Supermarket Sunday deliveries cause commotion

Reposted from Capture Cardiff.

John Roberts lives opposite Lidl in Maindy Road

The traditional day of rest could be a thing of the past for a group of Cardiff residents, following an application by their local supermarket to receive deliveries on Sundays.

Lidl in Maindy Road has applied to Cardiff Council to increase its deliveries from six days a week to seven. This could see articulated lorries turning up to the site, which is on a residential road, from eight in the morning until 10pm.

But residents, who were only notified yesterday, have already approached their local assembly member Jenny Randerson to protest against what they see as a further infringement on their quality of life.

John Roberts, 64, who is retired and has lived in a house opposite the store since 1972 said: “We have clanking and banging at eight in the morning. But when refrigerated lorries come in they crank up their refrigeration units and it comes echoing across from the delivery bay. It is simply not acceptable.

“Part of the planning agreement in 2005 when Lidl applied for the store was that deliveries would only be between 8am and 10pm Monday to Saturday, which they have flaunted in the past. We are simply not prepared to accept deliveries of any sort on a Sunday. It is a disgrace. We are trying to accommodate them but all Lidl is concerned about is making more money.”

He added: “All the residents will now write individual letters and will re-emphasise the fact that the original agreement was that there should be no deliveries on Sundays.

“Where is the quality of life if we have got to put up with this? It is usually a lovely, quiet area.

“When I wake up, I lie in bed contemplating what to do and on a Sunday. I like to think one has a day of rest from the wear and tear in the week. I do not think that is unreasonable.”

The discount food store has also requested to extend its opening hours until 10pm each evening and adjust its Sunday opening hours from 10am until four pm.

Another resident of Maindy Road, 60-year-old Christine Davies, said: “I have to write a letter now to object. These lorries start at eight o’clock in the morning until nine or 10 at night and they do not switch off their engines because it is apparently an EU rule that refrigerated vans have to be left on.

“We don’t have any quality of life here. There is not a day that goes by that we don’t have the engines going.

“You cannot open the window and if you want to work in the garden it is like an exhaust pipe. They just want Sunday, which is our rest day, as another day for them.”

Mrs Davies added: “They are also so big that they block up the road because they cannot get around the cars parked on the road, so it gets quite dangerous when you see big lorries swinging out and trying to get around the corner.”

A spokesperson for Cardiff Council confirmed that there have been issues relating to deliveries at the store in the past but could not comment on the current application.

Cardiff University cricketer makes England debut

Fresh from her debut appearance for the England women’s cricket team in India, where she was the top-scoring batswoman in her opening match, Cardiff University student Heather Knight is looking forward to a bright cricketing future.

The 19-year-old is in her first year reading biomedical sciences, but she is no ordinary student. While other people her age are out until the early hours making the most of their student lifestyle, Knight is clocking up more hours at the wicket than in the pub.

The opening batswoman began playing as a child in her home town of Plymouth.

She said: “I went along with my brother when I was about eight and I just really enjoyed it. I played for Devon for a few years then because there are no clubs of a high enough standard in the South West, I started playing club cricket for Reading because they play in the Premier League. I’m also playing for Berkshire next year.”

Knight spent last summer training at Lords as part of the MCC Young Cricketers programme, and is also part of the Cardiff University sports bursary scheme.

She said: “Last summer was a really good season for me. I scored a lot of runs mostly on the bat at Lords for the England academy, and I also got player of the series.

“Getting called up to the England squad a couple of weeks ago was a highlight for me. I was actually at Lords at the time playing cricket for Cardiff University at an indoor tournament. I got a call in a gap between games so I rang them back and they said one of the girls had gone down injured and asked if I could fly out to India. I was on a plane to Bangalore the next day.

“It happened quite suddenly so I did not really have too much time to think about it. It was quite hot, and I was training the day after I got there. I wasn’t acclimatised so it was quite tough, but as soon as I got over the jetlag I was fine.

“The girls really welcomed me into the squad. There was someone else, Danielle Wyatt, on her debut as well.”

Knight replaced the injured Sarah Taylor, and was just one run shy of a half century on her debut appearance in the one-day international in Mumbai on March 1.

She said: “It was a shame not to get 50 but it helped set a platform for the team and we managed to get a win. That was the main thing.

“We lost the one-day series 3-2, which was slightly disappointing. But we bounced back and won the Twenty20 series 2-1, so it was good to finish on a high.”

Knight is currently in the provisional squad for the World Twenty20 in West Indies in May, but is waiting to find out whether she makes the cut to the final 15 next week.

