NEWS

PORTHCAWL COVID 19 STRATEGY GROUP

The Group continues to help the community. Over the winter months our volunteers assisted Porthcawl Medical Centre with marshals for the flu vaccination and with the current roll out of the covid vaccination. Volunteers continue to shop for the vulnerable in the COOP on a daily basis. The COOP have employed some of our volunteers within store and increased their home delivery system to meet the demand. Our Ward Managers continue to assist with the more vulnerable in Porthcawl, arranging collection of prescriptions and delivery of medication. We have implemented a project to assist school children with home learning and some of the older residents with tech equipment for communicating with family and friends. We are extremely grateful to the community for donating old computers and laptops, which our Techguy Steve Flett has been upgrading with the necessary hardware and software compatible for use in Schools. We are grateful to our MP Jamie Wallis for the supply of laptops for the community. We have been raising funds to upgrade all of this equipment and this will be ongoing on our Justgiving page. We have received substantial donations to our Justgiving campaign. If you can help or need help please contact us on www.Porthcawlc19s.weebly.com or on 771457.

Kerry Marlow

HUGE THANKS TO OUR VACCINATION TEAMS

Last month, the Welsh Government hit the first milestone in its vaccination programme of offering a first vaccination to the top four priority groups in Wales. I would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to all involved in the vaccine roll out, for their incredible efforts. The Health Minister has said that take-up amongst these groups has been incredibly high. It was a pleasure to be invited by the local health board, Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB, to visit Bridgend’s community vaccination centre to see just a small part of the set-up. During my brief visit, the centre was busy with lots of people coming and going. Speaking to some of the vaccination team, it was good to hear that there were no, no-shows, and that everyone who was given an appointment had their vaccination. It was very well organised, very efficient and I would like to thank all the team there for their truly heroic efforts. The Welsh Government is already looking ahead to meeting its next milestone as it now moves its focus to priority groups five to nine. They will start by offering appointments to people in groups five and six.

Carwyn Jones, MS for Bridgend

CARWYN JONES MS for Bridgend

NEWS FROM THE MAYOR OF PORTHCAWL

Porthcawl...Love it, don’t trash it continues to evolve adding innovative new ideas targeting plastics/ litter with volunteers working from the new Rest Bay hub supported by BCBC cleaner streets newly created Community Engagement Team. New initiatives include: trialing several large recycling bins in specific areas to see how various recyclable litter can be collected. This will then lead into the Big Fish Project working with Naturequest which involves collecting all hard plastics from the beach and seafront areas and placing for collection in a giant dolphin like structure made from metal and other forms of recycled material which will be based along the seafront. It is planned to employ an artist to make the structure and it is hoped that the comprehensive school will be involved. The team has 8 months to put the project together for a funding application. New Hi Viz tops with the “Love it, don’t trash it “ logo enhances the project identity and also recognises the work the volunteers are undertaking. Thank you to our volunteers, residents, visitors and cleaner streets team for your support for this project which has made a huge difference in Porthcawl and which is now being rolled out throughout the borough.

COUNCILLOR BRIAN JONES Mayor of Porthcawl

VACCINATION SUCCESS

As I write this, Wales has just been declared the first of the UK nations to have vaccinated everyone within the top four priority groups. That’s over 100,000 people across the Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board region, more than 30,000 of whom are residents of Bridgend County Borough. This fantastic result is a sure sign of confidence in our national approach to dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Following a temporary closure to allow vaccination centres to be repurposed and for suitable stocks of the vaccine to be prepared, work is underway on phase two of the programme, which is focusing on the next set of priority groups. As part of this, a second vaccination centre has been established at Maesteg Sports Centre to join the existing facility based at the Ravens Court building in Bridgend. Mobile testing also continues to be available, and I strongly urge people to keep using this wherever appropriate. Even with the vaccine rolling out, it is going to take some time before the pandemic is confirmed as being finally over, and we are going to need to continue to follow official guidance for some time yet. To find out more, visit the coronavirus page at the council’s website.

