News

Virtual multi-agency meeting discusses concerns about Penally Camp

Published

5 years ago

October 7, 2020

A VIRTUAL meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council chaired by Cllr David Simpson JP took place on Wednesday at midday.

Cllr Jonathon Preston opened the meeting by saying there was a common theme was that the facility and location was unsuitable.

Next Dafydd Llywellyn, the Police and Crime Commissioner said: “It’s really important to us at a senior level to understand the decision-making notice.”
“How its suitable is beyond me!”

Mr. Llywellyn added: “For numerous reasons I cannot see how it would be suitable, and I will continue to make that view known. Having said that its also important that from a policing perspective that we support the local community.”
“We will also have mutual aid support from other sources. I am grateful that the Home Office have been able to attend and there has been a significant amount of cooperation from an inter-agency perspective especially in the last few weeks “
“Multi agency work has been outstanding between heath board, police and council,” he added.

NOT POSSIBLE TO CONSULT LOCALS

On behalf of the UK Government, Deborah Chitterden told the meeting that from a Home Office perspective its important to mention that they have a legal obligation to support destitute asylum seekers.
She said: “Because of Covid-19 the system came under pressure which led to a shortage for suitable accommodation. We had to do something fairly urgently.
Offers from MOD came in, one of which of course was Penally.
“It wasn’t possible to consult in the usual way due to the speed in which we had to act. I understand that this must have been hugely frustrating from the community on the ground.
“I am really pleased about the positive focus on meetings. It genuinely seems that everyone is here to find the best possible solutions.
“These asylum seekers are often highly educated and skilled people.
“They are not criminals, and they are not being detained.
“I think that this is understood by most, but I would just like to make that point.”

PENALLY WAS VIABLE AND IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE

Answering a question from a member of the public about why the camp was chosen, Deborah Chittenden said: “When we looked across government to ask partners for available accommodation to support us in what was an urgent need the only viable (immediately available) options were the two sites offered by the Ministry of Defence we engaged.
“The sites were chosen out of necessity.
“To be very clear they are a temporary arrangement. We have agreed a lease or rental arrangement for up to twelve months.
“We will only use these for only as long as we need them.
“The reason we have an urgent need was that at the beginning of the pandemic we took an active decision not to move asylum seekers out of their accommodation so during the national lockdown numbers kept increasing.
“That than meant we had six months’ worth of blockage in the system when no one was moving out, but we had a steady stream of people coming into the system.
“You can imagine what this did to the system.
“We have continued to see an influx to the system.
We have begun to start ceasing support for those we have decided not to provide asylum for.
“Once we are through the blockage we will remove the temporary measures we have put in place.
“The site will only house single male asylum seekers.
“We made a decision not to house families or single females in these sites.
“We only decided to house those who were healthy and not in any vulnerable categories.
“We took a lot of care to select those to make sure they were not in any vulnerable categories.
“If issues are identified with mental health or any other issues we can deal with these rapidly.
Any person brought to the camp will have spent at least 14 days insolation at on of our other camps to ensure that they are Covid-free when they arrive.
Obviously, we cannot guarantee that they will not get Covid as they interact with members of society.

NOT DESIGNED FOR THE PURPOSE

Dr Phil Kloer from Hywel Dda University Health Board said: “The site wasn’t designed for these circumstances. It makes social distancing difficult. However, we have been working closely with all agencies to support the safety of people at the site but also members of the local population. We undertook a detail comprehensive risk assessment with our professional experts and developed a plan for prevention of all infections including Covid. Plan included advice on isolation, disinfection and hyenine measures and also operation support. We continue to work with Clearsprings and all other agencies involved in the call today and of course the local population as well.

Steve Lakey from Clearsprings, which is the private company working on behalf of the Home Office to provide accommodation to asylum seekers, thanked the health team and partners for all their hard work.
In relation to a question regarding additional funding for local services he said: “In terms of services on site we have a visiting nurse at the site. There is sports equipment, TV, WIFI, various difficult activities. There has been a wonderful raft of offers of help on the site. Migrant Help is coordinating it.
“We are looking for a local coordinator at the moment. Food and all the items needed day-to-day are provided on site. People can go to the shop; they do have a small amount of money to spend.
“There is vehicles on site to take people to shops if required.”

DAILY PROTESTS, VARYING IN VOLATILITY

Police Superintendent Anthony Evans told the meeting that the last two weeks have seen daily protests, varying in volatility.
“Sadly, there has been some incidents of criminality and arrests have been made. Where we are aware of criminal offences, we have recorded those and they have been investigated,” he said.