Knight has been having one-to-one training sessions with university coach Kevin Lyons, and has also been joining in with the university men’s team at their practice sessions.

Stuart Vanstone, head of sport at Cardiff University, said: “This is a fantastic achievement. Given her age and that she is in her first year of university, to be able to play cricket at this level is fantastic. The women’s cricket side is the best in the world at the moment. It is the elite of the elite.

“She has done remarkably well and we hope she can sustain that place through the next few years.”

Cathays shopkeeper too scared to stay after attack by masked men

A newly-married couple who were threatened with a knife when their shop was burgled last week are moving back to India because they are too frightened to stay in Cardiff.

Gourav Goel, 27, runs Lifestyle Express in Crwys Road, which was targeted in the early hours of March 1 when three masked men burst into the upstairs flat and demanded cash and other valuables.

Gourav and Vaspi Goel in their shop on Crwys Road

They held a knife against the throat of Mr Goel’s wife, Vaspi, 23, leaving her so frightened of being alone in their flat she now stays with her husband while he works in his shop during the day.

Mrs Goel does not speak fluent English, but her husband said: “She is panicked and she no longer has anything good to say about the country any more. She is afraid. She keeps wanting to stay with me in the shop. She does not want to stay in the house.

“I used to plan to settle down here but now I do not. There is no point in staying here now,” he addded.

As well as holding a kitchen knife with a five-inch blade against Mrs Goel’s throat, the attackers also hit Mr Goel on the head with a baton. They stole £1,070 in cash, along with an Apple laptop and an N97 mobile phone.

The burglary frightened the couple’s family in India, and Mr Goel believes the worry has aggravated his father-in-law’s health problems.
He said: “Because of what happened, everyone got panicked back home as well.

“Her dad has been to the doctor three or four times since it happened, and my parents went to see her parents about it even though they live four hours drive away.

“It is not easy to sell at the moment, otherwise we would just sell up and go away now.”

Mr Goel opened the shop almost a year ago, on March 15 last year, but now wishes to leave as soon as possible and return to his family in India.
The couple got married in India on November 27 last year, but were only reunited three weeks ago as Mrs Goel had stayed in India to prepare for the move to Cardiff.

He said: “She was happy until a week ago. I was just taking her out around the area, but after what happened she got panicked and doesn’t want to go anywhere now.”

Mr Goel studied a Masters in Business Administration at UWIC when he first moved to Cardiff six years ago, and has since worked in a number of managerial roles before setting up his shop last year.

He said: “I will definitely be sorry to leave. It has been a good experience and I have worked hard. I put my money into this shop hoping for something good, but we just want to go home now. When we go upstairs at night, we are afraid.

“What’s the point in living somewhere where you are not secure?
“I know these things happen everywhere. I used to live in London, and even in India, it is not secure either. It can happen anywhere in the world.”

Detective Constable Maria Jones of Cathays CID said: “Whilst we are treating this as an aggravated burglary, thankfully nobody was injured and I would like to reassure the public that crimes such as this are still relatively uncommon in the area.”

The couple will move to Delhi to be near Mr Goel’s family, where he will resume his job working in a pharmacy.

He added: “Trade has not been bad over the past year. I would not be selling if it was not for what happened.

“But my life is my wife. I can change the business but I cannot change my wife. If something happened to her, I could not forgive myself.”

South Wales Police is appealing for information relating to the aggravated burglary, and has described the three suspects as white males between 5ft 7in and 5ft 11in in height, with a slim to medium build and dressed in black jackets and black trousers. They all had black scarves wrapped around their heads and faces, with only their eyes showing. Two of the men were carrying white sticks.

Anyone with information relating to the incident can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or Cathays CID on 02920 527267.

High street chemist offers one-minute HIV test

Cardiff will be one of six pilot areas for a new scheme offering HIV testing on the high street.

Superdrug has announced plans to offer a confidential drop-in service at its Queen Street store, run by registered nurses. The clinics will offer a one-minute fingerprick test costing £79. The tests have a 99.96 per cent level of accuracy, although a positive result would need to be double-checked by a registered clinic.

This is the first time a high street store has offered such a service, although there has been concern elsewhere about whether the level of support available in a shop-based clinic is sufficient for such a serious diagnosis.

British Heart Foundation store opens in Cardiff

Shoppers on the lookout for a good bargain will be spoilt for choice from tomorrow, with the opening of a new charity shop specialising in furniture and electrical goods.

