Latest news with #Iwan
The Courier
16-05-2025
- Sport
- The Courier
Jeanfield Swifts project chief lifts lid on £2.5m field of dreams
Jeanfield Swifts are sharing plans for one of the biggest developments in the Perth side's 117-year history. The community football club is working on a £2.5 million revamp of its Riverside Stadium. The Riverside25 project will create two all-weather pitches at North Muirton. New lighting will allow play to continue after dark and through the winter. And the changing facilities will be upgraded to the standard its 400-plus players deserve. All being well, Riverside25 could be completed by next summer. Project spokesman Iwan Davies says it's an exciting time for Perth's other football club – and its North Muirton neighbours. 'The community aspect is everything to us,' he told The Courier when we visited Riverside Stadium this week. 'We see football as the vehicle that encourages people to be active, to be healthy, to be sociable. 'Ninety minutes on a Saturday is great. Everybody has a laugh. Everybody gets excited. But it's all the stuff that goes on in the rest of the week that brings the real value.' It's nearly 20 years since Jeanfield Swifts FC relocated to Riverside Stadium from their old ground at Simpson Park. In that time the first team has moved up from junior leagues to the East of Scotland League Premier Division. And the community side of the club has grown beyond all recognition. It now boasts 25 teams, with 450 regular players ranging in age from six to their sixties. There are after-school and holiday clubs, a team of asylum seekers, and a European Cup-winning squad of women's walking footballers. But the Riverside Stadium's facilities have not kept pace with demand. The grass pitch is only suitable for use by the first team. And so Jeanfield Swifts community players are taking up training space at other Perth sports and leisure facilities. 'At the moment we're booking out Bertha Park for a third of the week,' said Iwan. 'We want more kids and adults playing football right across Perth. 'If we can relieve the pressure at other places that will maybe help other clubs in the area to come on the same journey as us.' Under the plans, the first team's grass pitch will be upgraded to all-weather, meaning it can be used by other groups too. A new permanent all-weather pitch will be constructed on the greenspace next to the stadium. This community pitch won't take bookings between 3.30pm and 5pm each day. The idea is to leave it free for anyone who wants to come and have a kickabout with pals on the way home from school or work. Club bosses are consulting with locals before submitting a planning application to Perth and Kinross Council. Two public meetings have been held, and Iwan says the feedback has been helpful. He says the club is determined to work with neighbours around any issues such as noise, parking and lighting. And together, he says they can make Jeanfield Swifts the community club it aspires to be. 'The figures say there's deprivation in Muirton,' he said. 'But there's also a lot of pride and a lot of people working hard to make things better for everyone. 'We want to be a part of that, to make sure we're connecting with the community and all working towards that same goal.' Perth and Kinross Council has lent its backing to the plans with a £100,000 pledge in this year's budget. The club is also in discussions with the SFA and local funding sources.
BBC News
25-03-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Builth Wells: Welsh language school plans get go-ahead
Plans to establish a Welsh-medium only school have been approved amid concerns that Welsh-language pupils at mixed language schools are being let councillors approved the plan after a report concluded that establishing the school at the Builth Wells campus of Ysgol Calon Cymru, a bilingual secondary comprehensive, would improve secondary school provision in noted there were "significant concerns about the level of provision available to Welsh-medium learners in the area".Under the plans, the campus would be Welsh language only from 2029, with pupils who learn in English moving to the school's redeveloped Llandrindod Wells campus eight miles away. Over decades many pupils have travelled out of Powys to go to Welsh schools and the report to the council's cabinet said the range of subjects available in Welsh "varies significantly" and the curriculum offer was "increasingly limited" for Welsh Price from Llanwrtyd Wells used to have an 80-mile (128 km) round trip to go to a Welsh school, Ysgol Maes yr Yrfa in Carmarthenshire, because of the lack of a Welsh-medium secondary school in south Powys."Sadly, 37 years to this day, we are still waiting for a Welsh-medium high school in Brecon and Radnor," Iwan said. He said his parents drove him to and from school every day as "both of them are Welsh speaking and they wanted us to have the opportunity to study through the medium of Welsh".Iwan now has two children and he welcomed the decision, saying the school - which would cater for pupils from primary school age up to Year 9 - would "give them more benefits, being fluent in both languages". But the prospect of sending children from Builth Wells to Llandrindod to learn in English "makes no sense" according to Rhys Field, a butcher in the town."Nobody speaks Welsh around here anymore, nobody is calling for a new Welsh school," he added."And what about the additional costs of buses to take kids to Llandrindod and back?"The council's Plaid Cymru group leader Elwyn Vaughan said there had been "a desire for years to ensure Welsh-medium education provision in this part of Powys".He added that this would mean fewer children having to travel vast distances to get their education in Welsh out of the county.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
BBC Stacey Solomon Sort Your Life Out expert hails cleaning hack he was 'desperate' to try
Stacey Solomon is back on TV tonight with the BBC's Sort Your Life Out, once again featuring cleaning guru Iwan Carrington teaching viewers how to maximise savings while cleaning. He recently shared an essential tip for everyone looking to save money during this cost of living crisis. It concerns the mattress, one of the most difficult to clean and, unfortunately, one of the easiest to stain places, often leading to the costly decision to replace it entirely. Read more: Meghan Markle breaks silence over 'mistakes' in calamitous As Ever rebrand However, Iwan wants people to keep their expensive furniture for longer, in turn saving them money in the long run, and to do this, he has found a way to keep those stains at bay with kit you should have at home. The hack in question is admittedly one he found online and was "desperate to try, and this is to remove stains from mattresses,' Iwan said speaking to the camera. All you will need is bicarbonate of soda, laundry detergent, and an iron. Iwan begins by mixing toothpaste, a laundry detergent pod and half a cup of warm water together, along with a spoonful of bicarbonate soda. He mixes the elements in a bowl until it is a pasty substance, before soaking a cloth in it and wrapping it around a switched off iron. 'We're just going to iron this over the stain and watch it disappear," he confidently explains. It isn't long until the stain does indeed start to disappear, as he continues: 'It is just disappearing before our eyes. Can you believe what you are seeing? It's gone.' Stacey and the Sort Your Life Out team are heading to East Sussex tonight to transform the Jamieson's home which has been in their family for 40 years. They will strip every item from the converted bungalow and display them all in a warehouse where they discover 106 animal ornaments, 87 board games and over 1,000 pieces of china. As they sort through the decades of keepsakes, mum Nadine will reflect on her childhood and the challenges of raising her daughter.s