Anthony Evans added: “Throughout this period we have brought in additional police resources.
“On occasion protests have become disorderly and we have used resources to ensure visitors to the site have been able to enter and exit freely.
“We know the community have been concerned by both the service users and the protestors.
“In the short term in many cases the protestors have been the greater short-term concern.
“We have ensured we have clear lines of communication between police and residents.”

“Of course, community safety is not just a policing matter. We have been working with other agencies such as the council and health board to ensure that we respond to the concerns of the community and that this community ad a voice into police and other partner. I hope that gives a flavour of what the police is doing to reassure the community since the inception of the asylum centre.”

LOTS OF OFFERS OF HELP

Juliet Halstead from Migrant Help said: “We help via a telephone service with full translation services. We are issuing SIM cards to people to help them get access to our services for access of help and advice.
“We are working with the accommodation provider to ensure that the centre is as comfortable as it can be for people. We are helping service users access legal support. We are making daily welfare calls to those in the camp who are worried about the situation, especially the protestors.”

Steve Lakey added that those with mental health issues will be screened out and those individuals will be taken back to core accommodation centres where there are health teams which can deal with that.

Juliet Halstead spoke again to the meeting and said there have been so many offers of support.
She told the conference: “I would like to say a huge thank you. We have been asked to coordinate all of those kind offers of help.
“We are working to ensure we can do that.
“We are trying to understand that service users’ issues and priorities are at the moment.
“If you can send offers of help, we will come back to you at [email protected]”

Cllr David Simpson JP asked Simon Hart MP and Cllr Jonathan Preston, member for Penally, to close the meeting.
Cllr Preston said that the meeting gave more of an idea of “where we are”.
He said: “its good to hear that there are opening for volunteering and getting involved with the camp.”

WE DESERVE PROPER ANSWERS, SAYS MP

Simon Hart MP said: “That has been a useful round up of questions and answers – divided into operation activity and the implementation element on the ground. The other around policy decisions. We have had lots of answers on the former not the latter. Everyone does deserve proper answers around the process that was pursued.”
“Deborah has set up the background, but we have not quite got to the bottom of and the manner and speed in which engagement took place – if it took place at all -is something we absolutely want to understand. Not just for Penally but anyone else who may end up in this situation.”

Councillor Simpson said afterwards that he thought the meeting had been extremely useful in answering some of the concerns raised by Penally residents and many others.
He said: “I understand the webcast was viewed live by around 400 people so hopefully it addressed some of the myths and wild speculation that has surrounded the presence of the asylum seekers in our community.”
A list of questions and the panel’s responses will be published on the Council’s website in due course.
On the panel were:

• Simon Hart (Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire MP)
• Deborah Chittenden (Director, Borders, Immigration and Citizenship System, Home Office)
• Superintendent Anthony Evans (Local Commander, Dyfed-Powys Police)
• Dafydd Llewelyn (Dyfed-Powys Police and Crime Commissioner)
• Steve Lakey (managing director, Clear Springs Ready Homes Ltd)
• Juliet Halstead (Deputy Director of Asylum Services, Migrant Help)
• Dr Phil Kloer (Deputy CEO and Medical Director for Hywel Dda University Health Board)
• Jon Preston (Penally County Councillor)
• Ian Westley (Chief Executive, Pembrokeshire County Council).

The webcast will shortly be available to view at: https://pembrokeshire.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcasts

Health

Resident doctors in Wales vote to accept new contract

Published

4 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Tom Sinclair

RESIDENT doctors across Wales have voted to accept a new contract, with 83% of those who took part in a referendum backing the agreement, according to BMA Cymru Wales.

The contract includes a four per cent additional investment in the resident doctor workforce and introduces a range of reforms aimed at improving training conditions, wellbeing and long-term workforce sustainability within NHS Wales. The BMA says the deal also supports progress towards pay restoration, which remains a central issue for doctors.

Key changes include new safeguards to limit the most fatiguing working patterns, measures intended to address medical unemployment and career progression concerns, and reforms to study budgets and study leave to improve access to training opportunities.

Negotiations between the BMA’s Welsh Resident Doctors Committee, NHS Wales Employers and the Welsh Government concluded earlier this year. Following a consultation period, a referendum of resident doctors and final-year medical students in Wales was held, resulting in a clear majority in favour of the proposals.

Welsh Resident Doctors Committee chair Dr Oba Babs Osibodu said the agreement marked a significant step forward for doctors working in Wales.

He said: “We’re proud to have negotiated this contract, which offers our colleagues and the future generation of doctors safer terms of service, fairer pay, and better prospects so that they can grow and develop their careers in Wales.

