Rules banning shops selling non-essential items during Wales' firebreak lockdown will not be reversed, First Minister Mark Drakeford has said, reports the BBC.
On Sunday afternoon, Mr Drakeford said the implementation of the rules may be tweaked, but the "basic decision" behind the ban was the right one.
The ban on supermarkets selling non-essential items during Wales' lockdown will be reviewed after the weekend, First Minister Mark Drakeford has said.
The BBC is reporting this morning that pressure has mounted on the Welsh Government to reverse the decision to prohibit supermarkets from selling items such as clothes and microwaves.
The largest petition ever submitted to the Senedd has now passed 45,000 signatures.
Mr Drakeford said the Welsh Government was ensuring "common sense is applied"
Supermarkets have been told they can only sell "essential" items and must close parts of their stores which sell products such as clothes, shoes, toys and bedding during Wales' 17-day "firebreak lockdown".
A hospice is appealing to the public to help it continue to provide free patient care for cancer patients and those with other life-limiting illnesses in this area.
Nightingale House Wrexham is encouraging more people to come forward and join its hospice lottery to inject much-needed cash into providing vital services for patients with chronic diseases including cancer, motor neurone disease and heart failure.
The hospice continues to improve its services and introduced a new direct referral service during the first lockdown.
It also operates a 24/7 helpline for patients and their families who need support and guidance.
As 80% of the hospice’s services are funded by donations and fundraising activities the Nightingale House weekly lottery is a major lifeline for generating income.
Last week’s announcement on an all-Wales lockdown until November 9 means all retail outlets and cafes have closed once again making the hospice's situation ever more precarious.
Whilst Nightingale House was allocated a share of government cash to assist until previous income streams could be restored it did not receive all the funding it requires.
And it is unclear about what further money will be allocated to independent hospices in Wales during this latest national lockdown.
All face to face fundraising activities have either been abandoned or taken online due to the Covid-19 pandemic and as a result the lottery has become a beacon of hope for the hospice.
Thanks to the generosity of almost 16,000
people who have already signed up the lottery raised £535,000 in 2019. It costs £3.4m per year
to run Nightingale House.
Lottery manager Tracey Price said: “During these uncertain times playing the lottery in support of Nightingale House means so much to patients and their families as it is a vital source of income for us and provides consistency in our fundraising abilities to complement those organised events and other donations and fundraising efforts.”
Chair of the board of trustees Eluned Griffiths said: “The lottery has helped keep our heads just above water during the last seven months, providing essential cashflow for the hospice and remains a pivotal part of our fundraising, particularly as business support schemes disappear and we are left to face an uncertain financial future alone.
“The latest national lockdown for Wales means we will struggle once more as our overheads remain the same.
"We appeal to the First Minister of Wales to release the rest of the funds promised to us earlier in the year, as so far we have only received approximately a third of these and also to ensure the charity sector is not forgotten during this uncertain period.
“We are so lucky to have wonderful supporters who are digging deep to help us get through this difficult period. If there are family members who already support the lottery we would urge them to encourage others to take part and take the message into their workplaces and tell colleagues and friends about the lottery’s positive impact on our hospice care.
“Encouraging more people to sign up would bring us a sense of relief and provide stability to all those who benefit from our services and our hard working staff who continue to provide the care and support that patients with chronic illnesses are able to access 365 days a year.”
Finance Minister Rebecca Evans (pictured) says the job support measures set out by the Chancellor yesterday are ‘a step in the right direction’, but warns that the level of support does not go far enough to guarantee a decent income for workers.
The
Minister also expressed her disappointed at the news of a one-year spending
review and called on the UK Government to put an end to its "stop-start approach" to handling public finances.
Rebecca Evans said: “Whilst the Chancellor's announcement is a step in the right direction, I am calling on the UK Government to ensure that under this new scheme employers will not be any worse off than they were under the Job Retention Scheme.
“Throughout
the Covid crisis, the package of support we have provided to businesses in
Wales has been more generous than that in any other part of the UK. We are
still working through the details of the announcement, but we anticipate
that the support we will be providing to businesses who have to close as a result
of the two week firebreak will still be more generous than that provided in
England.”
The Minister continued: “We also need to see an end to the UK Government’s stop-start approach to handling public finances. This approach, coupled with a lack of multi-year investment, is deeply unhelpful and makes the task of managing our budgets an extremely difficult one.
“We need
long term spending commitments from the UK Government to enable us to continue
to protect the people of Wales from the worst impacts of the pandemic, and to
help us better manage our public services and start to lay the foundations for
our recovery.”
Denbighshire residents are being encouraged to exercise in their local areas during the upcoming lockdown.
As part of the
Welsh Government’s ‘firebreak’ lockdown which starts at 6pm today (Friday) residents are asked not to travel to exercise or visit beauty spots in the
county such as Loggerheads and Moel Famau country parks.
People are
advised to take exercise from their homes and the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley
AONB will be posting ideas for local walks throughout the lockdown period on
its social media account.
Cllr Tony
Thomas, the council’s Lead Member for Housing and Communities, said: “During
the lockdown residents are asked not to travel to exercise so we are
encouraging residents to take advantage of their local areas.
“Exercise is
vitally important for everyone’s wellbeing and from the coastal areas with
their beaches to the rural areas of the county there are a wealth of local
walks and opportunities for exercise.
“We are
encouraging residents to take advantage of their local area, to exercise from
home and to continue to practice social distancing and good hygiene to stop the
spread of the virus and protect our communities.”
Residents are
advised that the Countryside Centre at Loggerheads Country Park will be closed
during the lockdown.
Clwyd South Conservative MP Simon Baynes has sent a statement to llanblogger explaining why he voted against the move by Marcus Rashford to extend free school meals over the half term break during a House of Commons debate yesterday evening.
