03/11/2011 BBC Wales Today

Welcome to Wales Today. Our top story tonight:

Miriam Beard changes her plea and admits stealing more than �50,000

Our other headlines this evening: The Ambulance Service says staff

sickness levels means getting to emergencies is becoming harder.

The question taxing MPs in Westminster - should the Welsh

Government have the power to raise the money it spends?

Zoe Walker can't get to her own door because her wheelchair is

broken. The NHS is accused of letting users down.

Two days after a cliff collapsed leaving caravans hanging, the owner

tells us how they're coping. I'm sure in a week or two, when

we've done what we've needed to do and I've got five minutes to

breathe, I'll probably have a weep. And after that tackle, Sam

Warburton now says the referee was correct to send him off in the

World Cup semi-final. From the stadium, it looked a hell

of a lot worse than I thought it was. I couldn't blame the referee.

As the rules go, that is a red card and you can't complain.

Good evening. She abused her position to siphon off more than

�50,000 from the charity she was running in Wrexham. Tonight, Miriam

Beard knows she faces a prison sentence after pleading guilty to

fraud. She claimed cash for projects which never happened and

gave money to family members unconnected with the Communities

First project in Plas Madoc. Miriam Beard was in the dock on the

fourth day of her trial at Mold Crown Court alongside her husband

James when the jury was told she admitted nine charges of fraud.

Prosecutors said it wasn't in the public interest to pursue the case

against Mr Beard. Inter's 1003, she became co-ordinator of the

committee's first project which aims to help some of the poorer

families living on the estate. She paid her son �18,000 to rent a

caravan at a holiday park near Rhyl for Plas Madoc residents, but

investigations found the charity had already bought it outright and

Mrs Beard's son had no connection with the caravan. She also paid

�25,000 into her father's bank account, saying he would provide

activities for youngsters. But the money was transferred to her and he

knew nothing about the arrangement. Speaking to us after she was

suspended last year, Miriam Beard defended payments to family members

who worked for the charity. We were never told that people from our

families could not be employed. In fact, we were encouraged to

employee family members. We have done. It is not just members of my

family. But Frank Biggs says Miriam Beard

made the most of her position at the expense of this estate. He's

lived at Plas Madoc for nearly 40 years and worked at the Communities

First centre briefly before clashing with the co-ordinator. He

says she exploited the system well. It was not long before it was

apparent that she was out for herself. In many ways. And there

were other things that were less than the whole sum. And the

nepotism that went on, the favouritism.

The Welsh Assembly Government says it has reviewed its working

practices following this case to ensure they are robust and hopes it

doesn't detract from the good work being achieved through the

Communities First programme in Wales. Miriam Beard will be

sentenced next month. The high number of ambulance staff

off sick is affecting the ability of the Ambulance Service here to

reach life-threatening emergency calls. That's the verdict of the

service itself, in a document seen by BBC Wales. It also says it's

having to pay more money in order to cover shifts. More from our

Health correspondent, Arwyn Jones. They are the ones who are there

when we need them most. The Ambulance Service has an impressive

recent record of arriving at emergencies within their target

times. According to the service's or risk assessment, the ruck

problems. The document says high rates of sickness among staff

ambulance staff has an impact on the Trust's ability to respond to

life-threatening emergency calls. This man from Newport had to wait

for over a two allows for an ambulance when his wife the

collapse last year. And the end, a rapid response cart took her the

six minute journey to the local hospital. A similar thing happened

to him in South last month. He had to wait over an hour after

suffering a suspected heart attack. I could have died. I really do

believe that. But it is that serious nature where if you live

miles away from the hospital, I appreciate they cannot get there.

But we have only about 10 minutes away from the hospital. That is a

no-go area. It should not be happening. There is no doubt it is

a tough job. In all weathers, ambulance crews have to respond to

our needs. It is stressful and physically demanding. Statistics

show how ambulance staff are more likely than any other health

workers to be offset. One serving paramedics says the situation is

getting worse. It can be very physical at times. With all the

money will handling. Carrying patients and things like that.

