CASTLE Ward County Councillor Thomas Baden Tudor has attended a Water Quality Drop-in Session hosted by Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water at HaverHub.

Speaking about the event, held on Wednesday (Feb 28), Cllr Tudor said it was an “interesting and informative” opportunity to engage with River Quality Liaison Managers about past and future investments in Haverfordwest.

As part of ongoing efforts to address water management concerns, Cllr Tudor confirmed that he would be arranging a site visit with Dŵr Cymru officers to Slade Lane, Haverfordwest, to assess potential improvements for surface flood and drainage issues.

A REMARKABLE art project, over a decade in the making, is bringing the faces of St Davids to life in a way never seen before. The ambitious City of Portraits (Dinas Portreadau) project by artist Grahame Hurd-Wood is a love letter to the tight-knit Pembrokeshire community, aiming to paint every one of the 1,800 residents of Britain’s smallest city.

So far, Hurd-Wood has painted 1,000 portraits, each a vivid depiction of the people who make St Davids unique. From the local butcher and shopkeepers to a Welsh international rugby player and even the Bishop of St Davids, the faces tell a story of community, connection, and belonging. This weekend, in a fitting tribute to Wales’ patron saint, the portraits will be displayed in Cardiff for the first time, coinciding with St David’s Day.

“It’s been a huge undertaking,” said Hurd-Wood. “But it’s become a joyful celebration of the people in my life—those who have shaped me, supported me, and been part of my journey.”

Yet, the project’s origins are rooted in grief. It began when Hurd-Wood’s fiancée, Debbie Best, asked him to paint her portrait as she battled cancer. Though he finished it only after her passing, she had urged him to keep painting others. What started as a personal act of remembrance evolved into a visual chronicle of the people of St Davids.

“The project is about more than just Debbie,” he said. “It’s about my parents, my sister, and everyone who experiences loss. Painting these portraits helped me process my grief, and I hope they bring something to those who sit for them.”

Hurd-Wood prefers his subjects to sit for him, though the pandemic forced him to work from photographs at times. He doesn’t follow a strict selection process—word of mouth and casual encounters in the city often lead to new portraits. Some from neighbouring areas have even asked if they “count.” His answer? Absolutely.

Each portrait is painted in oils or acrylics, arranged in grids of 35 faces per canvas. With the population ever-changing, the project may never be complete, but that’s part of its charm. “It’s a lifetime’s work,” said Hurd-Wood. “There will always be new faces, new stories.”

While the Cardiff exhibition has the backing of First Minister Eluned Morgan—who herself has Pembrokeshire roots—this project belongs firmly to St Davids. It is a celebration of its people, past and present, and a lasting tribute to the community’s spirit.

For those in Pembrokeshire, the hope is that City of Portraits will return home for a local exhibition, allowing the community to see itself reflected on canvas—a true testament to the vibrant life of this small but mighty city.

FORMER Welsh Secretary Simon Hart has argued that Covid-19 restrictions should have been consistent across the UK, rather than varying between the four nations. The former Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire MP, who served as Secretary of State for Wales from 2019 to 2022, said political influences shaped decision-making rather than purely focusing on disease control.

Speaking in an interview, Hart reflected on the challenges of navigating the pandemic and expressed concern over the fragmented approach taken by devolved governments, which he believes led to confusion and unnecessary complexity for residents.

A fractured response

“I just didn’t feel that decisions were being made purely on the basis of disease control and risk management,” Hart said, referencing the differing rules on mask mandates, lockdowns, and social distancing in Wales and England.

One example he cited was the stark contrast in restrictions when travelling between the two nations. Passengers crossing the Severn Tunnel by train were met with announcements informing them of different masking rules on either side of the border, which Hart believes highlighted an unnecessary and avoidable division in public messaging.

Politics at play?

According to Hart, decision-making at the time was not just about public health but also about politics. “More and more, as we went through the pandemic, I came to the conclusion that there was a lot of politics in the decision-making,” he said.

He suggested that some ministers in Cardiff deliberately sought to highlight differences with Westminster, creating friction between governments and undermining confidence in the UK’s pandemic response.

Lessons for the future

The former Chief Whip, who recently published his book Ungovernable: The Political Diaries of a Chief Whip, said his experiences during the pandemic serve as a reminder of the difficulties faced by politicians, health officials, and the public alike.

With restrictions lasting more than two years, Hart argues that greater UK-wide coordination could have reduced confusion and made public health messaging more effective. He believes that if a similar crisis were to happen again, a more unified approach should be considered to avoid unnecessary political and logistical complications.

Hart’s comments reignite the debate over whether the UK’s devolved system helped or hindered the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. While the Welsh Government has yet to respond to his claims, the discussion continues over whether differing approaches were necessary to address local needs or whether they simply sowed division in a time of national crisis.