Helen Mary and Myfanwy enjoy World Biggest Coffee Morning with Macmillan

Last Friday (25/0), local AM Helen Mary Jones and Myfanwy Davies showed their support for Macmillan Cancer support by visiting a coffee morning in Lakefield School, Llanelli. They joined pupils, parents and teachers as part of Macmillan’s World Biggest Coffee Morning.

The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning is Macmillan Cancer Support’s biggest and best known annual fund raiser. It has a simple yet compelling objective: share a cup of coffee and raise funds for the fight against cancer. These funds provide practical, medical, emotional and financial support for better cancer care.

Last year, thousands of coffee mornings were held all over Wales, raising nearly £290,000. This money helped Macmillan continue to support services and professionals working to help people affected by cancer across Wales.

Plaid's Helen Mary Jones said:

"In the UK today 2 million people are affected by cancer. I know that many of my constituents have personal experience of the problems a cancer diagnosis can bring to both patients and their family. Macmillan Cancer Support is there for people from the moment they are diagnosed, with really practical help and support. Holding a coffee morning is an easy way to make sure Macmillan has the money to continue its vital work and I hope lots of coffee was consumed today in Llanelli!”

Plaid’s Westminster candidate for Llanelli, Myfanwy Davies added:

"I know from my own family's experience how devastating a diagnosis of cancer can be and what a huge difference a Macmillan nurse can make in so many ways. I was delighted to be able to join in the fun today at Lakefield school. It is amazing that just enjoying a cup of coffee and catching up with friends can improve things so much for people affected by cancer.”

Rhian Kenny, teacher and organiser of The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning at Lakefield School said:

“We are delighted to be supporting such a worthwhile cause that helps so many people in Llanelli. In addition, it is fantastic that we can use fair-trade products at our coffee morning and bring together the great work that both Macmillan and Fair-Trade do. We believe that education outside the classroom but within the school, is a brilliant way to raise the children’s awareness of such great causes and of the wonderful work that is done within the local community.”

Fundraising Manager for South West Wales, Sue Reece said:

“The help we provide people with cancer is absolutely essential. We want to be able to give support to everyone who needs it and that’s why we need to raise more from this year’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning than ever before. It’s a really fun event that is so easy to take part in, especially as you can tailor it to suit yourself, in fact it’s a piece of cake to help Macmillan!”

Myfanwy wins national support for town centre businesses

Dr Myfanwy Davies, Plaid’s Llanelli Westminster candidate has won national support for a plan to help Llanelli’s town centre businesses. In a motion to Plaid Cymru’s National Conference, last weekend which was passed to a packed hall, she called for revising the rate relief scheme to help small businesses effected by out of town developments. She also called on the Assembly Government to develop community finance initiatives to provide credit to local businesses and for a national strategy to fill empty shops, promote local produce and provide suitable housing in town centres.

In her speech to the conference Myfanwy said:

“In Llanelli the failure of Carmarthenshire County Council to stop a huge out of town development together with the loss of hundreds of manufacturing jobs is bleeding our town centre dry”.

Speaking in Llanelli on Wednesday, Myfanwy added:

“For our town centre traders, business rates have become a real burden. I’m delighted that we have won national support to look at prioritising their needs. We also won support to call for a strategy to fill empty town centre shops and our Plaid AMs will now be able to campaign for community finance schemes to fund viable new businesses and to support surviving traders who need credit to grow. I know of a number of established businesses that are struggling to grow because they are scandalously being refused credit by those very same banks we bailed out with our public money.”


Helen Mary Jones Llanelli’s Plaid AM added:

“The decision gives us a clear platform to campaign for more Assembly support for small businesses in Llanelli and to look at how we can continue to help good local businesses get going and grow”.

Myfanwy and Helen Mary fight against County’s puppy farm shame

Puppy farms in Carmarthenshire are keeping dogs in cruel and dirty conditions, says Dr Myfanwy Davies, Plaid’s Llanelli Westminster candidate. Following a recent Channel 5 film on unacceptable conditions at puppy farms that had been visited and given licences by Carmarthenshire County Council, Myfanwy has joined forces with Helen Mary Jones Llanelli’s Plaid AM, to tighten up the Council’s control of puppy farming.

