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

Carmarthenshire's Children’s Services department has taken an innovative approach to its responsibility as a corporate parent. Children who are looked after by the local authority have been supported to develop their own charter which highlights many of the rights and respects they should be afforded. The charter, KICC IT! (Kids In Care Count), was developed by children in care to help looked after children, and the adults who support them, better understand their needs. It was launched recently by Children’s Commissioner for Wales, Keith Towler, and includes key themes, such as family, respect, free-time and choice. The charter is used at all times whilst a child is under local authority care to ensure their rights as an individual are respected and supported. Where a child is placed in local authority care in Carmarthenshire, the county council acts as the child’s corporate parent, and as such, elected members, managers, governors, employees and partner agencies have corporate pa...

Many thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes today. The day is off to a great start!

The Healing The Wounds charity has been forced to drop its plan to develop the historic Golden Grove mansion in the Tywi Valley. But it has reassured supporters that it is continuing to work to help Armed Forces Personnel, Veterans and their families in Wales. The charity was launched in December of last year with an inspirational idea to turn the historic Tywi Valley mansion into a convalescent home and PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) treatment facility. “Sadly, we now have to admit defeat on the Golden Grove front, but all our fund-raisers and supporters can be assured we are still working towards our aim of finding a suitable location for a convalescent home and treatment facility,” said Healing the Wounds Executive Director Kevin Richards. “The original idea to develop Golden Grove was ambitious, but we genuinely thought the site would have been ideal for the project. “As it is, more than a year has gone by since the charity’s launch and the condition of the mansion has deter...

Style is something that comes easy to the world-famous Cor Meibion Llanelli. There is always a touch of class to their musical arrangements. And now Llanelli’s male voice choir is able to boast some extra sartorial style for their stage appearances. The 90-strong choir has been kitted out in brand spanking new tailored waistcoats. The waistcoats have been produced by the Cor Meibion Llanelli’s Ladies Committee. “Obviously, they thought that we needed a little extra something for our stage appearances,” smiled choir chairman Mel Harries. “Followers of the choir will know that we normally take the stage in blue jackets or dinners jackets or tuxedos. “But it is always nice to present things less formally and the ladies came up with the idea of kitting us out in waistcoats – a mammoth task, as you can imagine, as our choristers are all shapes and sizes!” Mr Harries added: “We are, of course, very grateful to the ladies committee for making such a splendid effort and I am sure they will be ...

Today's South Wales Evening Post has - excellent page 1 pic and story and picture inside of Jenkins Bakery in Llanelli and a nice story about Llanelli Rotary Club's fire chief guest.

The 30th annual Mayor’s Fun Run in Carmarthen will chalk up a notable first this year. The programme of races on Bank Holiday Monday, May 2, will include a wheelchair and a hand-cycle race. “This is a major first for the Mayor’s Fun Run team,” said race organiser Noelwyn Daniel. “We have strived to include as many races as possible for all sections of the community. There are already races for the very young and we always welcome veteran runners. “Hopefully, a wheelchair race will be an added attraction for spectators on what should be a very busy Bank Holiday Monday.” Mr Daniel added: “We are fortunate in this area in having one of the world’s best wheelchair athletes in Richie Powell. “And I know there are other wheelchair competitors out there who would love to have the chance to show the people of Carmarthen and West Wales what they can do.” The main sponsors of this year’s races will be the St Catherine's Walk Shopping Centre. The race date has been moved from the traditional ...

A Llanelli woman must pay a total of £665 after more than 60 black bags of household rubbish were found at her property. Deborah Gail Myhill, aged 44, of Cambrian Street, has been prosecuted for an offence under the Environment Protection Act 1990. Myhill was due to stand trial at Llanelli Magistrates Court but changed her plea to guilty at the last minute. The court heard that council environmental enforcement officers received a complaint regarding a number of bags of refuse on a hard standing to the rear of a house on Cambrian Street. On arrival they discovered approximately 60 bags of refuse, a number of which were used to contain blue recycling bags that were filled with waste not suitable for recycling. Myhill told the officers that there eight people living at the address and that she could not comply with the council’s policy of four black bags for collection every fortnight. The officers pointed out that much of the waste found in the black bags was recyclable and that there w...

