SPOTLIGHT Green flag awards, guided walks, Welsh National Opera and more

Out and about

WALK THE TALK Local storyteller Tamar Eluned Williams has released a Story Walk podcast for people to discover new routes around Cardiff – as a listen-as-you-walk adventure, or to just enjoy hearing stories from home.

Pathways/Llwybrau features varied routes in Cardiff , such as greenbelt areas and Coed y Felin woods. Each bilingual podcast will suggest a route for listeners to follow as a way of stepping into the stories.

“Responses so far have been wonderful,” says Tamar. “I’ve chosen stories rooted in Welsh mythology, with lots of transformations and fantastic creatures. It’s not a guided tour, but an aural journey.” For more: www.pathways-llwybrau.com

The enchanting Fforest Fawr Sculpture Trail is one of our favourite woodland walks

Cardiff Bay Barrage is one of 14 Green Flag spaces in the city

Landscape

GREEN SCENE Cardiff ’s parks and green spaces now boast a whopping 14 Green Flags. Forest Farm Nature Reserve and Hailey Park have been presented the prestigious accolade for the fi rst time, meaning a total of 14 parks and green spaces managed by Cardiff Council now hold this coveted international recognition.

Bute Park, Cardiff Bay Barrage, Cardiff Bay Wetlands, Cathays Cemetery, Flat Holm Island, Grange Gardens, Heath Park, Parc Cefn Onn, Roath Park, Rumney Hill Gardens, Thornhill Cemetery and Victoria Park have all retained their existing awards.

“Cardiff now has more Green Flag-standard spaces than anywhere else in Wales,” says Cabinet Member for culture and leisure, Cllr Peter Bradbury. For more: www.keepwalestidy.cymru

© @JESSIEANNLEWIS Everybody’s talking about… ALL AWARD At the 2020 Bafta Cymru Awards in October, which, for the fi rst time ever, were held virtually, there were plenty of local success stories.

His Dark Materials, much of which was fi lmed in Cardiff ’s Wolf Studios, won three awards. In My Skin received two awards, with its writer Kayleigh Llewellyn – who grew up a few streets away from the Cardiff location where In My Skin was fi lmed – also gaining a victory. Siân Jenkins, who Space or Mine’ project, helping to bring positivity to the streets. The response was overwhelmingly uplifting.” The prints can now be placed in a sunny spot in your house, and 20 per cent of divides her time between Cardiff and London, won her second Costume Design award for Eternal Beauty, and Original Music was awarded posthumously to Pontypridd composer Jonathan Hill for The Long Song.

The awards, hosted by Alex Jones, honoured excellence in broadcasting and production within fi lm and television in Wales and by the Welsh in UK productions and inspire the next generation of creative talent. For more: www.bafta.org/wales

Art

MOMENT IN THE SUN We’ve all experienced that little feel-good party that happens in our brains when someone fl ashes a big smile at us. When you smile, the world often smiles back.

Suzanne Carpenter of Cardiff surface pattern design studio The Patternistas took on that mentality during the original lockdown and developed a Kindness is Catching design, which was turned into a billboard and poster campaign around the city.

The public response, she says, was so great, that The Patternistas have created a print of the design, so that people can keep the message in their homes.

“The pattern of sunshine smiles felt like the perfect antidote to the general anxiety about spreading the virus. We rolled out our campaign as part of the Build Hollywood/Jack Arts ‘Your profi ts will go to Velindre Hospital. For more: www.patternistas.co.uk

The Kindness is Catching campaign spread joy around the city, and now it’s been made into a print

Photography

SMOKE SHOW With a Humans of New York vibe, 16-year-old photographer Eddie Gwilliam takes to the streets of Cardiff and snaps portraits of interesting strangers he spots. We loved this one, taken at Cardiff market, so much that we wanted to share it with our readers. Can’t wait to see more, Eddie. For more: @e_gwilliam_photography

Charity

WHOSE COAT IS THAT JACKET? The Blancot Project gives refugees and asylum seekers in Cardiff the opportunity to build their employability and language skills through designing and tailoring winter coats. The sustainable project – run by tailor Catherine Davies, founder of Teilwr Bach, in collaboration with Oasis Cardiff – sees each coat made from a vintage Welsh blanket, with the undercollar and lining created from snooker table off -cuts and locally sourced end-of-roll fabric. And because of the zero-waste ethos of the project, the scraps have been made into lavender hearts, draught excluders and hot water bottle covers which are for sale on Oasis’s website, with all proceeds going back into the project to provide more training opportunities. For more: www.oasiscardiff .org / www.teilwrbach.com