Myfanwy has written to Helen Mary asking her to raise the matter with Elin Jones the Welsh Assembly Government Minister for Rural Affaris. In her letter Myfanwy explained:

“I am concerned that the Council’s inspection practices are inadequate and require scrutiny especially given Carmarthenshire’s history as a centre for licensed (and also unlicensed) puppy farming. In its response to the programme, the Council also indicates it would be willing to revise its license conditions if required to do so by Welsh Assembly Government Ministers”.

Speaking this week, Myfanwy added:

“ I am very pleased that a pet superstore that has been buying puppies from these farms has agreed to stop sourcing puppies from them. I am disappointed by the Council’s response. It is shocking that council inspectors visited and passed those puppy farms shown in the film and I hope that the response Helen Mary’s receives from Elin Jones will help clarify the standards of animal welfare that the council needs to ensure”.

Helen Mary Jones added:

“I have seen a recording of the Channel 5 news item since Myfanwy contacted me and it raises some very worrying issues about animal welfare standards in the County. I am pleased Myfanwy has raised this with me and I will be discussing the issue with Elin Jones within the next weeks to make sure that the standards followed are made clearer and if needed are changed protect dogs and puppies from the levels of neglect shown in the film.”

Dafydd Iwan, Helen Mary and Myfanwy to close Breaktho’s 25th anniversary celebrations with one-off fund-raising concert on Saturday

Popular singer and Plaid Cymru President Dafydd Iwan will join Dr Myfanwy Davies, Plaid’s Llanelli Westminster candidate and Helen Mary Jones AM together with and parents, volunteers and young people with a range of disabilities to close Breakthro’ s 25th birthday celebration with a special concert at Stebonheath Club on Saturday. Dafydd Iwan has been a disability campaigner for many years and is a founder member of Antur Waunfawr a successful community enterprise based outside Caernarfon which is part-run by people with disabilities.

The group’s birthday celebrations began on 25th of July when Dafydd Iwan visited the Coleshill Centre to cut an enormous 40 inch birthday cake. He and Myfanwy served the cake to volunteers and Breakthro’ members and Dafydd closed the visit by singing especially composed songs to the young people. Last weekend a group of Breakthro volunteers led by Jessica Sheehan completed a sponsored climb to the summit of Snowdon to celebrate the group’s birthday. Before beginning their climb, they were met for breakfast by Myfanwy and Hywel Williams MP, who represents the Arfon constituency in which Snowdon stands.

Tickets for Saturday’s concert are selling fast with some sold to people from Neath and one man travelling by bus from Swansea to Burry Port solely to make sure he had a ticket in advance. Dafydd Iwan will be waiving his usual fee and it is hoped that the group will make over £1,000 to support its activities.

Dafydd Iwan said:
“I am fully supportive of the work of Breakthro’. It is enormously important that young people with disabilities get to meet and socialise with each other as well as learning skills in mainstream schools and colleges. The young people have developed exceptionally strong friendships and they have learnt to depend on each other and to support each other. Developing that kind of trust takes years but it is crucial if people with a range of disabilities are to have a full social life. I was delighted that Myfanwy asked me to become involved with the group and am looking forward to Saturday very much.

Myfanwy said:
“We are very grateful to Dafydd for coming down once again to support Breakthro’. The impromptu concert he gave the young people last month was an extraordinary event with some young people who are usually quite withdrawn coming out of themselves and singing and dancing to the music. Next Saturday’s concert promises to be even better and tickets are going fast. I’m pleased that Helen Mary will be able to be there too. Like me she is very proud of Breakthro’ Llanelli because of the work it does but also because of the unstinting support the group has from people and groups across Llanelli”.

Christine Darkin, who has been Breakthro’s organiser for over 10 years said:
“Just a few months ago we were facing a drastic cut in our budget and we were considering how we could continue to keep the club going for our members who are now adults and who have grown up with the Club. Now thanks to an intervention by social services, we are looking forward to going into our 26th year and the support we’ve had from people across Llanelli has been amazing. I’m really looking forward to Dafydd’s concert !”