Smashing story in the Western Mail today about Jenkins Bakery rolling out welcome mat for British Confectioners Association conference. Nice piece to publicise the Llanelli Rotary Club Annual Ball (April 22 @ Stradey Park Hotel) in the Llanelli Star today. Short story about Carmarthenshire fire chief Rob Quin's visit to Llanelli Rotary Club in the Llanelli Star today. 'View from Richmond Park' Carmarthen AFC column in the Carmarthen Journal today. Spotlight on Carmarthen Stagecoach theatre arts school and free scholarships in the Carmarthen Journal today. Nice story about the Carmarthenshire branch of Sports Aid Wales (4K raised at lunch) in the Carmarthen Journal today.

Llanelli’s Welsh Assembly member Helen Mary Jones was given a vision of the future at the annual Llanelli Rotary Club Youth Speaks competition. The AM praised the quality of debates at the event and predicted that some of the students could turn out to be the politicians of the future. “The standard in the competition was exceptionally high and the competitors made the judging task a very difficult one,” added the AM. Llanelli Rotary Club press and marketing officer Robert Lloyd explained that the Youth Speaks event offered an opportunity for Llanelli pupils to gain experience of speaking on a public platform. He added: “It allows young people to form ideas on significant subjects and learn high standards of expression, presentation and appearance. It also gives pupils the experience of accepting impartial assessments and constructive criticism.” In the junior competition, the Bryngwyn team debated ‘Text talk and internet spelling are the future of English’ (the Against lobby won the v...

Rugby will be the name of the game at The Cricketers in Cathedral Road, Cardiff, during the Six Nations tournament. The pub boasts big screens, good food and the very best beers. There is also a massive beer garden - and the pub is within easy walking distance of the Millennium Stadium. Dates for your diary are as follows - • Feb 4th Wales V England (home) KO @ 7.45pm. • Sat 5th – Italy V Ireland @14.30, France V Scotland @ 17.00. • Feb 12th England V Italy (on Sky) Scotland V Wales (away) @ 17.00. • Sunday 13th Ireland V France @ 15.00 • Saturday 26th Wales V Italy (away) @ 14.30, Eng V France (Sky) Sunday 27th Scotland V Ireland @ 15.00 • Saturday 12th March Italy V France @ 14.30, Wales V Ireland @ 17.00 – The Big home game in Cardiff. • Sunday 13th Eng V Scotland (Sky) • Saturday 19th March, Scotland V Italy @ 14.30, Ireland V Eng @ 17.00, Wales V France @ 19.45 – a massive day of televised sports.

Many thanks, folks. Thanks to you, dear readers and visitors, this blog is continuing to pick up more hits. It's now hit the 21,000 page views mark. That's a 1,000 views since January 6. Keep the hits coming, folks! Much appreciated. Many thanks. See earlier post - http://sirgarblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/20000-visits-chalked-up.html Meanwhile, the blog has chalked up its first visitor from Syria. The full country by country list (figures from January 6, 2010) is as follows - United Kingdom (GB) 6,085; United States (US) 695; India (IN) 61; Canada (CA) 47; Australia (AU) 46; Germany (DE) 45; Europe (EU) 37; France (FR) 33; Ireland (IE) 33; Belgium (BE) 31; Qatar (QA) 29; Japan (JP) 28; Italy (IT) 24; Malaysia (MY) 17; Netherlands (NL) 15; Taiwan (TW) 14; New Zealand (NZ) 14; Spain (ES) 12; Russian Federation (RU) 12; Pakistan (PK) 11; United Arab Emirates (AE) 11; Philippines (PH) 11; Singapore (SG) 10; Sweden (SE) 8; Denmark (DK) 8; Austria (AT) 7; South Africa (ZA) 7; Poland (P...

The Jenkins family rolled out the welcome mat for the British Confectioners Association conference in Llanelli this week. Pictured are BCA chairman Sandy Milne, centre, with David Jenkins, left, and Russell Jenkins, of Jenkins Bakery of Llanelli. See earlier posts for more on the conference. The conference was featured in the South Wales Evening Post's business supplement on Monday. David Jenkins was also interviewed by the BBC for the evening news bulletins on Tuesday. For more photos, see - http://picasaweb.google.com/robertapvincent/BCAConferenceLlanelli#

Off to British Confectioners Association conference at the Stradey Park Hotel, Llanelli. Let's see what's cooking! See earlier post - http://sirgarblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/uk-bakery-industry-leaders-to-visit.html

Cracking day down at Llanelli beach today. The entertainment? A Hercules transporter plane testing short take offs and short landings at Cefn Sidan beach!

