Healthcare Fellowship Award

 Congratulations to Melanie Prince - she works in healthcare as a Point of Care Testing Co-ordinator, and she has been selected as one of six Healthcare Scientists in Wales to receive a Healthcare Science Service Transformation Fellowship.  She will be going to Norway in February, to study how the Norwegians organise urgent care pathways in remote rural areas, and she will be bringing back what she learns there to improve healthcare service locally.  It's a very exciting opportunity!

North Weir Trust

 The North Weir Trust are starting 2026 with three applications for funds:

three teenagers want support for an educational and charity based trip to South Africa 

a local forest school wants to support volunteer engagement and knowledge

and a local primary school wants to support love of reading.

The North Weir Trust was created to support all sorts of projects locally, and does really good work.

They have a website at nwtrusthay.org.uk 

Health Drop-In at the Swan

 

There will be a drop-in session at the Swan on Thursday 22nd January from 3pm to 6pm, for anyone who's interested in what's going on in local health services.

They'll be talking about Better Together, the local mental health services, and temporary service changes, particularly to the Minor Injury Units, Ready to Go Home Units and Rehabilitation Units.

There'll be tea and coffee available, and staff will be able to chat. 

Banking Hub for Hay

 There was a knock on the door this morning, while I was in the middle of watching an episode of Star Trek with my friend.

On the door step was Jane Dodds, the MS for this area, and another Lib Dem campaigner.  They wanted to drum up support for a banking hub for Hay.  

The last proper bank in Hay, Barclays, closed in 2018.  There used to be three bank branches in total, the others being Nat West and the Midland, which became Santander (and is now a clothes shop).  The Nat West send a van every fortnight, which parks outside the Cinema Bookshop for three quarters of an hour.

The idea of a Banking Hub is that several different banks share the same premises - so on Monday it's Barclays, on Tuesday it's Nat West, and so on. 

I was immediately enthusiastic, and so was my friend, who also came to the door to sign the petition.

At the moment, if I want cash I can go to the cash point at the Craft Centre, but it often runs out of money, and at the moment it is closed down until repairs can be made after someone tried to break into it.  The other option is the Post Office, which has taken on some of the functions of a bank branch.

If I want to do anything more complicated with my money, I have to take the bus into Hereford, which takes about an hour, and then I have to make sure I have other things to do in Hereford, because the X44 only runs, at best, every two hours (and not at all in the afternoons).  So what used to take me ten minutes at a local branch now takes me half a day.

I'm quite capable of organising online banking - I'm computer literate enough to have a blog, after all - but I refuse to do it.  I want to be able to go into a branch and speak to an actual human being who knows what they're doing, face to face.

So I have filled in the questionnaire they gave me, and I'm about to take it to the post box now.

For anyone who wants to join in the survey to say how the loss of banking services in Hay has affected them, they are also gathering information online at www.brlibdems.uk/HayHub

They will then take all the answers to the regulators to convince them that Hay needs a Banking Hub. 

Guitar Workshops for Women

 Sometimes I think it would be a nice idea to learn to play the guitar.  Occasionally, I've even got as far as buying a cheap guitar from a charity shop and having a go - but I've never got very far, and the guitar has always been given away again.

Having said that, the workshops at Racquety Farm look interesting.

Tomorrow, Saturday 17th January, there will be two workshops for women who are learning to play guitar.  In the morning, starting at 10am, there's a half day workshop for beginners, and the afternoon session, starting at 1.30pm, is for improvers.

Contact www.guitarforwomen@gmail.com for more details. 

 

Wholly Cow

 When I came home from the concert on Saturday evening, I decided to walk down St Mary's Road onto Brecon Road and round that way instead of going up the hill round the Swan, just for a change.

I've walked past the playground and the sports centre several times, and I've never noticed this before:

 In the dark, it was all lit up, so I couldn't miss it!  So this morning I went to have a proper look.  

On one end is a coffee machine.  In the middle is a milk vending machine (or milkshakes!) and on the other end there are snacks, with a screen to pay at the nearest end.  It's open 24/7, which is why it was all lit up at night.

I imagine it will be quite popular as the weather gets warmer, and there are parents bringing their children to the playground and people using the sports facilities.  There were quite a few footprints in the mud, indicating that people are using it now. 

Hay Vouchers

 I saw in the December issue of WyeLocal that this is the tenth anniversary of the start of Hay Vouchers.  These are gift vouchers for use in local businesses in Hay, and they've been a great success!

They are administered through Pughs at Londis, and in the ten years the scheme has been running, they've sold an amazing £75,000 worth of vouchers, which can be spent in 113 businesses in Hay.  Some have even been sold to collectors around the world.

This keeps money circulating within the local economy, instead of being spent at national retailers or online and disappearing from the local economy.

The vouchers can be used just like cash, and then the business redeems the money for them from Pughs.