22/11/2012 BBC Wales Today

Gale force winds and heavy rain batter the country - leaving a

trail of disruption in its wake. Llanberis, the High Street is cut-

off. Homes, businesses and schools have all been affected. Roads

became lakes - this was the A55 - North Wales's main road at a

Our other headlines tonight, the NHS in Wales is likely to be �70

million in the red at the end of this financial year.

Trying times for George North. Injured in training. He's out for

Wales New Zealand on Saturday. And proof, if it were needed, that

where there's muck there's brass. The local tip could have the answer

Good evening. Homes flooded, some of our main roads at a standstill,

and rescue services flat out across the country. Torrential rain and

storm force winds have wreaked havoc throughout Wales. Tonight the

Welsh Government has warned people not to travel unless it's

absolutely necessary. These are the latest pictures we've just had in

from the village of Rhostryfan, near Caernarfon, there were reports

during the afternoon that the village was cut off for a while.

And in Llanberis, roads were cut off for a while. Rescue services

went to a school in the town to help children get home. Our

reporter, Matthew Richards, is there for us tonight. What's the

latest there? The worst seems to be over for

Norbert it just has started raining again. I am stuck on the pavement

in deep High Street. You can see how deep the water is. The clean-up

operation is under way. Fast- flowing water brought debris down

to the street. It is difficult to get to this straight from one side

The stranded. This driver one of many caught out by it rising water

levels today. There was misery for motorists. This was the scene this

afternoon. The road closed in both directions -- directions.

Conditions were treacherous on Anglesey after hours of rain fell

on saturated ground. It flu -- it - - this was the picture near

Caernarfon. It was cut off by the flood water. This car alongside on

Anglesey was flooded by a nearby river. -- caravan site. I had a

phone call from my mother saying she had had a phone call saying the

caravan was swimming. I have not seen at this height in 10 years.

Residents were preparing for the worse. I have been bailing out

water from the back door. I woke up this morning and let the dog out

and she jumped out of the back door into four inches of water. Water

came close were these residents. is as bad as I have seen for many

years. It has been like this 20 years ago, perhaps. But not as bad

as this since then. These thunderous wings were flown by the

Snowdon Mountain Railway Staff. -- filmed. There was nothing wonderful

about the Winter Wonderland in Cardiff. It was meant to open today.

It has been postponed. Conditions are meant to improve tonight. But

for many, winter is coming in with a bang.

The clean-up operation is in burnt -- is under way in earnest in

Llanberis. You have spent a lot of time

sweeping the water out. Tell us what it was like. It happened so

quickly. One minute, there was flooding on either side of the road.

Before I could get everything off the floor, the shop was just

filling up and then at the worst point, it was up to the top of that

no smoking sign. Inside, luckily it did not get much

further than the skirting boards. I think I have been lucky. I feel

sorry for people with carpets and things. Have you seen this before?

Never. I have been in the village seven years. Apparently, it has

never been as bad. I did not think it was possible really. I think a

lot of it has got to do with trains. I am not sure. -- drains. I have

got to be open again as soon as possible. We were led to get back

to it. That is the picture in Llanberis was top -- Llanberis.

Derek's here. A fast moving picture this afternoon?

Yes, it was brought by a cold front. We have the radar pictures. The

rain started off over the Irish Sea and moved his weight gradually

across Wales. Some torrential heavy downpours, as you can see by the

bright colours. 50 mm of rain has fallen in some places. Probably

more than that on the mountains Thankfully, the worst of the wind

and rain is moving away from Wales. But of course there is a lot of

water on the ground. Rivers remain swollen. There are two flood

warnings in force. And 16 flood We will get a full forecast later

in the programme. The NHS in Wales is likely to be

�70 million in the red at the end of this financial year. That's

according to the Wales Audit Office, which says most Health Boards will

not be able to break even on their current budgets, despite a legal

requirement to do so. It comes days after the chief executive of the

health service in Wales said he was confident that local health boards

would balance their books. Here's our health correspondent, Owain

Clarke. Nobody doubts running the health service is an expensive

business. A new modern hospital like this one costs �172 million.

The average annual salary of a GP in Wales is about �80,000. Each GP

appointment costs �25. The price of building a start of the eight --

state-of-the-art cancer centre, �16 million. But it is not at all about

equipment and pay. There is a nationwide shortage of doctors.

Cost -- and temporary staff cost The concerns about losing the X-Ray

services here, and the minor injuries unit, that is important to

the town, and also the major concern on X-rays is that a lot of

elderly people cannot travel a long distance. All of these pressures

are happening at a time when the NHS is trying to find big savings.

