Tag: 2022

The press release issued by the Welsh Government on 30 December 2022.

Whether you’re looking to swap from the car to a healthier and more cost-effective commute, thinking of taking a weekend stroll, or simply planning a bike ride with friends and family, there’s likely to be an opportunity nearby with more than 2000km of high-quality local walking and cycling routes already available across Wales.

Following months of public consultation and working closely with the Welsh Government, local authorities have published their Active Travel Network Maps, which include a comprehensive list of fully approved and accessible active travel routes, which can be accessed on Data Map Wales.

The maps bring together both existing routes as well as plans to deliver new and improved routes over both the short and long term with funding from the Welsh Government’s Active Travel Fund.

The 2023-24 funding round is now open for applications and the Welsh Government is encouraging local authorities to apply for funding from the £55m pot to help them realise their ambitions for active travel in their community.

Deputy Minister for Climate Change, with a responsibility for Transport, Lee Waters said:

Getting people out of cars for short journeys and encouraging them to walk or cycle instead is a huge challenge for us, but one that has to be met if we are to reach our net zero carbon emission target by 2050.

We need to create the right infrastructure and have the right routes in place so that people have the choice of walking and cycling for their everyday journeys – we need to make the right thing to do, the easy thing to do.

There is still a long way to go, but I’m pleased to see we’re moving in the right direction.”

The press release issued by the Welsh Government on 28 December 2022.

Community facilities across Wales are set to benefit from ‘crucial’ additional Welsh Government funding enabling them to complete refurbishment works.

The projects had struggled to stay within their original budgets due to rising costs of building supplies.

More than £303,000 will go towards additional funding for 5 larger projects.

In total 15 projects are receiving funding totalling £467,000 in this round of the Community Facilities Programme. This included £164,000 towards ten smaller projects, all receiving under £25,000 grants.

Small amounts of grant funding can provide a big change for community facilities.

The programme funds the purchase and improvement of facilities which provide opportunities for local people to improve their day to day lives.

The smaller projects include £13,000 towards making a woodland space at Bluegreen Cymru in Glanteifi Woods, Pembrokeshire more accessible all year round through new paths, a log burner and a covered area; £20,000 towards urgent repairs to the roof to prevent water ingress at St Thomas Church Hall in Clydach Vale, RCT; £11,000 towards upgrading the kitchen and the play space to create a warm hub during the winter months at Victory Church in Cwmbran; and £17,870 towards an extension to the workshop and energy saving improvements at Brighter Futures in Rhyl, Denbighshire.

The larger projects include £50,000 towards new windows to make the building more sustainable for energy costs at New Life Church in Cardigan, Ceredigion; £50,000 towards improving sound insulation and renovating an outbuilding into a flexible space for music, dance and arts workshops at Tabernacl Bethesda in Gwynedd; and £87,100 towards refurbishing a community hub and installing new windows to make it more energy efficient at Hirwaun YMCA in RCT.

Minister for Social Justice Jane Hutt said:

This additional funding is crucial to allow these larger projects to be completed so they can benefit communities across Wales.

Due to rising costs for materials they have seen their budgets squeezed as they neared completion. They wouldn’t have been able to carry out essential works like roof repairs, new windows and energy saving improvements if it wasn’t for our Community Facilities Programme.

I hope everyone gets to enjoy these community facilities once they are finished and look forward to hearing about their progress.

Stephen Johnson, sustainability co-ordinator at Brighter Futures in Rhyl, said the funding had made a massive difference to them.

Thanks to this funding we have been able to extend the workshop and can get more people into it,” he said.

We have been planning this for a long time, but now we are able to do it. It’s perfect timing as the numbers of people wanting to come are getting higher and higher.

He added:

The energy saving improvements have also saved us so much money with our bills. People don’t want to stay in their houses, so they are able to come here and keep warm. We have started staying open 6 days a week now.

Sue Lewis, the leading project officer on Aberporth Village Hall in Ceredigion, where work includes rebuilding 1 property and modernising and refurbishing an adjoining building, said they were hoping to be finished in time for Christmas next year.

This funding has basically made the difference between the project happening or not,” she said.

It’s going to completely transform our community. When it’s finished we will have this focal point in the village. It will be a warm and welcoming community hub that everyone can use.

Clyde Thomas, Lead Pastor at Victory Church in Cwmbran, said:

The funding provided will allow us to upgrade our front of house space, creating a great place to work, play and keep warm and fed.

With times becoming increasingly more challenging for many local families, the church seeks to be a valuable communal connection point offering hope and help to all.”

The press release issued by the Welsh Government on 27 December 2022.

The Welsh Government’s creative agency, Creative Wales reports £14.2m of production funding has been successfully awarded to 22 projects since its inception in January 2020, and spend from brands such as Lucasfilm, Netflix and Bad Wolf has generated over £155.6m of production spend into the Welsh Economy.

With shooting for big-budget films like Havoc which recently wrapped and Wales-made series like Willow, His Dark Materials 3 and the fourth season of Sex Education poised to hit screens, the local creative economy is growing proportionally year-on-year.

In the last two years alone, Wales Screen, Creative Wales’ location service, has received over 900 production enquiries from film and TV crews wanting to take advantage of the country’s world-class facilities.

In 2021, the Welsh screen sector saw a turnover of £575 million, a 36% increase from the year before. The 2021 British Film Institute’s Screen Report showed that investment in filmmaking from organisations like Creative Wales has resulted in a nine-fold increase in the country’s economic output.

Wales is being tipped to compete on the world stage by international production and film houses due to its vast choice of filming locations, a combined 822,705 sq feet of shooting space split across the country’s seven studios, and a skilled workforce.

A memorandum of understanding with BBC Wales and S4C is seeing an increased partnership working in Wales to tell uniquely Welsh stories and supporting independent production companies.  The partnerships have resulted in many positive developments in content development and actions on the skills agenda which all aim to build on contribution of the creative sector to economic growth.

Hitting our screens next year will be Wolf (Hartswood / BBC) a prime-time thriller rooted in Wales and Steeltown Murders (Severn Screen) which centres on the hunt to catch the killer of three young women in the Port Talbot area.

Following the announcement of the Ffilm Cymru Fund earlier this year, a collaboration between Creative Wales and Ffilm Cymru Wales – five independent film productions have been recently approved – with work on the first project ‘Timestalker’ underway.

A funding boost of £180,000 has also been made available to support the development of Welsh Language film and provide financial support to develop talent and ideas. The commitment is part of the Co-operation Agreement between the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru.

Looking to the wider creative economy, Creative Wales also offers support through development, skills and music funds. Figures from 2019 show an annual turnover of more than £2.2 billion, employing more than 56,000 Welsh citizens, growing and supporting the creative economy is a top priority of the Welsh Government.

In 2022 Creative Wales relaunched production funding, and for the first time included support for the games industry. This will allow us to compete internationally for a larger share of this high growth sector, offering financial support for companies choosing to produce games in Wales or for indigenous businesses to develop new Intellectual Property. This new funding stream was launched at Games  Development Conference in March as part of our annual mission to the San Francisco event at the heart of the industry.

A highlight for the Music sector was hosting the BBC Radio 6 Music Festival – with Creative Wales managing the fringe festival which showcased 150 artists at 29 events in 12 venues around the city of Cardiff.

Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport, Dawn Bowden, said:

We’ve seen unprecedented growth in the creative sectors over recent years and it’s been wonderful to see Wales’ unique locations on screen – and also to demonstrate the excellence of our world-class talent, crews and facilities. Our focus on skills will continue in the new year – to ensure that we can deliver the demand for skills and talent for this growing sector.