News

Hurry!! Hurry!! Radyr Parish Music Group announcement

Tickets are still available for our forthcoming production of “Hello Dolly”.

Wednesday 13th February 2008 until Saturday 16th February, 7.30 in Bishop of Llandaff High School, Rookwood Close, Llandaff.

Tickets £6.50 (Concessions £5.50) Wednesday and Thursday 

            £7.50 Friday and Saturday

Licenced bar available – ample parking – easy access

Tickets available from Maggie Roberts 029 2084 2995

If you prefer email me with your contact details and what tickets you need.

Come and support the Music Group and enjoy a spectacular show – all the principals are Radyr and Morganstown residents and the orchestra are all local young people (mostly under 18yrs) who have been rehearsing under the close supervision of Simon Davison (WNO) and are very professional in their performance. They all deserve your support.

The New Horizons allotment got going on Monday. Forest Farm conservationists joined volunteers from Radyr Baptist Church to plant 80 mixed trees donated by Western Power and Forest Farm and to construct a perimeter fence.

The allotment is a first stage of the Vine project and involves creating an eco-system for local bio-diversity – come along to the Festival Eco-Fun day to find out how we all get on. There may even be some early produce from the scheme at the EcoFun Farmers Market.

The layout of the allotment is being designed by children at Playchurch as part of their eco-congregation curriculum. The landscaping, with guidance and resources from Dean at .4 seasons, will be achieved through a young people’s ground force involving RTC, Radyr Comprehensive’s Green Flag group and the Radyr and Morganstown Association’s young leaders in the community programme. If you want to give some time in the great outdoors then contact Lewis at greenflag@radyr.cardiff.sch.uk to get involved.

Stage two of the project begins in September with some therapeutic learning hours for students with supportive education needs or not in education, employment or training, and we also hope to offer a course in gardening with the adult education centre.

Contact the eco-manager Joanna at dave@radyrbaptists.org for further details. If you want to find out about Forest Farm Conservation see the Friends of Forest Farmwebsite.

May Queen and attendants with the Chair of the Community Council in the OCR after lighting the Christmas trees in Morganstown and Radyr.

Unfortunately it was too wet and windy to take any photos at the actual lighting. In fact it was awful, even worse than last year when the tree snapped. (But see more about this year in the Soapbox.)

A Community Christmas caroling event it took place on Monday 17th December 2007.

The Radyr Baptist Church accompanied other members of the community in carol singing around the Sidings area, Radyr.

£118.00 was raised that will go to support the NSPCC (Radyr office). Thank you to all the children who collected donations for the NSPCC and to the brass playing musicians.

Many thanks also to Mike and Sonia Collins who opened up their home and invited us all back for a glass of mulled wine and mince pie.

We all had a lovely time!

The 19th October saw the opening of Ener-chi Radyr in Station Road. The evening was apparently a great success and Ener-chi say that the business is growing daily. They say that they are encouraged by the support and enthusiasm of local people and are keen to provide a useful service to the local community. offering a full range of complimentary health and beauty treatments , herbal remedies , Physiotherapy ,chiropody and speech therapy clinics. Advice and information centre for all aspects of natural health and nutrition.

The opening hours are mon-sat 9am-5pm but open late on Tuesday and Thursday till 8pm. On tue and thur the 4th and 6th December Ener-chi are having shopping extravaganza evenings and will be offering taster treatments and demonstrating skin care and make-up ranges. Ener-chi invite all for a cup of mulled wine and seasonal treats.

For further details please call Judy at Ener-chi on 02920 214012 .

The Chair of the Community Council lays a wreath at the War Memorial, November 2007.

At the last R&M PACT Meeting held on 10th October, chaired by Rod McKerlich, it was agreed he should write to our local Police Inspector raising residents’ concerns on a few issues. The letter and the reply received are copied below.

If you would like to comment on this correspondence or raise other relevant issues, then the Soapbox is the place to head. Keep a look out for the date of the next PACT and Neighbourhood Watch meetings too.

