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South Wales Guardian
2 days ago
- Business
- South Wales Guardian
Two traditional Llangadog barns set to become homes
The barns, located approximately 1.3km east of Llangadog, Carmarthenshire, were deemed unsuitable for modern agricultural use but remain in good structural condition. The barns, owned by Mr and Mrs Hughes and family since 2021/2022, are part of a 4.64-acre site that includes additional agricultural land. The planning application, submitted by Cynllunio RW Planning Ltd, outlines the conversion of the barns into two residential dwellings, complete with associated amenity space, parking, and access improvements. The proposal includes retaining and improving the existing western access, while the central access will be blocked off. The planning statement indicates that the barns are free from major structural issues, with a structural report by Jake Smith Engineering confirming only minor repairs are necessary. A bat survey has also been conducted, ensuring the conversion adheres to ecological considerations. Design specifics for the barns have been laid out, with Barn 1 set to be transformed into a 165 square metre, three-bedroom dwelling, requiring only minor exterior changes, while Barn 2 will be a similarly scaled dwelling. The planning application is supported by a marketing report indicating that the barns have been viewed 32 times, with 16 offers made, all for residential reuse and not for business purposes. The conversion costs are argued to exceed affordable housing values, justifying an affordability exemption. The planning application also includes detailed ecological and green infrastructure considerations. An ecological survey highlights the inclusion of mitigation measures for bats, barn owls, and small birds, while no hedgerows or trees will be removed. A new mixed-species hedgerow is proposed, with the mitigation measures intended to achieve a biodiversity net gain. The planning application also addresses highways concerns, detailing plans to improve the western access for shared use, while closing the central access point. Visibility splays and access are said to be policy-compliant. Drainage and phosphate neutrality are also considered, with the proposal of a package treatment plant and a drainage field. All surface water is set to be managed via SuDS principles. The planning statement concludes by requesting planning permission, asserting full compliance with Policy H5 and associated local development plan and national guidance. The planning statement highlights previous approval of similar open-market conversions by the authority. However, the planning statement does not include a decision notice or approval date. Residents and interested parties are encouraged to review the full planning application on the Carmarthenshire Council planning portal.
Wales Online
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Wales Online
Reform UK gets first Carmarthenshire councillor after huge by-election win
Reform UK gets first Carmarthenshire councillor after huge by-election win 'All I kept hearing was that people felt they weren't being listened to', said Michelle Beer, Carmarthenshire Council's newest councillor Michelle Beer (centre), who is Reform UK's first county councillor in Carmarthenshire (Image: courtesy of Michelle Beer ) Reform UK has planted a flag in south west Wales after candidate Michelle Beer comfortably won a council by-election in Carmarthenshire. She will represent Llanelli's Lliedi ward after comfortably securing first place out of eight candidates. She polled 568 votes, while Labour's Andrew Bragoli came second with 312 votes. Councillor Beer will be the first Reform UK county councillor in Carmarthenshire and neighbouring Swansea, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion. The by-election was held following the death of the unaffiliated Independent Lliedi councillor Anthony Leyshon. Councillor Beer said the result hadn't been too much of a surprise although she stressed she hadn't been complacent. "I knew the support for Reform in that area had been very strong," she said. "We did face a lot of opposition, and we took nothing for granted." Stay informed on Carms news by signing up to our newsletter here The 47-year-old said she hadn't stood for public office before but had supported her husband, Gareth, also of Reform UK, who came second in the Llanelli seat in last year's general election. She said: "The opportunity came up and members said to me, 'Michelle, you would be the ideal candidate.' I love working with people and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to people. "We started door-knocking quite early. All I kept hearing was that people felt they weren't being listened to, and not enough was being done. They felt they had seen a deterioration. We formed our messages from there." She said this feeling of not being listened was directed at national and local politicians. Asked what she knew about how county councils were run, she said she had an idea and expected to get up to speed quickly. She added that she'd had a stint working for a district council in New Zealand when she and her husband lived there. Asked if she felt council