PENARTH DAILY NEWS

The strange moving lights photographed in the night sky last night as posted on the NextDoor website   by a Llandough resident

There’s speculation on some social media sites this morning about strange unexplained shapes/lights in the night sky, apparently spotted over Penarth Town Council’s HQ at West House on Stanwell Road and above the Conservative Club which is next door .

Similar lights were also spotted by a local resident living in Llandough who shot video of them circling in the night sky and posted them on the Nextdoor website  .

Correspondents in the St Augustine’s Ward also say they  too saw the lights. – but some eyewitness estimated that the lights were in fact “over Rhiwbina”.

A “Nextdoor contributor photographed the mystery lights from Rhiwbina

The objects do not seem to be beams of light projected from the ground, as there are no columns of light visible beneath them. However some social media correspondents postulate that the lights could have been   lasers being projected from a “circus in Leckwith”.

The Lloyds Bank in Penarth was  one of the longest-established banks in the town

The vacant premises of Lloyds Bank in Windsor Road, Penarth are to become a retail outlet and offices .

The Vale of Glamorgan Council’s planning department has approved a scheme for the redevelopment of the interior of the premises which include the ground floor where the banking hall was situated and other areas of the building which are to become “offices”.

Lloyds Bank in  Penarth closed two years ago and was the last-but-one of the major banks to leave the town

In addition to Lloyds, Penarth has now lost Santander, Barclays, NatWest and HSBC.

The former “Clay Pit” restaurant on Plassey  has now become “Spice Delight (Photo K.O’S)

A new restaurant is poised to open in Penarth tomorrow (Friday May 17th 2024) in premises formerly occupied by “The Clay Pit”.

The new eaterie is called  “Spice Delight”and is located  on Plassey St .

“Spice Delight” is holding a “Grand Opening” tomorrow evening and plans thereafter to be open 7 days a week.

The interior of the premises has undergone total refurbishment with just some finishing touches on the exterior signage awaiting completion.

The Upper Cosmeston Farm development with 576 homes would be built right up to the cliff edge.

Members of the Vale of Glamorgan Council’s Housing Scrutiny Committee were told tonight that the council is bidding to take over the huge 576-home Upper Cosmeston Farm development from the Welsh Labour Government.

[The Welsh Labour Government bought this large tract of prime farmland – on the Southern border of Penarth – as part of its grandiose but ill-advised scheme to build a massive concrete tidal barrage across the Severn Estuary from Lavernock Point to the Somerset Coast. When that impractical scheme collapsed, the Welsh Labour Government then earmarked the land for housing – insisting that half of it should be for social housing and has invited bids to take on the project and complete it.]

Upper Cosmeston Farm is one of the designated locations

There are now 5 bidders (including the Vale Council) in contention to take over the huge Upper Cosmeston housing project – including the Vale of Glamorgan Council which is working on its bid in association with  Newydd Housing Association, United Welsh Housing Association & Edenstone Homes.

The Vale Council is proposing to build at Upper Comeston what it calls  a ” Net Zero Carbon village with enhanced Placemaking Standards”. The successful bidder is to be announced in the middle of next month (June 2024).

Meanwhile, some members of the Housing Committee were miffed to discover that, elsewhere in the Vale,  council officers had failed to inform them that the council was going into the open market and was spending public money on buying-up a number of existing private houses –  so that they can be let out to council tenants as “council houses”.

It also emerged tonight,  that last year (2023) the council snapped-up 23 private houses for renting out to its favoured council tenants .

The Vale Council is also  currently negotiation to buy-back a number of former council houses that had once been bought by former tenants under the popular Conservative “Right to Buy” scheme.

Cllr Stephen Haines (Conservative St Athan)

Cllr Stephen Haines told Vale Housing officers that:-

“It’s  a little strange because you recently purchased 20 houses in St Athan  at cost of £4,100,000 …  Yet  those houses did NOT come to committee.”

Cllr Haines pointed out:-

“It’s a sizable sum of money. A decision was made. No one knew about it. It just happened. And it’s not even in any records.”

A council officer claimed that council officers had what he called a “Housing Acquisition Policy” had been adopted in 2020 –  to “delegate power to the strategic housing board to acquire housing from the market as necessary” .