COUNCILLOR HUW DAVID Leader of Bridgend County Borough Council Tel 01656 643643 www.bridgend.gov.uk

NEW ROAD IMPROVEMENTS FOR HEOL MOSTYN

Work will start on road safety improvements later this month at Heol Mostyn in Pyle. The £540,000 improvements will focus on the junction with the A48, and are being carried out as part of the development of an all-new community recycling centre on the Village Farm Industrial Estate. Designed to improve congestion and increase the flow of traffic around the estate, the works will introduce a new dedicated lane for turning into and out of Heol Mostyn, a new traffic island, traffic signals and full carriageway resurfacing. At the same time, the new recycling centre will feature bays for 24 cars at a time, and on-site queuing capacity for 72 vehicles. With a split-level system enabling access to higher-sided recycling containers and bypass lanes to allow better movement, the site will also feature a re-use shop similar to the one based at the Maesteg community recycling centre, which is run by Wastesavers – a really useful facility which ensures that items in good condition can be resold at low prices to benefit local good causes. Both the road safety improvements and the new recycling centre should be ready for use this summer – for more information, visit the recycling page at www.bridgend.gov.uk

COUNCILLOR HYWEL WILLIAMS Deputy Leader Bridgend County Borough Council Tel: 01656 643643 www.bridgend.gov.uk

BACK TO THE FUTURE?

How many of you remember the Promenade Princess? This was the brightly painted land-train, which used to run along Porthcawl’s seafront up to Rest Bay during the summer. It was a source of great excitement for the children on board and many of the mums, dads, grans and grandpas also on the train secretly enjoyed a nostalgic trip back to their own childhoods. I am told that for many years there was another train that ran on tracks along the edge of Salt Lake parallel to the Eastern Promenade. It even had its own “tunnel” through a very unrealistic-looking rocky hillside. That train was relegated to the scrap yard decades ago but the Promenade Princess is far more recent, finally ending its runs in 2008. So news that BCBC has advertised for an operator to run a similar train while welcome – and fun – is not a replacement for the lost Maritime Centre. BCBC needs a modern, ambitious tourism strategy for the borough, which recognises the role Porthcawl should play in this under-exploited part of the Welsh economy. Treating it as a convenient corner of Wales to help Welsh Government meet its housing targets is not that strategy.

SUZY DAVIES MS Welsh Conservative Party www.suzydavies.com

MAKING SURE PUPILS DO NOT MISS OUT

Thousands of devices ranging from laptops and PCs to Chromebooks and tablets have been distributed to schools since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. As part of Welsh Government’s Hwb project, local schools have taken receipt of more than 4,500 new devices since February 2020, and a further 2,000 are scheduled to be provided by March 2021. The equipment is designed to be used both within schools and at home to support pupils who may not otherwise have access to computers or WI-FI. The Hwb project is supporting Bridgend County Borough Council’s efforts to ensure that children can benefit from a continuity of learning despite the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. This has resulted in the purchase of more than 500 new laptops, 300 dongles for home internet access, and the rebuilding of 550 older laptops. As a result, no child has had to miss out on their education while staying safe at home, and they have been able to remain in touch with teachers and friends. These are some of the most challenging circumstances that schools have ever had to face, and I would like to congratulate everyone who has helped to deliver this project for local children.

COUNCILLOR CHARLES SMITH Cabinet Member for Education and Regeneration Bridgend County Borough Council 01656 643643 www.bridgend.gov.uk

NEW SCHEME HELPS PEOPLE INTO JOBS

I have written to hundreds of businesses urging them to offer young people placements under the UK Government’s Kickstart Scheme. This has been set up to enable employers to take on young people aged between 16 and 24, who are on Universal Credit, in a six-month placement, which is fully funded by the UK Government. This will cover 100 per cent of the age-relevant National Minimum Wage, National Insurance and pension contributions for 25 hours a week. Employers can top up the hours if they choose and they will also receive a £1500 grant per placement to cover the set-up costs. In return, employers will give young people valuable experience of work while helping their long term prospects with things like career advice, support for interviews and also teaching them new skills. I hope employers will take advantage of this new scheme, which has just opened to applications. This is a chance to have young people work in your business whilst giving them a chance to gain experience of a working environment. “Those businesses interested should get in touch with me on my e-mail, which is Jamie.Wallis.MP@parliament.UK I will give them whatever assistance I can with the application process.

JAMIE WALLIS MP for Bridgend