tax was too high in Carmarthenshire, she said: "It can't keep going up. I feel there is a lot of wastage. You can look for better value in procurement for example, just like in business." She added that she did not advocate services being cut. Llanelli town centre (Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne ) Reform UK had a lot of success in English council elections at the beginning of May, and leader Nigel Farage suggested that council diversity, equity and inclusion officers in any Reform UK-run authorities should look for another job. Was this a message that councillor Beer sought to bring to Carmarthenshire? "Not as a lone (Reform) councillor," she said. "But maybe something looking ahead to 2027 (the next council elections)." She said her priority was to respond to the needs of Lliedi residents, whether that concerns fixing potholes or ensuring bins were collected. Councillor Beer grew up in Llanelli where her parents, who had moved to the area from Hong Kong, ran a takeaway restaurant. After college she had different jobs, including running a marketing business. Later she attended and graduated from a Bible school, and then worked supporting her husband's business. The couple have four children - two boys and two girls. Councillor Beer lives in Kidwelly, around eight miles west of Llanelli. Asked if that had given her cause for any concern, given that she had been aiming to win a Llanelli seat, she said: "I travel to Llanelli almost every day, I know it very well. I would class it as my home town. I consider myself a Llanelli lass." Second-placed Mr Bragoli, a Llanelli town councillor, said he wished councillor Beer good luck. "She won, and I hope she sticks to her promises," said the Labour candidate. "I wasn't even a close second. If it wasn't for my local popularity and my experience being a union rep at Trostre (steelworks) I think it could have been worse." Asked for his opinion on why he thought that was the case, Mr Bragoli said the UK Labour Government's decision last year to means-test the winter fuel allowance for pensioners was, in his view, a "killer", politically-speaking. Last week, following mounting political pressure, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer signalled a change in the threshold to allow more pensioners to qualify for the payment of up to £300. Mr Bragoli credited Sir Keir for being "a bigger man" in changing direction but said the damage had been done. He said if the Lliedi by-election had happened 12 months ago he reckoned he would have been "a shoo-in". Carmarthenshire Council is run by a Plaid Cymru-Independent coalition. Lliedi is represented by two councillors, unaffiliated Independent Cllr Rob James and now Cllr Beer. The result of the May 29 by-election was: Article continues below Michelle May Beer - Reform UK - 568 Andrew Bargoli - Welsh Labour - 312 Sharon Burdess - Independent - 116 Jonathan Edward Burree - Welsh Liberal Democrats - 41 Wayne Erasmus - Gwlad, Wales Can Be Better – 9 Alison Leyshon - Independent - 86 Taylor Reynolds - Plaid Cymru, The Party of Wales - 107 Richard Williams - Welsh Conservative Party Candidate – 93 The turnout was 33.36%.
Wales Online
26-05-2025
- Wales Online
Police warning to parents after youths seen climbing into unstable buildings
Police warning to parents after youths seen climbing into unstable buildings Police have warned that derelict buildings are often a magnet for anti-social behaviour and low-level crime as they attract young people to enter illegally There have been multiple reports of anti-social behaviour involving youths in a part of Llanelli (Image: Dyfed-Powys Police ) Police in a Welsh town are imploring parents to warn their children about the dangers of derelict buildings after a spate of anti-social behaviour. Dyfed-Powys Police has issued the appeal at the start of the half-term school holidays and following 'multiple reports of youths climbing into derelict buildings' in the Tyisha area of Llanelli. Officers have said the buildings are 'often linked to alcohol use, drug taking, criminal damage and arson' and 'pose a massive public risk to anyone who can get inside, which can put emergency workers including fire fighters, in potential danger'. Some of the derelict buildings can be in total disrepair with rotten or missing floorboards, unstable staircases, asbestos and other hidden hazards, they warn. Stay informed on Carms news by signing up to our newsletter here . Tyisha was previously described as one of the worst places to live in Wales, but Carmarthenshire Council, local councillors and residents have been working hard in recent years to improve the area. You can read much more about that here. With the half-term break now under way, a spokesperson for Dyfed-Powys Police said: 'Llanelli PCSO's have been working closely with Mid and West Wales Fire Service and the Transforming Tyisha Team. Article continues below "This comes after multiple reports of youths climbing into derelict buildings which are often a magnet for Anti-Social Behaviour and low-level crime as they attract young people to enter illegally. "If you need to report a new incident or crime, please get in touch either online, by e-mailing : 101@ or by calling 101."
