Earlier this month the Hendy Plaid Cymru candidate distributed a news letter around the ward stating that recently the county council had stated that it had no itention on modernising Hendy School, this statement was factually incorrect

 

And reading his news letter it seems that he wants the school to be knocked down and rebuilt, as he is leading a campaign to see a new school to be built on the current site.

 

 

 

 

 

The county council had adopted a 21st century business plan to modernise schools and Hendy is on the Plan to be retained and modernised/extended

 

The factual evidence to prove this statement can be found on the county council web site, I couldn't find any evidence where the county has changed its stance by taking Hendy School out of the plan?

http://online.carmarthenshire.gov.uk/agendas/eng/COCO20101208/index.asp (see item five)

http://online.carmarthenshire.gov.uk/agendas/eng/EXEB20101129/REP05_03.HTM appendix two

 

The same person also sent a letter to the Llanelli Star which also stated more or less the same comments that the county has no plans to deal with substandard schools like Hendy

 

 

http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/School-need-aid/story-14322535-detail/story.html

School is in need of aid

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Llanelli Star

THE Welsh Assembly Government's provision of additional funds for the school modernisation programme is good news for Carmarthenshire.

However, I feel a deep sense of disappointment that the council has no plans to deal with the many old, substandard buildings such as Hendy Primary School, which are still in use today. These are no longer fit for purpose and provide poor environments for learning. It seems that the division between the 'haves' and 'have nots' is set to continue for many years to come.

Hendy Primary School will be 100 years old in a few weeks time. I attended the school and so did my children. The prospect of my grandchildren (yet to be born) being educated in this building in years to come is becoming an increasingly bleak probability.

County councillor and executive member for education, Gwynne Wooldridge commented after the award of WAG funds: "This funding means that thousands more will have access to first class facilities, offering fantastic opportunities to our young pupils which will stand them in good stead for the rest of their lives."

These words have a hollow ring to them when our children face a future being taught in out-of-date, rundown and substandard buildings.

I am mystified as to how the county council decides on its priorities for school building improvements. Why, in a falling rolls situation, are relatively modern secondary school buildings at Strade, Coedcae and St John Lloyd (a recently built school) being upgraded? Why were two perfectly adequate secondary schools in Carmarthen town — built in the 1950s and 1960s — demolished and a new £28 million school built to replace them at a time when so many of our primary schools were in such a parlous state? Would it not be more sensible to replace and improve substandard primary buildings before proceeding with the expensive and unpopular reorganisation of secondary education in the Gwendraeth Valley?

As a governor and former pupil of Hendy school and a lifelong resident in the village, I feel that it is vital that the voices of local people are listened to and that action is taken as a matter of urgency to give our children a decent environment for their education.

Gareth Beynon Thomas

Hendy

 

 

 

After reading this letter I responded with a response to put the record straight which was printed in this weeks Star

 

 

http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/Schools-improved/story-15028233-detail/story.html

Schools will be improved

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Llanelli Star

AS the elected county councillor for Hendy I feel compelled to respond to the letter written by Gareth Beynon Thomas, published in the Llanelli Star on January 4.

When he states that "the council has no plans to deal with the many old substandard (school) buildings, such as Hendy Primary School", he is factually wrong. In December 2010, the county council adopted its new 21st-Century Schools Programme as its updated strategy to transform and modernise the entire schools estate across Carmarthenshire.

This programme clearly includes a project to extend and modernise the premises of Ysgol Yr Hendy, as it does for every other school in the county that is to be retained for the long-term. The timing of the improvements will depend upon the availability of grant funding from UK Government via the Welsh Assembly, but the county council is already committed to undertaking improvement works at Ysgol Yr Hendy as soon as funding is made available.

Mr Beynon Thomas declares that he is "mystified" that the county council is planning to invest in the upgrading of the facilities at Ysgol y Strade and other secondary schools in Llanelli, which he describes as being "in a falling rolls situation".

