Swans Join the Premier League!

It’s turning out to be a very good month for soccer fans in this constituency - first the Neath Eagles get through to the Europa cup and now the Swans have hit the big time! After an tremendous 4-2 win over Reading yesterday, Swansea AFC are back in the top flight of UK football after a 30 year wait. They are also the first Welsh team to enter the modern Premier League.

Once again this is excellent news for Wales and the region. Carwyn is completely right in saying that this will raise the profile of Wales in the UK and abroad. The tens of thousands of fans that follow Chelsea, Arsenal and the other Premier League teams will now be regularly crossing the Severn Bridge. Very many heartfelt congratulations go to Brendan Rodgers and his whole team!

Gwenda

Cash Boost for Neath Food Fair

Neath Food and Drink Festival is to get a grant of £9,999 from the Welsh Government. This comes as part of a £350,000 package supporting food and drink festivals throughout Wales.

Gwenda said: “I thoroughly enjoyed visiting last year’s festival and am looking forward to returning for the third annual festival this October. I’m told that this year's fair will be even bigger and better.”

“I’m very happy that the Welsh Government has been able to provide financial support for this event. The crowds I saw at last year’s showed how many people it brings into the town.”

“Backing this sort of food fair makes real economic sense for Wales. Aside from the 1,125 people that are directly employed by them, food and drink festivals are an excellent way to market Welsh produce and encourage tourism.”

The third Neath Food and Drink Festival will take place on the 7th and 8th of October 2011.

Neath Eagles Flying High

Congratulations to the Neath Eagles Football Club! After their victory against Prestatyn on Saturday Neath FC have secured a place in the UEFA Europa League.

I think this result is a testament to the excellent leadership and new talent that Andy Dyer has brought to the Club. I’d very much like to thank Mr Dyer and the whole team for bringing European football to Neath. This is a brilliant boost for the town and I wish the Club every success in the Europa League.

Gwenda

New Welsh Government Announced

Gwenda Thomas was today appointed Deputy Minister for Children and Social Services in the Welsh Government.

Mrs Thomas said: “I feel deeply honoured that the First Minister has appointed me to this role. As Deputy Minister for Social Services in the last Welsh Government I was proud to take the lead on many necessary reforms to Social Services in Wales. I think what we have achieved so far in this area has been excellent but clearly much remains to be done. I am thrilled to be given the opportunity to finish the work we have begun.”

In the new Welsh Government line-up the position of Deputy Minister for Social Services has been merged with the Deputy Minister for Children, a position previously held by Huw Lewis AM.

Mrs Thomas said: “The combining of the Social Services portfolio with the responsibility for children makes a great deal of sense. Tackling child poverty requires the cooperation of all the major departments of state. Directly linking this field with Health and Social Services will make it that much easier to take the action that is needed.”

Light at the End of the Tunnel for Troubled Valleys Club

A £200,000 sports development for a Swansea Valley village, has moved a step closer after a meeting called by local AM Gwenda Thomas.

Local league side Ynysmeudwy AFC plans to develop a multi-purpose sports facility to provide both a training pitch for the club and a venue for community sports. The proposals have been stymied for some time by problems with planning permission, bio-diversity compliance and flood plain issues.

After the meeting, which brought together Council planning bosses, Environment Agency officers, Community Councillors and the club’s committee, new plans are being developed which will be put in for planning permission in the near future.

Gwenda said: “I’m really glad we appear to have got past the stalemate that had developed around the clubs plans. Ynysmeudwy AFC has a really hard working committee that has done wonders for their local community.”

Club Chair Huw Davies said: “This new development will provide a junior playing field as well giving local children a safe area to play and pursue all types of sport.”

Town councillor and committee member Brian Lewis said, “Due to the continued hard work and commitment of the coach Nigel Rees and Manager Kevin Williams, we now have a good chance of promotion in the Neath and District League from Division One to the Premier Division. Therefore having improved facilities and a real development action plan will make a huge difference to the club and the wider community.”

This development comes after a difficult year for village club in which their club house was burgled twice causing £1000s worth of damage.

Re-Appointments to the Food Standards Ageny's Welsh Food Advisory Committee

The Deputy Minister for Social Services, Gwenda Thomas has today announced that Dr. Hugh Jones, Mrs Susan Jones and Mr Derek Morgan have been re-appointed to the Food Standards Agency’s Welsh Food Advisory Committee.

Their current terms of appointment end on 30 June 2011. They have agreed to serve a further term of three years, ending on 30 June 2014.

Gwenda Thomas said:"I am pleased that these members have agreed to continue their work Dr Jones, Mrs Jones and Mr Morgan each offer invaluable knowledge and experience to the work of this committee giving advice to the FSA on food matters relating to Wales."

Biographies:

Mr Derek Morgan
Derek is an upland beef and sheep farmer responsible for the day to day running of an upland family farm in the upper Wye Valley; rearing Welsh mountain sheep and pedigree Welsh black cattle. He is Chairman of the Farmers Union of Wales hill farming committee, representing the union on a wide range of stakeholder groups with particular emphasis on issues relating to animal health and welfare, animal traceability, transmissible spongiform encephalopathy’s and food chain information.