Notes to Editor
The concert will take place at Stebonheath Football Club in Llanelli at 7pm on Saturday 15th August. Tickets will be available at the venue and are priced at £10 or can be ordered on 07940122776

Myfanwy leads fight for free ATMs in Llanelli communities

ATMs that charge people to withdraw their money are cashing in on some of the most vulnerable people in our communities, says Dr Myfanwy Davies, Plaid’s Llanelli Westminster candidate. While there is a choice of free ATMs in the town centre and in the retail parks, people in areas like Felinfoel and Llwynhendy need to choose carefully if they are to avoid paying up to £1.99 for a withdrawal of any kind. In Dafen and Furnace, there is currently no choice other than to pay to withdraw cash.
Myfanwy is worried by the recent rapid price increases on charging ATMs. She believes this development is particularly damaging to families struggling to deal with the recession and to groups like older people and the disabled who do not have easy access to transport. Myfanwy will be working with Plaid colleagues at Westminster to call on the UK government to regulate charges on ATMs that target the most vulnerable in our communities.
Myfanwy will also be working with Plaid’s Social Justice Spokesman, Dr. Dai Lloyd AM and Helen Mary Jones AM to investigate what can be done at an Assembly and local level to protect Welsh communities from unfair charges.
Dr Davies said:
“These withdrawal charges target people on lower incomes who take out less money at once as so pay more as a proportion on each withdrawal. These unfair charges also disproportionately affect people like pensioners whose benefits are paid directly into their accounts”.
“For those who don’t have access to cars and who live in communities like Llwynhendy and Felinfoel where most cash machines charge for withdrawal, this is an additional cost at a time when they need it least. In communities like Furnace and Dafen, there is literally no choice available.”
“Small shops and pubs in our communities provide a vital service and it is easy to see why owners would be willing to host a fee-paying ATM. Nonetheless, my concern is that the charges will place an unsustainable burden on their most loyal customers and in the longer term, introducing these ATMs may jeopardise the future of our key local businesses as people spend less locally”.
“Over the last five years the number of cash machines that charge has increased by more than 18,000 while free cash machines have only increased by around eight thousand.”
“This is an issue of basic social justice. We can’t allow our most vulnerable people to be unfairly targeted in this way and I will be working closely with Helen Mary and colleagues at Westminster to find ways of providing free ATMs across all our communities.”
Cllr. Clem Thomas from Dafen added:
“I am concerned that there is no free ATM in Dafen. We are lucky to still have our post office which has so far survived the Governments’ closure programme but the days of withdrawing benefits and pensions directly and over the counter are long gone.”
“In these difficult times, I can understand entirely why small business people would want to diversify by providing a fee-paying ATM which provides them with up 60p per transaction. It goes without saying that we need to support small local businesses. Nonetheless I am sceptical whether the cost of having a fee-paying ATM in a local business does not outweigh the potential benefit as people who feel they have paid a large fee are likely to spend less in that business than they otherwise would.”
DIWEDD / ENDS
Notes for editor
Myfanwy is campaigning for 3 things:
1. She is working with Plaid’s MPs to press the London Labour Government to regulate ATM charges and the proliferation of charging ATMs.
2. She working with Helen Mary Jones to call on WAG to increase the provision of free machines for example through public service providers such as post office network, local government offices or community centres
3. She is researching into whether planning law can be amended to protect isolated/deprived communities where there is currently no option other than to pay for cash withdrawal.
For a map of ATMs and details of charging in the Llanelli area go to: www.link.co.uk

Dafydd Iwan and Myfanwy to celebrate Breaktho’s 25th anniversary with young people and carers

Popular singer and Plaid Cymru President Dafydd Iwan will join Dr Myfanwy Davies, Plaid’s Llanelli Westminster candidate and parents and young people with learning difficulties to celebrate Breakthro’ s 25th birthday at the Coleshill Centre on Saturday. Dafydd Iwan has been a disability campaigner for many years and is a founder member of Antur Waunfawr a successful community enterprise based outside Caernarfon which is run by people with learning difficulties and employs people with and without learning disabilities.

On Saturday, children and young people will meet with Dafydd Iwan and Myfanwy Davies, who is a sponsor of Breakthro’ to share a 40inch square birthday cake. Dafydd Iwan will also perform in a fundraising concert for Breakthro on 15th August at Stebonheath Club in Llanelli.

Dafydd Iwan said:
“Breakthro’ does extremely important work and I’m particularly pleased to see some of the younger people themselves starting to run the group. I know from my experience at Antur Waunfawr what a difference that makes to young people’s sense of pride in themselves that they are able to make their own decisions. It is a real achievement for eveyone involved in Breakthro’ to have kept the group going so long and it also reflects the incredible support they have had from people in Llanelli. Da iawn nhw!”