I am given to understand that Councillor Beynon Thomas is a governor at Ysgol y Strade and so I would expect him to know that the pupil population at this school is actually increasing and not decreasing. I wonder how the governing body, staff, parents and pupils of Ysgol y Strade feel to see one of their own governors publicly opposing the development of their school.

For my own part I am proud of the part that I have played in securing a commitment to improve facilities for Ysgol Yr Hendy and I fully support the county council's plans to invest in extending and improving facilities at Ysgol y Strade to meet increasing demand for Welsh-medium secondary education, including for the children of Hendy who currently attend this school or wish to do so in the future.

Stephen Lloyd-Janes

County councillor for Hendy

 

 

 

 

 

Youth Award

 

The closing date of the Llanedi Community Councils Youth award to recognise and celebrate the achievements of young people under the age of 25 from the Communities it represents is fastly approaching, the nominees are considered by the Community Council and the winner is invited to the Annual Chairmans Dinner,

 

Nominees need to live or have originated and have family connections to residents living in the Llanedi Community area which are the villages of Tycroes, Llanedi, Fforest and Hendy.

 

A cash prize and a personal plaque is awarded annually at the dinner for outstanding achievements in one or more of a wide range of activities in a wide range of disciplines such as education, training or occupation, the creative and performing arts, sport, overcoming personal difficulties, helping other people and improving the environment.

 

This will be the second year that the award will be on offer details of how to apply can be found on the Llanedi Community Council Web Site, last years winner was Jac Jones from Clos Glyn Dwr Hendy Last years nominees who were runners up may still qualify, if they are still under 26 and can be rentered again by giving a short update of any new achievements they may have achieved in the last year,

 

If you know of anyone who deserves the award, please contact the Clerk to the Community Council at 01554 751059 for further details of how to make a nomination.

 

 

Pontarddulais and Hendy Carnival Committee

 

The next meeting of the carnival committee will be the the first of the year and will commence at 7pm in Pontarddulais Rugby Club Tuesday 31st January any new volunteers would be welcomed

 

Plaid Cymru chooses council candidate

 

Gareth Beynon Thomas was the unanimous and popular choice of Hendy Plaid Cymru members when they selected their candidate for the County Council elections to be held in May. Gareth has deep roots in the village and has been involved in the life of the community over many years. He is a long-serving governor of Hendy school and is an active member of the Community Council, having been its Chair in 2010.

 

My appologies in advance for the quite period in my blog entries this week and for the period to come

 

Last week I spent two days away with my company on our SD group forum, which happens once a quarterm, where we talk about out of store issues, health and safety, policy changes and wage briefings etc

And then my gran on my father's side passed away at a grand old age of 96

 

She hadn't been 100% over the last two or three years, where she was suffering with epileptic  fits and siezures.

The lose of a member of family comes as a shock no matter what age or circumstances and I won't be blogging for a while

 

 

County Council Budgets get tough

 

With the economic down turn and funding from central government and the Assembly being cut things have started to get tough

Officers produced a report to the Executive Board of what they as officers felt woukd be the way to find the neccessary efficiency savings

 

This report had lots of items across every department and with the cuts the forcasted rate rise for this year was going to be 4%, the executive board made up of 6 Independents and 3 Labour weren't comfortable with the report and suggested they would prefer to see a target closer to 2% and they forwarded the budget report to the scrutiny committees for their comments to be considered and asking what would the back benchers be happy with cutting to achieve this lower percentage

 

I've attended two of these scrutinees and several of the suggestions were not acceptable to the scrutiny committees and as a result the local press have also run some stories on some of the suggested cuts starting some public campaigns to keep some of the suggeted items

 

The small labour group which only consists of 10 met towards the end of December, and we disussed some of the budget suggestions and feed back from the various scrutinees and we had a list of items that we wanted further clarification on

 

A second meeting was reconviened in Early January where some of our questions were answered and clarified, we thanked the various officers for their clarifications and then discussed what we thought the group should or should not be supporting

 

We then asked the group chairman to contact the Independent group to clarify what we would not be supporting if left in the final budget report and a joint statement was released

 

Start Quote

 

The Leaders of the Administration have confirmed a number of matters regarding the Council’s budget process to stop people worrying unnecessarily and to stop idle speculation and unhelpful comments to the press.

