Latest news with #HelenMorgan
Wales Online
3 days ago
- Business
- Wales Online
Look inside Wales' first Banana Tree restaurant
The beloved southeast Asian kitchen chain Banana Tree is set to spice up Cardiff this summer with a June launch at St David's shopping centre. Located in Mill Lane in The Hayes, Banana Tree introduces various cuisines, offering hearty delights such as Katsu Curry, Beef Rendang, Pad Thai and Gochujang Chicken. The restaurant also has a cocktail bar, and promises to offer an engaging dining environment complete with exciting giveaways, enticing lunch deals, and limitless bowls of food upon opening, which you can read more about here. For the latest restaurant news and reviews, sign up to our food and drink newsletter here . Helen Morgan, centre director of St David's Cardiff, said: "Banana Tree is an excellent addition to our variety of restaurants here at St David's, and the new venue will be an exciting place for guests to dine, offering not just tasty dishes but a truly unique experience." Tom Patrick, marketing director at Banana Tree, added: "We invite Cardiff and beyond to come with us as we explore Southeast Asia. "We believe life is better with big flavours, and nothing says adventure like a Laksa lunch, a weekend Katsu, or a dash of Vietnamese fish sauce in your dinner." The restaurant chain's journey began over 30 years ago with its first restaurant in London, building up a reputation for fiery flavours and warm service, and it has only grown ever since, with locations all around the UK. Fans of fiery taste sensations can look forward to Banana Tree's opening on Monday, June 2. Ahead of that opening however, we got a first look at the exciting restaurant, which you can see below.
South Wales Argus
3 days ago
- Business
- South Wales Argus
JD Sports to open new store at St David's Cardiff in 2026
Other stores set to open at the centre include Swatch, which will have its only standalone store in Wales at the shopping centre. Cardiff St David's centre director Helen Morgan said: "We're pleased to announce more new names and upsized stores at St David's. "It's an exciting time for the centre as we continue to attract in-demand brands and enhance guest experience to maintain our position as a top UK retail destination." Southeast Asian restaurant Banana Tree is also set to open next month.
BBC News
4 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Shropshire MP questions improvements to rural mobile phone coverage
An upgrade to mobile phone coverage on the Shropshire Hills has been welcomed although concerns remain about just how good the improvements are, an MP has Shropshire's Liberal Democrat MP Helen Morgan, who has campaigned for better rural mobile coverage, said she had not noticed "any discernible improvement" from the recent Shared Rural Network (SRN) masts in England have been upgraded to provide 4G coverage on all networks, including in parts of Shropshire."Obviously any improvement is really welcome, but I think the Shared Rural Network of which this rollout is a part hasn't really delivered what it was promised to deliver," Morgan said. The rollout has been led by the government and phone networks with masts that initially only used to connect EE customers and those calling 999 being upgraded to provide coverage for all mobile network said the industry had spent £500m improving signals in places where people could get a signal from one provider but not from others."But I have to say my experience in North Shropshire is that we can't notice any discernible improvement at all and I'm really concerned that the targets that have been set for that rollout weren't stretching enough and haven't really delivered the improvements that we need to see," she said."Certainly in north Shropshire and I would imagine and, although I spend less time there, it's the same in south Shropshire as well."She said she accepted there were planning issues around more masts being installed in the countryside but also criticised the coverage maps that were used to set targets for being inaccurate."So, I think there's a bigger risk that they think everything is rosy," she added."The capacity on those masts isn't good enough for people to connect when they're out and about."As chair of an all-party group on digital connectivity, she said the group would be reporting to the government the issues that they were still finding."The government have listened, I think, to the point about coverage maps, and we're expecting to see coverage maps out soon," she said, adding that she was, however, not hopeful about how much better they would be. Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
JD Sports to open huge two-floor store in the middle of Cardiff
A huge new JD Sports store will be coming to Cardiff's St David's Shopping centre early next year, taking over two floors of the Grand Arcade. The nearly 32,000 square foot store is set to span across two levels in the site that was once home to SportsDirect, and is expected to open in the spring of 2026 - in just under 12 months time. The new store will see the closure of the JD Sports on Queen Street, but will also fill the unit that has been empty since SportsDirect left in February 2024. The news of JD Sports coming to St David's was first posted on TikTok and follows the news that beauty giant Sephora will also open a store in the shopping centre. Read more about that here. READ MORE: The derelict 'pink palace' Welsh motel that's been an eyesore for almost two decades READ MORE: Emotional Craig Bellamy in 'heartbreaking' reaction to Liverpool trophy parade horror A spokesperson for St David's Shopping Centre said: "Sports and fashion retailer JD will open a new 31,936 square foot store at the city shopping destination in spring 2026. Never miss a Cardiff story by signing up to our daily newsletter here "Relocating from its current spot on Cardiff's Queen Street, the new JD store at St David's is set to be bigger and better at its new prime position on the lower level of the Grand Arcade; close to Size and LEGO. The spokesperson also confirmed a host of other exciting changes at the shopping centre including the return of watchmaker Swatch and some other new names. "St David's has also confirmed that iconic Swiss watchmaker Swatch will return