Environmental Awareness Day

From Felinfoel and Glanymor & Tyisha Communities First:

Felinfoel Communities First teamed up with Glanymor & Tyisha Communities First to hold an Environmental Awareness day on 22 January 09. Residents from both areas including pupils from Bryngwyn School enjoyed a fun and informative day.

There was a slight change of plan last minute when Johnstown Recycling Centre cancelled due to staff having to travel to France to purchase new machinery! Thankfully the day was saved from being cancelled, when Neath/Port Talbot County Council agreed that we could visit one of their Recycling Centres in Briton Ferry.

The staff at the plant were very welcoming and provided us with an excellent tour of the Centre and an informative talk about what takes place at the Centre. The Centre collects and recycles a huge array of different materials including electrical, wood, metal, paper, tin, glass and cooking oil amongst many more.

The afternoon was held in Trinity Chapel in New Dock Road, Llanelli where residents were offered a free buffet lunch which was followed by several discussions/presentations on Environmental issues and projects.

As the day was such a success, a trip to Johnstown Recycling Centre will be re organised in the future if there is enough interest between the wards. If you are interested in attending please contact Communities First on 01554 784847.

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Wrth Cymunedau Yn Gyntaf Felinfoel a Glanymor a Thyisha:

Ymunodd Cymunedau yn Gyntaf Felin-foel â Chymunedau yn Gyntaf Glan-y-môr a Thŷ-isha i gynnal diwrnod Ymwybyddiaeth Amgylcheddol ar 22 Ionawr 09. Bu trigolion o’r ddwy ardal, yn cynnwys disgyblion o Ysgol Bryngwyn, yn mwynhau diwrnod difyr, llawn gwybodaeth.

Cafwyd newid bach i’r cynlluniau ar y funud olaf pan ganslodd Canolfan Ailgylchu Tre Ioan y trefniadau oherwydd bod rhaid i’r staff deithio i Ffrainc i brynu peiriannau newydd! Diolch byth, daeth Cyngor Castell-nedd Port Talbot i’r adwy, a chytuno y gallem ymweld ag un o’u Canolfannau Ailgylchu nhw yn Llansawel.

Roedd y staff yn y ganolfan yn groesawgar iawn, a chawsom daith wych o amgylch y safle a llawer o wybodaeth am yr hyn sy’n digwydd yno. Mae’r Ganolfan yn casglu ac yn ailgylchu amrywiaeth anferth o wahanol ddeunyddiau, sy’n cynnwys eitemau trydanol, pren, metel, papur, tun, gwydr ac olew coginio, ymhlith llawer mwy.

Cynhaliwyd y prynhawn yng Nghapel y Trinity, Heol Doc Newydd, Llanelli, lle cafodd y trigolion ginio bwffe am ddim, ac wedyn nifer o drafodaethau/gyflwyniadau ar faterion a phrosiectau Amgylcheddol.

Gan fod y diwrnod wedi llwyddo cystal, byddwn yn ail-drefnu ymweliad â Chanolfan Ailgylchu Tre Ioan yn y dyfodol os bydd digon o ddiddordeb yn y wardiau. Os hoffech ymuno, cysylltwch â Chymunedau yn Gyntaf ar 01554 784847.

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Carmarthenshire Connect attended the trip to loan out our set of ten digital cameras to attendees and provide assistance to attendees in using them.

A few of Carmarthenshire Connect's digital cameras

These are some of the 250+ photos taken by those who had one of the cameras:

The Briton Ferry Recycling Centre

Centre staff provide an informative talk

Touring the facilities

Ruth and Roy

The vegetable oil recycling point

A mountain of recycling bins stored near the M4

Briton Ferry Recycling Centre's achievements

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Members of the Bryngwyn School Eco Council were on the trip to learn how the recycling centre at Briton ferry works.

Bryngwyn school Eco Council pose with their teacher, Dr Oliver, for Carmarthenshire County Council's photographer

Later on in the day, at Trinity Chapel in Llanelli, Bryngwyn pupils interviewed each other using Carmarthenshire Connect's Busbi digital camcorders. Here are a couple of the videos:

Felinfoel Community Centre Consultation

Communities First Felinfoel held an open consultation evening for local residents to view the plans for their new community centre on Wednesday.

The new community building will bring much needed facilities into the community and will replace to outdated Pavilion. The two floor building will consists of sporting facilities on the ground floor, including male and female changing rooms, a physio therapy room, showers, toilets, ample storage for local sporting groups, and on the first floor, a community cafe/catering facility, meetings rooms, ICT suite, community offices, community storage space and an office for Communities First Felinfoel.

(Community centre proposed site plan)

Carmarthenshire Connect attended the event to help Communities First with their consultations and to get some feedback on the new development from residents through interviews taken on the projects Busbie video cameras:

(Mark - Rural Community Council)

(John - Local Resident)

(Phill - Communities First Felinfoel)

As part of the consultation, local residents were asked to put all their views, thoughts and feelings about the development onto two central boards with sticky notes. One board asked residents for their general thoughts and concerns regarding the project and the second asked what sort of activities or projects residents wanted to see in the new facility.

