a new bus service for the area. It also decided to work to work to reopen Havelock Park, a Morfa landmark that had been closed due to vandalism and become an eyesore. The park is now at the hear...

Carmarthenshire is through to the finals of a national competition for providing good affordable housing. The county is on the shortlist of finalists for the Welsh local public services’ award scheme announced at the Welsh Local Government Association Conference for Our Homes - delivering good quality affordable housing. The Awards will be presented at an Efficiency and Innovation Conference in the autumn. The Excellence Wales scheme describes good quality, affordable housing as the bedrock of Carmarthenshire County Council’s communities. The council through its direct intervention and working with the voluntary and private sector, can demonstrate significant improvements including: reducing housing unfitness and disrepair, empty properties, unemployment and long term sickness while economic prospects have improved in renewal areas. There has also been a reduction of domestic CO2 emissions by 11,000 tonnes, saving residents in excess of £1.9m a year on domestic energy costs and the cou...

Carmarthenshire's world class gardens have been showcased to green-fingered enthusiasts from across the UK. Tourism officers have promoted the county at the acclaimed BBC Gardeners World Live show. They hope to attract visitors from across the country and sell the region as a must-see holiday destination. Flagship attractions like Aberglasney Gardens and the National Botanic Garden of Wales will be heavily promoted, in a bid to lure keen gardeners to the county. County Council tourism and marketing officer Hywel Davies travelled to the N.E.C in Birmingham this week for the annual show. It is one of the biggest and most popular in the tourism calendar and attracts more than 100,000 visitors. Experts including Monty Don, Alan Titchmarsh and the presenters from Gardeners World helped pull in record crowds to the event, which ran from Wednesday to Sunday. Tourism staff say the show is the perfect target market for visitors to Carmarthenshire. Hywel, who is one of Wales’ most experience...

Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, is to make a royal visit to Carmarthenshire this week. The Prince and the Duchess of Cornwall will arrive in the county as part of their annual Wales Week. They will join in the centenary celebrations at Ysgol Rhys Prichard, visit Corgi Hosiery, which has a Royal Warrant, and attend Dyfed Powys Police’s long service award ceremony, as part of the five day tour. There will also be visits to Carmarthen and District Youth Opera, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary , and the National Wool Museum at Drefach-Felindre. His Royal Highness will visit Ammanford’s Corgi Hosiery on Friday, where he will be received by the Lord Lieutenant the Hon Robin Lewis and his wife Mrs Judith Lewis. He will meet staff and dignitaries and will be entertained by local schoolchildren. The Prince will be given a tour of the factory, and view demonstrations in the machine room, the sock finishing area and the knitwear area. He will see how garments are put together, meet ...

The Trinity Arts Festival (Gwyl y Drindod) is building up to a truly international climax this weekend. The grand finale sees the Stuart Burrows International Voice Award final at Trinity on Sunday. “Always a hugely popular and very competitive event, the Stuart Burrows award is always a highlight for the festival,” artistic director Eilir Owen Griffiths said this week. “And this year’s event promises to have added star appeal as Stuart Burrows himself has kindly agreed to be one of the judges. “His fans will know that he has not been well recently, but he has pronounced himself fighting fit to act as a judge for the award. “It will be no easy task for the judges, as this year we have competitors from as far afield as Korea, Australia and Ireland. “The reputation of the Stuart Burrows award builds year by year. Every winner goes on to bigger and better things and we have found that award winners use it as a featured and highly-valued prize in their international CVs.” Mr Griffiths said...

Love this! James sent it to me for Father's Day. It may take a little while to load, but stick with it. See - http://en.tackfilm.se/?id=1277066708468RA49