to the city this summer," they said. "Part of the original line-up at the launch of the expanded St David's in 2009, Swatch will open in the lower level of the centre's Grand Arcade, next to Swarovski and opposite Menkind. "The brand's new boutique will showcase its latest collections of watches and iconic collaborations in what will be its only standalone store in Wales. "The latest announcement follows the relocation of several of the shopping centre's popular brands, opening new, upsized new stores. "Sustainable charity store Ethical Boutique has upsized to a new unit in the Cathedral Walk mall selling pre-loved clothing and hosting its speciality community coffee stand while Welsh streetwear indie Clothing Culture is set to move to a new store in the St David's Way mall. "In addition, outdoor clothing and equipment brand Trespass has opened a new larger store in the Cathedral Walk mall, lifestyle fashion store Damaged Society has also relocated to a larger space near Clarks, while accessories destination Accessorize has refurbished its store with a fresh new look. "Looking forward, southeast Asian restaurant Banana Tree and hot chocolate connoisseur Knoops are set to open at St David's next month with beauty giant Sephora launching this autumn." Helen Morgan, Centre Director of St David's Cardiff, added: 'We're pleased to announce more new names and upsized stores at St David's. It's an exciting time for the centre as we continue to attract in-demand brands and enhance guest experience to maintain our position as a top UK retail destination.' For more details on St David's Cardiff including store listings, opening hours, news, and how to join PLUS+, its free members reward programme, visit
The Guardian
26-05-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Almost a quarter of elective operations in England cancelled at last minute
Almost a quarter of elective operations in NHS hospitals in England last year were cancelled at the last minute and took longer than the required 28 days to rearrange, figures show. They also reveal that the number of cancellations breaching the 28-day standard for a new date has more than doubled within a decade, from 9,000 in 2015-16 to 19,400 in 2024-25. The figures obtained by the House of Commons library on behalf of the Liberal Democrats show that a decade ago only 7% of cancelled elective operations were not rearranged within 28 days. Last year's total of 19,400 cancellations not rearranged in time represents 23% of the 85,400 operations due to take place. This figure was also up by 1,500 from the previous year – an increase of 8%. The NHS trust with the highest number of breaches that had not experienced a recent merger was University Hospitals of Leicester, with 942, followed by Surrey and Sussex healthcare, with 710. Of the 108 English NHS trusts that reported full data for each year since 2015-16, 73 had a rise in the number of breaches. Helen Morgan, the Lib Dem health and social care spokesperson, said the figures showed patients were being abandoned. She said: 'Patients are being left in the lurch, forced to wait in pain and distress for potentially life-altering operations. Each of these delays represents an extra month that someone's misery is prolonged.' Morgan also accused the Labour government of failing to tackle the impact of Conservative cuts to the NHS. 'This is the devastating legacy of the Conservatives' neglect of this NHS, but the Labour government is proving aimless in how to turn this around with ill-thought-through reforms and kicking vital projects into the long grass. 'This embrace of dither and delay on building new hospitals or fixing the crisis in social care, so crucial to fixing the underlying problem in the health service, is failing patients. It is time ministers realised this and showed real ambition in ending these unacceptable delays and getting patients the care they deserve.' Separately, the DHSC announced a rollout of radiotherapy machines in 28 hospitals from August that it said would mean 4,500 cancer patients would get faster treatment. The new linear accelerator machines, part of a £70m plan to improve cancer care, could lead to a reduction in required rounds of radiotherapy and reach cancers in difficult-to-treat areas such as the chest, abdomen and pelvis. The DHSC estimates the new machines will save up to 13,000 appointments currently lost to equipment breakdown. It said that by March 2027 the machines will help deliver an extra 27,500 treatments a year. Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Prof Pat Price, chair of Radiotherapy UK, said the new machines were welcome but insufficient. 'The brutal truth is this will only replace half of the out of date machines in the NHS,' she said. 'And still, six in 10 cancer patients are waiting too long for their radiotherapy treatment. Without long-term investment in radiotherapy, this is a sticking plaster on a cancer service in crisis.' She added: 'Massive waits for cancer treatment have become the rotten routine due to a lack of investment in kit and people. Unless ministers back this with the proper long-term investment called for in the spending review and the cancer plan, more patients will be left waiting, and many will die who don't need to.' Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said: 'By reducing the number of hospital visits required and preventing cancelled appointments, these state-of-the-art radiotherapy machines free up capacity so that thousands more patients are treated on time. 'As a cancer survivor, I know just how important timely treatment is. These machines are part of the investment and modernisation that will cut waiting times for patients, through our plan for change.' A Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spokesperson said: 'Years of underinvestment in the NHS has left it with outdated, creaking machinery that breaks down and causes thousands of cancelled appointments. 'That's why we are announcing £70m investment in new radiotherapy machines, using cutting-edge equipment to save 13,000 cancelled appointments a year, cut waiting times for treatment, and modernise the health service. While there is more to do, our plan for change has put the NHS on the road to recovery.' NHS England was approached for comment.
