Welsh Blogs.com

Grants of up to £2000 towards cost-cutting home insulation are on offer for qualifying households. The initiative is being promoted by Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s specialist Home Energy Officer as part of an ongoing campaign to provide affordable heat and “green” measures for families. Those who have children under the age of 16 and are in receipt [...]...

Free insulation is being offered to those over the age of 70 in Rhondda Cynon Taff in a bid to reduce the cost of energy bills and also protect the environment. Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s specialist Home Energy Officer is promoting the initiative, which is open to homeowners or tenants who have someone over the age of 70 resident in their home. On offer regardless of income, insulation is the easiest way to make your home warmer in summer and cooler in summer. As energy bills continue to rise, the focus of the Home Energy Officer is to ensure residents have access to schemes that help reduce their fuel bills to heat their homes affordably while also protecting the environment by reducing fuel consumption. Free insulation is still offered, free of charge, to those in receipt of...

According to Welsh Assembly Government First Minister, Wales is rising to the challenge of the changing world of energy and leading the way in the UK. At an Energy Summit this week the First Minister said that since he last met delegates at the annual summit, the pace of change in the energy sector has continued to accelerate at European, UK and Wales levels culminating last week with the publication of the Wales Renewable Energy Route Map, the first to be published by a UK administration. Mr Morgan said: The energy world has been a tremendously busy one, both at project and policy level, since we last met a year ago. The key to our aims is to maximise Wales’ contribution to the abatement of global warming, not to produce a set of strategies that make the Welsh figures look good. I am...

Aberdare Blog started as an experiment in communicating views of Aberdare and views from Aberdare. It remains an experiment in communication open to participation. Jane from Mountain Ash blogged the lead story on the Mountain Ash Opencast plans this week. Why not blog your own story from Aberdare today ? Here is a list of the Top 100 tags used to describe posts on Aberdare Blog… if we haven’t blogged on a subject close to your heart, you can fix that yourself. If you prefer to blog a story with photos or video, that’ll do nicely thank you, send them today. abercynon aberdare Aberdare Town aberdare_park Ann Clwyd Baptists bbc bbc_wales Books Caerphilly capitalism cardiff Ceredigion Chapels charity christine_chapman christmas christmas_2005 Church coal comedy...

Jane from Mountain Ash blogs here with a story on the proposed opencast plans for Mountain Ash… We had a knock at the door last night from a nice man called Ian. It was -3*C and he was going door to door with a petition. Ian was collecting residents signatures for his petition to raise awareness of one anonymous landowners intent to dig for coal on a small plot of land behind the graveyard in Caegarw, Mountain Ash. We had been wondering about the sounds of heavy machinery and the Apex Drilling vans seen on our street over the past few weeks. It appears that the plot of land was sold by Lord Aberdare in the ’60’s to this man and he has twice been denied permission to excavate the coal from a 100 year old tip. We understand that the land has a preservation order on it...

At Prime Minister’s Question Time last week, Ann Clwyd the MP for Aberdare and Cynon Valley, invited Gordon Brown to congratulate the miners of Tower Colliery on their successful management of a coalmine … “despite the efforts of the Conservatives to shut them down” (Source: Hansard via TheyWorkForYou). Prime Minister Brown replied in kind … “I want to thank them for their efforts, proving that working people can get together and make a success of a project that other parties said would never work”. The lack of leadership and statesmanship in the Labour Party in its present configuration remind one of Nye Bevan’s words given in speech to the Labour Party conference on October 4, 1957. Bevan warned of the perils of sending a “British...

Amidst the frenetic flurry of stories on Tower Colliery this week, one story caught our eye as an insightful breathe of fresh air … John Redwood commented in his blog this week on the closure of Tower Colliery. He was Conservative Secretary of State for Wales at the time of the pit closure and subsequent buy-out. Without his enthusiasm for the project, it is doubtful whether the miners would ever have become owners of their own pits. Redwood blogs thus : When the miners arrived in my office, I think they were surprised by my enthusiasm for their cause, and by my explanation that their task was not to persuade me, but to work with me on our joint case to the Energy department and Coal Board to give them the opportunity to run the mine. As it meant being allowed to prove the Coal...