The British Heart Foundation store in Crwys Road will hold its opening ceremony at 10am tomorrow, attended by the Lord Mayor, Brian Griffiths and his wife, Val Griffiths.

The shop, which is the second of its kind in Cardiff, is stocked with donations of second-hand furniture, beds, washing machines, microwaves and televisions.

A new addition to the Cardiff hyperlocal blogging scene

Students at the University of Glamorgan have become the latest in a long line to launch a hyperlocal blog covering different areas of Cardiff.

The site offers local news and information for six areas within the city, namely Adamsdown, Rumney, Riverside, Splott, Plasnewydd and Grangetown. This initiative comes hot on the heels of a number of similar sites launched in recent weeks, including Capture Cardiff, the Guardian‘s Cardiff beat blog and Media Wales’s Your Cardiff.

The project is a collaboration with a network of Communities First groups in the area, and is funded by the Beacon for Wales, a scheme to improve universities’ engagement with their local areas.

The site will have its official launch at the Atrium in Adam Street on March 11.

The Big Residency sets up home at the Wales Millennium Centre

The setting for The Big Residency, a month-long exhibition which brings together new Welsh artists with those who are more-established, is a little unusual for the uninitiated.

There are no hushed galleries or art aficionados prancing around. In fact, the works are displayed on open landings at the Wales Millennium Centre, with the hustle and bustle of the café below.

Yet somehow it works. Whether it is the simple beauty of Ben Meredith’s painting of a girl eating ice cream at the beach, or Dai Howell’s play on a child’s vision of monsters, based on Welsh folk tales, the pieces seem to come alive in a way that would not be possible in a closed-off gallery.

There are some fantastic pieces, but one of the stand-outs must surely be Claire Ferguson-Walker’s series of bronze figures. Based on myth and incorporating imagery of the earth and sea, the sculptures capture a strong sense of movement, and play with the viewers’ sense of perspective by manipulating the proportions of the figures.

Another highlight is the haunting image by Chris Holloway of a lone ethereal girl sitting in the woods, surrounded by the menace of tall, dark trees and a midnight blue sky, evoking a sense of danger and innocence at the same time.
The exhibition is run by The Big Fuss, a network of Cardiff artists dedicated to creating new opportunities for local talent.

Millennium centre project officer Rob Ashelford said: “They are all about supporting emerging artists. You get the draw from the established artists but then people see the work of lesser known people next to it. The quality of the work is incredibly good.

“Everything in this exhibition is a stand-out piece. Because of the mixture of artists, there is a piece in it that everyone will like and a piece that everyone will dislike. It is as important that they like things as that they dislike things. That is what art is about and it is a really accessible show.”

Although it might not be exactly what you would expect for an art exhibition, the unusual space and the diverse range of really interesting pieces makes this a show well worth seeing.

The Big Residency is free and runs until March 26.

Tribute to Cathays youth centre worker

Staff at a Cardiff community centre paid tribute this week to a former youth worker who died last year.

At an annual general meeting, staff and volunteers at Cathays and Central Youth and Community Project, Cathays Terrace, praised the work of Tony Clarke, who had been involved with the centre for 20 years.

They also dedicated a video of last year’s summer music festival to Mr Clarke, who was a youth worker and later a management board trustee.

Tony Clarke, youth worker at Cathays community centre

Centre manager Jon Wilson said: “He left a legacy both as a youth worker and a person.

“He was just one of the steady rocks of the youth club. He was always here and always dependable.

“He started off as a volunteer and got more engaged and became a part time youth worker. Then he did youth community work which qualified him to be appointed as a warden about 10 years ago.

“It was quite a vocational thing. There was no issue about him spending extra time working weekends.

“He would weigh things up very slowly and he was very insightful. He was able to get a handle on where young people were coming from.

“He was personally generous as well. He used to buy things out of his own pocket, like he would suddenly decide to go and get everybody ice cream. It is just the little things that he would pick up on that are important to everybody.”

Mr Clarke, who was born in 1965 and lived in Cardiff, worked as a lorry driver in addition to his work at the youth centre. He carried out a number of roles in the centre, including running the youth club and acting as a mentor to young people.

Centre worker Dan Wilson said: “He was a quiet man but very very good at his job. He did not get cross.

“He would drive projects through, and support young people to become empowered. He was a calming and supporting influence to young people using the building.

“He was always prepared to go that extra mile. Nothing was too big an ask for Tony.

“Over the course of 20 years, he would have touched the lives of thousands of young people.

