Nicholas Thomas

2 weeks ago | caerphilly.observer | Nicholas Thomas

Support quality, independent, local journalism…that mattersFrom just £1 a month you can help fund our work – and use our website without adverts. Become a member todayA property in Bargoed could become a house in multiple occupation (HMO) if new plans are approved. Applicant Craig Davies, of Newport-based Mainty Group Consulting Ltd, has applied for planning permission to convert the four-bedroom terraced property at 50 McDonnell Road into a HMO for five people.

3 weeks ago | caerphilly.observer | Nicholas Thomas

Support quality, independent, local journalism…that mattersFrom just £1 a month you can help fund our work – and use our website without adverts. Become a member todayCommunity council areas in Caerphilly County Borough are set for a shake-up in time for the next local government elections. Several existing communities could be abolished or reshaped to better reflect “local identities” and make local government more “effective and convenient”.

3 weeks ago | caerphilly.observer | Nicholas Thomas

Support quality, independent, local journalism…that mattersFrom just £1 a month you can help fund our work – and use our website without adverts. Become a member todayThe decision to close Llancaiach Fawr has been branded a “retrograde step” amid ongoing uncertainty over the heritage site’s future. The Grade-I listed manor, near Nelson, has been “mothballed” and on the market since January, following a Caerphilly County Borough Council cost-cutting decision to end its annual subsidy for the site.

3 weeks ago | caerphilly.observer | Nicholas Thomas

Support quality, independent, local journalism…that mattersFrom just £1 a month you can help fund our work – and use our website without adverts. Become a member todayYoung people in Caerphilly have called for better access to school toilets as a matter of “dignity” for pupils. Caerphilly Youth Forum has made the matter its priority issue for the year, calling for school toilets to be “opened throughout the day in order to be able to use them freely and sensibly”.

3 weeks ago | southwalesargus.co.uk | Nicholas Thomas

A new report shows the reasons for sustained fall in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels along the M4 motorway are “not entirely clear” to the local authority. But it has suggested Covid-era restrictions and changes to working and commuting patterns “will almost certainly have contributed” to the decrease within five of the city’s 11 Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs). It said the growth in use of low- and zero-emissions vehicles is also likely to have made a positive impact.