Cllr Haines was not satisfied with that answer. He said:-

“Sizeable sums of money being spent should come to the housing committee” 

He said that the acquisition of these houses had not been mentioned in the previous meeting of the committee and he demanded that the officers should keep councillors fully informed on such acquisitions and that all purchases of private houses should come before the Housing Scrutiny Committee so that they could be “swcrutinised correctly”.

Evidently, however, the Vale Council Labour hierarchy and its officers would much rather carry on using Council Tax Payers’ money to  buy-up private homes and turn them into council houses WITHOUT their purchases being vetted by Conservative councillors in the – ironically named – Housing Scrutiny Committee.

Officers suggested that “Ward Members“ [ i.e. councillors representing the wards in which the buying up of private homes was being contemplated ]   could be “consulted” without any need to have the Vale Council’s controversial purchases of private homes being scrutinised in a full committee meeting.

Cllr Haines said “I’m happy for us not to push the recommendation, but as long as the officers understand that they should have consulted us “. He said the issue was  not the number of [private properties being bough by the councilt, but the “sum of money being spent without any scrutiny whatsoever“.

Cllr Susan Lloyd Selby (Labour Buttrills Barry) opposed Conservative Councillor Stephen Haines’s call for proper scrutiny of purchases of private houses by the  Vale Council

Acting – as ever – as Labour’s long-stop on the proceedings was Susan Lloyd Selby [Labour, Buttrills Barry] who is rapidly climbing up the Labour ladder and has just been appointed to the Labour-run Cardiff and Vale Health Board. She is seen by some as a potential rival who could de-throne council leader Lis Burnett .

Cllr Lloyd Selby moved to quash Cllr Haines’s sensible proposals. saying  “I’m satisfied with the assurances that officers have given around board member consultation, and also the delegations that are in place in relation to property acquisition. I don’t particularly see the benefit of these cases coming before committee”

The chair of the Vale of Glamorgan Council’s Housing Scrutiny Committee Cllr Amelia Collins (Plaid Cymru)

The Housing Committee chair Cllr Amelia Collins (Plaid Cymru) suggested a compromise recommendation that Ward Members would – in future be “notified” if the Vale Council was contemplating buying up private properties in their area – and this was agreed.

[PDN Note: This decision means that Vale Council Officers will now continue to have carte-blanche to use millions of pounds of Council-Tax-Payer’s money to buy up any private houses in the Vale – or in Penarth – that they fancy (and turn them into council houses) without having their decisions being properly scrutinised by  the full housing committee. ]

The missing chimney (arrowed) is no longer part of the skyline of Station Approach (PDN Archive photo)

The Vale of Glamorgan Council’s planning department has launched an Enforcement Investigation into the disappearance of a chimney at No 6 Station Approach, Penarth.

The previous position of said chimney is now discernable only by a small area of darker slates/tiles at ridge height (see below).

In fact, not only is the chimney from Number 6 missing – but it seems there has been what might be described as a “clean sweep” of almost all the original chimneys on that side of Station Approach. ….Only 2 appear to be still standing. (Photo K O’S)

New photographs taken of Station Approach today reveal that not only has a chimney from Number 6 gone missing – but a number of other chimneys along the terrace also appear to have mysteriously disappeared.

The Station Approach terrace is (just about) within the Penarth Conservation Area – which is marked by the green border in the map below:-

A map of the Penarth Conservation Area shows that No 6 Station Approach is just within the architecturally sensitive zone.

No 6 Station Approach is probably best known as the location of  Mo’s restaurant which is located on the ground floor of that building – but the owner of the premises is is not identified in the Vale Council Enforcement Notice.

The Vale of Glamorgan Council describes the alleged offence at No 6 as  “Removal of chimney without consent“ and classes it as “Unauthorised Demolition”.

Tbe council has yet to say what it plans to do about the other chimneys in Station Approach which have disappeared.

Meanwhile, it’s understood that no thefts of chimneys have yet been included in the South Wales Police monthly town crime statistics compiled for Penarth Town Council.

Overflying Penarth seafront last night – a RAF Boeing Chinook twin rotor helicopter

Rattling the windows along Penarth sea front yesterday evening was an unmistakable RAF Chinook heavy-lift helicopter – flying with its rear cargo door wide open.  

