26/09/2012 BBC Wales Today

Welcome to Wales Today. Tonight's headlines. Brenda is one of the

lucky ones but many older people are waiting years for vital aids to

help them around their home. There was a danger I would have to be

cared for. Having it done straightaway was from a safety

Also tonight, a new programme to improve our children's maths. We

put the Education Minister to the test. What is seven times six?

42! Hospital shake-up. What could it mean for services near you?

And from a former car parts factory to Leonardo Da Vinci's Italy. Wales

is the backdrop for a new multi million pound TV series.

The beauty is that rather than being in various locations, we are

in historic buildings with incredible views and locations.

Figures seen by BBC Wales suggest elderly and disabled people are at

the mercy of a postcode lottery when it comes to the length of time

it takes for councils to pay for ramps, rails and lifts in their

homes. Some elderly and disabled people are waiting nearly four

times longer than others, because some councils are taking up to two

years to hand over the money. It comes as the Older People's

Commissioner for Wales says she'll take councils to court, if they

make people wait unnecessarily. Jordan Davies has the story.

84-year-old Brenda Rowley finds it easier to get around her home these

days. The retired head-teacher from Newport has had rails fitted inside

and out after a nasty fall. Her case was taken up by a charity,

which meant she avoided what could have been, a long wait in her area.

I am trying to think how we would manage if it had not been dealt

with. Going up and down those stairs, there was a danger that I

would have to be careful. Having it done straight away., from a safety

point of view, it was paramount. New figures for last year show how

fragmented the grant system is in Wales. On average Newport Council

took nearly two years, and Neath Port Talbot a year and a half, to

deliver a grant. Compare this to Merthyr Tydfil and Conwy councils,

which took less than half a year. 69-year-old Melinda Hanmer's life

is now downstairs. She had her bathroom and bedroom moved in her

Pentraeth home, a big job that took a year. It has made a lot of

difference. I do not have to worry at all about trying to go upstairs.

My bathroom is within sort of calling distance, my bed is there

if I need it. But not everyone's as fortunate as Melinda. Last week the

Older People's Commissioner for Wales said she'd spoken to a couple,

who had to climb the stairs on their hands and knees, because

their hand rail hadn't arrived, after several months. The

Commissioner says today's figures reveal the extent of the postcode

lottery and she will take legal action if councils don't improve

within a year. I do not think 700 days is acceptable. I think we can

get it right and we need to get it right. But if the only way that we

can get it right is for me to lay down guidance and use my statutory

powers their last commissioner, that is what I will do. -- then as

commissioner. Yesterday in the Assembly, the leader of the Welsh

Liberal Democrats explained how a delay was effecting one of her

constituents. I have a disabled person in my constituency having to

wash out of a bucket because of the inability of the local authority to

install a shower. In Newport, Brenda enjoys her independence and

experts say an average grant of �7,500 can keep someone out of

residential care. The Welsh Local Government Association says the

time it takes to deliver a grant has reduced. Brenda's council,

Newport, says it accepts it's been taking far too long and is putting

changes in place. Ken Skates is the Assembly Member

for Clwyd South and is a member of the Communities, Equalities and

Local Government Committee in the Assembly. People waiting up to two

years for a ramps or handrails in their homes. This isn't acceptable,

is it? Absolutely not. We must recall that as your report

mentioned that Conwy Council is one of those councils that have brought

down their average waiting time. I'm sure many other councils at the

moment not performing as good as they should be can learn good if --

good practice. Is the committee gone to be trying to do something

about this? Absolutely. I spoke with the share of the committee

today. We must look into this as a priority. In your report you

observe that seven-and-a-half �1,000 in terms of a grant can keep

people out of residential care. -- �7,500. That can save the taxpayer

�100,000. Some the most vulnerable people in Wales. Does this all down

to tight budgets? Not at all. Resemble things can be conducted by

councils to ensure that the process is swift and efficient. For example,

they can make sure there is a follow-up service in place to chase

any applications that have been sent out. There can be help and

assistance in terms of filling in those obligations. It is about

making sure that targets are set and met. A five year plan aimed at

raising numeracy standards in Welsh schools has been published. It

includes annual testing for 7 to 14-year-olds and puts more emphasis

on teaching numbers, and logic, in every subject.

We make products. We do it from Easter, we make bunny rabbit

plaques. Meet members of the Biz. Pupils here at Ynystawe Primary

School in Swansea are always developing new business ideas and

today, the Education Minister is a potential customer. It's not part

of a maths lesson but it teaches them about numeracy. They know a

lot about profit and loss. They're keen on stocks. They want to buy

into the stock market and make money. It is a lovely experience

for children. In recent years, the performance in Wales, the figures

have been pretty startling. In international tests for 15-year-

olds, Wales ranked 40th out of 67 nations for maths. In reality, it

means that pupils here are the equivalent of half a school year

behind the average. The National Numeracy Programme aims to turn

things around. From next year, 7 to 14-year-olds will sit annual

numeracy tests. National expectations will be set to better

understand how a pupil is performing and teachers will be

trained to teach numeracy, to move away from worksheet based maths

lessons and include numbers and reasoning in lots of subjects.