The tills rang out a bumper Christmas week in Llanelli and Carmarthen. After the early December freeze and snow white-out, Carmarthen’s St Catherine's Walk Centre bounced back with a record footfall of 234,000 recorded between December 23rd-30th. This smashed the previous record set on the opening weekend of the centre in April, 2010, of 206,000. Llanelli’s St Elli Centre over the same Christmas week was up 15 per cent on the previous year to 159,000. On Thursday 23rd December there were 36,950 shoppers and on Christmas Eve with a 4pm close of trade time, 32,254 shoppers passed through the electronic counters. Both Llanelli and Carmarthen are bucking the national trend of falling footfall figures recorded by the Experian Footfall regional Index in shopping and retail centres. Nationally, figures are shown to be 20.1 per cent down and Wales 15.4 percent down. Llanelli figures show an increase of 2.3 per cent with as much as 15 per cent increases on some Christmas shopping days. Carm...

Rob Quin, head of the Carmarthenshire Command of the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service, was the guest speaker at a meeting of Llanelli Rotary Club held at the Stradey Park Hotel. Mr Quin, right, was welcomed by President Melanie Carroll-Cliffe. Mr Quin gave the Rotary members a splendid talk on the work of the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service, an organisation which covers some 4,500 square miles of territory, almost two thirds of the landmass of the Wales. A wide variety of risks can be found within the service’s operational area ranging from the petro-chemical industries in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire and Briton Ferry, Neath, to the risks associated with heavily populated conurbations such as Swansea, Port Talbot and Llanelli. The service is made up of a mixture of full-time, day crewed, retained and volunteer stations, which number 57 in all. The current complement of staff, both operational and support, is approximately 1,400. The vote of thanks for an entertaini...

Vandals have damaged Ammanford recreation ground’s popular five-a-side pitch. The pitch was paid for by the Football Association of Wales and FIFA but was installed and is maintained by the council. The nets were targeted by the vandals causing approximately £100 worth of damage. Council grounds maintenance manager Paul Murray said: “Unfortunately, this type of vandalism is not uncommon across Carmarthenshire and these costs add up. We have had to pay out over £15,000 so far this year alone in repairing the damage caused by vandals.” The council’s Street Scene department has to fork out thousands of pounds ever year in replacing equipment and repairing the damage caused by vandals at parks and playgrounds – money that could be better spent elsewhere. Local member for Ammanford Councillor Hugh Evans has condemned this latest attack. He said: “I am very disappointed by the damage caused to this facility. This money could be spent on other essential frontline services. The council cannot ...

In the run-up to the March 3rd Referendum, the Institute of Welsh Politics and WCVA’s Voices for Change Cymru project are running two seminars, in Aberystwyth and Cardiff. These aim to provide information about the referendum and offer people the chance to discuss and debate the potential implications of the referendum for people’s daily lives in key policy areas. The Aberystwyth Seminar will be held at the Department of International Politics on 19th January, from 1730 – 1900. (Light refreshments will be available from 1700). This seminar will feature a short introduction to the Referendum by Voices for Change Cymru, and then discussion of the potential implications for Rural Affairs, the Environment and the Economy. The event will be chaired by Dr Elin Royles; the main speakers will be Huw Thomas (NFU Cymru), Morgan Parry (Chair, Countryside Council for Wales) and Russell Lawson (Federation of Small Businesses). The Cardiff seminar will be held at the Pierhead Building, Cardiff Bay o...

The National Botanic Garden of Wales near Carmarthen has announced a special offer for Garden Members. Every month the garden will be hosting a members’ coffee morning. These will be both informal and fun and will allow garden staff the opportunity to give you some real “behind the scenes” insight into the daily running of the Garden, its triumphs and its tribulations! Some will feature a talk by a guest speaker, others will ply you with a drink and a biscuit before whisking you off for a special guided tour of the Garden. The inaugural event will take place on Friday, 18th February at 11am. It will feature as guest speaker Ivor Stokes, long-standing Curator of Horticulture and a source of countless tales and anecdotes from the Garden and beyond. This will take place in the Stables Gallery, with space for approximately 50 members. This means space will be limited, so if you are a Garden Member and would like to go along, you can book your place by emailing Max Sewter on msewter@gardeno...