The characteristic thump-thump of its twin rotors gave ample warning of the big Boeing  helicopter’s approach,  giving phlegmatic local seagulls plenty of time to glide out of the flight path.

“It’s behind you” A Penarth seagull reluctantly moves over to give the Chinook a wide berth

The Chinook is reported to have  taken off from St Athan and touched down at Cardiff heliport .

The RAF has 80 Chinooks – like this one – on its books

The rear cargo ramp was left wide open, providing the loadmaster with a great vantage point.

At the rear of the big machine, the rear cargo ramp was still in its lowered position – fully open – where a crew member could be seen standing-up to see  Penarth Pier passing by beneath.

The flight from St Athan to Cardiff heliport took only 12 minutes

As there were no scheduled exercises due to be held in the area yesterday, the helicopter, – callsign “Lifter 1″ –    appeared to be on a military mission.

Welsh Labour Government First Minister Vaughan Gething squirming on the hook -following the appalling smells blighting Withyhedge in West Wales emanating from a firm which had donated thousands of pounds to him

The Welsh Labour Government’s beleaguered First Minister, Vaughan Gething, seemed to be squirming in the Welsh Parliament this afternoon when he was tackled about the appalling smell affecting residents of Withyhedge – allegedly coming from a landfill site operated by one of Gething’s generous donors.

The leader of the Conservatives Andrew RT Davies told Gething ” First Minister, the residents around the landfill site at Withyhedge are really having a nightmare of a situation inflicted on them. The smells, the odours are unbearable for residents in this part of West Wales. They’ve now had two public health warnings one in March and one as recently as Friday. About the stench and the impact that could have on public health in the area. It’s not unreasonable to ask the question … why are they having to put up with this awful situation that is seeming to go on forever and a day?”

Gething stonewalled – claiming it local residents should follow the guidance they’d been given – back in March – by the Welsgh Government’s Health regulator Public Health Wales and that it was up to the Welsh Government#’s environmental regulator Natural Resources Wales to take whatever action was required ”

Welsh Parliament Conservative Leader Andrew RT Davies pointed out that the owner of the smelly landfill site in Wes Wales is  David Neal of Dawson Environmental  Services- the company that had sponsored Vaughan Gething’s campaign for the Labour Party Leadership to the tune of £200,000. .

Andrew RT Davies then neatly tied the scandal of the enduring smell at Withyhedge to the whiff coming from Gething’s acceptance of £200,000 donations from the firm responsible for operating the landfill site  – which just so happens to be Gething’s financial donor, Dauson Environmental.

Mr Davies said “I’m sure you’ll want to put it on the record. First Minister. you do have a conflict of interest because the owner of this landfill site is David Neal of Dauson Environmental Services – and that is the issue here.”

Mr Davies told Gething that several deadlines on this project had been missed and went on to say “Regrettably, I have spoken to people over the last 10 days. One individual said at half past six in the morning the smell was so strong they were on all fours throwing their guts up. That was their words. … And last Friday, I was talking to another resident of the area who said that he’s actually had people not come into work on his farm because the smell is so atrocious”

Mr Davies “Now it’s all well and good you saying that monitoring measures have been put in place – but this has been going on now for many months., and it looks as if it could continue for many months more. That isn’t acceptable.

Mr Davies challenged Vaughan Gething face to fase – asking him “Would you want that on your doorstep in Penarth?  – Because if it’s not good enough for you, why is it good enough for the people in west Wales?

[ Gething is the Labour MS for Cardiff South and Penarth – and lives in the town]

Gething claimed in response “I’ve been clear about where I can or can’t act and where there’s a conflict of interest. I haven’t taken any action in this instance. I was responding to the member’s question about what’s happening. We’re making very clear that NRW as the regulator, need to take the required action. …  It is for them to undertake the required action to ensure that improvement is delivered.”

Andrew RT Davies noted that in his reply Gething had failed to declare an interest in this matter. He said ” No declaration First Minister! Any other member would have to make that declaration. I  hope you will make that declaration because that’s going to the core of what many people in the locality perceive as influenced and making sure that things aren’t remediated as quick as possible.”

