It took 30 crew members to control a big fire which lasted throughout the night at Swansea’s Linamar car parts factory. Four pumping appliances, a foam tender, a turntable ladder and an environmental unit were initially called to tackle the fire. The fire was in the "effluent plant" which takes fluids from the production area but quickly spread to a workshop.
Shadow education secretary Ed Balls hopes his jobs plan will propel him to victory in the Labour leadership contest. Mr Balls said: "We need to do more to boost jobs, promote growth and get the economy moving again.
There are fears about the effect of swingeing national debt-shattering cuts on local services, especially after an independent analysis claimed the effect on Wales could be twice as bad as more prosperous areas of England. Local finance chiefs were already stunned that the public cuts announced a quarter of the way through the financial year take effect immediately – and more is to come following budget announcements later this year.
Reports in the Daily Mirror say the BBC is re-organising this year’s ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ pay structure so that this time the competitors will be paid per dance. A source close to the hit television show told the newspaper: "This is a way of rewarding those who do well rather than paying one big lump sum.
The nine regional development agencies (RDAs) are to be scrapped, documents from the last Budget show. One of those, the South West RDA says on its website it “works for and promotes a modern, stronger and more resilient economy across South West England.” Chancellor George Osborne said that the British economy had become "deeply unbalanced" with "disparities" between job creation.
The Government is trying all sorts of ways to slash billions off the annual deficit, and one of these has been to axe the Audit Commission to save £50m annually, which fits in with the coalition’s remit to give more power to the people in how councils are run. The move has immediately been blasted by the Opposition, with shadow communities secretary John Denham saying the Commission needed "reform not abolition".
Former Gwent officer Ian Johnston, now president of the Police Superintendents’ Association, said police jobs will go following nationwide budget slashing. The Chief Inspector Sir Denis O’Connor said changing shift patterns and more collaboration between forces was needed to redesign officers’ working practices in order to save 12%.
Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, said that half of the quangos run by his department were to be abolished. The ‘quango’ acronym stands for quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation, and this pledge to scrap as many of these bodies as possible is part of David Cameron’s plans to cut waste in the public sector.
Injured police officers who can no longer work on the front line would be offered severance packages in a plan by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo). Peter Fahy, the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester and the Acpo spokesman on workforce development, said: "In most forces around 10 per cent of officers are not fully fit for duty.
At least 250 jobs are to be axed in a reorganisation of the Welsh assembly government’s department for the economy. The restructuring will reduce the workforce by around a quarter, and it is understood these will be mainly by early retirement, voluntary redundancy and departmental transfers. The assembly government said this measure would support the economic renewal programme outlined by the Deputy First Minister recently.