There is a lot of stress involved. The type of calls we have to deal

with. The workload has increased to year on year. The number of staff

within the service has not necessarily kept apace. In a

statement, the ambulance trust accepted that absence through

sickness was a problem and that it was improving year on year. They

added that more work was needed and they have sold up a health and

well-being group to reduce the levels. -- setter. Ambulance staff

are the ones we turn to when we are most in need but now it seems that

illness among them themselves has been affected their ability to help

Two miners have been treated in hospital after an incident at a

colliery near Glynneath. It took an hour to rescue the men who were

trapped a few miles underground at the Aberpergwm mine following

reports of a roof collapse. A third man was treated at the scene. None

are believed to have been seriously injured.

A bullet, CS gas and knuckledusters are among items confiscated from

visitors to the National Assembly in Cardiff. According to

information obtained by BBC Wales, police removed the items between

April 2009 and October this year. The Conservatives have called for

clarification over how the weapons were found, but the Assembly says

it won't comment on security issues. The Welsh Government should be

responsible for raising some of the money it spends, according to the

Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan. A new commission starts its work

tomorrow looking at whether some taxes should be collected here in

Wales. That would be a disaster, according to Mrs Gillan's Labour

predecessor. From Westminster, here's our Political Correspondent

Tomos Livingstone. A flight from Cardiff airport will mean you have

to pay air passenger duty. Should the level of that tax beset by the

Welsh Government rather than by Westminster? A new commission

starts its work tomorrow examining whether more power should be

devolved to Cardiff Bay. According to the Welsh Secretary Cheryl

Gillan, devolution is about responsibility, not just about

power. Why should and one institution of Government it really

be the spending on without having any linkage or responsibility for

raising the money it spends? Even a local authorities have to raise the

limit of their taxation. Are we saying that the Welsh Assembly

should be in a lesser position than the local Government? What exactly

will the Commission look at? It will examine whether the Welsh

Government should take more powers from Westminster. But it will not

look at whether the Treasury should give more each year to the Welsh

Government. And why it will look at evolving tax powers, it is likely

to concentrate on smaller taxes rather than income tax. MPs debate

-- MPs debated the commission's work this afternoon. Not everyone

is convinced it is appropriate. we should look before we leap. A so

called to devolution tax advocated by the nationalists and tempting to

the Tories could be disastrous for wares. The sole commission is the

latest in a long line of inquiry is looking at the way much at the

Welsh devolution works. Despite the opposition of some MPs, it looks

increasingly likely that in future, at least some of the taxes raised

you will be collected by ministers in Cardiff, not London.

The NHS in West has been accused of still letting some were chair users

down more than one year after the Dutch Government promise to cut the

length of time they have to wait for replacements and repairs. Last

year, the service was criticised by an Assembly committee. Since then,

run extra �2.2 million has been spent, but some problems are still

taking many months to sort out. Zoe Walker's manner will were chair

is so heavy she cannot get to her own front door. I cannot get past

them. She has a power to would share but it is broken. Now she is

denied what she has craved. I do not go out on my own. Having that,

I could go to college on my arm. But give me a lot of independence.

There are problems with the manner will chair. Her mother struggles to

take it apart to get it into the car. They have been waiting nine

months for a repair. My dad has been making loads of phone calls on

trying to get people to come and sort it out. I am frustrated and

annoyed. I wanted to get sorted soon. Making dozens of phone calls,

then you have to keep chasing them up. It is always chasing up. They

never ever phone you back. But never. So therefore, you are

chasing up for all these bits, which is very important to her

everyday life and can affect her body. The it is not just Zoe Walker.