MrDavies said emphatically “ That tip needs to shut. It’s been run very badly, and residents are being affected in their everyday lives. That is just not good enough. I wouldn’t tolerate it on my doorstep and I certainly wouldn’t tolerate it in my electoral area. “

He asked Gething “Will you send a clear message that the Welsh Government will deal with this will work with the regulator and the local authority to make sure that this is brought to a conclusion in a timely manner, and residents will not feel as if they’re in some environmental vortex that is dragging them down and making their lives a misery. Give that commitment and send that message if you would today so that the residents can have hope?”

Gething said “If I’m ‘conflicted-out’ then I can’t answer the question. Actually, my record that has been updated and it’s available from Dauson. That’s clear and it’s on the public record. There’s no – there’s no lack of –  there’s no lack of clarity or honesty about that.”

Gething continued ” The second point after being clear about the declaration is [ that] I don’t think it does prevent me from setting out that the government’s position is the issue needs to be resolved properly in accordance with the requirements of the regulator. And of course, as soon as possible. As I said in answer to your second question, it would not be acceptable in any community in the country for the issue not to be resolved, whether it’s in NRW needs to act to make sure that improvement is undertaken, and they have the assurance that has been completed. That’s my very clear expectation. If the regulator wants to talk to the government, they can of course speak to the Cabinet Secretary for climate change and Rural Affairs, but they would not need to come to me and if they did, I would have to tell them that I cannot that I cannot undertake any action in this matter, but I can set up the overall position that the government expects in any instance where action is required by NRW “”

Three times Gething was invited to declare an interest in his sponsors –  Dauson – . and three times he evaded doing so .

The Welsh Labour Government’s First Minister Vaughan Gething is being accused of “running scared”

The leader of the Conservatives in the Welsh Parliament, Andrew RT Davies, has today accused Welsh Labour Government First Minister Vaughan Gething of “running scared” of an independent inquiry into the dubious donations he received for his Welsh Labour leadership campaign.

Gething has refused to set up an independent inquiry into the donations – but there is now widespread concern on Labour benches in the Welsh Parliament about his alleged lack of judgenment in accepting the money

Andrew RT Davies (Conservative leader in the Welsh Parliament and MS for South Wales Central which includes Penarth) has written an article strongly critical of First Minister Vaughan Gething which appears on the website Conservative Home today 

In an article published today on the “Conservative Home” website, Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies says:-   

“Welsh Labour has, historically, had a level of discipline that has to be admired. They hardly ever go on record to criticise others within their tribe, let alone criticise the First Minister.

But since Vaughan Gething took office, that discipline has evaporated. He is embroiled in a donations scandal that is tearing his government apart.

Gething beat Jeremy Miles to become leader of Welsh Labour and, as a result, the First Minister of Wales. During his campaign, Gething raised over £250,000.

In a Welsh context, that is an absolutely colossal sum: In 2018, Mark Drakeford spent £25,000 during his leadership campaign. Carwyn Jones, who was in charge before Drakeford, spent less than £15,000.

Miles, Gething’s leadership rival, raised just under £60,000 for the battle. Despite having much deeper pockets than his competition, Gething won the contest only by 52% per cent to 48%.

It wasn’t so much the sum of the donations Gething received that has pushed Welsh Labour unity to the limit and made the activities of the First Minister national news across the UK, but the source of the cash.

Gething received £200,000 from Dauson Environmental Group, owned by a man who has been prosecuted for environmental offences and has even received suspended prison sentences. For companies dealing with waste and environmental issues, many of the relevant regulations are decided by the Welsh Government.

The owner of the group has business interests that will require planning permission, and Gething has lobbied the Welsh environmental regulator on his behalf, because the firm operates in some part within his Cardiff constituency.

Naturally, there have been questions about Gething’s judgement, not least from his own side, and about the perceived conflict of interest. His leadership rival, one of his backbenchers, a Labour council leader, and a sitting Labour MP are among those who have been prepared to put their concerns on record.

First Minister’s Questions descended into a farce last week when Gething was answering questions repeatedly on matters directly linked to his own donors. A Cardiff Senedd Member raised an issue around a taxi firm Veezu. The First Minister responded, praising Veezu for taking action on the issue – but failed to mention that Veezu donated £25,000 to him in February.

