NEWPORT HAS CLEANEST STREETS

According to the Keep Wales Tidy, Newport and Monmouthshire top the list for cleaning up their streets. While Cardiff, and Blaenau Gwent have the most littered streets.

Volunteers from the charity inspected every county in the country across 12 months, and found Conwy to be the cleanest but that Blaenau Gwent was strewn with drink waste and dog fouling and Cardiff was littered with discarded fast food.

Only last year, Newport had been rated the Wales Dirtiest Area, with Monmouthshire coming a close 2nd.

The campaign group checking 3464 streets, the overall cleanliness has improved in Wales.

The most common litter volunteers found were smoking related which was found in an average of 86% of locations, the worst affected being Cardiff, Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly and Rhondda Cynon Taf.

EX-PLAID AM'S DAUGHTER NOW ON HIS STAFF

Daughter of Assembly Member Mohammed Ashgar, who defected from Plaid Cymru to the Conservatives before Christmas last year, because he wasn't allowed to employ his daughter, has her now officially on his staff.

Natasha Ashgar's name has appeared on the official list of AM support staff.

Ashgar the only ethnic minority AM, said that he left Plaid, because of their refusal to employ her daughter was 'the last straw'. Even

after her selection by an independent panel and offering to work for free, Plaid Leader Ieuan Wyn Jones refused to her as his assistant.

Plaid made this decision after the last AMs’ expenses, and put forth that no new family members should be taken on it's AM members.

Mr Asghar told the Western Mail: “Natasha is working for me as a volunteer – she is not being paid. She’s not giving up her bank job in London, and will be working for me on her days off, during holidays and at weekends.”

NEW HEAD OF HARTRIDGE LOOKS FORWARD TO CHALLENGE

Peter Jenkins is relishing the exciting challenges he faces in his new role as head teacher of Hartridge High School, according to Newport City Council. Working alongside him is new deputy head teacher Rob King. Both have taken over the top posts as Hartridge prepares for future changes, including a much-needed replacement school building.

The 51-year-old has joined the school after nine years as head at Ferndale community school where official inspectors described his leadership as dynamic and of high quality. Mr Jenkins said the opportunity to be part of a new team taking the school forward was one he could not ignore.

"Schools are going through transition to a skills-based curriculum which offers a lot of opportunities in terms of developing our youngsters."

Mr Jenkins was also enthusiastic about the new school building with work due to start this summer.

"It will give the children the very best facilities in Wales."

Duffryn High School Head Jon Wilson had previously held the post as an interim measure.

FORMER ART COLLEGE - NEARLY DONE & DUSTED

An exclusive interview with Bance Group developers CEO Dave Bance, has revealed that the Former Art College on the riverfront will be open as luxury apartments in June of this year.

Bance Group developers took over the listed building, and have been working on its restoration and redevelopment since 2007. With scaffolding being a permanent feature of the former Art College building it was undetermined when these luxury apartments would be completed. Issues of parking provision, and elaborate roof repairs on this listed building led to continued delays on completion of the luxury flats.

Dave Bance explains, that the development is due to complete in June, the luxury apartments, will be open for sale and to let – “It’s a unique building, a listed building, transferred flooring, glazed brickwork, we’re fusing that with contemporary living…there is no comparison on this building, if I said that it would similar to X,Y or Z, I’ll only be lying because it is a landmark building in a prime location, by the shopping centre, coach station and railway station”

The building also boasts a penthouse in the dome of the building, with a 360 view of Newport City. Savill in Bristol are the letting agent for the property, however they clarified that the apartments are currently not on the market.

When NCR News enquired over whether the Bance Group planned for any further investments in Newport, Dave Bance said that he maintained a commitment to South Wales and he had some projects in the pipeline, but nothing set-in-stone as they were currently premature.

NEWPORT STILL ATTRACTIVE TO BUSINESS - FIRST MINISTER

Newport West AM Rosemary Butler was given assurances by First Minister Carwyn Jones today that Newport is still a place where investment is taking place, despite a report from a firm of leading economic analysts which suggested that Newport is one of the worst affected cities in the UK during the current recession. The Centre for Cities think tank said recently that Newport was near the bottom of the league table when it came to new business start ups and lost private sector jobs. Mrs Butler raised the findings of the report during questions to the First Minister Carwyn Jones.

Rosemary Butler, Newport West: Will the First Minister comment on yesterday's report from the independent think tank "Centre for Cities" which suggests that Newport is one of the UK's biggest victims in the current recession. It's clear that more new businesses and more private sector jobs are needed, as well as a higher level of skills for the local workforce. Will the Welsh Assembly Government make a special effort to make sure that Newport doesn't get left behind once the recession ends?

First Minister: Newport is in quite a favourable position in terms of its geography - its proximity to the M4 and of course the main railway line. Even when we have gone through difficult times, there have been significant investment projects that have been secured in Newport - Admiral Insurance for example, the HSBC insurance services sector, the new power station, the new railway station, the new university campus of course, the city centre and of course Bettws School. So roughly 2,000 jobs have been created across the city between April 2008 and September 2009.It shows that Newport is still very much a place where investment is taking place and very much a place which is attractive for business.

www.thisisnotgwent.co.uk

SOMERTON 'TARDIS' SAVED BY FUNDING

It may not look like much, but the crumbling former Police Box in Somerton is much loved by the locals, who say it has fallen into disrepair due to lack of money to repair it's damaged concrete walls.

Help is now at hand for what's known locally as 'The Tardis' thanks for a £10,500 Cadw grant to contribute towards it's 'regeneration'.

The RASCAL centre in Somerton have been trying to raise money to repair the building and have recieved the boost as part of a dozen other conservation projects sharing £410,000 in Welsh assembly cash.

Heritage Minister, Alun Ffred Jones, said: "The range of buildings from this famous telephone box to a school and stables shows the rich variety of heritage sites we have in Wales and the range of sites that Cadw helps preserve.

The old police box is currently fenced off for safety reasons."These grant offers will ensure these important buildings are restored and maintained for the enjoyment of future generations."

Deborah Clark of the Regeneration Association Somerton Community at Large (Rascal), who made the application for the grant, said: "We're delighted to receive this money which will help restore and maintain this very popular local landmark.

"Everyone from this community loves this telephone box as do many people from further afield and we will now be able to ensure future generations can enjoy it too."



Paul Heaney

CITY CENTRE RETAIL SCHEME COULD BE BACK ON THIS SUMMER

The leader of Newport Council says a new developer to replace the ill-fated ‘friar’s walk’ in the city centre could be appointed this summer.

Speaking at the launch of the Newport 2010 festival, Councillor Evans explained that the compulsory purchase of property and land in John Frost Square should be completed by the end of march, paving the way to appoint a new retail developed a few months later.

“March will be the milestone for the compulsorypurchase” said the council leader.
“There is a lot of developer interest already and they’re looking at plans. We’re looking at hopefully getting a developer in towards the end of the summer”.

When questioned whether any new plans would be of a smaller scale, Mr Evans was in no doubt.

“It will be the same scale of development. People deserve to have something of that size. Newport needs a big centre, it’s no good having a tiny little development down there. We’ve got the area, we've got the population, we’ve got the infrastructure and we’ve got the car parks all ready to go.”

On a day that seen a big push to promote Newport’s features, assets and potential, the council clearly see no reason to dwell on the ‘Centre for Cities’ think tank report published earlier this week that see the outlook as ‘tough’ for this year’s Ryder Cup City.