“This contract will help to retain the doctors already in training, and also attract more doctors to work in Wales, where they can offer their expertise and benefit patients.”

Dr Osibodu added that the BMA remains committed to achieving full pay restoration and acknowledged that challenges remain for some doctors.

“Whilst this contract sets the foundations for a brighter future for resident doctors in Wales, we recognise that there are still doctors who are struggling to develop their careers and secure permanent work,” he said. “We need to work with the Welsh Government and NHS employers to address training bottlenecks and underemployment.”

The Welsh Government has previously said it recognises the pressures facing resident doctors and the importance of improving recruitment and retention across NHS Wales, while also highlighting the need to balance pay agreements with wider NHS funding pressures and patient demand.

The new contract is expected to be phased in from August 2026. It will initially apply to doctors in foundation programmes, those in specialty training with unbanded rotas, and new starters, before being rolled out to all resident doctors across Wales.

Crime

Swansea man jailed for online child sex offence dies in prison

Published

4 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Tom Sinclair

A SWANSEA man who was jailed earlier this year for attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child has died while in custody.

Gareth Davies, aged 59, of the Maritime Quarter, was serving an 18-month prison sentence after being convicted in May of sending sexually explicit messages to what he believed was a 14-year-old girl. The account was in fact a decoy used as part of an online safeguarding operation.

The court heard that Davies began communicating with the decoy between November and December 2024 and persistently pursued the individual, later attempting to arrange a face-to-face meeting. He was arrested after being confronted by the decoy operators.

Davies had pleaded not guilty but was convicted following a trial. At the time of sentencing, police described the messages as extremely concerning and said his imprisonment was necessary to protect children.

It has now been confirmed that Davies died at HMP Parc on Wednesday (Nov 27) while serving his sentence.

The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has launched an independent investigation into the death, which is standard procedure in all cases where someone dies in custody. No cause of death has been released at this stage.

A coroner will determine the circumstances in due course.

Farming

Welsh Conservatives warn climate plans could mean fewer livestock on Welsh farms

Published

4 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Tom Sinclair

THE WELSH CONSERVATIVES have challenged the Welsh Government over climate change policies they say could lead to reductions in livestock numbers across Wales, raising concerns about the future of Welsh farming.

The row follows the Welsh Government’s decision, alongside Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Liberal Democrats, to support the UK Climate Change Committee’s Fourth Carbon Budget, which sets out the pathway towards Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The Carbon Budget, produced by the independent Climate Change Committee (CCC), states that meeting Net Zero targets will require a reduction in agricultural emissions, including changes to land use and, in some scenarios, a reduction in livestock numbers.

During questioning in the Senedd, the Welsh Conservatives pressed the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs on whether the Welsh Government supports reducing livestock numbers as part of its climate strategy.

Speaking after the exchange, Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Samuel Kurtz MS, said the Welsh Government could not distance itself from the implications of the policy it had backed.

Mr Kurtz said: “By voting in favour of these climate change regulations, Labour, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats have signed up to the UK Climate Change Committee’s call to cut livestock numbers in Wales, and they cannot dodge that reality.

“The Deputy First Minister’s smoke-and-mirrors answers only confirm what farmers already fear: that Labour, along with their budget bedfellows in Plaid and the Lib Dems, are prepared to sacrifice Welsh agriculture in pursuit of climate targets.”

He added that the issue came at a time of growing pressure on the farming sector, pointing to uncertainty over the proposed Sustainable Farming Scheme, the ongoing failure to eradicate bovine TB, nitrogen pollution regulations under the Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs), and proposed changes to inheritance tax rules affecting family farms.

The Welsh Government has repeatedly said it does not have a target to forcibly reduce livestock numbers and has argued that future emissions reductions will come through a combination of improved farming practices, environmental land management, and changes in land use agreed with farmers.

Ministers have also said the Sustainable Farming Scheme, which is due to replace the Basic Payment Scheme, is intended to reward farmers for food production alongside environmental outcomes, rather than remove land from agriculture.

The UK Climate Change Committee, which advises governments across the UK, has stressed that its pathways are based on modelling rather than fixed quotas, and that devolved governments have flexibility in how targets are met.

However, farming unions and rural groups in Wales have warned that policies focused on emissions reduction risk undermining the viability of livestock farming, particularly in upland and marginal areas where alternatives to grazing are limited.

The debate highlights the growing tension between climate targets and food production in Wales, with livestock farming remaining a central part of the rural economy and Welsh cultural identity.

As discussions continue over the final shape of the Sustainable Farming Scheme and Wales’ long-term climate plans, pressure is mounting on the Welsh Government to reassure farmers that climate policy will not come at the expense of the sector’s survival.