News

The City of Cardiff Council have sent a letter to Tongwynlais residents about the planned works. The construction has been programmed to start on the 20th February 2017, with an anticipated duration of three weeks.

The proposed improvement works to be undertaken include:

• The removal of the existing timber walkway and parapets.
• The reconstruction of a replacement pedestrian footway system, using GRP (Glass Reinforced Plastic) which will provide a more durable construction. The walkway will be widened from 0.9 to 1.5m and the parapets will be raised to 1.8m high adjacent to the water main, and 1.4m high to the northern face of the bridge.

The bridge was closed in March 2015 when damage to the walkway was spotted. Temporary repairs were made and a permanent solution was promised when money was available.

The official notice, which has contact details, is here if you have any questions.

This year’s R&M May Festival will include an ‘Open Gardens’ event on Sunday 7th May.  Would any resident who would like to ‘show off’ their garden to the public please contact Gill Evans on 07881 206745?  All monies raised will go to the R&M Association’s nominated charity, St John’s Ambulance Cymru.

Ideally, gardens should be within easy reach of the Old Church Rooms in Park Road but don’t let that put you off speaking to Gill.

Consultation results have shown public support for proposals to increase the size of Radyr Primary school. 

 

At the moment the school has a published capacity of 45 pupils in each year group, from Reception class to Year 6. But since 2012 the number of pupils starting there each September has exceeded that published figure, with the school and local authority having to use a combination of existing and temporary accommodation to cater for the extra numbers. 

The proposals being considered by Cabinet would provide the school with a long-term solution, putting in place permanent accommodation for up-to 420 pupils, 60 pupils in each year group, from September 2017.

The full press release from Cardiff County Council is available here.

Helen Lloyd Jones, Chair of the Environment Sub-Committee, R&M Community Council, writes:

Going for a walk this Christmas?  You should find that all public rights of way are open.  If you come across one that is barred or impassable, there are two ways of reporting it.  You can either send details to the County Council or you can use Pathwatch, the free app from the Ramblers’ Association.

The R&M map (link on the right-hand side of the home page of this website) shows many of the local paths, together with their official reference numbers.  Use these if you have an issue to report.

Pathwatch uses GPS on your smartphone so that your location is pinpointed if you call in from wherever you find an issue.

Finally, here’s a Report from the Community Council with footpath and cycle recommendations for R&M.

Have a wonderful time exploring our paths – we have some great walks in Radyr and Morganstown. Happy Christmas!

2nd December saw this year’s Christmas Lighting Event. It was attended by many hundreds of local people and lots of children.

The event started with the lighting of the two trees in Morganstown and Lychgate Gardens and was accompanied by carol singing by the children from Bryn Deri and Radyr Primary Schools. Everyone then joined together in Windsor Gardens to light the tree and sing some more carols.

The lights in Station Road were then switched on by St John Bertie Badger and the Festival Queen and her attendant. Santa then appeared and was immediately swamped by young children. Mulled Wine was flowing freely and Burgers and Hot Dogs were eaten by many. This year there were 16 stalls and people had a chance to purchase some gifts and enter raffles.

Many thanks go to the hard working organisers for putting the event on for the community.

The Sunday Times annual list of top performing schools has placed Radyr Comprehensive School third place in Wales.

Results are strong with 67% of entries attaining A* to B at A level, whilst at GCSE 32.1% of entries gained A* or A grades.

PACT MEETING

Notes of the November PACT meeting are posted on the PACT page.

Sunday morning’s Remembrance event was held at the War Memorial where wreaths were laid, followed by a service at Christ Church and a review parade of participants. This year there were even more youngsters than ever with wreaths laid by many local organisations from R&M. With the number of children involved the event seems very secure for the future.