“We would be in the pub and somebody would always be coming up and saying hello because they hadn’t seen him for a few years.

“He was liked and well-respected by all.”

What’s on in Cardiff this St David’s Day

Stuck for something different to do this St David’s Day? Why not check out this guide to what’s on this weekend. All events are free unless otherwise indicated.

Saturday 27 February

9am-6pm 3rd Annual Really Welsh Food Festival, Queen Street
9am-4.30pm Changing of the guard every thirty minutes, South Gate of Cardiff Castle

10am-5pm St Fagans National History Museum has a weekend of events, including storytelling at Penrhiw Chapel, Welsh cake baking at Llwyn yr Eos Farm, music and traditional Welsh cawl served throughout the day

Sunday 28 February

9am-5pm 3rd Annual Really Welsh Food Festival, Queen Street

10am-4pm Dyffryn Gardens is opening its doors free for one day only, including Welsh harp music in the tea rooms at lunchtime and a “Glimpse of Spring” guided walk of the gardens at 2.30pm

9am-4.30pm Changing of the guard every thirty minutes, South Gate of Cardiff Castle

10.30am St David’s Day church service led by the Right Reverend Wyn Evans, Bishop of St David’s, Eglwys Dewi Sant, St Andrew’s Crescent

11am-4pm National Museum Cardiff has a special gift-making session for children (no booking required)

12pm-4pm National Waterfront Museum near Swansea is putting on a day of family fun, including arts and crafts, planting a sunflower, traditional Welsh Twmpath accompanied by band Pluck and Squeeze, made famous by the Gavin and Stacey single Islands in the Stream

Monday 1 March

Cadw is offering free entry to its historic monuments, including Caerphilly Castle, Ewenny Priory and Raglan Castle

9am-6pm Visitors to Cardiff Castle will get a free tube of daffodil bulbs to celebrate St David’s Day

11.30am-1.30pm 7th National St David’s Day Parade, meeting at City Hall to set off at 12.30pm and parading through the city centre to finish in the Hayes. Prizes for the best traditional Welsh costume.

12pm-3pm Bandstand entertainment in the Hayes

6.30pm An evening of entertainment and food, including performances from Welsh 80s rock band Derec Brown a’r Racaracwyr, harpist Angharad Devonald, youth choir Côr Aelwyd y Waun Ddyfal and traditional Welsh folk dancing by Dawnswyr Caerdydd, Cardiff Central Library

7.30pm Gareth Glyn Gwlad y Gan/Land of Song, annual concert featuring BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Youth Coruses conducted by Adrian Partington and a harp concerto by Catrin Finch, St David’s Hall (£10-£22, box office 029 20878444)

Royal Welsh College orchestra fails to hit the right note

The auditorium was barely a third full for the performance by the symphony orchestra of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama at St David’s Hall tonight, and it is easy to see why.

The earnest young musicians certainly gave it their all in a recital that was, at times, rousing and triumphant, and at others, soft and still with some haunting melodies.

But the performance as a whole did not hang together, and it was quite clear the ensemble has not yet achieved that sense of unity which, perhaps, comes in time. There was a distinct impression that each individual was striving to show off their own talents, and in doing so, failing to listen to each other and play as a unit.

The programme began with early Romantic German composer Carl Maria von Weber’s ground-breaking opera Der Freischütz, first performed in 1821, and conducted by Alasdair Cowie Fraser.

Based on the folk legends of the time, it tells of a marksman who makes a pact with the devil which ultimately backfires on him and he loses his only love. The dark, sinister atmosphere of the woods was well-portrayed, balanced by the lighter tones of an excellent clarinet melody from Karen O’Brien.

This led smoothly into the Symphonic Metamorphosis after Themes by Carl Maria von Weber, the most popular work by neoclassical composer Paul Hindemith, written in 1943. Conducted by David Jones, the piece was more enjoyable than the first and it was clear the orchestra was getting into its stride after a nervous start.

Symphony Number 7 in C sharp minor, by Sergey Profokiev, was restored to its original score, omitting the alternative ending the Russian composer was forced to include when the piece was first performed as part of a children’s radio programme. This might have been the more authentic version, but the ending felt abrupt and one cannot help but wonder if it would have been improved with the addition of the more energetic coda which was later added. But the tick-tock effect of the glockenspiel and rich twang of the harps provided some nice depth.

This was a promising performance from a number of young musicians who, despite lacking polish and professionalism, are clearly a talented bunch and will no doubt go on to great things.