News

Transport for Wales have just issued this Newsletter containing information on work that has started on the Valley lines upwards from Radyr Station.  Specifically, the line north of Radyr Station is now closed from 8pm, with bus replacement services in operation.  It is all part of the process of electrifying and modernising the line.

Do read the Newsletter for full information.  It also contains a link for a virtual tour and contact details for further information.

The Radyr & Morganstown Association (RMA) have been thinking about how we might still organise some form of Festival in 2020 whilst working within the current restrictions. We are planning a ‘Mini Autumn Festival’. It will start on Friday 18 September 2020 and run for just over a week. All events will either be outside (with appropriate ‘social distancing’) or held online.

A full schedule of events is now published on the Festival Website – https://rmfestival.org.uk

Confirmed events include:

• Family Junk Challenge (using waste materials to build items which can be viewed from the pavement/footpaths);
• Published walks around Radyr & Morganstown;
• Garden photo competition;
• Activity Trail / Treasure Hunt
• Tenovus Quiz – through Zoom

Tenovus remains the RMA’s nominated charity for 2020-21. As ever, we want to bring our community back together, have some fun, and raise some money for a worthy cause.

A message from David Silver, Festival Chairman:

2020 has been an unusual year with much that we would normally do postponed or cancelled. Earlier in the year we had to postpone our May Festival events in the interest of public safety. As Tenovus means so much to local residents, and like many charities the pandemic has limited the ways they can raise funds, we have decided to retain them as our chosen charity for the 2020-21 year. Back in August the RMA handed over £3,174, the total we were holding on the charities behalf from the year’s efforts. Whilst we are grateful for everything that was donated this was much lower than our usual total as a good part of our fundraising year had been lost to the circumstances.

As the situation changes we have been looking at what form of events might be possible for us to arrange to have some sort of Festival this year. We are pleased to be able to bring a week long Mini-Festival this Autumn featuring a combination of online events and outdoor events around Radyr & Morganstown where social distancing can be maintained.

On behalf of the Radyr & Morganstown Community, I would like to thank the Festival committee and all our other helpers, without whom the Festival could not take place. Please come along and join us at as many of the events as possible.

We look forward to seeing you all.

A car was stolen on 17/8/20 off a drive in Dan y Bryn Avenue.  Please keep your car locked and be aware of the sensing devices being used by criminals to steal automatic locking cars.

For post scam deliveries (8/10/20) and other recent scams or to sign up for regular alerts to your inbox, please see our Neighbourhood Watch page.

On 10^th August 2020 the Radyr & Morganstown Association held its first General Meeting via Zoom – public meetings still not being allowed due to the Coronavirus pandemic.  The subject of the talk at the meeting was very topical – Radyr resident Ron Eccles spoke on ‘COVID-19 – the great pandemic, questions and answers’.  Ron is an Emeritus Professor at Cardiff University’s School of Biosciences and was the Director of the Common Cold Centre at Cardiff University 1988-2017.

One of the benefits of using Zoom is that it is possible to record a session and, given the topicality of the subject, we did just that.  Both the draft minutes of the meeting and a recording of Ron’s talk can be found on the Association’s website; just follow the links.

We were very privileged to have such an eminent speaker at one of our meetings, and we thank Professor Eccles for taking the time to speak to us.

Our next General Meeting (which may also be on Zoom) will be on 5^th October.  The speaker will be announced soon.

If you would like to know more about the Association’s activities, please email the Secretary.

The Radyr & Morganstown Association (RMA) have been thinking about how we might still organise some form of Festival in 2020 whilst working within the current restrictions. We are planning a ‘Mini Autumn Festival’. It will start on Friday 18 September and run for a week or so. All events will either be outside (with appropriate ‘social distancing’) or held online.

As part of the 2016 Festival which celebrated the centenary of Roald Dahl’s birth, the Radyr & Morganstown Association (RMA) organised a successful Junk Challenge based on the characters from his novels.
The Association is organising a similar challenge to coincide with their Autumn Festival in 2020.

Rules of entry

1. All entries need to be in place on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September 2020.
2. The entry/ entries (you can submit more than one) needs to be visible from the pavement outside, either in your front garden, front window or paved area. The judges will come around and judge the entries on the 19 and 20 September.
3. Junk is anything that you are throwing out, paper, cardboard, wood, plastic, metal, fabric. You can use any fixing, glue, sticky tape, nails, ties etc and can use paint to decorate your entry.
4. There will be a prize in two categories, under 11 and over 11 on the 10 September.
5. The themes are:
(i) Wildlife. It can be a realistic representation of wildlife animal, or floral and can include an animal character from a favourite book, i.e. Toad from the Wind in the Willows
or the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.
(ii) A favourite book.
(iii) Transport.
6. Entries should be submitted via the form below
7. Entries should be submitted by midnight on the 10 September 2020.

