Cllr Haydn Jones died suddenly last week aged 72.

Cllr Jones was the member for Cenarth ward, which includes Newcastle Emlyn since 2004. He was respected and liked by all who knew him.

He was executive board member for technical services, and his portfolio included waste management and transport.

Carmarthenshire County Council Chief Executive Mark James said:

“Haydn was a very well respected, hard working county councillor, who was an absolute pleasure to work with. He was committed to his job, to his community, to his family, friends and colleagues.

“One of life’s true gentlemen, Haydn will be sorely missed, not only for his valuable contribution to the work of the county council, but for his good nature, his warmth, and the friendship and courtesy he showed to all.”

Cllr Jones was married to Mair for over 40 years, and had two children Aled and Gaynor, and six grandchildren.

His working life was mainly in agriculture, and he was a farmer from 1969 until 2003.

Cllr Jones was a member of many farming organisations in Wales, chaired a number of committees and was widely known for his work with the Royal Welsh Show.

In 1993, he was awarded an MBE for services to agriculture in Wales, in 1997 he was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal Agricultural Societies, and was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Dyfed in 2003.

Haydn Jones was an enthusiastic supporter of the Dragon Festivals held in Newcastle Emlyn and never missed an opportunity to dress for the part! Here he is in 2007

County Councillor for the Cenarth Ward (which includes the town) Haydn Jones, has gone on the record as being in favour of the sale, and therefore of the proposed supermarket. He is also mentioned in the application:

“The local Member supports the proposed disposal, subject to appropriate open car parking provisions being included to ensure sufficient car parking for the town centre”

Minutes for the Executive Board Meeting planned for Monday 26th July 2010 also state:

“The owner of the Cawdor Cars has asked the County Council to dispose of its land as part of the overall development in the event of planning permission being obtained.”

The council is rumoured to be looking to make £500,000 from the sale.

So this is how democracy Carmarthenshire style works…

Despite the fact that this is the most controversial planning application in the town for years and despite the fact that a very large proportion of local residents and traders oppose it, the Council is going to steam-roller it through anyway, without even first waiting for a decision from the planning committee on whether the application should be allowed or not.

The planning officers have consistently made it clear that they favour the proposed development, which has been held up by a series of annoying public bodies worried about things such as site stability, the impact on the town’s creaking sewage system and the destruction of part of an adjoining Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The planning officers’ main justification for supporting the plan has been the recommendations made by their allegedly “independent” consultants, Nathaniel Lichfield Partnership, which also acts for Tesco and other large supermarket groups.

See also report at the campaigning website carmarthenplanning.blogspot.com

More information at Pembrokeshire Against the Cull

badger-cull-protest

This video has now been removed by YouTube

Video of another stand off between masked Thompson Ecology employees (it would appear recruited from school leavers) and local landowners. The Thompson Ecology website states :

“Thomson Ecology is experienced in badger surveys and badger mitigation. We can help to positively resolve any development issue involving badgers”

Maybe Thompson Ecology has mitigated itself in the foot here….

The Civil Aviation Authority has included Newcastle Emlyn in a new testing zone for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs or Drones) taking off and landing at West Wales Airport, Aberporth.

Beginning on March 29th 2010 and lasting 7 months, flying restrictions for unauthorized planes have been imposed on an area 6 nautical miles (6.9 miles) radius from West Wales Airport. An area of 150 sq miles.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is currently beginning trials at West Wales Airport of its “Watchkeeper” Drone, made by Israeli company Elbit Systems. The drone will be used by the MoD for “intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and target acquisition”, but there are plans to arm the drones with rockets. Probably the Thales Air Systems’ lightweight multirole missile (LMM).

Later this year, in order to facilitate flights between West Wales Airport and the Sennybridge military area, a further restricted flying corridor will be created across southern Ceredigion and north Carmarthenshire.

During a consultation organised by the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) in summer 2009, UAV experts expressed serious concerns about the safety record of drones as they do not have the same air worthiness standards as piloted aircraft.

In 2009 2 drones owned by Italian arms company Selex Galileo crashed while taking off from West Wales Airport when the pilots on the ground lost control of them. It is though that Selex has now decided to pull out of Parc Aberporth.

The notice from the CAA can be downloaded as a PDF here

Click map for larger version

For more information about UAV testing in West Wales go to www.bepj.org.uk.

However the Ministry of Defence can’t wait that long to begin trials of it’s Watchkeeper UAV programme. The CAA on March 29th 2010 imposed flying restrictions for 7 months on an area 6 nautical miles (6.9 miles) radius from West Wales Airport. An area of 150 sq miles.

Later this year, in order to facilitate flights between West Wales Airport and the Sennybridge military area, a further restricted flying corridor will be created.

Given that the CAA has now made its intentions clear, the struggle to stop the creation of the UAV testing zone is all but over. The campaign to make West Wales a “centre of excellence” for protest against military UAVs has begun.

RESTRICTION OF FLYING REGULATIONS – WEST WALES AIRPORT (ABERPORTH)
29 MARCH – 29 OCTOBER 2010

1. Introduction

1.1 Trial and demonstration flights by Unmanned Aircraft will take place at West Wales Airport during period 29 March to 29 October 2010. The Secretary of State for Transport has, therefore, deemed it necessary to introduce the following Restriction of Flying Regulations under Article 161 of the Air Navigation Order 2009 (military aircraft should comply with JSP552 201.135.9):

a. West Wales Airport – Subject to paragraph b, between 0700 and 1700 on each day from Monday to Friday inclusive, beginning with 29 March to 29 October 2010, no aircraft is to fly below 5000 ft amsl within the area of a circle having a radius of 6 nm whose centre 520653N 0043334W;

b. Paragraph a, does not apply to:

i. any aircraft flying with the permission of the Airport Manager West Wales Airport – call ATC on 122.150 MHz;

ii. any aircraft in the service of the Chief Officer of Police for Dyfed-Powys Police; and

iii. any aircraft in the service of HM Coastguard.

2. It is proposed to introduce a further Restricted Area (Temporary) (RA(T)) later in 2010 for Unmanned Aircraft testing and evaluation. This second RA(T) will be in the form of a corridor and will provide a link between EG D210 (Aberporth) and EG D203 (Sennybridge). The lower vertical extent of this RA(T) is anticipated to be FL 80, with an anticipated highest upper limit of FL 170. Full details of this RA(T) will be promulgated by Mauve AIC and NOTAM.

3. Details of Restricted Airspace feature in the daily AIS Information Line message (0500-354802) and will be included on the Pre-flight Information Bulletins (PIB) through the AIS Web site at http://www.ais.org.uk.

Click map for larger version

The document can be downloaded as a PDF here