Plaid Cymru – The Party of Wales
Thursday 10 January 2008
EMBARGO: For immediate release
Plaid AM to launch Cross Party Committee on Eating Disorders
Plaid Cymru Assembly Member for South Wales West, Bethan Jenkins, has announced the date for the first Cross Party Committee on Eating Disorders at the National Assembly for Wales.
The meeting will be held at the National Assembly on the 15th of January with all sixty Assembly Members invited to attend.
Assembly Health Minister Edwina Hart AM will be among those attending, as will Rowenna Menzies, Director of the Graham Menzies Foundation which plans to open the first specialist, residential treatment facility for people across Wales.
26 year-old Neath based Bethan Jenkins AM said:
"I am very proud to be convening the first ever cross party committee on a subject I feel particularly strong about. Last year I met Ali Valenzuela from Swansea who described to me the challenges she faced as a victim of eating disorders. I am determined to raise awareness on this issue and to use all means possible to put the topic at the heart of the political agenda."
Ms Jenkins added:
"It is estimated that 50,000 people suffer from eating disorders in Wales yet there is no national strategy, and support capacity for sufferers barely exists."
ENDS
Notes to Editors
The Cross Party Committee on Eating Disorders will be held at 17.30 on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 in Conference Room 24 at the National Assembly for Wales.
1 comment:
inside out @ swansea
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Change of focus
On the continuing subject of the green agenda (or lack of it) in Swansea, many thanks to the contributor who found this Lib Dem press release underneath the cat litter just the other day.
Dated 7th January 2004, it quotes demands by “local Lib Dem campaigner” Rob Speht that Swansea Council should clean up its act on recycling.
After providing a list of service shortcomings – which somehow still seem to be with us four years later -the release carries the impressive news that Speht is “developing an environmental strategy for Swansea”.
We’re sure that the people of Port Tennant, who have been told that the local landfill site is to be reopened, will be eager to learn what’s happened to it.
posted by Rebekah @ 6:59 PM
Timing
Timing, as they say, can be everything – and it’s a safe bet that ending a week of press & political hype over a billion pound revamp in Swansea with news of a city centre retail store closure ain’t recommended in the official manual.
But the spinners need not get in sweat for the moment as the story doesn’t even merit front page treatment in the Beans on Toast and the sanguine soul behind the editorial seems pretty relaxed about the loss of sixty jobs.
An absence of comment from Messers Holley, Black and Speht is also noticeable. Were they asked, one wonders?
posted by Rebekah @ 12:58 PM
Friday, January 11, 2008
How green are the policies?
The green credentials of Lib Dem and Independents on Swansea Council are under question following their plans to re-open a controversial landfill site in the east of the city.
The high level of feeling within the affected communities might also have an impact on May’s coming elections as coalition acolytes find their loyalties torn between political buddies and electors.
Meanwhile, official spokesmen have dismissed speculation over a royal re-opening at Tir John tip.
posted by Rebekah @ 11:37 AM
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Be careful what you wish for
You can tell that Rantin' Ray Welsby is making headway from the extent of the attacks and abuse sent his way by major and minor players within the lame-duck Lib Dem administration on Swansea Council.
Then again, it's understandable why cabinet members and an embittered ex-chairman would feel aggreived that the member for Mynyddbach has not exactly been an example of consensus or consistency during his time within (and without) the coalition.
But given his ability to chip away during a campaign - and get a result - then the likes of Wendy Fitzgerald had better hope that Welsby doesn't turn his attentions to Social Services in the near future.
posted by Rebekah @ 7:12 PM
Quiet in the cheap seats
An interesting comment emerged from the member's room in County Hall yesterday whilst independents on Swansea Council (and their letter writers) continued to cast doubt on the ability of conservative group leader Rene Kinzett to properly represent his Mayals ward whilst working part-time in London.
Over coffee, it was apparently recalled by the less outraged that a certain long-serving independent councillor, who represents Gower ward, worked as a recruitment consultant, in Slough for quite a few years - and without a single murmur of criticism from any quarter.
posted by Rebekah @ 6:56 PM
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Doing the sums
Swansea's Lib Dems and Independents continue to fret that their calculations fail to produce anything like a workable majority after May's elections – hence their revelation that Rockin' Rene Kinzett’s has got himself a job in the smoke.
But they should get some encouragement from the news that the drive to secure a record number of tory candidates has failed to deliver half the number needed.
It's a few months before voters have their say and there is still the possibility that the coalition at County Hall could get a further boost from Labour - who recently decided to ditch their only ethnic councillor.
