News

Green Party leader visits Fishguard

Published

8 years ago

April 12, 2016

THE LEADER of the Green Party addressed a meeting in Fishguard on Tuesday (Mar 22).

Natalie Bennett was joined on the stage by constituency and regional Green candidates, as well as local health and education activists Dr Kay Dearing and Dr Chris Overton.

Dr Overton kicked off proceedings with a brief history of the Save Withybush Action Team over the past 11 years.

He expressed his fears that the new emergency services boundaries, which were introduced as a temporary measure last year, had put extra pressure on Glangwili and Prince Philip Hospitals.

“They promised that this was a temporary measure, but they have employed new doctors and the boundaries have stayed the same,” he added. “I believe that if the same administration returns in May, the changes to Withybush as a rural general hospital will come into fruition.”

Dr Kay Dearing, who has been instrumental in leading the fight to save sixth form education in the county, pointed out that fortunately Wales had not gone down the free school/academy route, but still faced cuts to the education budget.

Dr Dearing pointed out that Pembrokeshire’s ‘interesting’ schools reorganisation ignored good performances in A-level results and concentrated on poorer GCSE results.

She also stressed that the cost of building any new schools would come out of the county’s education budget.

“This will lead to less money being available to teach 11-16 year olds,” she added.

Organiser Jim Scott, who has set up a petition calling for Stephen Crabb to resign as patron of Mencap Pembs, claimed that the public sector, especially the NHS, is ‘being stripped away at every level’ under the present government.

“The struggle is between those who recognise that, and those who are furthering their own agenda,” he added.

Natalie Bennett got one of the biggest rounds of applause of the night. The UK Green Party leader told a receptive crowd that 2020 was ‘too far away.’

“We can’t allow this Tory government to cause more damage for the next four years,” she added.

“Communities are being hollowed out – that’s what austerity means.”

Ms Bennett said that improved local public transport was a major part of her party’s plans – something that resonated with a north county audience. She pointed out that poor public transport services meant that many everyday activities were impossible for some people.

“How can you even hold down a job? A third of job-seekers don’t have access to a car,” she added.

Building strong local communities was another main theme of her talk. Ms Bennett suggested that rather than shopping in supermarkets, ‘where 1p in the pound goes back into the area and the rest goes to tax havens’ people should buy from smaller local shops, where the money goes straight back into the local economy.

Other areas discussed included fuel poverty, which Ms Bennett claimed was the result of ‘lousy’ housing stock, and the ‘living wage’ introduced by the chancellor, which only applies to those over the age of 25.

Concluding, she described the Green manifesto as ‘the anti-UKIP philosophy.’

“Theirs is one of fear, ours is one of hope,” she added.

A detailed question and answer session led to members of the audience expressing concerns about a number of local and national issues, including one about the ‘very successful disenfranchisement of young people’ through a combination of zero hour contracts, low pay and lack of eligibility for union support.

In response Ms Bennett discussed the SOAS cleaners’ strike in UCL, only to be told that ‘that was Bloomsbury, this is Pembrokeshire.

Dr Dearing pointed out that in Pembrokeshire this disenfranchisement had not been helped by consulting school pupils on the sixth form changes, then ignoring their input.

Regional Assembly candidate Alice Hooker-Stroud discussed her aims for the Assembly, including reinvigorating a ‘stale’ government.

“What we see is lots of lovely ideas coming out, and high targets to be met, but not much is coming through,” she added.

“We have a strict climate change target, but emissions are still going up.”

As someone brought up in west Wales, Ms Hooker-Stroud described seeing communities ‘broken apart.’

“The danger in the long term is that we stop feeling we should care for each other,” she said.

Constituency candidates Frances Bryant and Val Bradley joined the Welsh Greens leader to answer questions on local issues, including the party’s plans to reinstate services at Withybush, and solutions for the housing shortage in the area.

Closing the meeting Ms Hooker- Stroud reminded the audience that this election was: “the best chance yet of getting our first Green Assembly Member, here in mid and west Wales.”

News

Welsh Lib Dems urge First Minister to return dodgy donation

Published

8 hours ago

May 2, 2024

Tom Sinclair

THIS week in the Senedd, the Welsh Liberal Democrats have urged the First Minister to return the £200,000 donation he received from a company linked to environmental crimes.

Speaking to the Senedd on Wednesday, party leader Jane Dodds MS urged FM Vaughan Gething to return money donated to his campaign by Dauson Environmental, a refuse and recycling business owned by David John Neal.