Others are experiencing long waits despite assurances from the Welsh

Government that the situation will improve. I am all for giving a

little bit of time to sort problems out and I am things out to make

sure the service improves, but it has taken too long. We need action

now in order to sort these problems out. It is not rocket and -- it is

not rocket science. We need to make sure these whingers are prepared in

a good fashion. Why does it take up to six months to repair a

wheelchair? The Welsh Government says an extra �2 million a year

will help. This family says it is not interested in politics, they

just want something done. Simon Green is a wheelchair user

and campaigner. We saw Zoe Walker's story. How big a problem is this?

It is a massive problem. That is just the tip of the iceberg. I have

spoken to dozens of people where I lived while waiting for wheelchairs

or wait weeks, months, sometimes years to get assessed and then to

get their wheelchairs. People do not realise how important the

wheelchair is to somebody who needs it. Without it, people are stuck at

home and cannot play a part in two the society. It can lead to

depression and Excise -- and anxiety. It can have a massive

impact on their life. Much more needs to be done to make sure

people get there were just another equipment as soon as possible.

is not just getting the merger. Sometimes it is having them

repaired. If you have equipment you cannot use, are you presume it is

we -- it is used for us. To wait so long to have it repaired, it is

ridiculous. She is not alone. There are many people out there was will

just have been damaged or stopped working. They have had to wait

months for them to come to them. Twitchers are a lifeline to people.

It is mentioned that if your car breaks down, people can catch a bus

or use a taxi. Disabled people do that have that option. We just need

to be supplied far quicker. What is the problem? Billions of extra

pounds have been impressed me -- invested. Would you think the

problem lies? Perhaps there is too much administration going on. It is

certainly not working at the moment. It is certainly not working at the

moment and the money could be spent better. Simon Green, thank you, we

appreciate your time. Coming up: We will hear from Sam

Warburton on that tackle and his future as Wales captain.

And a secret war fought underground, the Welsh miners who dug deep to

The owner of a caravan park in the Vale of Glamorgan where mobile

homes hang perilously over a cliff following a landslide has been

talking about it for the first time. Sally Laver-Edwards -- Sally Laver-

Edwards, who runs Porthkerry Caravan Park with her family, says

they still don't know the full financial impact as they battle to

save people's homes. Since Monday, Porthkerry Caravan

Park staff have been working my fan -- night and day to make the

sidestepped -- safe. Cracks first started appearing three weeks ago

and geologists were called in straightaway but even experts were

surprised by the speed with which land disappeared into the beach

below, complete with the monitoring equipment geologists put in place.

There were two that were definitely overhanging by a good six or eight

feet, and it was a choice of myself and my brother... I haven't 11

month-old baby so he said, I will go -- have an 11 month-old baby.

Watching him go to the edge, all that was going through my mind, was,

oh my goodness, please God, don't let anything happen to any of my

staff or my brother. My parents would be devastated, you know? We

have people who have been here 10 plus years now in those caravans on

the front. They have been bringing their children and grandchildren

here week in week out throughout the season, so the ones who were

evacuated earlier, they saved a lot of their personal possessions, and

hopefully we will save all the bans, but you cannot replace those

memories -- all the caravans. family and another four caravan

parks and she says there are strict rules on spacing caravans which

they have always adhered to. have had health and safety and the

shoreline management and there are all satisfied with how we approach

it and what we have done. For now, the work continues to assess if any

further loss of land is likely. have definitely lost 16 plots in

one hit, so that will devalue our park. We were never have sales from

those pictures again, and never have those friends. So yes, there

is a concern, it is not so massive one right now but it will be in a

couple of weeks' time when we sit down and crunch the numbers. In a

week or two when we have done what we needed to do and they have five

minutes to breathe, I will probably have a week. Sally Laver-Edwards

speaking to Jenny Rees. A mother whose five-year-old son

and his grandparents died from carbon monoxide poisoning has met

Assembly Members to discuss making fire alarms compulsory in all homes

-- have a monoxide alarms. McCaw Thomas died in Blackwood 6

years ago -- McCauley Thomas. Today she was in the Senate macro with an

American couple who forced a change in the law in New York State

following the death of their daughter.