The Sustainable Development Commission today lays down tough conditions which a Severn barrage would have to meet in order to be considered sustainable. These include public leadership and ownership of the project, and full compliance with environmental legislation protecting the estuary. The Commission also outlined how a commitment to creating compensatory habitats should be seen as an environmental opportunity, combining climate change adaptation with coastal realignment plans to deal with increased risk of flooding. The Commission’s report, Tidal Power in the UK, draws on extensive research and public and stakeholder engagement to reach the conclusion that, the UK’s outstanding tidal resources could provide at least 10% of the country’s electricity through a...

HANDS OFF IRAQI OIL Come and hear the powerful stories of the Iraqi oil workers and trade unions resisting the military and economic occupation of their homeland . . . Tuesday 2 October at 7 pm WALLACE LECTURE THEATRE Main Building Cardiff University Park Place (opp. Student Union Building) Speakers- EWA JASIEWICZ UK rep for the Basra Oil Workers Union & founder member of NAFTANA, an organisation that builds solidarity with Iraqi workers. + Speaker from the Stop the War Coalition About the Ewa Jasiewicz: In 2004, Ewa Jasiewicz visited Iraq to build links between the anti-war movement and Iraqi trade unions resisting both occupation and the corporate take-over of their counrty. She became the UK rep for the Basra Oil Workers Union, a militant trade union resisting both the...

The use of hydrogen as a renewable fuel source came a step closer this month with the announcement that a pioneering hydrogen energy research and demonstration centre is to be built on the Baglan Energy Park. A University of Glamorgan project, the ‘Renewable Hydrogen Research and Demonstration Centre’ will demonstrate the viability and safety of producing hydrogen from indigenous renewable resources in Wales. This also addresses energy sources to address the issues of energy security, air quality and the reduction of green house gases. Worth £1.7 million, the Centre will become a world leading research facility and demonstration project integrating well proven renewable energy technologies (solar photovoltaic and wind) with hydrogen and fuel cell energy storage technologies. Prof...

TREBANOS SPRING CARNIVAL SATURDAY MARCH 24TH 2:00 PM COME AND JOIN IN THE FUN, A FANCY DRESS STREET CARNIVAL TO CELEBRATE -WALES - OUR COUNTRY, AND CULTURE AND OUR ENVIRONMENT. MUSICIANS AND DANCERS FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY . PRIZES FOR BEST ADULT AND CHILD FANCY DRESS. CHILDRENS ART CONTEST. FANCY BONNET PARADE AND CONTEST. THE PROCESSION WILL START 2:30PM AT THE BOTTOM OF GLYN MEIRCH ROAD, ALONG SWANSEA ROAD THROUGH TREBANOS, UP HEOL Y LLWYNAU AND BACK TO SWANSEA ROAD. TREBANOS HAS BEEN AT THE FOREFRONT OF OPPOSITION TO THE PROPOSED 48″ HIGH PRESSURE GAS PIPELINE RIPPING IT’S WAY THROUGH OUR WELSH COUNTRYSIDE. ALL ARE WELCOME TO EITHER JOIN IN OR JUST SPECTATE. BRING YOUR KIDS, YOUR PETS, YOUR HORSES AND PONIES, YOUR BIKES OR YOUR ZIMMERS !!!! FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL AFTER 6 PM...

Here’s a video clip of a paraglider ‘jumping off’ Rhigos Mountain yesterday. It’s near Craig y Llyn, the highest summit in Glamorgan. There are splendid views of Rhigos and Hirwaun from this lofty ledge. Tower Colliery is nearby, although it it expected to close this month. Jill Evans, Plaid Cymru’s Candidate for Rhondda in the National Assembly Elections, chose this location to give a press conference yesterday. The following statement was issued on behalf of Jill Evans’ office : “Plaid Cymru firmly believes that urgent and effective action is needed to tackle climate change. But the top priority must be given to energy conservation and efficiency. Then, renewable energy must come from several sources – hydro, solar, bio-mass and wind....

Your dog wants you to switch the lights out when you have finished in there.Check out these rather nice ads from this French energy...

I came across a couple of interesting pieces over the last couple of weeks that I thought I would share. The first thing is the What's In a Number 2006 Edition (320) of This American Life."Recently, the British medical journal The Lancet published an study which updated their estimate of the number of Iraqis who've died since the U.S. invasion. With that in mind, we revisit a show we did in 2005 about the earlier study published in Lancet estimating the number of Iraqi deaths. That study was mostly ignored in the U.S. Alex Blumberg revisits the original study and looks at the new one."Good research, unpalatable results.Now for bad research and really unpalatable results.Navajo's have been getting sick for decades, and their sheep have also been getting sick but instead of looking at what...