Then a Welsh Conservative raised an ongoing problem with Withyhedge landfill in Pembrokeshire, which is releasing an awful odour and causing substantial grief for thousands of local people. Withyhedge landfill is owned by a firm that’s part of the group that gave Gething the £200,000 donation.

This is untenable. But wait, there’s more. Another of the subsidiaries of the firm that gave the £200,000 donation managed to secure a £400,000 loan from the Development Bank of Wales (a taxpayer-owned bank overseen by the Welsh Government) last year. You’ll never guess who was economy minister, and therefore responsible for the bank, when that loan was made. That’s right. It was Gething.

All of this when, if you take a look at Companies House, the Development Bank of Wales is losing millions of taxpayers’ hard-earned pounds.

I’m not accusing the First Minister of wrongdoing. But a reasonable person might feel, when presented with these facts, that there are questions to answer here about what influence, if any, has been bought.

The First Minister of Wales is judge, jury and executioner when it comes to the Ministerial Code. So the Welsh Conservatives have tried to persuade Gething to appoint an independent person to investigate and give him a clean bill of health. This isn’t unheard of; in fact Carwyn Jones, the former First Minister, did exactly that during his time at the helm.

Gething has refused, point blank, to do the same. So last week we held a debate during our opposition time to get some answers and to give Labour the chance to give the people of Wales the answers they deserve. In his arrogance, he didn’t even show up to the debate. He appeared in the chamber shortly before it was time to cast his vote against giving the people of Wales answers.

This is a flavour of what we would see if Labour were to get into Downing Street. Gething, feeling that his party’s polling numbers look healthy, is displaying naked arrogance and contempt for the public.

But it’s not washing with the average punter in the street, and it clearly isn’t washing with people within his own party. With Welsh Labour at breaking point over this saga, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that another first minister may have to step down before the year is out.”

The Labour-run Vale of Glamorgan Council is now aiming to explain its way out of the disastrous findings of a deeply-embarrassing,  public opinion survey which has revealed just what Council-Tax-Payers really think about the council’s appalling performance.

The survey, called “ Let’s Talk About Life in the Vale” surveyed the views of 4,009 local residents and was first reported by PDN on April 16th 2024. It found that:-

• • Well over 70.7% of local residents surveyed did NOT think services provided by the Vale of Glamorgan Council were of “high quality”
  • 74.5% of local residents did NOT agree that the  Vale of Glamorgan Council “acts in the interest of local residents”
  • A whopping 83% did NOT  agree that the council takes “residents’ views into account when making decisions”
  • An entirely-predictable 83.6% did NOT “think the Vale Council services provide good value for money”.

Initially, the council had tried to blame these embarrassing results on the way in which “Life in the Vale ” survey had been carried out and asserted – sniffily –  that  “Surveys rely upon the respondent providing accurate information and as such, survey data should always be treated as opinion rather than fact.”

…However, the weasel words didn’t wash and the latest Vale Council internal report now concedes that the embarrassing data garnered in the ” Let’s Talk About Life in the Vale” survey is  – after all –  “robust”. 

The Vale of Glamorgan Council’s expensive own survey – called “Let’s Talk About Life in the Vale” – did not come back with the answers the Vale Council wanted to hear

Perhaps as a result of this, the Vale Council officers are putting forward new proposals to make the council’s decisions more palatable by “explaining” them to the public.

The new internal officer-report  concedes that the “Let’s Talk About Life in the Vale” survey results had shown there is “more work to be done in how the council explained its work and engaged residents in decision-making and was an area where attention must be focussed.”

This internal report concedes that there  is “a need to be more transparent about what the council was and was not able to do, especially when decisions the council had to take did not reflect the feedback sought on them” 

The internal council report also says ” Recent experience in setting the budget and priorities for the year ahead showed there was a need to do more to explain how financial constraints, legislative requirements, and increasing demand for Council services had a knock-on effect on the council’s ability to continue to deliver things that residents were used to and had come to expect.”

[The internal Vale Council report, however, does not suggest that the council should junk its unpopular policies and actually start doing what the voters want it to do]

The matter is to be discussed in the Vale Council’s Corporate Performance Scrutiny Committee on May 22nd