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

A Gwendraeth Valley school is raising awareness on the amount of good food that is needlessly thrown in the bin. Ysgol Y Castell in Kidwelly has been carrying out a project on food waste as part of its work under the Eco Schools programme. Figures show that in Wales we throw away a staggering 410,000 tonnes of food and drink each year. Not only is it bad for the environment but it is bad for the pocket too. In a normal week, a family of four throws away around £12 worth of perfectly good food that could have been eaten. With support from Carmarthenshire County Council and as part of the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, staff and pupils at Ysgol Y Castell have been looking at how they can reduce their food waste both in school and at home. Children school were shocked to hear how much food is bought and then wasted. They decided to write letters to send home to parents with tips on what they could do to reduce their food waste including the importance of carefully planning shopping a...

Alison Brant is a finance support assistant with QualitySolicitors Redkite, the biggest law firm in West Wales, who have seven offices in the area, including one in Carmarthen. Here is her Holiday Heaven and Hell (published in the South Wales Evening Post today). My worst holiday My worst holiday was back in the dim and distant past (thank goodness!). I hadn’t been married long and my (now ‘ex’) husband’s family always went to Barmouth in Mid Wales for their holidays because that was where all the ‘Brummies’ from Birmingham went to roost for their summer break. At that time we lived in Burnley so we had travelled down to Walsall on the Friday night ready to set off all together the next morning. (My husband’s sister, brother-in-law and two children always came with us, too) Overnight our car was broken into and our suitcases were stolen. Once in Barmouth, true to form, the weather was atrocious all week and to cap it all my ‘ex’ picked up a stomach bug. So there I was, trappe...

It’s caps off to five of Carmarthenshire County Council’s Building Cadets who have graduated after three years on one of the UK’s most innovative training schemes. Gareth Morris, Andrew Jones, Darren Conway, Wayne Jones and Mathew Keenan donned their caps and gowns to celebrate their achievements. The Cadets have each gained a foundation degree in Construction Science and Management, with Mathew graduating with honours. The Building Cadetship scheme is a tri-partnership project run by the council’s Property Services division, Coleg Sir Gâr and the Carmarthenshire Construction Training Association Ltd (CCTAL) – collectively known as Constructing Carmarthenshire Together. The partnership believes it was the first to introduce the scheme to the UK from Australia. The scheme offers a hands-on approach to the learning experience for higher-level learners opting for professional careers in the building industry. The Cadets worked towards a bespoke foundation degree whilst also benefitti...

The Lewis Partnership architects of Llanelli were featured in a full page business spotlight in the Llanelli Star newspaper. The spotlight featured all the latest news about the company. Here is a copy of the page -  Llanelli Star full page feature Here is a link to the full-size pdf of the page - Full page pdf Llanelli Star feature

Carmarthenshire Planning Problems and more : As I have reported countless times on this blog, Carmarthenshire Council has a real problem dealing with negative stories in the local press. I'm sure the same goes for the national press too but they're the bigger boys and will not succumb so easily to threats. I raised this issue only the other day (The question of editorial control again). The Western Mail reports on the latest attempt at 'blackmail' against one of our smaller local papers, the South Wales Guardian. More on Caebrwyn blog . . .

St Michael’s private and independent school is expanding to build a new boarding house wing. And the architect in charge of the project is former pupil Philip Lewis, managing director of the Lewis Partnership Ltd, of Llanelli. The first stage of the plan is for a 40-bed boarding house and new kitchen and dining facilities for the school. Mr Lewis said: “I have fond memories of being a pupil at ‘St Mike’s’, so being able to play a significant role in its future development is a very proud moment for me. “The team here at the Lewis Partnership has been working very closely with St Michael’s to produce a design which passes that test with the leadership team at the school. “It is great to see the builders moving in on site and work progressing at some speed.” Weblink - http://www.stmikes.co.uk/ http://www.lewispartnership.co.uk/st-michaels-school-llanelli-new-boarding-house/

Borthlas: More to the olympics than gold The opinion poll finding that most people in Wales think that the Olympics will be of no benefit to Wales is hardly a surprise. It would be a bit like an opinion poll finding that the majority of people believe the world to be round. Whilst there’s always a minority whose beliefs fly in the face of the objective evidence, most of us are willing to believe that which is factually evidenced. More interesting though would have been the supplementary question which appears not to have been asked, and that is whether the UK should still be staging the Games regardless of the question of economic benefit.  There is a sort of assumption that ‘no benefit’ leads automatically to ‘don’t do’.  That doesn’t only apply to the Games, of course; but I’d challenge the assumption. More on the Borthlas blog  . . .