You have been in charge for years and yet there has not been a plan

like this in place until now. have actually improved performance

in Wales over the last decade. We have seen fewer young people

leaving school without qualifications. Standards are

probably lower across the UK in comparison with international

standards now. We have all got to raise standards. Here at GE

Aviation in Nantgarw, near Caerphilly, staff need an

understanding of numeracy to operate the tools, the computer

programmes, to analyse data. The company regularly visits schools,

something this numeracy programme wants to promote. By talking to

young people and how they are using antennae to use those skills in the

workplace, hopefully they can gain a greater understanding of why

developing the skills is important. Today, many teachers in Wales are

taking action over concerns about pay, pensions, and their workload.

There's some unease this programme will add to the problem. It takes

the same amount of time to teach a good maths lesson as a bad one and

the evidence we have for them is how to teach a good maths lesson,

so I don't think they should worry, their lives should become easier.

The benchmarks of success will be if Wales moves up the international

league tables and if more Welsh pupils leave primary school with

the basic skills they need. And, talking of basic skills, I

couldn't resist a simple maths test for the Minister. What is six times

seven? Its 42! I'm glad he got it right! Well, a team from

Techniquest, the science museum in Cardiff, regularly goes into

schools to help pupils with their maths. Rebecca John is there for us

this evening. Many children come here every day to learn through

play but it also takes some of their games into schools as part of

the maths scheme. I am joined by one of those running the scheme.

Talk us through this game. Basically, it is an easy game that

children can sit around and work together and the idea is trying to

leave seven members uncovered so that they are either the same shape

or colour or odds and even numbers. They can put the shapes in whatever

way they want. One of the nice things about it is they can work in

partnership. They have to build a strategy it back -- strategy at

work logically. What do you find when you going to schools in terms

of ability? It ranges from those that are very timid and shy to

those who are really at on their maths and what to do the best they

can. With games like this, it is great because they can work

together. You can have more able to helping the less able. You can also

have them working on the Rhone. -- their own. We are working in

primary schools may be added is about fun and making maths fun and

making it enjoyable. It is about making them enjoy it -- realise

they are not doing maths when they really are. Learning their tables

is not find that they need to know them. -- is not fun. My son always

asks me to test the on his tables. It is partially down to the parents

to do what the teachers are trained to do in the classroom. But there

are loads of easy ways than fun games out there that parents can do

with their children. Thank you very much, Tina. I am going to get back

to my maths puzzle now. Back to the studio.

Good luck! Plans for a new shopping centre in

Pontypridd are in tatters tonight, after the developer went into

receivership. The old shops have now been demolished and the new

Taff Vale shopping centre had been due to open this summer, but it was

delayed by funding difficulties. Pontypridd MP Owen Smith said the

developer had emailed him to say receivers were being appointed and

the project would not go ahead. Specialist health services are

spread too thinly and should be concentrated at five hospitals in

South Wales. That is the view of NHS managers. They have been drawn

up plans to reorganise services in hospitals from Newport to Swansea.

If you take an hour's drive along the M4 from Newport to Swansea, you

will pass a number of signs that there are hospitals nearby. Six big

hospitals are located within a few miles of the motorway. And they

provide a mix of specialist services which look after the sick

list and most seriously injured patients. But health managers argue

that set-up is now unsustainable. The present service is not

delivering a high enough quality of service to patients. Part of the

reason it is not is because of the way it is configured. The present

service means we are spreading specialist doctors too thinly at

too many sites. That means we cannot guarantee on the 20 for 7

basis that a doctor with the right Competency compete there for the

patient. -- can be there for the patient.

Proposals include service is being concentrated on four or five sites.

But there is no doubt some hospitals were low services. The

plan will see the most urgent accident and emergency care

centralised in one or two hospitals. Managers insist no final decisions

have been made and that all hospitals in the region will

continue to provide most of the services they do already. The

Health Minister to they argued the NHS had to respond to the pressure

effaces. We have had a very unusual summer. We have had this

unparalleled demand for services. It is something we will continue to

see. The talk of the demographic ticking bomb and maybe we are

seeing that coming forward. It is something we are all aware of.

there is another pressure facing the NHS across Wales, they need to

fight more savings than ever before. Yesterday the First Minister Carwyn

Jones indicated that the Welsh club Med might need to give health

boards more money again this year to help them balance their books --

the Welsh government. But what does whatever bizarre made, they are

likely to be controversial. -- whatever decisions are made.