Mr Neal received a 3-month suspended prison sentence in 2013 for illegally dumping waste at a conservation site on the Gwent levels.

His companies Atlantic Recycling and Neal Soil Suppliers were also prosecuted and given fines and costs of £202,000.

Then in 2017, Mr Neal was given another suspended sentence of 18 weeks, with fines and costs of £230,000 after failing to remove the waste.

The Welsh Lib Dems have called on the FM to return the donation, as part of wider calls for a shift away from the influence of “big money” in Welsh politics.

Commenting, the Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats Jane Dodds MS said:

“This entire episode has casted a dark shadow upon Welsh democracy and has rightfully led to many questioning the integrity of Vaughan Gething’s leadership campaign and the way our democracy works here in Wales.

Unfortunately for many of us this is hardly surprising, as our political system has been broken for quite some time now.

A system that empowers the elite donor class whilst simultaneously shutting out the voice of the voter is a perversion of democracy itself.

This is why our wider goal must be to remove the influence of ‘big money’ from Welsh politics once and for all.

We cannot have another government that prioritises the interests of its financial benefactors over those of the Welsh people.

We need to take a firm stance in rooting out the influence of cash in Welsh politics, for the sake of our communities we must start prioritising their interests and needs instead of having more self-serving politicians.”

News

Council seeking legal advice to address Withyhedge enforcement

Published

8 hours ago

May 2, 2024

Tom Sinclair

PEMBROKESHIRE County Council says it has sought legal advice and is contemplating legal proceedings against Withyhedge Landfill operators RML, in regards to the ongoing odour issues at the site.

The Council intends to ask the Court for an injunction requiring RML to abate the public nuisance odour arising from the landfill. Failure to comply with the injunction would be contempt of court, which carries a penalty of up to two years’ imprisonment and unlimited fine.

Following significant work undertaken by RML the Authority is disappointed that the problem has not been resolved and residents continue to be impacted by the odour.

Working in collaboration with Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and Public Health Wales (PHW), we fully appreciate that the communities affected cannot tolerate this any longer.

NRW announced that the first set of deadlines for the completion of actions to tackle the ongoing odour issues at Withyhedge Landfill have been met, one week on following the issuing of further enforcement action on 18th April.

This will be closely monitored by NRW to ensure the operator complies with all the actions set out in Notice by 14 May.

It was deemed appropriate to wait until the operator had carried out mitigation to comply with the enforcement requirements by NRW prior to considering this additional action.

To that end, on 26th April 2024, the Council served RML with a letter of claim and invited them to give legally binding undertakings to abate the odour nuisance or face legal proceedings. The Council also asked for disclosure of documents relevant to the proceedings, including records of waste brought in or removed from the landfill.

The Council has given RML until 14th May 2024 to respond to its letter of claim. This aligns with the current deadline set by NRW under its enforcement notice.

Pembrokeshire County Council Chief Executive Will Bramble welcomed the move. He said: “We are extremely disappointed that RML has not delivered the necessary action to stop the completely unacceptable smells from the site.

“We fully support the additional enforcement action being taken by NRW and continue to work closely with them to do all in our power to correct the situation.

“Our intention to ask the Court for an injunction requiring RML to stop the odour nuisance arising from the landfill, is another part of our collaborative approach. The smell from Withyhedge is having a major impact on residents and visitors. This situation has gone on too long and it is unacceptable.”

News

Beautiful, funny and lovely: Family pay tribute to Sian Batchelor

Published

11 hours ago

May 2, 2024

Tom Sinclair

THE family of a woman has paid tribute to a “beautiful, funny, lovely person.”

Sian Batchelor, aged 32, was found on a beach near Pennar, Pembroke Dock on Tuesday evening, April 30^th, 2024.

Her family has issued a statement to say: ‘We are devastated by our loss. Sian was a beautiful, funny, loving person. We will treasure the good times we had with her.

“We would now like time to grieve and would ask to be given privacy in which to do so.”

The circumstances surrounding Sian’s death are being investigated and police would like to hear from anyone with information, sightings of Sian or contact from Sian, between Thursday April 25 to Tuesday April 30.

Police can be contacted either online at: https://bit.ly/DPPContactOnline, by emailing [email protected], or by calling 101. If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired text the non-emergency number on 07811 311 908.

Quote reference: DP-20240430-284