 

Leader of the Council, Cllr Meryl Gravell stated that having reviewed carefully the list of savings put forward by officers, there were very clearly some areas that it would not be appropriate to cut.  The first of these was the Council’s two Children’s respite homes in Llwynhendy and Blaenau.  These performed an essential respite service for parents of children with profound and complex needs.  It was important that the families and the staff at the centres knew now that they would not be cut.  They will be removed from the list of possible savings.

 

Cllr Gravell also confirmed that the proposal to charge blue badge holders to park would also be removed for now, given the on-going national review of the entire blue badge system.

 

Chairman of the Labour Group in the Administration Cllr Terry Davies confirmed that the suggested increase in the charge for school meals, above inflation would not be proceeding.  Officers had been told to withdraw the proposal for meals to increase from £2 to £2.15.  Cllr Davies added that families are struggling to make ends meet and it is essential that children continue to have a proper meal.  The Schools Meals Service in the County is regarded widely as the best in Wales for offering fresh, locally produced quality food.  It also has one of the highest pupil uptake rates in Wales.  It is important that this continues.  School meals will therefore remain at £2 for the next financial year.

 

Cllr Pam Palmer, Leader of the Independent Group, commented that there had been lots of reaction to the proposal put forward by officers for consideration to close some of our museums.  Cllr Palmer confirmed that the decision on the museums at Parc Howard and Abergwili was to be deferred to allow for discussions with the “Friends of” Associations in Carmarthen and Llanelli and the Town and Community Councils in those areas.  She hoped that by working together an alternative solution might be found to reduce the costs of these museums or to raise more income to make them self-sustaining to avoid them closing altogether.

 

With regard the Mentrau Iaith, Cllr Gravell confirmed that whilst the Council could not continue to provide the same level of funding, the proposed cut would be limited to 10% this year, which conforms with cuts made to other third sector organisations.

 

Cllr Gravell made it clear that the Executive Board had asked officers to look again at the budget to see how they could reduce the draft proposal for a 4% Council Tax increase down to nearer 2%.  Taking the above service reductions out of the proposed savings would add more pressure in this respect and make it more difficult to get down to 2%, whilst also having to make the required budget savings of £8m.

 

Cllr Davies added that it was all well and good for Opposition Members to make statements to the press, but it was disappointing that they had not participated in Scrutiny Committees when the budget was under discussion.  The Plaid Cymru Group had simply abstained from voting at every Committee.

 

Cllr Palmer agreed that it would be too late on the budget day at Council to make political sound bites, not real suggestions that could be properly considered in a timely manner.          

 

END QUOTE

 

This release appeared in lots of local papers on Tuesday Wednesday of this week

 

One article missquoted the story by giving the impress the administration had met jointly and Plaid complained that they felt we were taking the law into our own hands because the final budget is decided by full council not by two groups

 

The debate was a home goal for them because one councillor tried to explain why the Plaid Group had abstained from voting at the various budget scrutinies

 

Following the heated council meeting about the budget talks and the joint press release, the group again met to discuss the budgets and i was asked to put out another press release to clarify we had met as an individual group and the issues in the statement were items we would definately not support if left in the final report

 

BELOW IS THE SECOND PRESS RELEASE FROM THE GROUP

 

QUOTE

 

Carmarthenshire Labour Group                                                            Press Release

Grŵp Llafur Sir Gâr                                                                        Datganiad i’r Wasg

                                                                                                              For immediate release      

 

Labour group draws clear red lines

 

The Labour Group has made public two key issues they will not budge on in the upcoming council budget. Labour has said the budget will not go through if there is any rise in the cost of school meals or any closure of museums.