The footballer, who is leading a campaign on child hunger, urged MPs to "unite" and stop being influenced by "political affiliation".
MPs eventually rejected the Labour motion for an extension by 322 votes to 261.
Amongst them was Simon Baynes who has told llanblogger: "Yesterday there was an Opposition Day debate on extending the provision of school meals in England over the school holidays.
"It did not relate to Wales as this is a devolved responsibility of the Welsh Government. The vote was not binding, nor was it a proposed law.
"The reason for my vote was because Free School Meals have always been a school provision while students are in school.
"In England it was rightly extended back in March 2020 to the start of September 2020 as the overwhelming majority of students were told not to come into school.
"Therefore it was appropriate that Free School Meals via vouchers were given to students. In total £380m of vouchers were redeemed in supermarkets and elsewhere over that time.
"Students, though, are now back in school and those eligible for Free School Meals in England are getting that provision once again in their school setting.
"This is a really positive policy which has my full support. I do not feel, however, that extending Free School Meals over the school holidays is the proper long term solution to tackling food inequality and food poverty in this country and I am working with colleagues across the House of Commons for a long term, sustainable solution.
"The best long term approach lies in measures such as the UK government’s recent increase in funding to Universal Credit of £9.3bn or an average increase per household of £1,040 per year and the additional £63m given by the government to English Local Authorities in funding to get food, essentials and meals to those most in need, both young and old, which was praised by the Trussell Trust."
llanblogger special report
Urgent action is needed to preserve St Collen’s Church for the future use of the people of Llangollen.
That was the strong message from priest-in-charge Father Lee
Taylor as he showcased plans to upgrade the historic building with the aim of making it a
hub for a wider range of religious and social use.
Father Lee used a Zoom meeting last night (Wednesday) to
give full details of the Community Vision proposals.
These include:
* The removal of pews at the front of the nave to
allow a raised platform stage to be built for worship and performance events
* The provision of a folding kitchen to provide
refreshments at cafe-style social gatherings
* Repositioning of the font to a more practical location
* The installation of modern LED lights in the roof to
highlight its historic beauty
* Fitting glass doors at entrances to allow the heavy oak
front door to be left open to make the building feel more welcoming
* A new chapel for private worship where the current vestry
is sited
* Replacing the traditional pipe organ with a digital
version
Around 20 people interested in the future of St Collen’s
were invited by Father Lee to join the Zoom meeting, including the architect in
charge of the project Duncan Sanderson and members of the church’s task force
group dealing with the project.
Father Lee started by drawing a comparison between
Coronation Street – his favourite TV soap – and the Church generally.
“Throughout its 60 years’ history Coronation Street has
never stopped changing because its producers realised that if it didn’t keep
evolving it would die,” he said.
“The same can be said of the Church and the time has come
for St Collen’s to change, to adapt our building so that we can better serve
our community in a new, exciting and challenging ways.”
He said the call to change was more urgent than it had
ever been, in the face of dwindling Sunday morning congregations across the
whole of the Church in Wales, the lack of younger people joining and fewer
priests being available to serve communities.
And he stressed: “The fact is that we must adapt or die.
In 10 or 20 years if we don’t do something there will be no parish church. It will
close.”
In a bid to make St Collen’s “more inclusive and accessible” the church has come up with the Community Vision blueprint which includes “both spiritual and social” elements.
Central to the plan would be the raised platform stage
envisaged for the front of the church to make it easier for the congregation to
see and hear what is happening. This could be used for worship and performance events.
This, explained Father Lee, would mean the removal of the
front four rows of pews back behind the pillars, with ramp access to the stage on the north side.
He showed pictures from previous churches where he had
worked in the south of England which had similar raised areas.
In Southwark Cathedral, for instance, a high platform had
enables it to host scores of performances and concerts alongside its
traditional services.
To enable St Collen’s to host more social events where
refreshments are served the plan proposes a folding kitchen is installed in the
north west corner of the church where the choir vestry and font currently are.
The font is in this position because it was where the original
church entrance was sited but Father Lee said it would make sense to move it
for practical reasons.
The kitchen – constructed to look like a piece of
furniture when folded – would, he said, allow St Collen’s to offer food and
drinks not necessarily in the context of worship, such as candle-lit tours of
the church, storytelling and bereavement cafes and exhibitions.
Describing the ornate roof with its medieval beams and
carvings as the St Collen’s "crowning glory", Father Lee said the idea was to
install LED lighting to enhance these features.
The new
lighting would be flexible, capable of complementing worship, concerts and
other events.
Another aspect of the plan is for the south porch entrance and west doors under the tower to have glass doors fitted inside to both mitigate drafts and enable the original wooden doors to be left open when the church is in use, creating a visual link to the inside of the church to draw in passing pedestrians.
Father Lee said he knew the heavy oak doors at the south porch made some visitors hesitant about entering the church.
The rear three rows of pews would also be removed to increase space for visitor information and enable after-event and service mingling.
Other proposals include a new small chapel for private meditation and worship where the current vestry is, the replacement of the pipe organ with a much more compact digital instrument and better wheelchair access.
Architect Duncan Sanderson assured that none of the
interventions would disturb the numerous memorials inside the church.
Father Lee said: “All the alterations and changes will be
done with the utmost care and sensitivity to the historic building.”
He added that there was no time-frame for when these changes
would happen.
“The plans are still being discussed and the Diocesan
Advisory Committee must approve them before we make bids for funding. I
think it’s a very exciting project,” he said.
People who attended the Zoom meeting gave a general thumbs-up to the proposals and Father Lee said later: “We are still in discussions about the costs.”