Entry Form

Beware of false TV licence renewal notices appearing to come from from TV Licensing > support@tvlicensing.co.uk threatening to remove the licence and or pass details to a debt collector.

For full details of this and other recent scams please see our Neighbourhood Watch page.

The Welsh Blood Service have set up regional donation hubs, therefore your regular place of donation may no longer be available and you may have to travel further than normally. Morganstown Village Hall would usually host the Blood Donation team at this time of year but cannot in the current circumstances.

During the Pandemic the blood service are unable to take walk-ins. Blood Donation is classed as essential travel.

If you are fit and well please follow the link below to book a convenient day and time.

Please support your local session in these unprecedented times to continue vital supply of platelets and blood products.💕

The next sessions local to Radyr & Morganstown are:

• City Hall, Cardiff: 4-6 August 2020
• Cardiff Met Uni, Llandaff Campus (Western Avenue): 20-22 July, 29-30 July and 27-28 August,

Just follow this link to book an appointment : https://wbs.wales/RMhub

30 children’s play areas in Cardiff will be re-opened on Monday (20 July 2020) following the removal of Welsh Government restrictions on their use.

All nine of the city’s outdoor gyms will also re-open on Monday.

Play areas are being opened on phased basis, following a safety first approach and with a view to ensuring that children across the city have some play provision in their local area as quickly as possible.

Prior to re-opening, equipment and safety surfaces have been checked, and changes have been made to help maintain social distancing and minimise risk of transmitting Covid-19 – for example, some swing seats may have been removed to ensure a 2 metre distance is maintained.

To help ensure safety, new signage will also be installed on site asking families using the sites to:

• wash or sanitise their hands, before, after and during using the equipment;
• keep a 2 metre distance from others not in their household;
• limit visits to 30 minutes during busy times;
• only have a maximum of one adult per child in the play area.

More of the city’s play 116 play areas will be opened in the coming weeks, once all necessary safety inspections have been completed.

The only play area in the Radyr area re-opening on Monday is Fisherhill Way. We look forward to news of further local sites re-opening shortly.

16,000 cases of scams on internet purchasing during the “Lockdown”..  See the Neighbourhood Watch page for details from ACTION FRAUD

Fortnightly collections for green garden waste will return to normal across Cardiff from Monday 6 July 2020. That means that the first of the fortnightly collections for Radyr & Morganstown will be Monday 13 July.

You can check garden waste collection dates for your area here: http://orlo.uk/Dthvv

Please make sure you:
Put out your green wheelie bin or reusable garden sacks by 6:00 on the date of collection
Put only leaves, grass cuttings, plant / flower cuttings, small twigs and branches in the bins or sacks
Don’t put out any additional green garden waste at the side of your bins or sacks. ONLY waste in your bin or your sacks will be collected.

Mike and Ruth Diment would like to say a very big thank you to everyone who supported their recent Food Bank collection. The photograph shows the Food Bank van collecting the 1172.5 kg of food collected, enough to give 102 people 3 days supply of food.

With children getting ever less likely to spend much time in school before the summer holidays, some families are dreading the long summer holiday. Ruth and Mike will do another collection between Thursday 9 and Sunday 12 July 2020. A box will be left on their doorstep at 30 Pentwyn between 9 a.m and 6 p.m. on those days for donations.

Whilst talking about food donations, can we also mention that the Vicar is collecting food to help support local families. There is a red box permanently on the doorstep of the Radyr Rectory, food collected by Rev’d Vicki is distributed through links with the local schools with parcels going out each Monday. Please donate if you can – tins, jars, boxes, toiletries etc, i.e. all non-perishable goods suitable to help support a local family.

From June 8, a new click and collect library service will be available from Central Library Hub, St Mellons Hub, The Powerhouse and Ely & Caerau Hub.

As part of the new Cardiff Library Service Click and Collect Library Service, home delivery is available for housebound customers, those shielding or self-isolating who can’t get to a hub for collection.

☎️ Call the library line on 029 2087 1071, option 2 for information or visit www.cardiff.gov.uk/libraries to view the library catalogue

Collection and return of books is by pre-arranged appointment only.

Please share with anyone locally who will find this service useful.