Letter sent 24th October 2007

Dear Inspector Brock,

I enclose a copy of the minutes of the recent Radyr and Morganstown PACT meeting and apologise for the slight delay in sending them; this was because CPSO Tory Miller was sick and, as she was your sole representative at the meeting, it was difficult to get approval of my draft minutes.

As you can see I was instructed by the meeting to write to you with a copy to the Chief Constable to make the following points:

Pc Huw Thomas worked very effectively in our villages but recently he has not been working in the area so much. Why is he being diverted away?

Calls to 101 very rarely result in a satisfactory police response and the belief is that this is a mechanism to dampen public expectation of our police rather than a means of addressing problems.

You have a good grasp of the youth annoyance problem with lots of good intelligence but no clear strategy for dealing with offenders. Can we have a presentation on this subject?

I look forward to hearing from you and I am appreciative of your commitment to PACT meetings and Neighbourhood Watch.

Yours sincerely

Rod McKerlich 
cc Chief Constable

Reply sent 3rd November 2007

Dear Mr. McKerlich.,

Re: Policing issues, Radyr.

Thank you for your letter of the 24th October 2007 concerning policing issues in the Radyr area. May I first of all thank you for stepping in to chair this Partnership and Communities Together meeting. My sources tell me that you did an excellent job.

PACT meetings were introduced as part of our Neighbourhood Policing Programme to allow communities the opportunity to consult with us and our partners over issues that affect their community. It was not really there to examine general policing issues such as those you have raised.

I am however happy to address the points you have raised here and I will endeavour to attend at the next PACT meeting to talk about them personally with those who raised them.

Unfortunately we do not have an unlimited supply of officers and at times it is necessary to move them around as demand dictates. This can happen from time to time with PC Thomas with everyday policing matters and also in his role as a Specialist Medic with the Police Support Units.

The policing of Radyr is not the sole responsibility of Huw. There are numerous other resources with South Wales Police and the Cardiff Division who are there to address the communities’ needs. Having spoken with Huw, his time away has been kept to a minimum and he does as I do remain totally committed to providing the best possible levels of policing for the Radyr area.

With regards to 101, I could not agree totally with the statement in your letter. I appreciate from time to time problems occur but 101 do provide a highly valued service and there are numerous examples of their good work that have been publicly recognised. The 101 service in Cardiff was part of a National Project and there are many places throughout England and Wales who would love to have this service.

I think the problem is occurring with the grading of calls received by 101 staff. Calls are graded according to their severity and that then determines the type of response sent. It is here that I believe the public feels let down when the type of response they expect is at variance with our guidelines and subsequent delivery provide. Some calls are resourced immediately where as others receive a delayed routine response. Again it is striking the right balance to ensure that expectation meets the demand.

I know that managers from 101 have attended the Radyr PACT meeting in the past and I will get Huw to invite them along to the next meeting to answer any specific questions that the community may have.

The final point raised concerned youth annoyance. We do have set strategies and policies for dealing with these problems. This work together with our partners will encompass a range of options including education, to environmental issues, to actual enforcement. How we tactically deal with each and every problem varies according to the nature of the problem. I or Huw would be more than happy to answer questions on this subject.

As I said I hope to be at the next meeting. Should you wish to discuss further these or any other issues, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely:

N. BROCK SECTOR INSPECTOR

This year I am excited to have a part in Radyr Parish Music Group`s production of `Hello Dolly`.

I will be playing the part of `Stanley` who is a boy waiter at the `Harmonia Gardens restaurant`. Stanley`s job is to announce `Dolly`s` arrival at the restaurant just before she descends the grand staircase and sings the title song `Hello Dolly`.

It all promises to be great fun and very fast moving. I hope you will all come and watch us perform and enjoy it as much as we do!

Watch this space and the young people`s magazine the Radyr Link for my update on the excitement and drama of producing performing arts.

Tickets are available from Sue on 02920 310894.

You can find out more at the Radyr Parish Music Group Website.

