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

A Llandybie man has been fined £220 for dumping a large builder’s bag of garden waste next to the recycling banks in Tumble Hall car park. David Mark Williams, aged 35, of Ammanford Road, was also ordered to pay £139 prosecution costs and a victim surcharge of £22. He failed to attend Carmarthen Magistrates Court and was convicted in absence of an offence contrary to Section 87 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The court heard that on April 23 earlier this year the council’s environmental enforcement section received a report that a large builder’s bag of green waste had been dumped next to the recycling banks in Tumble Hall car park. CCTV footage revealed the vehicle involved and enquiries were made with the DVLA to find the registered keeper. The owner told officers one of his employees was the driver at the time of the incident. As it was a small amount of green waste, Williams was offered a fixed penalty notice for littering, which he accepted. However, he failed to pay it,...

Maintenance works will require the temporary closure of   Llandybie Level Crossing for one night in April. Advance notice is being given to allow regular commuters and service users on this route to plan ahead for the necessary detour while the work is carried out. The C2138 road will be closed from a point 40 metres metres north-east of its junction with Campbell Road, for a distance of 25 metres. Centurion Traffic Services will carry out maintenance works from 9pm on Wednesday, April 22, to 5.30am on Thursday, April 23. The alternative route for south-west bound traffic will be to travel in a north-easterly direction along the C2138 to its junction with the C2139. At the junction, turn left and continue in a westerly direction along the C2139 to its junction with the A483. Then turn left and continue in a south-westerly direction to its junction with the C2138 before turning left and contining in a south-easterly direction along the C2138 to return to a point south-west of th...

Opera Star Gary Griffiths will be performing at a special concert at Llandybie Memorial Hall on Saturday (March 22). The exciting baritone from Burry Port has found time in a busy international schedule for a charity concert in aid of Fight for Sight. Gary will be singing alongside Côr Merched Tybie and Côr Meibion Dyffryn Aman. The concert is being organised by Cerith Owens of Llaneli-based Loud Applause Productions, who said: "This represents a great opportunity to hear Gary Griffiths in concert as he is in great demand internationally and his jet-setting all around the world as hi career takes flight. "Gary will be making his Llandybie appearance after completing a spell in The Marriage of Figaro in New Zealand." Gary was the winner of the Welsh Singers competition in 2012 and represented Wales in the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. The Tybie ladies choir, Côr Merched Tybie, will be under the baton of Desna Pemberton. The choir has...

Residents in Llandybie are being urged to have a good clear out and take advantage of a waste and tyre amnesty being held in the village. The council’s waste and recycling section has teamed up with housing services and Tidy Towns for the amnesty which is being held on Wednesday, February 26 between 9am and 1pm at Caecoed. Most household waste can be taken along including unwanted furniture, carpets and mattresses, electrical items such as fridge-freezers and televisions, garden waste and tyres (maximum 10 tyres per household / no tractor or lorry tyres). However, paint, garden chemicals, car batteries, gas bottles, asbestos, construction and trade waste will not be accepted. Residents that dispose of any waste items will also get a free bag of Merlin’s Magic Compost (while stocks last) courtesy of CWM Environmental Ltd. Executive Board Member for Technical Services Cllr Colin Evans said: “We want to encourage people to recycle as much as possible and also reduce for fly-tipping in t...

An innovative new Health and Wellbeing suite opened recently at Llandybie Public Memorial Hall. The Health and Wellbeing suite will provide services for people from Llandybie and the surrounding area and has been funded through the Welsh Government Community Facility and Activity Programme and Carmarthenshire County Council’s County Collaboration Fund. The Hall committee aim to ensure the sustainability of the building by developing a range of local community based health and wellbeing services including: clinical services provided in partnership with Hywel Dda, foot care, community based children and young people’s projects and local community based carers’ support. To help to achieve this they have received funding from RDP Sir Gâr’s Rural Community Inclusion to recruit a Development Worker who will ensure the smooth running of the new building as well as building partnerships to deliver the services. They will facilitate online consultations with specialist care units, reducin...

Cor Merched Tybie will host a charity concert in aid of Glaze Prostate Charity Wales on Friday 19th October at the Memorial Hall Llandybie at 7pm. Tickets on sale by members now.

