A CALL to change a mixed-use therapy centre to a children’s care home classification has been submitted to Pembrokeshire planners.

Skybound Therapies Ltd, through agent Carl Bentley Architectural Services, seeks permission for the change of use of the Skybound Care Farm & Therapy Centre, Campbell Farm, Wiston, near Haverfordwest.

A supporting statement says: “Situated in a discrete rural setting in Pembrokeshire, the Therapy Centre is at the heart of a family-owned Care Farm. It is a working beef and forestry farm, providing a unique and tranquil environment for their services,” adding: “Skybound Care Farm offers a variety of services for both children and young adults. From young adult day opportunities to week-long intensive programmes. The forestry fields provide an ideal setting for practicing walks. Visitors can interact with animals, learn about water safety near their ponds, and immerse themselves in the peaceful beauty of the working farm. Vegetable growing and harvesting is a recent addition to the Care Farm.

“Skybound welcome clients from the local area as well as those travelling from all over the UK and abroad. There is a variety of accommodation types close to the farm and centre, including a holiday village, caravan parks, holiday cottages and log cabins. Many clients like to combine visits to the care farm / therapy centre with exploring local beaches, amenities and attractions.

“The Care Farm HQ and Therapy Centre are in Southwest Wales, but they also cover many locations across the UK, including Cardiff, Newport, Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, Yorkshire and Norfolk. Skybound are taking on new locations all of the time.”

It says the original Therapy Centre which was constructed in 2012/13 when it “began its journey as a leading national and international therapy centre providing behaviour analysis, positive behaviour support, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy for children and young adults with special needs and behavioural issues”.

In August 2022 planning permission was granted to extend the therapy centre, completed in 2024; the business currently employs 45 staff on a full time and part time basis, a small number of staff are located at the Care Farm & Therapy Centre and at other locations across Wales and the UK.

“Whilst the centre has been running since February 2024 the applicant and business has found that the use of the centre is changing from previously planned and consented usage,” the statement says.

It says that since then discussions have taken place with council planners to clarify the centre’s current planning use class, along with “other opportunities and ideas for the expansion of the business and services to potentially use other existing buildings at the site are currently being investigated, which will no doubt take further time to consider”.

“There is a long-term plan to expand the Care Farm & Therapy Centre activities within the whole of the site and this full planning application is the third stage of the plan. The long-term plan is to provide more ‘settings’ to provide more training, utilising more of the farm setting for example with further interactions with small farm animals and to perhaps house some therapy sessions within other existing farm buildings to provide different types of training settings.”

Late last year, the site was granted permission to extend staff facilities through a temporary building.

The current application will be considered by planners at a later date.

PLAID CYMRU leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has accused both the UK and Welsh Labour governments of turning their backs on the people of Port Talbot, calling for urgent investment and a strategy to secure the future of steelmaking in Wales.

During a visit to the town on Tuesday (Apr 15), Mr ap Iorwerth and South Wales West MS Luke Fletcher met with residents and former steelworkers, pledging to stand with what they described as a “betrayed community” following the closure of Tata Steel’s blast furnaces last year.

The visit comes just days after the UK Government announced emergency legislation to rescue the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe—prompting renewed anger in Wales that no such action was taken for Port Talbot.

Mr ap Iorwerth said: “This is a community angry at having been betrayed. The UK Government took action to save jobs in Scunthorpe but left Port Talbot to deal with devastating job losses alone.

“Plaid Cymru will do all we can to fight for the investment needed here. The Labour Government in Westminster must deliver on its so-called enhanced deal and ensure Port Talbot receives its fair share of the UK’s £2.5bn steel fund.”

He added: “It was in the gift of both Labour and the Conservatives to act when it mattered. Now Labour cannot simply dismiss our demands, as they did when we asked for nationalisation to be put on the table. Further inaction is not an option—they owe it to this community.”

Call for urgent Senedd debate

Plaid has written to the Welsh Government’s Trefnydd requesting a formal Senedd debate to examine how the UK Government’s emergency steel measures will impact Wales, and what support will be made available to the communities affected by job losses.

Luke Fletcher MS, Plaid’s spokesperson for Economy and Energy, said there are “serious questions” for the Welsh Labour Government to answer.

“We must hold the Labour Welsh Government to account at the earliest opportunity,” he said. “They must explain what discussions they have had with their UK counterparts, what impact this new legislation will have on the promised Steel Strategy for Wales, and what specific support will be provided to those who lost their livelihoods in Port Talbot.

“The people of this town feel completely let down. There must be a full and open debate in the Senedd, and it must happen urgently.”

Port Talbot’s blast furnaces were shut down in September 2024, resulting in the loss of 2,800 jobs. Tata Steel is now moving toward a greener model using electric arc furnace technology, which will require fewer workers and has left the local community worried about long-term economic decline.

One in 14 households affected as housing crisis deepens

MORE than 94,000 households in Wales are waiting for a social home—equivalent to one in every fourteen homes across the country.

The figures, obtained by Shelter Cymru through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to every local authority in Wales, reveal the scale of the housing emergency. In total, the waiting lists cover approximately 170,000 people, including around 45,000 children.

Despite the mounting demand, just 2,600 new social homes were built in Wales last year. At this rate, it would take 35 years to meet the current need, campaigners have warned.

The charity is calling for urgent action and a step change in investment from the Welsh Government, warning that the housing crisis is having a devastating impact on individuals and families—particularly single-parent households, who are disproportionately represented on waiting lists.

Shelter Cymru is supporting Louise*, a single mother living in temporary accommodation with her two children after being made homeless due to rent arrears. Louise said: “It’s horrendous because you’re living in limbo. You live a completely different life because you don’t know what’s next. All I want is somewhere permanent so I can get my life back to normal, so I can get a job again. But it’s just the waiting. We’re not able to make plans. We’re stuck here. You can’t think about planning your future.”

Ruth Power, CEO of Shelter Cymru, said the figures should serve as a wake-up call.

“These new figures are a wake-up call,” she said. “It is unacceptable that more than 94,000 households are forced to wait years for a place they can call home. We must confront the reality that, as a nation, we are failing to meet the needs of our communities.

“Investing in social homes is a moral obligation; it is an investment in a stable foundation for people’s lives, health and futures. But it’s also a practical solution to a pressing problem. If we don’t deliver more social homes, it will ramp up the financial pressures on local authorities that are already struggling to cope with local demand.”

Shelter Cymru is calling on the Welsh Government to increase funding to build or acquire new social homes and develop a clear national strategy. The charity says social homes must be placed at the heart of housing policy in Wales.

The Welsh Government has committed to delivering 20,000 new social homes by the end of 2026, but Shelter Cymru and its partners say this will not be enough.

Alicja Zalesinska, Chief Executive of Tai Pawb and a leader of the “Back the Bill” campaign, said: “The positive steps from Welsh Government aimed at meeting people’s housing needs clearly fall short of the fundamental change necessary to address the housing emergency.

“I have no doubt that this need for change is felt deeply by the 170,000 people on the waiting lists, who simply cannot wait 35 years for their housing situation to be resolved.

“That’s why the Back the Bill coalition believes that addressing the housing crisis must be a central mission for the government—and it can only be achieved by hardwiring this commitment into Welsh legislation by introducing the right to a good home.”

Shelter Cymru is working with the Bevan Foundation to campaign for long-term reforms to the social housing system and boost the supply of affordable homes.

*Name changed to protect identity.