Remembrance Day 2016

View this gallery on Flickr

There is a current consultation on expanding Radyr Primary School to become 2-form entry. The birth-rate in Radyr and Morganstown, for the last three years, has demanded about 90 places in the reception classes of the two local schools. This is a huge increase since 2006 when I became a governor at Radyr Primary, when the catchment areas only demanded 40 to  50 of the available 75 places. For the last four years Radyr Primary has been allowed to accept an intake of 60 rather than 45; the purpose of the consultation is to make this a permanent intake. If the consultation  does not result in the proposals being carried, this will impact severely on 30 pupils and their parents in September 2017, and increased numbers will suffer disruption as the enforced lower intake runs through the school.

To access the consutation doucment, click here.  (You have to go the bottom of the page to start  the survey.)  Note that responses must be returned by 21st November.

The pdfs below (in English and in Welsh) show the full case which is supported by me as local County Councillor and by the Community Council,

Rod McKerlich.

english-radyr-prim

welsh-radyr-prim

The hay on the Morganstown Motte site was cut by Cardiff Council last week. Until it is cut again in September next year it will be managed as a wildflower site.

The growth on the mound will be cut back once the leaves have fallen, but the management strategy is to keep the growth as saplings. These saplings will not be allowed to grow into trees because the tree roots could damage the stonework from the Norman building.  The mound is steep and not really safe to climb, so it is better to have saplings there than grass. This also preserves another habitat for wildlife.

Allan Cook, on behalf of the Friends of Morganstown Motte, thanks everyone involved in this work, and especially Cardiff Council for their valued help.

PS: volunteers will be needed in September 2017 to help with the raking!

Thriller play’s first performance in Wales!

Would you have believed that the lady author of ‘The Railway Children’ would have a penchant for the darker side? Well she certainly had. The less well-known part of Edith Nesbit’s writings were rather more for adults, and often of the ghost story/lesser horror genre. This aspect of her work is the subject of  Radyr Drama Society’s next production, being performed at Morganstown Village Hall, Cardiff, on 24^th/25^th and 26^th of November.  (Tickets available from Gill Evans (2084 2432); Ener chi in Station Road, Radyr; and ticketsource at £10, £9 (concessions) and £7 (students).

Created by script-writer and playwright Philip Meeks, this relatively new piece of work for theatre was first performed at Harrogate in 2013, and subsequently at the Edinburgh Festival in 2015.

The author has invited an unknown young male admirer of her work up to her attic writing room, in order to escape her husband’s Christmas Eve party. Aided and abetted by her housekeeper and companion Biddy Thricefold , Edith embarks on a number of readings from her ghostly tales for adults. Each member of the trio takes turns in reading in the dialogue of characters in the stories. All this takes place, while an unseen young female party guest, who earlier fainted, is recovering in an adjacent bedroom.

From time to time between stories, the young male guest’s identity is briefly questioned, but with no clear answer forthcoming as to who he is. As the tension mounts, an awful truth comes to light, and the identities of the young woman in the adjacent room, and of Edith’s young male admirer, are revealed in a dramatic and unexpected ending.

As well as such recent successes as ‘The Sunshine Boys’ and ‘Barefoot in the Park’, Radyr Drama Society aims also to be innovative in presenting some newer material. ‘Edith in the Dark’ is very much in that category, and is certainly a play not to be missed.

(You can read more about Edith Nesbit’s ‘darker side’ in a recent Guardian article – see here.)

Radyr Comprehensive School has issued the following press release about this year’s A-level results:

PRESS RELEASE 

Provisional A Level Results 2016 

Congratulations to our year 13 for achieving an outstanding set of A Level results. 

28% of our students achieved at least 3 A grades. 

Our overall provisional percentage figures are as follows: 

 A*A % – 47 %

 A*B % – 67 %

 A*C % – 86 %

 A*D % – 94 % 

 A*E % – 99 % 

We wish the students all the very best as they embark on the next chapter in their lives. 

On Saturday 23^rd July, Danybryn residents, families and friends enjoyed the fine weather at their fete and raised £600 towards a replacement vehicle.

