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Text Box: A HANDFUL of Blaenau Gwent pupils have been told there is no room for them in a secondary school to which they were due to transfer next September. The youngsters, who attend Ysgol Gymraeg Brynmawr, were looking forward to moving up to Year 7 in the nearest Welsh medium secondary school, Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw, Pontypool. But they have been told there is no room for them at the popular Welsh school, which is in neighbouring Torfaen. Now Blaenau Gwent Assembly member Trish Law has written to education minister Jane Hutt calling for a new Welsh medium secondary school to be built to serve the old county of Gwent. “Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw is bursting at the seams and there are 14 temporary classrooms, four of which were built in 1964 with a 10-year lifespan and many are in a terrible state,” she told the Gazette. “Ellis Griffiths, the head teacher of Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw, has said there needs to be an investment of £8 million in classrooms over the next three years – and that should be met by all four authorities feeding into the school. “In the case of Blaenau Gwent, which produces about a quarter of the Year 7 intake, that would mean £2 million, money which the authority just has not got. But without this investment four Ysgol Gymraeg Brynmawr pupils will not be able to attend the Pontypool school in September.” Mrs Law, the Assembly’s lone Independent, added: “The authority here is now in something of a dilemma because it has a statutory duty to provide sufficient places for Welsh medium education.” In her letter to Jane Hutt she said: “It is unacceptable that Blaenau Gwent children, having been taught through the medium of Welsh up to and including Year 6, should then be denied access to Welsh medium secondary education. “I firmly believe there is a case for developing another Ysgol Gyfun to serve the area of the former county of Gwent, ideally in Blaenau Gwent.” Plaid Cymru’s Blaenau Gwent branch chairman, Glanmor Bowen-Knight, has written to Trish Law urging her to press for another Welsh medium secondary school. He said: “Plaid Cymru condemns without reservation this flagrant denial of accessible Welsh medium education to pupils within the constituency and we express our full solidarity with those parents whose children’s education currently hangs in the balance.”

 

 

 

 

Text Box: Trish Law press release on new ambulance targets   STRINGENT new targets to get patients out of ambulances and into hospital accident and emergency departments in 15 minutes must not be used as an excuse to reduce the ambulance fleet in Blaenau Gwent. That is the view of Blaenau Gwent AM Trish Law who has been campaigning for several months against plans to withdraw one of the two ambulances at Aberbeeg. She said she welcomed Health Minister Edwina Hart’s announcement that the 15-minute target from ambulance to A&E would become mandatory from April. Twice in the last two months Mrs Law has written to the minister expressing her concern about lengthy delays in admitting patients to A&E departments while ambulances have been stood idle in hospital grounds. The Independent AM attached two articles from the Gwent Gazette when she wrote to Mrs Hart last month. One told of a 20-month child who was taken to hospital in a paramedic’s car because there was no ambulance available, and the other concerned a teenager who sustained serious head injuries in an accident and who was taken to hospital by his parents when an ambulance failed to turn up. A recurring reason for ambulance delays has been that they are snarled up at the Royal Gwent, Newport. Mrs Law said in her December letter: “This really is an unacceptable situation and, I believe, adds weight to my contention that there must be no ambulance withdrawal from Blaenau Gwent at this time.” She has now reiterated her concern, saying the new 15-minute target had to be met and sustained over a period of time before any ambulance withdrawal could be contemplated. “While I welcome the minister’s announcement I want to be sure that all ambulances will be freed up within 15 minutes at all times,” said Mrs Law. “I don’t want the minister’s announcement to be used as an excuse to withdraw one of Aberbeeg’s two ambulances. “That would be premature and unsafe, and the safety and well-being of patients must be of paramount importance.”  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Text Box: THE new Ebbw Valley train service has three "missing links" including the Newport spur, Assembly members have heard.   Blaenau Gwent Assembly member Trish Law has called on First Minister Rhodri Morgan to say when missing links to Newport, Ebbw Vale Town and Abertillery will be developed. "There are plans but there is no commitment of funds at this time," replied Mr Morgan during First Minister's questions. He went on: "We have commissioned Network Rail to provide a costed feasibility study for removing the notorious constraint at Gaer junction on the outskirts of Newport, and we are awaiting the outcome of the study. "I should add that there are dedicated feeder buses linking to Newport, as there are to Ebbw Vale town centre and Abertillery, and that the line is a great success." Mrs Law, the only Independent AM, congratulated the Assembly government on making the reinstatement of passenger trains between Ebbw Vale and Cardiff a reality but stressed that "the job is not finished". "There are three missing links, including the Newport spur," she said. "Will the First Minister explain why the driver familiarisation training prior to the reopening of the line took place between Ebbw Vale and Newport, which suggests that there is no impediment to running passenger services between Ebbw Vale and Newport?" Mr Morgan said he was not aware of that and he was not sure that it would overcome the objection of Network Rail engineers. He added: "They want to complete the modernisation of Newport station and the Gaer junction and they say that there must be a crossover, which does not exist at the moment, to enable safe operations to take place. "Therefore, the Newport area signalling project must be completed first." Since being elected to the Assembly in June, 2006, Mrs Law has been campaigning to have the Newport link completed in time for the 2010 Ryder Cup.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Text Box:   BLAENAU Gwent Assembly member Trish Law has warned that 2008/09 will be an annus horribilis for the borough council. She told the Assembly yesterday (Tues) that the council would lose £875,000 towards regeneration projects in Blaenau Gwent over the next two years. If the council wanted to maintain its regeneration programme then the council would be forced to take the money from other frontline services like education and social services. She told AMs: "But, with a Revenue Support Grant increase of just 1.8 per cent, 2008/2009 promises to be an annus horribilis for Blaenau Gwent Council." The Independent AM raised the issue during weekly questions to First Minister Rhodri Morgan. Her question was about smaller regeneration schemes which, she said, meant so much to residents of and visitors to the Ebbw Fawr, Ebbw Fach and Tredegar areas. More than £13 million has been allocated to 12 such schemes in Blaenau Gwent and there are others in the pipeline. "Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council estimates it will lose £875,000 towards regeneration projects over the next two years," said Mrs Law. "Of course, this is an indicative figure and, if Blaenau Gwent wishes to continue its regeneration programme, it will have to be at the expense of frontline services such and education and social services." Rhodri Morgan referred to the £300 million reclamation and regeneration of the Corus steelworks site. And he stressed that Blaenau Gwent received the highest per capita funding in Wales.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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