 

Chairman of the Labour Group Cllr Terry Davies confirmed that the suggested increase in the charge for school meals would not be proceeding under any circumstances.  Officers had been told in no uncertain terms to withdraw the proposal for meals to increase from £2 to £2.15.

 

Cllr Davies added that ‘’families are struggling to make ends meet and it is essential that children continue to have a proper meal.  The Schools Meals Service in the County is regarded widely as the best in Wales for offering fresh, locally produced quality food.  It also has one of the highest pupil uptake rates in Wales.  It is vitally important that this continues.  School meals will therefore remain at £2 for the next financial year’’.

 

The Labour Group, with great support from the public, has put pressure on Cllr Pam Palmer, Leader of the Independent Group, with Cllr Davies confirming they ‘’will not be supporting any plans to close the museums at Parc Howard or Abergwili, and I am particularly concerned that any such talk could frighten off potential sponsors and put in jeopardy funding applications that are being made to improve and sustain these facilities’’.

Labour has also challenged Plaid Cymru to say what it would cut from the council’s budget to make ends meet. Cllr Kevin Madge said: “They’re running away from every decision rather than trying to help, by abstaining at scrutiny meetings when the draft budget was looked at, by not letting their views known they are leaving the electorate down. They should come up with an alternative budget if they are not happy with the figures suggested by officers to the executive board.” Cllr Davies backed up the claim ‘’The Plaid Cymru Group has simply run away from voting at every committee meeting discussing the budget.”

Ends

Any enquiries to Cllr Steve Lloyd-Janes, details below

 

END QUOTE

 

 

 

 

2012 seems to have started badly, because i've attended or will have attended by the end of the week three funerals, I expect tommorrows will be as big if not bigger than Cllr Dewi Enoch's

 

Having said that nobody likes receiving bad news so lets hope this week is not going to be a trend of things to come, and on reading todays Star the paper has given him a very good tribute

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I attended the large funeral of Councillor Dewi Enoch, I would guess there must have been close on three hundred people present

 

The Funeral was commencing at 9.30am and at 9.05am the funeral car park was already full with more than 100 people already waiting

 

The Cremetorium was full with many people standing outside.

 

Following the funeral looking at a packed room and a full car park, i would guess that approx 150 went back for a second service at the Mountain Gate Tycroes

 

At the Mountain Gate the Rev Glan Roberts gave a tribute reading out a peom that had been written for a family story album, which had been produced for Dewi's 70th birthday each verse had photos telling his life story

 

Following Glan's tribute the photo album along with another photo album of Dewi's year as County Council Chairman were available for guests to read

 

Glan Roberts then introduced four guest speakers to pay their personal tributes to Dewi

 

These were the Current Chair of Carmarthen Councillor Ivor Jackson,

 

Then Nia Griffith mp paid her tributes

 

Followed by Keith Davies AM

and then the last speaker was the current Chair of Llanedi Community Council, Councillor Merion Evans

 

The Rev Glan Roberts then finished off saying "It is obvious, many many of you will have fond memories and may wish to say a few words, but time will not prevail or allow us, so thefore I will finish with a prayer before refeshments are served."

 

Several tributes had already been recorded in several local papers this week below is a copy of the journal

 

 

 

 

 

And the Evening Post has covered the story over two days

 

http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/Tributes-continue-irreplaceable-Dewi/story-14228316-detail/story.html

 

Tributes continue to 'irreplaceable' Dewi

 

Saturday, December 24, 2011

South Wales Evening Post

MORE tributes have been paid to former chair of Carmarthenshire Council Dewi Enoch, who died in the early hours of Wednesday.

Mr Enoch died at the Amman Valley Hospital after a long illness.

Council deputy leader and Labour group leader Kevin Madge said Mr Enoch was a respected member of the party.

He said: "Dewi was a dedicated and committed councillor who worked hard for the people of Tycroes.

"He was respected by his colleagues in the Labour party as well as by colleagues of all political persuasions.

"He did good work in the community and you really cannot replace someone like Dewi."

Fellow county councillor Steven Lloyd-Janes, said his passing was a loss to local politics and the community he served.

