Gavin Thompson

3 weeks ago | southwalesargus.co.uk | Gavin Thompson

City council leader Dimitri Batrouni against a backdrop of Newport city centre at night. (Image: Background, Mark Whitcutt; Cllr Batrouni from Newport City Council) NEWPORT should be the best city in Wales and one of the places people want to live, according to the man at the helm of the city council. Councillor Dimitri Batrouni set out his bold ambitions in an exclusive interview with the Argus to make his first year in office.

3 weeks ago | southwalesargus.co.uk | Gavin Thompson

That’s one of the ambitions set out by council leader Dimitri Batrouni as he seeks to transform the local authority into an organisation fit for the future. “My ideal is people's engagement with the council is pretty much automated, 24/7. So people can ask something they want to know at any time, and the system gives them the answer. It's all about convenience,” said Cllr Batrouni.

Jan 21, 2025 | burohappold.com | Scott Bentley |Gavin Thompson

Rodger, an early partner of Buro Happold, passed away on Monday 2nd December 2024. Ted Happold asked Rodger to join his fellow founding partners in 1978, he was unusual at the time for being the only partner without an engineering design background. Ted recognised that Rodger’s project and construction management skills were a necessity to ensure much of Buro Happold’s progressive design work was realised. Rodger established what became known as Buro Happold Design & Project Management.

Oct 13, 2024 | southwalesargus.co.uk | Gavin Thompson

High Street in Newport city centre Dozens of HMOs in Pill are piling pressure on the community and “enough is enough”, a local councillor has declared. Cllr Debbie Jenkins said a proliferation of HMOs in the Newport neighbourhood was “causing a lot of anxiety” for its residents. Speaking at a city council planning committee meeting, on Wednesday, she said there were 53 registered HMOs in her ward, amounting to a “massive overconcentration”.

Oct 13, 2024 | southwalesargus.co.uk | Gavin Thompson

2 1/2 PUPILS missing school is one of the biggest challenges facing local authorities a lay member of a Blaenau Gwent committee has said. At a meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s Governance and Audit committee on Wednesday, October 9 the figures around school absence and exclusion rates was brought up for discussion. This was during an item where councillors and independent lay members looked at the council’s draft annual performance self-assessment.