Derek is a member and chairman of the Welsh Assembly Government’s Upland Forum advising on issues relating to upland affairs. He was one of the first Technology Interactive Resource Demonstration farm participants. Derek is a Welsh sheep strategy scholar visiting New Zealand in 1999 travelling both islands investigating research programs on a number of farms.

Founder member, director, and present chairman of the Welsh Sheepdog Society, set up in 1997, to save the indigenous Welsh sheepdog. Also a member of the Welsh Assembly Government hyatid project board.

Mrs Sue Jones
In 1983 Sue Jones created Llanboidy Cheesemakers, one of the most successful SME specialist Cheesemakers in Wales, and had a direct involvement with all aspects of the production of milk and the manufacture and marketing of the farmhouse cheeses
She is a director of the cooperative Cheeses from Wales, a member (and past committee member) of the UK Specialist Cheesemakers Association and was awarded an MBE in 2005 for her services to the Welsh Cheese Industry.

A retired dairy farmer; a former President of the Red Poll Cattle Society and a past Chair of the local Narbeth branch of the National Farming Union. Sue has also been a member of the Welsh Assembly Governments’ Dairy Strategy Group since its inception and sits on National Farmers Union Cymru sub group for Food and Marketing. She is also a member of the Women’s farming Union.

Sue was elected an Associate of the Royal Agricultural Society (Wales) several years ago and in 2009 was made a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies (FRAgS)
Sue believes in keeping her feet firmly on the ground with regard to the market place and consumers needs and has a keen interest in promoting the regional identity, safety and quality of Welsh food. During her working life she has had close involvement with the introduction and implementation of food safety legislation.

Dr. Hugh Jones
Hugh Jones is a Senior Lecturer in Genetics and Molecular Biology in the College of Medicine – Institute of Life Science at Swansea University. After going to school in Neath, he read for a Biochemistry degree at the University of Cambridge and followed this with a Ph.D. and a research fellowship. He then moved to Imperial College, London for further post-doctoral work in protein engineering before returning to South Wales to take up an academic position at Swansea University. His research interests are mainly in protein molecular biology; particularly carbohydrate-binding proteins and involve recombinant DNA techniques. He has applied some of this work to glucose biosensors and diabetes diagnostics.

Hugh teaches protein structure/function, genetic manipulation and basic microbiology to students of Genetics, Biochemistry and Biological Sciences degrees. He is a member of the Society for General Microbiology, the Biochemical Society, and the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Hugh has been involved with promoting the public understanding of science in Wales including helping to organise the Science and Technology exhibition for the visit of the National Eisteddfod to Swansea. As a former School Governor and parent of three children at school and university, he is continually being reminded of the importance of food safety.

• The Welsh Food Advisory Committee was established under the provision of the Food Standards Act 1999, section 5(1). The Welsh Food Advisory Committee is responsible for providing advice and information to the Food Standards Agency about matters concerning its functions including particular matters affecting or otherwise relating to Wales.
  
• The Food Standards Act provides for membership of the Welsh Food Advisory Committee is to consist of a chairman and such other members as may be appointed by the Welsh Assembly Government. A list of current members is attached. Members of the Committee are paid £5,319 per annum reflecting a time commitment of 4 days per month.
  
• Although appointments to the Welsh Food Advisory Committee do not come within the Commissioner for Public Appointment’s remit these re-appointment have been made following a process that takes into account the Commissioner’s Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Bodies as best practice.
  

Further information can be found here

Gwenda Thomas AM welcomes the funding for “Communities against Drugs”

On hearing that the “Communities against Drugs” project had been awarded £66,385 of funding under the Labour –led Welsh Assembly Government Communities First’s programme’s Outcome Fund, Gwenda Thomas AM, Assembly Member for Neath said “I am pleased that the Welsh Assembly Government’s Outcome Fund has been able to fund this valuable project - a large part of which will take place in my constituency”

She continued “I would like to praise the work that the Melincryddan Community Conference and the Neath East Communities First Partnership have undertaken with other local agencies, in the local area, such as the Police, Schools, Housing Associations and community groups in putting together this successful funding application and the partnership working that will continue throughout the life of the project. The residents in the eight project areas will have a dedicated confidential hotline to inform on suspicious behaviour regarding drug dealing and substance misuse empowering them to do something to challenge the concerns in their community”

Gwenda added “I also welcome the support that the project will offer to users who wish to end their drug dependency as with the right support people can reduce the harm they cause themselves, their families and their communities.”

Charles Henrywood, Chair of Melincryddan Community Conference and a member of the Neath East Communities First Partnership said “I’m delighted we have obtained this funding. It’s taken a long time and a lot of hard work by many people to have reached this stage but I’m confident that the project will achieve its aims, to the benefit of many individuals and their communities. My sincere thanks to all my project partners and to Gwenda Thomas for the support and encouragement they have given me over the past two years.