News

Simpson makes ‘right deal for County’

Published

6 years ago

November 8, 2019

PEMBROKESHIRE County Council’s Cabinet committed to the funding of the Pembroke Dock Marine Project at its meeting on Monday, November 4.
Council Leader David Simpson received the congratulations of Cabinet members for obtaining substantial concessions on the vexed question of who pays the interest on the borrowing needed for the project.
Cllr Simpson’s position on forking over Pembrokeshire Council Tax Payers’ money to fund borrowing for the project is well-known: he was vehemently opposed to paying penny one of a loan facility in which the Council acted as bankers for a third party.
The deal he has struck means that the County Council will meet one half of the maximum bill for interest, with the Port Authority paying the other half.
In a rare display of public exasperation, Cllr Simpson laid into former leader Jamie Adams over the interest question. At the last Full Council meeting when the Deal came before members, the IPG leader demanded that the Council should pay the full amount of the interest to ensure the Deal went ahead.

Council Leader, David Simpson: Succeeded in cutting Deal’s cost to Pembrokeshire

Cllr Simpson said he found Cllr Adams’ willingness to throw around public money ‘disturbing.’
He pointed out that, had he done as the former leader wanted, the interest cost to the Council would have been a fraction under £4m, as the interest rate charged on the lending required went up the same day as Jamie Adams’ plea, and the burden would have remained unshared.
Instead, Cllr Simpson said, holding firm had produced significant concessions. Firstly, the borrowing had been secured at the original and lower interest rate and secondly, the Port had agreed to pay half of the interest.
The Council Leader observed mordantly the Port Authority were about as happy with the deal struck as he was.
As things stood, the County Council would pay £1m plus a £420k top slice, while the Port Authority would pay £1.3m. David Simpson conceded that this was not the outcome he hoped for; he had not fulfilled his aim, to secure a nil interest cost to the Council. However, Cllr Simpson said he resented the way funding’s structure meant local authorities would be lumbered with significant debt.
On a more upbeat note, Cllr Simpson commended the members of the Cabinet and senior officers who had managed to structure funding for the interest so the Council’s future borrowing cap remained unaffected. This, he said, meant that the Council could achieve its own very ambitious investment objectives for the future.
He explained that Cabinet Member for the Economy, Paul Miller, had negotiated a funding grant which would meet the top slice of £420k, while funding of the £1m remainder had been obtained through other means.
Responding to Cllr Simpson’s comments, Paul Miller set out the importance of energy generation and the associated supply-chain industries to Pembrokeshire’s economy. He pointed out as carbon-based energy generation reduced, developing alternative forms of energy would become increasingly important. Pembrokeshire, he said, was well-placed to exploit the opportunities those represented.
Following Cllr Miller’s comments, Cabinet Member for Finance, Cllr Bob Kilmister, chided the Leader for selling his achievement short. He had delivered the best deal he could and a better deal than that which was initially offered.
He praised the ‘superb’ outcome of negotiations led by the Leader and assisted by other Cabinet members and senior officers. He noted a lot of work had gone into ‘a really terrific job’ hammering out a deal.
Like the Leader, Cllr Kilmister doubted whether 1,800 jobs would be delivered, as claimed. He said, however, that jobs would be created and that would be good for Pembrokeshire. The County, he said, needed a balanced approach and David Simpson had delivered a deal.
He concluded: “I would love to see it run. With our contribution, we help make sure it happens.”
Cllr Phil Baker, Cabinet Member for Infrastructure, observed: “It had to be the right deal at the right price. This is the right deal for the County.”
Director of Resources Jon Haswell explained how funding the interest payments would work. The funding secured by Cllr Miller covered the ‘top-slice’ payment needed. In the meantime, officers identified money held over from the financial year 2018/19 placed in an administrative reserve to meet the rest. That would be used, but only if needed.
Steven Jones, Director of Development, added that time-critical EU funding should now be secured. He noted the timeline remained very tight. Business case approval was needed before Christmas. However, he added, having got over this hurdle, the Council had a way through. The next stage, he advised, requires a WG panel to finally approve the business case.
Jon Haswell added that he hoped to improve the funding arrangements in a meeting with the Welsh Government and an officer from Carmarthenshire County Council on Thursday (Nov 7).
Cllr Simpson returned to address the question of interest payments: he wanted to reduce the amount of interest due for payment. To that end, he was still negotiating a shorter time frame for the funding’s delivery. The current funding is due over fifteen years. Cllr Simpson prefers a five-to-ten year period for delivery. If funding’s delivery was achievable over the shorter period, the amount due from the Council (and the Port Authority) in interest would fall. He re-iterated that the current provision for interest was the maximum and he would continue to work to reduce the bill to the Council.
The Cabinet unanimously approved the deal struck.
Everything is now out of the Council’s hands and depends on the willingness of the UK and Welsh Government to finally get their act together and come up with money often-promised but not yet delivered.

Crime

Swansea man dies weeks after release from troubled HMP Parc: Investigation launched

Published

5 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Tom Sinclair

A SWANSEA man has died just weeks after being released from HMP Parc, the Bridgend prison now at the centre of a national crisis over inmate deaths and post-release failures.