Essential maintenance works on the A483 at Llandybie are programmed to commence on Tuesday 20th March 2012. The works are being carried out on behalf of the South Wales Trunk Road Agency acting as Agent for the Welsh Government. The main contractor will be Tarmac Limited with Atkins, as the Consulting Engineer, supervising the works. The works comprise of drainage repairs, ironwork replacement, kerbing and footway works and re-surfacing works. Traffic management will be in place to protect the workforce and manage the flow of traffic. Temporary traffic lights will be in operation 24hr,s manually controlled during peak periods to minimize delays to the travelling public. This is a busy section of road and unfortunately, due to the nature of the works, there will be disruption to road users whilst the works are in progress; however, every effort will be made to keep this to a minimum. The works are programmed to be completed by the end of May 2012 subject to weather conditions.

Fuel spillage near Llandybie leads to police investigation. | Dyfed Powys Police | Heddlu Dyfed Powys A fuel spillage which led to traffic disruption and a road closure for a busy trunk road has led police to appeal for witnesses. The spillage happened on Wednesday 8th February on the A483 near to Morgan Marine in Llandybie, Ammanford between 9.30am and 10am.

The owner of the listed Felin Wen mill in Llandybie has been fined for making changes without listed building consent. Nigel John Humphreys was convicted following a trial at Llanelli Magistrates Court yesterday of an offence contrary to section 9 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, namely the removal and destruction of mill machinery from the listed mill Felin Wen, in his ownership, without listed building consent. Mr. Humphreys had claimed the statutory defence allowed under the Act, that he needed to carry out the work for safety reasons and to preserve the building, and in an earlier hearing in November 2009 the magistrates found that the statutory defence had been proved, issuing a not guilty verdict. Following an appeal by Carmarthenshire County Council, the High Court determined that the Justices’ conclusion on the statutory defence was fatally flawed, and ordered the matter to be remitted to the same bench of justices. At the second court case, t...

A Carmarthenshire housing estate is spic and span thanks to local tenants. Families in Llandybie’s Cae Coed and Heol Marlais have taken part in a community clean up. They donned overalls and gloves and armed with litter pickers, they collected 22 bags of rubbish. The event was organised by housing staff at Carmarthenshire County Council along with Tidy Towns and Keep Wales Tidy officers. Tenants of all ages joined forces to clear the area of litter after complaints about the site being used as a dumping ground. Organisers say the event was a big success and has helped to empower tenants to improve their surroundings. The council’s Tenant Participation Officer Janet Griffiths said: “The litter pick was very well supported and many tenants turned out to help. “We want to empower tenants to take responsibility for their local environment. “It has been shown that if a community works together to improve an area, it leads to longer lasting improvements than if the council worked alone. “We ...

A Llandybie pub has had its licence reviewed after two 15-year-old girls were sold alcohol. Carmarthenshire County Council’s licensing committee carried out the review of the premises licence of the Red Cow in Llandeilo Road, Llandybie, yesterday. Police licensing officer Constable Hugh Davies said that police carried out a test purchasing operation at the Red Cow on October 31 last year when two 15-year-old girls were served with bottles of Smirnoff Ice by the designated premises supervisor Paul Melpham. They were not carrying any form of identification and were not questioned about their age or asked to produce ID. Matthew Phipps, for owners SA Brain, said the incident happened after the couple had run the pub for 16 trouble-free years. “It is a blip on an otherwise unblemished record,” he said. The committee decide that the premises licence holder should be warned about selling alcohol to under-18s, that staff should be made aware of the licence conditions and that the designated pr...

Sometime between Friday 23rd January 2010 and Saturday 29th January 2010 someone entered a yard at the Amman Valley Paintball Centre, Kings Road, Llandybie and stole a quantity of Paintballing equipment. Items taken include a small petrol generator, five large black Carbon Dioxide Canisters, 60 small black Carbon Dioxide canisters, a large quantity of green camouflage overalls and a large quantity of black equipment belts. Anyone who witnessed anything suspicious in the area at the time, or has any information relating to this incident are asked to contact Ammanford police station on 101, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.