The Old Church rooms has won the first prize for Best Community Building in the Cardiff in Bloom competition. 

Three local disabled people feature in a new campaign to challenge and change attitudes towards disability, launched in Wales by Leonard Cheshire Disability this week.

The charity has teamed up with Aardman Animations to create a highly original campaign called Creature Discomforts. The awareness campaign is based on the much-loved Creature Comforts series and features the hallmark plasticine characters with disabilities.

The characters will appear in adverts at bus stops and shopping centres across Cardiff, as well as in newspapers, magazines and online from Thursday.

The Aardman Animations team has created new characters for Leonard Cheshire Disability’s campaign that include a bull terrier in a wheelchair, a stick insect with a walking stick and a tortoise on crutches.

The four animations are based on the genuine voices of disabled people describing in their own words the negative attitudes and barriers they experience, which separate them from society. Each animation ends with the message “change the way you see disability”.

The campaign coincides with the publication of the Disability Review 2007 – the first annual in-depth examination of life for disabled people in the UK today.

The Disability Review 2007, commissioned by Leonard Cheshire Disability, reveals that almost half (45 per cent) of disabled people in Wales who responded to the national survey believe their quality of life will get worse over the next five years.

The report also found that a fifth (20 per cent) of respondents in Wales felt the quality of treatment they received from GPs was not up to scratch. Eight per cent had been a victim of crime over the last 12 months. And 84 per cent of Welsh respondents voted in the last General Election – compared to 61 per cent of the UK population.

Sheila Morgan from Cardiff, who stars as Peg the Hedgehog, said: “Disabled people don’t want your pity, we just want your respect.”

Vanessa Bourne, Wales and West Regional Chairman at Leonard Cheshire Disability said: “We want people to change the way they see disability, to think and act differently and to make a positive difference to the lives of disabled people.

“Disabled people experience unnecessary social barriers which are created largely through ignorance. In the twenty-first century it is unacceptable that such negative attitudes to disability still persist. Everyone has a part to play in creating a world in which disabled people are included in every aspect of life.”

For a preview of the campaign visit www.creaturediscomforts.org. From Thursday the characters will appear in adverts at bus stops, in newspapers, magazines and online. In January, the animations will be aired on ITV.

Radyr Baptists got together for a community harvest at Forest Farm allotments on 20th October.

The PlayChurch team got stuck in to some outdoor learning. The aim is to make more learning styles available, connect with nature, develop concern for the local environment, and cultivate a child-centred allotment strip.

Meanwhile some of the adults brought a spade to start digging but most enjoyed the stunning clear and sunny day and launched a vision for enhancing the education experience of students wth special education needs or having difficulty managing at school.

We were very grateful for the connection with the allotments and its role enhancing life within the community.

The Community Council has decided to develop a Village Plan for Radyr and Morganstown. This will be done in partnership with the Radyr & Morganstown Association and our County Councillor. A steering group has been set up with members from the Community Council, the RMA and Cllr Marion Drake.

At the steering group’s first meeting Terms of Reference were agreed and first steps taken to consider the scope of the Plan. The Plan will show our many community strengths as well as our present and future concerns. This information will be used to plan future projects for local benefit. It is important to realise that not all the issues identified will be within the control of the Community Council or local organisations. Where control lies with other bodies, such as Cardiff Council, we would use the Plan to try to influence decisions taken by them.

Village Plans are already in place for many areas in England and some communities in Wales. We feel that such a plan would promote an even greater sense of community for Radyr & Morganstown and give us direction for planning for the future. The Plan would continue to evolve as our community changes and develops; it would not be a static document.

Over the next few months there will be opportunities for you to contribute your views to the Plan and, should you wish, to help put the Plan together. We will keep residents informed of progress via articles in the Radyr Chain and on this website. If you have expertise or experience in community consultation or would like to help with this please contact Helena Fox, Clerk to the Community Council on 20842213 or clerk@radyr.org.uk.

The Old Church rooms has won the first prize for Best Community Building in the Cardiff in Bloom competition. 