Changing the shape of the NHS in South Wales like elsewhere will not

A man who lived near a student stabbed to death in an alleged case

of mistaken identity has told a court how he was physically

attacked on his doorstep. Mohammed Tanhai told Swansea Crown Court he

had faced an intimidation campaign over a debt of �50,000. 17-year-old

Aamir Siddiqi died after a bungled contract killing at his home. The

prosecution claimed that Aamir Siddiqi died in a bungled

contracting -- killing. Mohammed Tanhai told the court he was

selling a property just a couple of streets away from when the murder

hand -- happened and that deal went wrong. He had received �50,000 from

a disc -- businessman he had been introduced to. The prospective

buyer cannot be named for legal reasons. But Mohammed Tanhai said

when he tried to pull out of the deal, he underwent a campaign of

intimidation. Mohammed Tanhai told the court that a man intending to

sell his property to turned up at his house in November 2009 with

another man. He was punched and sprayed in the face in front of his

wife and children. He told the court he was severely beaten up and

could not seek during the attack. He was then moved by police to a

safe house. The jury has previously heard the defendants Jason Richards

and Ben Hope were hired back -- by an unnamed businessman angry

because of a failed business deal. They deny murder and attempted

murder. The trial continues. The laboratory headed by the Dean of

Medicine at Cardiff University is under investigation following

allegations of research misconduct. They relate to papers produced by

the academic team there over recent years. The man in charge of the lab,

Professor Paul Morgan, remains in his post. Rhodri Lewis is in the

newsroom now. Well, it's alleged that some of the images used to

help draw conclusions from academic research have been manipulated. No

further details have been given about how they may have been

altered, but a number of articles produced by the group of academics

led by Professor Morgan have caused concern. A panel at the university

found some of them acknowledged responsibility for certain aspects

in specific articles in academic journals. As a result it decided to

launch a formal investigation. Last year, after a similar investigation

at the university, a different article by this research group was

withdrawn from a journal. That was after it was found that one member

of the team had inappropriately manipulated primary data in two

figures in the paper. The investigation at the time found

that he was solely responsible and he no longer works there, but he

was involved in preparing some of the papers now under investigation.

It's obviously important in the academic world that certain

standards are followed in academic research so that people can rely on

the conclusions. Professor Morgan, who heads the team has got a long

and distinguished career in research into this specific aspect

of biology, and he remains in post. Cardiff University says it will

need to await the outcome of the Formal Investigation Panel before

making any further comment. Soldiers who've recently returned

from a tour of duty in Afghanistan have marched through Haverfordwest

in Pembrokeshire. Troops from 223 Signal Squadron, were presented

with campaign medals after the parade. They're based at Cawdor

Barracks in the town and are experts in electronic warfare. How

do you pass off Margam Castle in Port Talbot for the Medici Palace

in 15th Century Florence? One man who knows is the writer of

Hollywood hits like Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. He's chosen

South Wales as the location for his new �20 million TV series based on

the life of Leonardo Da Vinci. And he started by transforming an old

factory into a film studio, as Carwyn Jones now reports.

It opened 50 years ago. Back then they made fridges. In its heyday,

they made car parts. And now they're making television. Believe

it or not, this is the old Ford factory in Swansea. Today, it is a

fifteenth-century Italian street. Look around and you'll spot

Florence's Ponte Vecchio bridge and the doorway to the Duomo cathedral.

It's all part of a �20 million TV series, Da Vinci's Demons, which

traces the early life of Leonardo. It's the brainchild of David S

Goyer. You might not know the name, but you'll know his work. He's

written a host of Hollywood blockbusters like Batman, Blade and

the forthcoming Superman film. is more in the Batman begins vain.

Having done that, it paints with a broad canvas. It is very cinematic.

It will feel much more like a movie than a TV show. It is certainly the

largest TV production I have ever been involved in. Recreating

Renaissance Florence in South Wales has proved easier than you'd think.

The gothic splendour of Margam Castle in Port Talbot doesn't

immediately suggest the Medici Palace. But the production has use

made of the grand interiors, while the exterior shots will be a mix of

computer graphics and specially constructed sets. Something else

the programme makers found on their doorstep was a highly skilled cast

and crew. There is a huge talent base. It has remained undiscovered

for many years. But things like Doctor Who and more recently

Sherlock, it has recently brought the talent base to the fore.

Vinci's Demons is a co-production between BBC Worldwide and the

American TV network Starz. A series on this scale has proved good news

for the local workforce, everyone from craftsman to caterers.

We are seeing temporary jobs being created to the tune of over 3,300.