For the first time, due to the Corononavirus pandemic (which prevents the distribution of paper copies), the June 2020 edition of Radyr Chain has been published only on-line.  You can read – and download – a copy by following this link.

Congratulations and best wishes to County Councillor Rod McKerlich, who was apppointed Lord Mayor Elect at the (virtual) Cardiff Council meeting on 21st May.  He was appointed as the Deputy Lord Mayor in May 2018.  His wife, Sue, will be Lady Mayoress.

Formal adoption and assumption of the role would normally have taken place at the Council’s AGM, scheduled for 21st May, but the current Coronavirus situation has caused a delay.  His installation has therefore been deferred until the AGM takes place, which is unlikely to occur before late autumn. In compensation, his term of office will run until May 2022.

This is the second time that Radyr and Morganstown have had the honour of our Councillor being made Lord Mayor.  Then Councillor Marion Drake was so appointed in 1998.

We wish Rod and Sue all success in their period of office once it starts.

In a small touch of normality, the hanging baskets were re-installed in Station Road on Thursday, 28th May and the planter in Windsor Garden was also refilled.  Many thanks to the R&M Community Council for arranging it.

With the local restaurants starting to do more business (as take-aways) and the sun continuing to shine, we welcome this further step towards our normal community life.

Thank you to everyone who entered our “How we spent lockdown” photograph competition. There was a high standard of entry across the board making it a tough decision for our judges.

Congratulation to our top 3 entries, which were:

1. REMOVED at photographer’s request

Unfortunately the photo initially given first place had to be removed at the photographer’s request.

2. Bara Brith by Lois Standish

Watching cookery programs on TV and trying out this fabulous Hairy Bikers recipe for Bara Brith.
I wanted to send some virtual love from Wales to friends and family across the globe so I made some heart shape welsh cakes and added the love spoon to this shot, taken in my garden. As a result of posting this picture on Facebook I had so many requests to share the recipe and in return so many photos of friends efforts, I guess that’s the true meaning of photo inspiration.

3. The Gardener by Gina Baynham

Thank you again for all of your entries. As lockdown continues the Web Team are considering what photo challenge we could set next. If you have a suggestion then do let us know.

How we spent lockdown

View this gallery on Flickr

Don’t forget you can also see the results of our April competition “Spring in Radyr & Morganstown”

Cardiff’s recycling centres are to re-open for the disposal of limited items, but for safety reasons, residents will have to book a timed appointment.

Bessemer Close Recycling Centre will re-open next Tuesday, 26 May, followed by Lamby Way Recycling Centre on Sunday, 31 May 2020.

An online booking system has been set up and anyone that needs to visit a recycling centre will have to make an appointment. The online booking system will be available for the public to use from 12.30pm on Friday 22 May.

The only items that can be brought to the recycling centres for now are cardboard, wood, garden waste, scrap metal, small electrical items and hard plastic.

To help residents dispose of larger items the council’s bulky waste collection service is also being reinstated from Monday, 1 June.

Full details of the new process and procedures can be seen on the Cardiff Council website – http://www.cardiff.gov.uk/recyclingcentres

Recycling and Waste collection patterns will change again from 1 June 2020.

General waste will be collected fortnightly with the first Black bin (general waste) collection for Radyr being on Monday 8 June.

We have had confirmation that the final collection of the current pattern will be on the Bank Holiday Monday (25 May 2020).

Full details can be seen on the Cardiff Council website – http://www.cardiff.gov.uk/collections

N.B. Whilst Radyr Library is closed green recycling sacks are still available to collect from the Co-op in Station Road or can be ordered directly from Cardiff Council for delivery –

We have received this message from the Golf Club

Several local residents have enjoyed their daily exercise by walking on the Radyr Golf Club course. For the main part they have done this in a considerate manner by tidying up after their dogs and by respecting the greens and bunkers. The golf course will once again be open to golfers as from next Monday 18 May; once again golf balls will be flying around and it is vital that non golfers only walk in the golf course using the permitted footpaths. The club would like to thank those members of the public that have offered kind words in recent days and hope that you will visit us when the clubhouse is fully open.

We hope everyone celebrated VE75 in the sunshine, even with the current restrictions.  Do send us some photos of the events (to photos@rady.org.uk) and we wil publish them.

The joint choirs of Radyr Primary and Bryn Deri Schools put together a special recording of “We’ll Meet Again” for the occasion.  You can see it by following this link. Many thanks and congratulations go to Caroline from Glamorgan Music for putting it together.