A wide range of ideas and concerns were raised including, security, parking, evening access, ICT systems, recycling and waste management, and the use of green energy such as solar panels. A number of activities were also suggested by the community, including fitness and sports classes, cooking classes, IT classes and youth projects.

Overall the evening was a great success with a lot of support show for the development. Project developers hope to begin construction in the next couple of months and have it completed later in the year.

If you did not get a chance to voice your support or concerns at the meeting you can use our comments feature below to add your views to this post, Carmarthenshire Connect will then pass those onto Communities First and the Rural Community Council. Please click on the comments link at the bottom of the post.

Felinfoel Multicultural Picnic

In partnership with Communities First Felinfoel, Sam Hudson, CAVS' Multicultural Awareness Liaison Officer organised a wonderful opportunity for families, children, parents and grandparents from all cultural backgrounds to get together with their local community.

The day long event, held in Felinfoel's Community Education Centre was a huge success with over 100 people turning out from all areas of the community. The day saw entertainment from traditional dancing, belly dancing and a multi language game of bingo in English, Polish and Urdu.

(Sam and the Communities First team calling out bingo numbers in 3 languages)

The event also included stands and stall from the local police force, mid and west fire and rescue service, community planning, YWCA and South Wales immediate care service provide free blood pressure and blood suger level tests.

The activity packed day had plenty of refreshments (including cakes!) to keep everyone going, arts and crafts activities for the children and free holistic treatments from the parents to take the stress away from half term.

"It's nice to get out into the community and meet new people from different backgrounds, and to offer our holistic services directly to individuals who may not always have access to such a good way of relaxing" - Sue from Llesol Holistic Therapy Centre (local not-for-profit business)

(Amy from Communities First Felinfoel)

Sam Hudson and all the Communities First team would like to say a big thank you for all the communities support and coming along to the event!

Felinfoel Family Centre Litter Pick

Parents and children joined staff and volunteers at Felinfoel Family Centre last week for a litter pick on the streets of Felinfoel.

The event was organised by Felinfoel Family Centre, with support from Keep Wales Tidy (who provided all the litter picking equipment) and Felinfoel Communities First.

Here are some some the photos that participants took:

All geared up and ready to go!

And off we go.

It's all about teamwork in Felinfoel.

Finding all those little bits of litter on the pavements and in the gutters.

Llanelli Cycle Route Clean Up

It's Tidy Wales Week 2008 this week. Today, a litter pick was organised in Llanelli by Keep Wales Tidy. The litter pick was along National Cycle Route 47 between North Dock and Felinfoel. Two groups set off in the morning - one from The Discovery Centre in North Dock and the other from the Felinfoel Communities First office. Both Felinfoel and Glanymor & Tyisha Communities First assisted Keep Wales Tidy with the event. Many children from Ysgol y Felin were in the Felinfoel group.

Volunteer Phil Snaith, Carmarthenshire Connect Field Officer Ran Foster-Mason and Glanymor & Tyisha Communities First Development Officer Farah Aziz set off from North Dock. Taken by Cherie.

The two groups then met up in the middle at Furnace RFC for a lunch provided by the two Communities First teams and Keep Wales Tidy.

Joanne Williams from Felinfoel Communities First, Dan Snaith from Keep Wales Tidy, Farah Aziz, and Amy Wakefield from Felinfoel Communities First in front of the large pile of litter collected by the two groups.

Future Projects Event

Felinfoel Communities First held a 'Future Projects' event at the Calsonic Social. The event was a chance for community groups (both existing and potential) in Felinfoel to get funding advice from Communities First and the Community Bureau.

Carmarthenshire Connect was also there, promoting the project and offering groups the chance to use the project's mobile phones to take photos and video at group meetings and events for this blog.

Field Officer Karlis Ozolins with the Carmarthenshire Connect stand.

Felinfoel Christmas Festival

Felinfoel's Christmas Festival was held on Friday 7 December. The festival featured the switching on of the lights, fireworks, stalls, Furnace School Choir, food and drink and a visit from Santa! It was organised by Felinfoel Events Committee and Felinfeol Communities First.

There were stalls from Felinfoel Events Comittee, Llanelli Heritage Group, Ty Haul Family Centre, Felinfoel Senior Citizens, Frindiau Felinfoel/Friends of Felinfoel. Radio BGM provided excellent commentary during the event.

The lights go on

The first time Chloe met Santa

Kaitlyn and Alisha. Kaitlyn is hoping for a doll and pram for Christmas, while Alisha would really like an MP3 player.

Luke and Joshua hangin' out with Santa. Both would like a PSP for Christmas.

Felinfoel Senior Citizens and their stall.

Frindiau Felinfoel / Friends of Felinfoel collecting for local charities with their stall and tombola.