The Blancot project saw refugees in Cardiff making coats out of vintage Welsh blankets, which sold out instantly

© ARCHIE ARCHIBALD @JARCHIEPHOTO

Sport

FUND AND GAMES A Cardiff gymnastics club is doing cartwheels after young members celebrated its 101-year anniversary by raising vital funds. More than 35 young people, aged between four and 15, took part in a ‘101 Challenge’ – choosing to do 101 of an activity, such as holding a handstand for 101 minutes, during the course of the month. The Cardiff Central Youth Club located on Ocean Park, has been astounded with the response which has seen members raising over £4,500.

The eff orts were led by coaches, one of them being Leah Lloyd whose sons Noah and Jacob train at the club.

“We had grand plans for celebrating our 101 years of providing sporting, health and wellbeing activities for the residents of Cardiff ,” says Leah. “But sadly, these had to be put on hold due to the pandemic. Our young gymnasts were keen to give back to the club and took on this challenge with such passion to help ensure the sport they love can continue.” For more: www.cardiff centralyouthclub.co.uk

Throwing shapes: Noah and Jacob, with dad Andrew, helped to raise thousands for their gymnastics club

Music

ALL TOGETHER NOW All three Welsh National Opera Youth Opera groups have come together for the fi rst time to perform a poignant piece that is refl ective of the times we live in.

Over 80 singers aged between six and 18 from South Wales, North Wales and Birmingham joined forces and performed I Shall Not Live in Vain, by Ruth Morris Gray, which was released on WNO’s website in September. The song is set to an Emily Dickinson poem which was originally written in the 19th century but conveys a hopeful message of compassion that is especially relevant today.

The necessity of performing online due to lockdown restrictions has created the opportunity to bring together all of the WNO Youth Opera groups – Cardiff ’s WNO being based in Wales Millennium Centre – from across the UK for the fi rst time. The WNO Youth Opera For more: sing up a storm www.wno.org.uk

Covid-19 – What is the Job Support Scheme (Open)?

Sarah Alford of BERRY SMITH LAWYERS explains...

As the Coronavirus pandemic continues, thousands of employers and employees have continued to suffer financially. A new Job Support Scheme (JSS (Open)) came into effect on 1 November 2020 and will run for a period of six months. This new scheme replaces the furlough scheme which ended on 31 October 2020. There is a separate Job Support Scheme (Closed) for employers that have been legally required to close their premises as a direct result of Coronavirus restrictions. This article considers the JSS (Open).

What is the JSS (Open)? The intention of the JSS (Open) is to safeguard jobs in businesses that will face a lower demand over the winter months as a result of Covid-19. Therefore, where employers are considering making redundancies, they are being encouraged to keep employees in work but on reduced hours. Am I eligible for the JSS (Open)? l In order to be eligible under the scheme, an employee must be on their employer’s PAYE payroll between 6 April 2019 and 23 September 2020. l For the first three months of the JSS (Open), an employee must work at least 20% of their usual hours. The employer will be liable to pay the employee for these hours worked at the employee’s normal contractual salary. After three months, the government may consider increasing this threshold of hours worked. l For those hours not worked, the employee will still be paid but only up to 66.67% of their normal pay (based on the employees’ normal contractual salary) – 5% will be paid by the employer and 61.67% will be paid by the government. The government’s contribution will be capped at £1,541.75 a month. l The grant available under the JSS (Open) will not cover Class 1 employer national insurance contributions or pension contributions which will need to be paid by the employer. l Each employee will not have to work the

Sarah Alford

same work pattern each month, however each short-time working arrangement must last for a minimum period of seven days. l Those employees on the JSS (Open) cannot be made redundant or given notice of redundancy. l The new working arrangements must be agreed in writing between the employer and employee. Would I still be eligible even if I haven’t been furloughed previously? Yes, employees who haven’t previously been furloughed will still be eligible to be put on the JSS (Open). n

Note – Information correct as of 23 October 2020

Please contact us if you would like more information about the issues raised in this article or any other aspect of employment law at 02920 345 511 or employment@berrysmith.com