Wales Online
02-05-2025
- Health
- Wales Online
Carers doing in their 70s having to take on more work than NHS staff
Carers doing in their 70s having to take on more work than NHS staff It's a battle trying to meet demand for care across the UK Domiciliary carers are vital in helping to keep mainly elderly, frail people living independently at home (Image: Getty Images ) Domiciliary carers employed by Carmarthenshire Council do "substantially" more visits on their daily rounds than equivalent staff in the NHS - and some of them are in their 70s, a director said. Jake Morgan paid tribute to the authority's in-house carers, who visited mainly elderly, frail people in their homes and helped get them out of bed, washed, fed and in some cases ensuring they took their medicine. Mr Morgan, director of the council's community services, said it was tough and demanding work. "We've got some amazing people," he said. Several of the carers received their state pension, he said, adding: "We've got a few in our 70s." Stay informed on Carms news by signing up to our newsletter here Addressing the council's health and social services scrutiny committee, Mr Morgan said the authority paid "well above the market rate" in domiciliary care terms, meaning its carers earned the equivalent as an NHS healthcare assistant. But, comparing the two roles, he said domiciliary carers did substantially more visits. Mr Morgan didn't say what the wage was for in-house domiciliary carers but said it was above the Real Living Wage and that he felt it was fair, although in his view their role was "still inherently undervalued". He said as someone who'd witnessed what they did first-hand he'd gained a deep level of respect. Article continues below There are significant recruitment issues across the care sector in the UK, leading to demand exceeding supply. The private and independent sector generally provide more domiciliary care than councils - in Carmarthenshire the split is 71% to 29% and the council's share has been falling despite an ambition to get it to 50-50 over the next year. Mr Morgan said the private sector was able to respond more flexibly, for example taking on staff when short-term Government funding became available. And it was often councils, he said, which took on clients who needed more complex home care or who lived in dispersed rural areas, making daily rounds less efficient than ones in towns. He also said a consistent feature of the private sector was not paying domiciliary care staff for the first half-day or full day of sickness. "Rightly or wrongly that means they have much lower sickness levels," he said. The council's different approach to this was "a good thing", he said, but it helped explain in-house domiciliary carer sickness levels of 6% to 8%. The committee heard that the council was constantly recruiting, partly via its Care Academi, which provides home care, residential care and social care training for newcomers. There are around 1,000 Carmarthenshire residents who receive 11,700 hours of domiciliary care per week at present, helping them stay independent. A big success is that the number of people waiting to have domiciliary care has fallen sharply along with the number of hours that are spent waiting for that care. This has been achieved partly by short-term Welsh Government funding aimed at discharging clinically well patients from hospital more quickly, and partly by commissioning more care providers. Mr Morgan said that particular pot of Welsh Government funding had ended, and that although ministers had announced other additional funding council directors were still chasing the details about how it could be spent. "We've got an awful lot of plans but we just can't press the button," he said. Article continues below
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
A rural school is being placed in special measures
A rural school with around 20 pupils is being placed in special measures, although several aspects of the way it's run were praised. Inspectors from Welsh Government education body Estyn visited Ysgol y Fro, Carmarthenshire, and picked up a safeguarding issue and found fault with the governing body. They also want to raise teachers' expectations to challenge pupils to achieve the best of their ability. Their report made five recommendations, and said Her Majesty's chief inspector was of the opinion that special measures were required. Carmarthenshire Council said it and the school accepted the findings. Stay informed on Carms news by signing up to our newsletter here READ MORE: Shoppers face threat of £100 fines as ANPR cameras go up at popular Welsh retail park from today READ MORE: Man dies in incident that closed road and caused power cut The Estyn report said the Welsh-medium school, in Llangynderyn, south-east of Carmarthen, has 21 pupils on its roll, 15 of statutory school age. It said school leadership has been unstable for a long time and that the acting headteacher - appointed last September - provided a "homely and Welsh ethos" for pupils, who learned and played happily together, and an inclusive environment. The report said a majority of pupils made steady progress but that on the whole teachers' expectations of what they could achieve were not always high enough. Pupils, it said, were not challenged to achieve work of the standard expected of them and activities did not align with their age and stage of development consistently enough. Inspectors said teachers did have consistent standards regarding pupil behaviour and that many pupils had good attitudes to learning. A curriculum is being planned, said the report, to support pupil progression with stimulating activities. But, overall, learners did not develop their writing skills effectively. The governing body was commended for supporting the acting headteacher but its members, said the report, did "not undertake their duties purposefully enough, for example in working with leaders to monitor and evaluate teaching and learning". Inspectors said governors did not manage funding of the school, which a separate council report has estimated could be around £100,000 in deficit, appropriately. However, many other schools in Carmarthenshire are also in the red and several don't have permanent headteachers. Estyn's five recommendations were to address the safeguarding issue identified, ensure consistent and sustained leadership, improve self-evaluation and planning for improvement procedures to strengthen provision and raise standards, plan provision that ensures the range and breadth in all areas of learning to support pupils to make progress in their skills, and raise teachers' expectations to challenge pupils to achieve to the best of their ability. A spokesman for the council said on its and the school's behalf: "The local authority accepts the findings of the inspection and is supporting the school with its post-inspection action plan." Estyn will monitor progress roughly every four to six months.