I think on the whole the law needs to be changed and there needs to be

legislation for every home, every new-build and every existing home

to have a carbon monoxide detector. In rugby now, Wales' World captain

Sam Warburton admitted the tackle that saw him sent-off in the semi-

final defeat to France was worse than he originally thought. The

Cardiff Blues flanker led his country to the semi-finals but

believes the referee was correct to show him the red card. Matt Murray

reports. It was the moment that ended and

tainted Sam Warburton's World Cup. Centred off -- sent off for a

dangerous tackle, Wales were left with 14 men and lost the semi-final

to France by just one point. It almost certainly cost Wales and a

place in the semi-final but today the World Cup captain says referee

Alan Rowland was right. When I did the tackle I thought maybe it was a

yellow card. I didn't realise how bad it looked, but when I sat down

and looked at the screen, when it was played at the stadium, it

looked a hell of a lot worse than I thought it was. I can't blame the

referee. As the rules go, it was a red card and they cannot complain.

Here in New Zealand, Warburton was banned for three weeks. The Blue

Star is now serving the final days of the suspension and the 23 year

old says been sent off in the biggest game of his life will make

him a stronger player. He knows there is also competition for the

captaincy now with hooker Matthew race back fit. I would definitely

do it but I understand if Matthew is given the captaincy back. He did

such a great job in the Six Nations and the forehand. I totally

understand. We would have made the semi-finals with him captain and

probably would have gone further. This tackle could have wanted

Warburton but he had to see the humour when he ended up being sat

next to the same player on the play hope -- plane home. There were 10

flights leaving Auckland that day and the chances of sitting next to

the player I tackled were probably one and 1000. I walked on the plane

and put my bag in the overhead luggage and looked to my right and

he was there a laughing. He said, I will give you massage after the

tackle! For First it was Gareth Bale, now

the Wales captain Aaron Ramsey has been snapped wearing a Great

Britain Football Top. The Arsenal star says he wants the chance to

play at London 2012 against the wishes of the Football Association

of Wales. Rhodri Llywelyn reports. The Welsh captain in a British

shirt. Aaron Ramsey states that if he has the opportunity to play 14

she be in next year's London Olympics, then why not? -- 14 GB.

Because our independence as a footballing nation would be

jeopardised, say the FAW. The Arsenal midfielder's predecessor as

national skipper says that is nonsense. There will always be a

Welsh national team and to have one or two players like Gareth Bale and

Aaron Ramsey, they deserve the chance to represent Britain in the

Olympics because it is an honour not just for them and their

families, but then to return to Wales with the highlights and

experience of going through that, and what they have to give the

Welsh national team, it were any benefit them.

Gareth Bale made his intentions clear last week. As opposition is -

- opposition grows both he and Ramsay can expect a fans' protest

when Wales entertain or wait a week on Saturday. The shame about this

is the energy taken away from the national side. We just started to

turn the top -- corner and were looking optimistically to the

future and thought we had a chance of qualifying. This has divided the

camp and the supporters and it is a shame that we have lost so much

energy to something so unimportant. Plenty of questions around the

reasons for and against a British football team, but in stating their

wish to play, the Welsh wonder kids are not alone. I would love to play

in the Olympics and 14 GB. Would you like to be captain? Who knows?

-- played 40 met GB. As long as I am part of the set-up in the

Olympics, it will be such a big thing.

For scoring goals like this, he is popular and in demand, but Aaron

Ramsey's decision to don the blue of Britain is drawing cheers as

well as cheers. Cardiff City are up to 5th in the

Championship after a convincing win at Derby last night. Filip Kiss

scored his first for the club to put the Bluebirds ahead, and a

Kevin Kilbane own-goal doubled the lead in the second half, with this

goal from Peter Whittingham making it 3-0. There it is.