BRC in permanent jobs being created. -- we are seeing. It is quite an

investment in this area. We must do what we can to capitalise on that.

The programme were hit our screens in spring next year. If a second

series is Commission, it will bring more Hollywood money to South Wales.

Swansea City will find out later who they'll play in the fourth

round of the Capital One Cup. They had to come from behind to beat

League One side Crawley 3-2 last night, Garry Monk scoring a last-

minute winner. Meanwhile in the Conference, Newport County stay top

after beating Telford 4-2. Wrexham are hot on their heels in third.

They beat Barrow 3-0. Boxing, and World Champion Nathan

Cleverly says he wants to bring a big name opponent to the Cardiff

City Stadium if he successfully defends his title again next month.

Cleverly held an open training session at the ground this

afternoon, as part of his preparations to fight at the

Motorpoint Arena on 27th October. Cardiff City manager Malky Mackay

and pupils from a local primary school came along to watch. I come

to a lot of the home matches in and around at training when I am free.

In all fairness, they are very supportive of me as well. Hopefully,

I can get the fight that I want here. Her grandmother was unable to

read or write, her parents left school early to run their business

and she spends several months a year missing lessons when her

family's travelling fair tours the country. But 18-year-old Shelby

Holmes from Towyn near Rhyl is just about to start an English degree at

Oxford University. Life is full of distractions for

Shelby Holmes. Coming from five generations of travelling show

people when she's not on tour she's helping to run the family's

amusement arcade in Towyn. But she's about to break with tradition

after hitting the jackpot and winning a place at Oxford

University. Not many travelling showman go to higher education.

When I said I was applying to Oxford, everyone said, that's good

but we'll see how far she goes with it! And then I got the interview I

did got a little bit more exciting and then I got an offer. That was

really exciting. And then I got the grades. It was the most incredible

feeling. Studying hasn't always been easy. Shelby missed plenty of

school while on tour with the family. I had something like a 68 %

attendance record, extremely low. The school were fantastic. Taking

my books with me, doing the fairgrounds and having to study

while on the road, it was difficult. It was harder than a lot of people

have it, I guess. If you asked it to do some reading while she was

away, she did so. She didn't tend to fall behind. She is bright

enough and sharp enough to pick it up. Shelby says travelling shows

will always be part of her life, but her proud parents think she's

moving on in more ways than one. She's got another life to leave. We

went to Oxford and had a look round. I can imagine her in there. I

turned to Michael and said, she is not coming back. She will finish up

working in the college will something. That will be her life, I

can see that. Shelby will now be permanently installed for the next

two years at Oxford University. Opportunities will open up. What a

prize will be is anyone's guess. Here's Derek with the weather

I do have some good news. Things are on the mend. It is wet in

places at the moment, but tomorrow is looking drier and a bit more

settled. The low pressure that brought the recent deluge was the

most intense September storm for 30 years. Some places have well over a

month's worth of rain. One of the wettest places, Bodelwyddan in

Denbighshire. Nearly 100mm of rain since Sunday. About four inches.

These figures are from Met Office weather stations. A few of you have

recorded more rain than this. Rivers levels are now falling but a

few remain swollen. There is still one flood warning in the Lower Dee

Valley from Llangollen to Chester. This evening, heavy showers will

slowly ease. A few showers in the north and Cardigan Bay overnight

but most places becoming dry and clearer. The wind falling light

inland with some mist. Temperatures falling as low as 7 Celsius.

Tomorrow's chart shows a ridge of high pressure over Britain. This

front approaching Ireland will reach us on Friday.

So tomorrow a better day in prospect. Some sunshine in the

south and Powys. Some morning mist as well. But not completely dry. A

few showers are likely. For example in Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire

and Wrexham. A few showers too in Gwynedd and Ceredigion. So you may

catch a shower tomorrow but not as heavy as today. On the whole much

drier and brighter than recently. Top temperatures 12 to 15 Celsius,

with a west to north-westerly breeze. Tomorrow evening, dry for a

time, but a front will bring some rain and showers after midnight.

The wind freshening as well. On Friday, rain first thing will clear.

Followed by drier, brighter weather and a few showers. As for the

weekend, Saturday looks the better day. The odd light shower otherwise

dry. Some sunshine. Sunday will start dry but rain will spread from

the north-west during the day. Windier as well. Our picture

tonight is from Mark Roberts. Dark clouds over Lake Bala. Thanks, Mark.

Great photo. So better weather tomorrow. Drier and brighter with

just a few scattered showers. The main news from the BBC is the

weather. Hundreds of people have been forced to abandon their homes

as the most intense September stock for decades works his way across

the North of England. Just outside Newcastle, the volume of water

swept away the Foundation's office block of flats. We'll have an