He said: "Dewi will be sadly missed by a lot of people and my thoughts go to his family.

"As a relatively new kid on the block as a councillor myself, Dewi was very supportive in giving me guidance and words of wisdom, especially in my earlier days as a councillor."

Mr Enoch was elected to the county council in 1999 and served as chair during the 2007-08 political year.

He lived in Tycroes Road, Tycroes, Ammanford.

He served as chair of governors at Tycroes CP School and as a member of Llanedi Community Council and on the advisory panel of the department of constitutional affairs and was treasurer of the Polish Welsh Society.

He gave many years of commitment to the Labour Party.

His other interests included credit unions, the Co-operative movement and all types of sport.

His public funeral will take place at Morriston crematorium on Friday, December 30, at 9.30am.

ian.lewis@swwmedia.co.uk

 

 

Following a recent political row about how I had promoted the Hendy Christmas Light Parade, there was an article in the Local Star ......Parade waits for no one not even Santa

 

Calum Higgins of Tycroes contacted me to say he was suprised at the story and that councillors should be more constructive in debates he also complained about the minutes being out of date

 

As a result of me explaining about the issue a letter has been published in this weeks Ammanford Guardian written by Mr Higgins

 

 

 

 

 

 

The news letter which states Santas switches the lights on can be read online

http://cyngorllanedicouncil.org/PDF%20Newsletter/English/Llais%20Llanedi%20English%20November%202010.pdf

 

 

 

I've covered the story as printed in the Star along with evidence of concerns about how I write and publish my weekly column in an earlier blog entry

http://grasscarper.bravejournal.com/archive/12/16/2011

 

 

 

Following last Wednesday's 21st December editions of the Llanelli Star, Carmarthen Journal and Ammanford Guardian where the annual Christmas Advert from the Labour Group appeared wishing all the readers a merry Christmas,

I recieved some very sad news at about 9am this news was that at 3.30am wednesday morning Cllr Dewi Enoch passed away after a long battle against cancer

 

Dewi will be sadly missed by a lot of people and my thoughts go to his family he always had time to give some words of advice on how to solve many difficult issues that often cropped up

 

 

http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/Tributes-paid-council-ex-chair/story-14218768-detail/story.html

Tributes paid to council ex-chair

 

Friday, December 23, 2011

South Wales Evening Post

TRIBUTES have been paid to former chair of Carmarthenshire Council Dewi Enoch.

He died at Amman Valley Hospital on Wednesday after a long illness.

Mr Enoch, who lived in Tycroes Road, Tycroes, Ammanford, and was originally from Capel Dewi, Ceredigion, served as chair of Governors at Tycroes CP School and as a member of Llanedi Community Council and the advisory panel of the Department of Constitutional Affairs. He was also treasurer of the Polish Welsh Society.

Gentleman

He was elected to the county council in 1999 and served as chairman for the year 2007/08. His other interests included credit unions, the Co-operative Movement and all types of sport.

Council leader Meryl Gravell said: "He was a real gentleman and very highly regarded throughout the council. He will be greatly missed in the council chamber."

The public funeral will take place at Morriston Crematorium on Friday, December 30, at 9.30am.

No flowers by request, but donations can be made if desired to the Amman Valley Hospital League of Friends through funeral director Hywel Griffiths & Sons, Bwtrimawr, 39 Heol y Betws, Ammanford, SA18 2HE.

There will be a further opportunity to remember Dewi's life and work at the Mountain Gate Hotel, Tycroes at 11am.

 

 

 

 

Well I'm all done and dusted for 2011, just finished my last shift in work before Christmas and if I am correct  (I need to get my diary out to verify) my first meeting as a councillor will be 4th January

 

Here's wishing all my readers a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year

regards

Steve

 

 

Hendy News

 

Christmas Disco

On Wednesday 14^th December, the Friends of Hendy School held a Christmas Disco at the school which included a special visit from Father Christmas. The school hall was filled with excited children dancing along to the disco organised by DJ James Bryce. At 7pm Santa arrived and took up position in his beautiful grotto next to a roaring fire.