Hugh Johns’ funeral procession in Windsor Crescent near his home.

You can find out more about Hugh Johns at several web sites including

WikiPedia and

Times-on-line

Coffee Morning & Car Wash in aid of the Marie Curie Cancer Centre went very well.

A large crowd at the Eco Fun Day on the first day of R&M Festival 2007.

See Photo Album for this event.

Community Easter Egg Hunt in Radyr woods, with food and wine Good Friday. Over 30 children came with their parents and also Kieran Webster came along to speak with the children about the Easter story and a lovely time was had by all.

Sir Martin Evans, who lives in Radyr, has been awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize for medicine for his work on stem cells.

See the BBC Website for full details.

If you happen to stroll past the Old Church Rooms on a Sunday evening and think that you hear a heavenly choir don’t look up it’s probably coming from inside where the Ardwyn Singers rehearse.

The Ardwyn Singers are one of Wales’ leading mixed vocal ensembles having performed under conductors such as Sir Andrew Davies, Tadakki Otaka and Owain Arwel Hughes. They have performed with such orchestras as The London Symphony Orchestra, The National Orchestra of Wales, and The London Philharmonic and with artists of the calibre of Dame Felicity Lott, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Bryn Terfel and Luciano Pavarotti.

They have also toured extensively both in Europe and America and many readers will remember singing alongside them in the two concert performances at Llandaff Cathedral.

The Ardwyn Singers will be giving a concert at Christ Church, Radyr, on Saturday 29th September to raise money from the 2008 Cardiff National Eisteddfod, which is just 12 months away.

Two sisters from Radyr will be taking part in the concert. Lisa Clwyd is a member of the Ardwyn Singers while her sister, Iona Jones, will be the soloist at the concert. Iona needs very little introduction having sung many times in the two villages. Iona, like so many eminent Welsh singers, is a winner of the David Ellis Memorial Prize at the National Eisteddfod; better known as The Blue Riband. In August she sang in Gounod’s St Cecilia Mass at the National Eisteddfod held at Mold,

When The Ardwyn’s long term Musical Director, Helena Braithwaite retired, they succeeded in attracting another equally distinguished MD in David Leggett. David is Head of Music at Cardiff High School and Organist and Director of Music at Eglwys Dewi Sant, Cardiff. You’ll be glad to hear that Janice Ball, the choir’s delightful and distinguished accompanist will be at the piano.

The concert takes place at 7.30 pm. on Saturday 29th of September in Christ Church. Tickets £10, including an interval drink, can be obtained from Allan Cook 20843176.

Bryn Deri Primary School is a happy place providing a high quality education for its pupils, according to school inspectors. In its 30th year providing education to children in Radyr, Bryn Deri has received high praise following an Estyn inspection in May in which inspectors noted the school as good with outstanding features.

The school was awarded six grade 1s and one grade 2 in the seven key areas inspected.

The quality of teaching (graded 1-5) was marked as good with outstanding features with 39% of lessons judged as grade 1 and 50% as grade 2 which is higher than the Welsh Assembly targets for 2007.

Pupils’ personal, social and learning skills are very good and attendance is also good. There is an outstanding range of extra-curricular activities. The school has been awarded the Basic Skills Quality Mark for the third time, the BECTA ICT award and the Eco School Bronze Award.

Executive Member for Education and Lifelong Learning, Cllr Bill Kelloway: “I’m always very pleased to hear of Cardiff schools gaining good inspection reports and I’d like to offer my congratulations to everyone at the school for their success in their 30th year.”

Headteacher Diane Moverley said: “We are very pleased and proud of the results of our inspection. It recognises the high standards expected and achieved at Bryn Deri in all areas of school life and confirms our belief that Bryn Deri is a great place to be for both pupils and staff.”

David Silver, Chair of Governors said: “The Governing Body is very proud of the achievements of the school. Whilst Governors, Staff and Parents already knew that Bryn Deri was an excellent school, it is very pleasing that the inspection of the school by ESTYN has come to the same conclusion.”