Of course, things will also depend on how much it actually dawns upon the electors of Mayals (and elsewhere) that the traditional choice between Lib Dem and Independent is virtually non-existent.
posted by Rebekah @ 11:18 PM
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
A different kind of hangover
According to its leader, Swansea Council has achieved a quantum leap under the auspices of its Lib Dem led minority coalition.
Wait a minute … wasn’t that the name of a nineties TV series where the main character keeps finding himself in unplanned desperate situations and has to spend the rest of the episode trying to bullshit his way out of bother? Thought so.
In the article, an optimistic Chris Holley states, "We have been working hard and our administration has achieved what we set out to achieve”.
These “aims and achievements” are listed on the local Lib Dem website:
1. Take action to clean-up graffitti, fly-tipping, litter, and vandalism.
2. Invest in schools to reduce class sizes and reduce teacher redundancies
3. Tackle potholed roads and broken pavements effectively.
4. Re-open the Leisure Centre, turn County Hall into a proper civic centre and rebuild the City Centre after decades of Labour neglect.
We leave it to others to make the necessary judgements.
posted by Rebekah @ 11:35 PM
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Re-write
We can’t imagine what prompted today’s announcement that Elsie will be open for business by next March (or can we?)
No doubt the Lib Dem administration will employ the usual history re-write to deny that they ever claimed it would be ready sooner - although the approach seems to be less than successful over the bus station.
posted by Rebekah @ 11:15 AM
Monday, December 17, 2007
Another strange silence among the local press relates to the potentially dire financial situation facing Swansea Council.
Last week, the embattled cabinet were confronted with a series of stark choices which included staffing cuts and “efficiency savings” just to balance the budget.
There was even a mention of something called “Invest to Save” – which is basically about spending money the Council doesn’t have on new ideas that will bring in savings in the longer term. (Sounds familiar dunnit?)
But there’s no chance of looking for someone to lend the Council more cash when it already has “an unsupported borrowing requirement of just over £70million”.
The report goes on to deliver the stern warning that “The section 151 officer [a senior financial officer] has advised that further unsupported borrowing can not be considered unless it is certain that that the resulting interest and principal payments can be financed from current and future revenue budgets.
“In addition, the external auditor has expressed concern about the implications of unsupported borrowing in the absence of a balanced four year budget plan”.
Even after finding £2 million from reserves, a strictly one-off measure, the administration still needs to put up council tax by 2.5% simply to stand still.
posted by Rebekah @ 10:35 AM
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Countdown
Christmas is coming and the annual question of whether Swansea will ever get a decent bus station is raised yet again.
Reconstructed administration spokesman Rob Speht assures everyone that it will be delivered on time - whenever that might be. But didn’t we hear something very similar about the Leisure Centre having a planned opening date of November or December this year?
You really have to wonder why the Beans on Toast have allowed this particularly high-profile delay to slip under their usually assiduous radar. You would at least think that that the famous Activa counter would have made a comeback.
posted by Rebekah @ 11:41 AM
Friday, December 14, 2007
Yah-Boo Rules OK
Panto season warms up with some predictable exchanges between Baron Hard-up (Chris Holley) and Ebenezer Scrooge (Andrew Davies) over whether empty coffers at County Hall are down to a bad settlement or bad financial management.
Holley, who sounds a bit short of seasonal spirit, rants that "The Minister for Finance, Andrew Davies, has sold out the people of Swansea with this very low settlement. He is elected by the people of Swansea West and he has done them no favours with this budget”.
"This is a very cynical move by the Labour/Plaid-run Assembly, where they are creaming off a large slice of funding to pay for projects to keep their Plaid partners on board."
The Assembly minister’s response however is no less robust:
"I'll take no financial lessons from Councillor Chris Holley, who has presided over a council which has wasted £83 million on a failed IT system, have borrowed to the hilt, have seen the Child and Family Services unit within Social Services go from being rated one of the best three years ago, to inspectors finding serious concerns in core areas, and to freely admitting a hole of £13 million in next year's council budget.
"The [Lib Dem] administration has shown a lack of financial leadership on major projects such as the bus station, despite having over £3.8 million allocated for the project."
posted by Rebekah @ 11:57 AM
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Back to the Future
The process of drawing up next year’s election line continues with a number of parties claiming credit for an “emergency motion” on how the lessons from Shambles@Swansea past can be used to shape the future.
Whether the move was prompted by Tories or Labour and Plaid or pre-empted a cabinet report, it still took the local press nearly a week to report such a notionally vital political step.
But they did manage to mention that management consultants Deloitte had revealed they were never asked to examine whether the original savings estimates agreed between Capgemini and Swansea Council were achievable - and warned senior council officers and cabinet members about the risks to the authority's budgets if the projected savings targets were not reached.
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