For no fee the children were able to meet Santa and were each given a selection box by helpful elf, Thomas Llewellyn. Many children had their photo taken with Santa to capture this memorable moment by Friends of Hendy School photographer, Ruth Davies. Catherine Lewis had produced 3 beautiful hampers from donations given by the parents of the children who attend the school. The 3 lucky winning raffle tickets were drawn on the night with Jodi Smith claiming the first prize.

The School would like to thank everyone who helped make the night a brilliant success, making almost £400 profit, which will be put towards renovating the school’s library area in the New Year.

 

 

Following a stormy meeting of the Community Council there was a story reported in the local Star, there were three local people and the local Star reporter sitting in the room listening to the debate

 

Local Councillor's need to put new matters that they wish to raise onto the agenda through the clerk, and one of the councillors raised concerns about the publicity the community council receives, when they debated this issue they had a pop at my style of writing claiming it was full of missleading facts and they highlighted and complained at how i had written and advertised the Christmas light switch on.

 

 

 

 

I had had an early warning from our clerk...... as he sent me an email before the parade last week stating there had been a complaint about how the ceremony had been advertised.

 

On the night of the ceremony after recieving the email highlighting that councillors felt my promotion of the Christmas light parade had been missleading and having received the notification about the issue to be discussed the following week........ you can image the shock that members of the carnival committee had when the Vice Chair switched the lights on before Santa had arrived on the square

 

Several parents with young children standing on Bryngwili Road waving to Santa, commented the lights have been turned on before Santa helps the children count the ceremony down?

 

Its always been tradition that Santa arrives on the square and the local children count the lights down for the council chair to switch the lights on

 

I raised concerns that an error had happened and tradition had been broken and in all fairness one councillor supported my comments by highlighting it has always been tradition that the chairman waits for Santa

 

There was a big row over this issue which the Star reported on in this weeks Star

 

 

http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/Ceremony-waits-man-mdash-Santa/story-14132626-detail/story.html

Ceremony waits for no man — not even Santa

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Llanelli Star

A POLITICAL bust-up has erupted between Labour and Plaid Cymru councillors after Hendy's village Christmas lights were switched on before Santa arrived.

Labour's Steve Lloyd-Janes said he had received complaints from several parents who missed the switch-on ceremony in Hendy last week.

​

And he blamed Plaid members of Llanedi Community Council for what happened, saying he was "amazed" vice-chairman Bob Roberts, who flipped the switch, had apparently forgotten the correct procedure.

Mr Lloyd-Janes also alleged it may have been linked to a newsletter he had circulated under the Labour banner which promoted the festive occasion.

He said: "I was just amazed at how Bob Roberts, a councillor who represents the Hendy ward and has done for some eight years, had got the event wrong by switching the lights on before Father Christmas arrived."

But Mr Roberts said there was no political motivation in the move whatsoever.

He said: "The unfortunate thing as far as all this is concerned is that Steve makes all these things a political issue. We are here for one purpose only — to serve the community to the best of our ability.

"I happen to be Plaid Cymru and Steve is Labour, I have no problem with that. He has his views and I have mine.

"Nobody has said a word about it at all. Nobody's complained to me, nobody's complained to the clerk and nobody complained on the night."

Stormy

The comments followed a stormy political row at the latest Llanedi Community Council meeting, where councillors argued about the issue for more than 20 minutes.

At the meeting, Mr Lloyd-Janes said: "It's always been the tradition that Father Christmas says a few words and then the lights are switched on.

"Lots of people complained to myself because they were standing by Spar waiting for Father Christmas.

"I was waiting. The lights were on before it got to the park. People said 'we missed it'."

But councillor Allan Evans refuted the claims, saying the lights were switched on because the parade was running late.

He said: "It was an awful night, it was pouring with rain.

"They were switched on at 6.30pm. There was no sign of anybody else there at the time when the lights were being switched on.