They swapped the coalfields of Wales for the battlefields of the

Somme. During the First World War, thousands of Welsh miners dug

tunnels underneath the Western Front hoping to destroy enemy

trenches. Many were killed underground. Now, archaeologists in

Northern France have started excavating that network of tunnels.

Robert Hall has been exploring one of the biggest tunnels near the

French village of La Boisselle. We are in what was called by the

troops W incline, one of the main entrances to the complex which lay

underneath no-man's-land. We are around 30 feet under the surface,

and the farm and here. Behind us as a deep shaft which guides down to

tunnels at a lower level. All the way into this exploration, the team

have been discovering things which lead them towards the men who

worked and died here. This is one of the historians. Tell me about

how this takes you towards the Welsh miners.

We have just Today found this pit head, a miner's pick, not a

military pick, a special strength and pickaxe used by coalminers.

Tell me about Welsh connection. We know Welsh miners were here but you

have one or two individuals who you know a bit more about. Yes. There

were miners here from all over the country, but many thousands of

Welsh miners volunteer and served, of course, and in particular

William Arthur Lloyd from Wrexham who took his last journey, his last

shift down this shaft here. What happened to him? He was one of five

men whose bodies could not be recovered after a very heavy German

explosion. Our mission now is to safeguard and preserve the location

and insure their remains are not disturbed. Simon Jones, thank you

very much indeed. It is important to underline that this is exciting

for Simon and his colleagues but to at the time of remembrance no one

is about to forget that this is where men lived and died in

conditions number that -- none of us could even begin to imagine.

Robert Hall from La Boisselle. The weather now from Sue, and there are

Yes, heavy downpours and winds and localised flooding in Gowerton and

sent back in. The satellite picture shows us why. Bands moving north,

fast-moving and producing high rainfall in Mid, South and West

Wales in just a few hours. We had 12 mm, half an inch of rain falling

and heavy downpours. Blustery showers will continue tomorrow with

a few bright spells in between. Though showers slowly easing

through this evening and it will become drier for a time overnight,

but rain moving in from the east again by the early hours. It is

another very mild night with temperatures in double figures

right across Wales. The potential for heavy showers, then, along the

border tomorrow morning, with a chance of hailstorms and thunder

with the air and stable, so the detail is sketchy, but generally

dry in the West than today, a few road showers, and most of us will

see some sunshine between they should ease by the afternoon with

the wind lighter as well and turning more westerly. Top

temperatures 13 Celsius on Anglesey, up to 15 in Cardiff and Monmouth.

It should stay dry for any bonfire events tomorrow morning and it is a

dry and quite bright start on Saturday, but turning cloudy with

some rain for Eastern Counties. Drier further west, but the greater

chance of rain in the south and east on Guy Fawkes night itself,

and a fairly windy night as well, so not great for Bonfire Night.

Crucially, it is a change of wind direction over the weekend, brisk

northerly winds, so after a mild today's, noticeably cooler. Breezy

on Sunday and turning brighter as well, the best brightness always

for the West over the weekend. Finally, Peter James took this

photo looking out over the Pezzoli hills. Sunny spells and showers, we

might see more rain and showers over the next few days. You can

keep up-to-date with what is happening and check out the latest

video forecast on line on our Thank you. The Greek prime minister

George Papandreou has address to members of his own party and its

continued political turmoil. Several MPs from the governing

party have criticised his call for a referendum on the euro-zone

rescue package. Three Pakistan Test cricketers

involved a plot to bowl deliberate no-balls as part of a betting scam

have been jailed. Their sentences ranged from two-and-a-half years to

six months. The player's agent was also jailed.

The head of a regeneration project on a housing estate in Wrexham has

changed her plea to guilty at her fraud trial. Miriam Beard admitted

having milked Plas Murdoch -- Plas Madoc Communities First project of

more than �50,000. In a few minutes, among the issues

on Dragon's Eye, the ongoing row over closing our busiest club --

Coastguard station. I will have the headlines just