Derek Bateman, Volunteer Co-ordinator at Danybryn Leonard Cheshire Disability, expressed his thanks to all those who helped and supported the splendid event.

A £2.6m project which uses the power of the River Taff in Cardiff to generate electricity is set to open.

The Radyr Weir hydro scheme uses the current to rotate two turbines and it is estimated it will generate enough electricity to power 550 homes.

When the system starts running on Tuesday, the section of the Taff Trail which was closed to allow work to happen will reopen.

Its design still allows migratory fish to swim upriver and spawn.

Ramesh Patel, Cardiff council’s cabinet member for transport, planning and sustainability, said: “It gives me an enormous amount of pleasure and indeed pride to open this scheme which is a permanent reminder of the council’s commitment to generate and invest in clean, locally-generated energy.”

(BBC NEWS)

On Thursday, 14th July, the Festival Committee met to review the May 2016 Festival.  The Festival, which had had Roald Dahl as the underlying theme and was run in support of Velindre Hospital, was thought to have gone really well.  Two new events – the Vintage Afternoon Tea Party, organised by Karen Wright, and the Open Gardens Sunday, organised by Gill Evans – had been a tremendous success and it was hoped that they will be repeated in future years.

David Cargill, Chair of the Festival Committee, thanked everyone for their hard work and noted that next year would mark the 30^th anniversary of the May festival.  A challenge indeed!

During the proceedings, David Cargill and David Silver (Chair of the Radyr & Morganstown Association) presented Professor Rosemary Kennedy (Chair of the Velindre NHS Trust) with a cheque for £11,000.  This represented the total amount raised by the R&M Community for Velindre over the past year.  Professor Kennedy thanked the Association and the Community of Radyr & Morganstown for supporting the work of Velindre and ensured the money would be put to very good use.

At the end of the proceedings, Aled Treharne, local leader for St John’s Cymru, introduced himself and his organisation and said how delighted and honoured he was that St John’s Cymru had been selected as the Association’s Charity for the coming year.   He looked forward to working with the team.

This year’s Festival with a number of events already completed, including a very successful parade and Fete and a sold out concert given by Male Voice Choir Côr Meibion Taf.  You can read about the Festival, the link with Roald Dahl and details of some of the events in this Wales On-line report.

Full details of the events and a report on progress are available on the Festival Website.

This is a picture of the crowning of the Festval Queen, Erin Desmond and her two attendants, Gracie Rodriguez and Katie Houstan.

On Saturday 19th March 2016 Peter Esswood and the Radyr and Morganstown Choral Society welcomed the Welsh Chamber Players and four fine soloists to Christ Church Radyr for a performance of George Frideric Handel’s oratorio Messiah.

The fledgling choir had not aspired to such a large work so far in its three year existence but an enthusiastic audience seemed to suggest that such an undertaking was not now beyond the scope of the Society and gave the performance a most warm reception.

Having excellent links with the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Peter Esswood’s small orchestra and the smaller ranks of choristers meant a leaner sound that was appropriate to the church setting.  The players produced a fine balance of tone to which the four soloists, again chosen by Peter, were able to reach splendidly high standards of projection. Soprano Anastasiia Golovina, contralto Olivia Gomez, tenor Andrew Henley and Bass Bertie Watson are all making names for themselves on the national stage and Radyr was fortunate to have been able to secure their presence at what was a memorable occasion for the village.

If you would like to know more about future performances of the R&M Choral Society or how to become a member, contact the Secretary.

Burglaries at Pugh’s Garden Centre.  The police are involved and additional security is being organised.   A house burglary took place on Thursday 4th March with loss of valuables and a car, later recovered.

16/00106/MJR

Application for the development of 300 houses on Goitre Fach Farm, Llantrisant Road.  This is the farm situated halfway between Rhydlafar railway bridge and Maes y Llech farm.   This is in addition to the 630 houses at the Radyr roundabout.