Myfanwy said:
“Dafydd and I are immensely pleased to be part of the birthday celebrations that will also include Dafydd’s concert on the 15th of August. The difference Breakthro’ makes in the lives of the children and young people it serves is immeasurable because it gives them a place where they are never judged and where they can take responsibility for each other. I wish them a wonderful birthday and a great anniversary year”

Robin Burn, Trustee of Breakthro said:
“All the members of the Management committee, and Christine and Jess our club Coordinators are immensely pleased to have Myfanwy and Dafydd take part in our birthday celebrations on Saturday. All our clients are excited at the prospect of a special birthday celebratio

n with all the trimmings. Special thanks to Dafydd for supporting us through the concert on August 15th. We hope this will help raise funds to enhancing the lives of the adults and children that use the club, Diolch yn fawr, Dafydd a Myfanwy” .

Notes to Editor
Breakthro’ was established in Llanelli in 1984 to provide social activities and opportunities for children with learning difficulties. Parents, carers and the young people themselves coopertate in organising actitivites including holidays, cinema visits, meals and fund-raising events. Activities are provided for children and for young people who have grown up with Breakthro’. The future of the group had been in doubt due to a lack of funding but a recent contribution from Carmarthenshire County Council has ensured that it has been able to continue into its 26th year.

Myfanwy and Mari Davies back Pwll residents fighting for answers on flooding

Following the misery caused by flooding in Llanelli earlier this month, Dr Myfanwy Davies Plaid’s Westminster Candidate for Llanelli and her mother, Hengoed Councillor Cllr. Mari Davies visited residents in the Nurseries and Bassett Terrace in Pwll.

Residents raised concerns about the management of the river Dulais, the bed of which has risen considerably due to a failure to remove silt and stones. Concerns have also been raised about the condition of the mud and sand bank behind the Nurseries which was breached this month leading to severe flooding in the Nurseries. Further concerns raised by residents in Bassett Terrace centre on the diversion of the River Dulais which now flows directly behind their homes.
Trudi Williams who is a spokesperson for the group said:
“When I moved here they said that severe flooding happens once in seventy years but we’ve had floods three times in the last ten years. During all that time, the silt and stones in the river have not been cleared and the only time I have ever seen people from the Environment Agency here is once we have had flooding. They admit responsibility for managing the river, so let’s see some management. We need the river cleared so that there is room for the water to flow because the arches under the bridge are nearly underwater even on a dry day. When there is heavy rain, it has got to the point where it will overflow. I live in dread of stormy weather now because I just don’t know how bad it could get”
Myfanwy Davies said: “It is clear that the Agency needs to remove the silt and stones from the river Dulais. I am appalled that they have allowed the river bed to fill up so dangerously when we know that the area suffers from flooding and I will be demanding swift action to clear the debris before the next heavy rain”.
“It is very disappointing that the Agency is seeking to avoid responsibility for the flood defenses behind the Nurseries. Together with Helen Mary Jones I will be working to establish who owns the bank so that we can ensure that resources are found to build adequate flood defenses”.
“I was shown photos of the River Dulais where it is diverted behind Basset Terrace after heavy rain and it is clear that the 90 degree bend slows the flow of the water and is much more likely to cause flooding. I have been told that representatives of the Environment Agency have agreed to reinforce the wall behind the nurseries but none of the residents know what implications that building work would have further upstream. I have written to Jane Davidson AM, the Minister for the Environment to ask her for an inquiry into the potential risk of flooding where rivers have been diverted by the Environment Agency. Clearly there are implications for other areas where rivers have been diverted. I will ask the Minister to ensure that the Agency performs its basic statutory duty of managing the river behind the Nurseries and I have also asked Helen Mary Jones to call a meeting with Ms Davidson and local residents at the earliest possible date”.
Cllr Mari Davies said: “It is just not acceptable for the Environment Agency to try to avoid its fundamental duty of managing the river north of Pwll Road. If the residents of the Nurseries are responsible for the bank, and that is debatable, why were they never informed of that and advised what to do to protect their homes? We need to know whether a flooding risk assessment was performed before the river Dulais was diverted south of Pwll Road. Myfanwy is quite right to raise those questions with Helen Mary and the Minister.”
Diwedd / Ends
Notes for Editors:
The residents are keen to address 3 issues:
1. To have the river dredged behind the Nurseries
2. To establish who owns that bank, what defense works would be suitable and what resources could be found to help them build them
3. To establish whether the houses in Bassett Terrace and The Nurseries are more likely to be flooded following the diversion of the Dulais and the low walls build around it to prevent flooding.