"As far as I was concerned, 6.30pm was 6.30pm and they were turned on at 6.30pm."

Plaid councillor Buddug Thomas admitted it had broken with tradition, saying: "Santa was there with the carnival committee so he came down with the parade.

"According to tradition we have always waited for Santa Claus, we wait for him to arrive and then the lights are switched on. I'm not saying it was malicious but that's what the tradition is."

But councillor Jenni Downes slammed all sides for trying to turn the festive event into an opportunity for political point-scoring.

She said: "I do object to the politicisation of Christmas. It says here on the flier, 'Christmas is brought to you by Nia and Keith'.

"I think Father Christmas is an independent.

"He belongs to the peace and goodwill to all people party."

Santa was contacted by the Star but declined to comment.

 

 

Ironically the issue all started because I had written that Santa was switching the lights on and members of the council tried to claim it was the chair of the council not santa

Also the claims made that my news letter stated

'Christmas is brought to you by Nia and Keith' was not correct

 

but yet in the community councils own web site, their very own news letter states Santa will be switching the lights on

 

http://cyngorllanedicouncil.org/newsthird.html

 

 

 

There was a negative approach at the talks about proposed changes, at the time of commenting to the Star, I thought it had been a positive meeting as the DCFO had stated

There are 19 different combinations of shift patterns for running a 24 station and the authority officers would be putting a number of these patterns forward for the union to discuss and consider

 

 

 

 

There was a negative approach at the talks about proposed changes, at the time of commenting to the Star, I thought it had been a positive meeting as the DCFO had stated

There are 19 different combinations of shift patterns for running a 24 station and the authority officers would be putting a number of these patterns forward for the union to discuss and consider

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the messages and enquiries asking about the winners, many of you have emailed us after seeing the photo in todays evening post

once we know i will let you all know in good time, two of the committee members had not returned the forms we definately know who were first and second as these forms were handed in and verified and the winners verified on the day of the race,

the third duck was on a sheet that hadn't been returned, so until the treasurer reports that he recieved the form back we can't confirm the actual order of the top three ducks

the race was the first time the carnival committee has organised it and hopefully it will be an annual event

thanks for all the support as it has raised some much needed funds for the local carnival committee

 

 

 

 

Many of you had spoken to me or sent me an email asking why was my weekly column missing from the local Llanelli Star

 

I was also suprised that last weeks entry got lost in cyber space,

however on investigations the findings were that the email actually got lost in cyber space,

i've been having some problems with my broadband supplier, it keeps throwing me off line and my computer keeps freezing and sometimes when i check my inboxes and sent boxes they appear empty when i log on

The star did actually recieved my report but ......... it arrived in their office a day after I had sent it,

it must have gone at a snails pace,

 

checking my sent box the delivery report did actually confirm that it had been sent at the time that the Star reported that it had recieved it despite being sent more than eighteen hours previously,

therefore my column missed the deadline

 

so here's next weeks its almost identical to the previous one which wasn't actually printed in the Star due to a technical hitch

 

 

Hendy News 

 

 

 

Back in November I attended the Menin Gate Memorial Service and I've already blogged about some of the events out there in this blog

 

The Star have finally carried the story based on the press release about one of the cemetaries that we visited.

 

We visited the grave of the famous welsh poet Hedd Wyn (see earlier blog entries about subject)

 

He was killed in July 1917 and was a winner of the coverted Eisteddford Chair which was awarded in September 1917

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedd_Wyn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had decided to write a letter to the Star, after I had written it with the thanks of several locals I found the person that had handed my wallet in and I called personally to thank them

I notified the Star but the paper had already gone to print

 

 

 

 

I had a busy day and during the day I lost my wallet and phone on the Hendy Green area during the light switch on Luckily some honest person picked them up and handed them into the local Spar

 

When I was ringing my phone listening for it to ring somewhere in my house, the Spar staff answered it to say it had been found and handed in

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its good to see that the Star has helped promote the call for a public meeting to set up a new parks committee in Hendy