Darren Thomas, aged 52, died on 13 November 2025 — less than a month after leaving custody. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) has confirmed an independent investigation into his death, which is currently listed as “in progress”.

Born on 9 April 1973, Mr Thomas had been under post-release supervision following a period at HMP/YOI Parc, the G4S-run prison that recorded seventeen deaths in custody in 2024 — the highest in the UK.

His last known legal appearance was at Swansea Crown Court in October 2024, where he stood trial accused of making a threatening phone call and two counts of criminal damage. During the hearing, reported by The Pembrokeshire Herald at the time, the court heard he made threats during a heated call on 5 October 2023.

Mr Thomas denied the allegations but was found guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to a custodial term, which led to his imprisonment at HMP Parc.

Parc: A prison in breakdown

HMP Parc has faced sustained criticism throughout 2024 and 2025. A damning unannounced inspection in January found:

Severe self-harm incidents up 190%
Violence against staff up 109%
Synthetic drugs “easily accessible” across wings
Overcrowding at 108% capacity

In the first three months of 2024 alone, ten men died at Parc — part of a wider cluster of twenty PPO-investigated deaths since 2022. Six occurred within three weeks, all linked to synthetic drug use.

Leaked staff messages in 2025 exposed a culture of indifference, including one officer writing: “Let’s push him to go tomorrow so we can drop him.”

Six G4S employees have been arrested since 2023 in connection with alleged assaults and misconduct.

The danger after release

Deaths shortly after release from custody are a growing national concern. Ministry of Justice data shows 620 people died while under community supervision in 2024–2025, with 62 deaths occurring within 14 days of release.

Short sentences — common at Parc — leave little time for effective rehabilitation or release planning. Homelessness, loss of drug tolerance and untreated mental-health conditions create a high-risk environment for those newly released.

The PPO investigates all such deaths to determine whether prisons or probation failed in their duties. Reports often take 6–12 months and can lead to recommendations.

A system at breaking point

The crisis at Parc reflects wider failures across UK prisons and probation. A July 2025 House of Lords report described the service as “not fit for purpose”. More than 500 people die in custody annually, with campaigners warning that private prisons such as Parc prioritise cost-cutting over care.

The PPO investigation into the death of Darren Thomas continues.

Crime

Woman stabbed partner in Haverfordwest before handing herself in

Published

5 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Court Reporter

A WOMAN who stabbed her partner during a drug-fuelled episode walked straight into Haverfordwest Police Station and told officers what she had done, Swansea Crown Court has heard.

Amy Woolston, 22, of Dartmouth Street in Milford Haven, arrived at the station at around 8:00pm on June 13 and said: “I stabbed my ex-partner earlier… he’s alright and he let me walk off,” prosecutor Tom Scapens told the court.

The pair had taken acid together earlier in the day, and Woolston claimed she believed she could feel “stab marks in her back” before the incident.

Police find victim with four wounds

Officers went to the victim’s home to check on him. He was not there at first, but returned shortly afterwards. He appeared sober and told police: “Just a couple of things,” before pointing to injuries on his back.

He had three stab or puncture wounds to his back and another to his bicep.

The victim said that when he arrived home from the shop, Woolston was acting “a bit shifty”. After asking if she was alright, she grabbed something from the windowsill — described as either a knife or a shard of glass — and stabbed him.

He told officers he had “had worse from her before”, did not support a prosecution, and refused to go to hospital.

Defendant has long history of violence

Woolston pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding. The court heard she had amassed 20 previous convictions from 10 court appearances, including assaults, battery, and offences against emergency workers.

Defending, Dyfed Thomas said Woolston had longstanding mental health problems and had been off medication prescribed for paranoid schizophrenia at the time.
“She’s had a difficult upbringing,” he added, saying she was remorseful and now compliant with treatment.

Woolston was jailed for 12 months, but the court heard she has already served the equivalent time on remand and will be released imminently on a 12-month licence.

News

BBC apologises to Herald’s editor for inaccurate story

Published

7 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Staff Writer

THE BBC has issued a formal apology and amended a six-year-old article written by BBC Wales Business Correspondent Huw Thomas after its Executive Complaints Unit ruled that the original headline and wording gave an “incorrect impression” that Herald editor Tom Sinclair was personally liable for tens of thousands of pounds in debt.

The 2019 report, originally headlined “Herald newspaper editor Tom Sinclair has £70,000 debts”, has now been changed.

The ECU found: “The wording of the article and its headline could have led readers to form the incorrect impression that the debt was Mr Sinclair’s personal responsibility… In that respect the article failed to meet the BBC’s standards of due accuracy.”

Mr Sinclair said: “I’m grateful to the ECU for the apology and for correcting the personal-liability impression that caused real harm for six years. However, the article still links the debts to ‘the group which publishes The Herald’ when in fact they related to printing companies that were dissolved two years before the Herald was founded in 2013. I have asked the BBC to add that final clarification so the record is completely accurate.”

A formal apology and correction of this kind from the BBC is extremely rare, especially for a story more than six years old.