The analysis by the Auditor-General for Wales shows that at the end of

September, halfway through the financial year, the combined

deficit was �70 million. If significant savings were made, it

is estimated that could be cut to �46 million. But the report says

the deficit will more than likely remain at around �70 million.

However if things go badly, the report says that the overspend

could potentially reach �131 million. Even though that figure is

only about 2% of the total annual health budget, the Conservatives

insist that the NHS is in dire financial straits. If they how �130

million to find between now on the end of the financial year, that is

an impossible mountain for the NHS to be able to climb. They will have

to either have a huge injection of cash or some radical service

changed. Axing services. Nobody shares that assessment. A few days

ago when I spoke to the boss of the NHS in Wales, he said he was

increasingly confident that the NHS will hit its financial targets by

next April. There is increasing confident they will hit their

break-even target and of course they will do so without in any

sense compromising on the quality of care. They are now working on

implementing plans on strengthening their plans to make sure they come

to the end of the year in the right position. The Welsh government says

today it welcomes the fact that the NHS overall is in better shape than

it was this time last year. But last year extra money had to be

dumped in to help the NHS keep going.

In man and woman arrested on suspicion of murder following the

death of a baby grow have been a rest -- released on police bail,

pending inquiries. There is a warning that hundreds of

thousands of families in Wales may not receive their council tax

benefits next year. The system will be run by Welsh councils, not the

UK government. The local government minister Carl Sargeant has told BBC

Wales they do not have enough income it -- information to

implement the scheme. A quarter of all households in

Wales receives council tax benefits, more than any welfare payment.

Linda cannot go to the shops saw has it -- her groceries delivered

to her home in Mountain Ash. She struggles to walk after contracting

bacterial meningitis. She is on benefits.

Having to think about trying to find extra money, I am going to be

cutting it off my bills, food, something like that. I have nothing

spare at the end of the week. council tax benefits are there for

people on low income or income support or who received jobseeker's

allowance. And more than 300,000 families receive it in Wales. In

some cases, it means not having to pay any council tax at all. The UK

demand is devolving council tax benefits. That will happen next

What we know was that if we do not have the numbers pretty soon, we

will have a huge risk of not having the correct legislative tools to

take this forward to deliver for the people of Wales. The Treasury

has come back to us saying that the information required to proceed has

already been made available and local authorities in England are

already finalising their schemes. One Assembly Member says it should

have been dealt with soon. Welsh government are more

interested in having a spat with Westminster than they are in terms

of placing these regulations and ensuring that everything is in

place before the 1st April. The Scottish government have sorted it

all out. They have ensured that people who were on benefits will

not suffer as a result of this. It is the mess in Wales. It seemed

Assembly Members will have to be recalled from their Christmas

recess to sort the matter out. Unless they do, it is Linda and

thousands of others like her at that will lose out. TV presenter

Anna Ryder Richardson's company has been fined �70,000 for failing to

protect employees and visitors. She and her husband Colin MacDougal own

Manor House Wildlife Park near Tenby in West Wales. Mr MacDougal

was fined a further four thousand pounds individually for failing to

properly manage the risk of falling trees at the park. Abigail Neal

reports. A young mother and her child were

pinned beneath this 24 foot beech tree. That was 20th August 10. Two

and a half years on, lawyers acting on their behalf say both are still

suffering the profound consequences of that day. Within 24 hours, five

trees in Manor House's wallaby enclosure where the accident

happened were deemed to be a risk and cut down. Today Manor House

Wildlife Park, the company owned by Anna Ryder Richardson and her

husband, was found to have failed to protect employees and visitors.

They were filed past fined �70,000. Colin MacDougal also received an

individual final �4,000. The charges don't relate to the

injuries Griff and his mother suffered, but the judge said the

defendants had fallen significantly below the required standards of

safety. A tree survey updated when the couple bought the zoo in 2008

hadn't been properly implemented, health and safety assessments and

training were inadequate. sentences reflect the fact that

they have failed over a number of years to manage the risks to the

employees and the public at the park. Fundamental health and safety

requirements were breached and there was a failure to assess and

actively manage the tree population to ensure the park was saved. In

turn, these failures created the environment in which a 25 metre

beech tree fell, trapping and seriously injuring a young child

and his mother. Lawyers acting for Manor House say the park became

Anna Ryder Richardson and her husband's life work, and the couple

were held in high zoological regard. The pleas of guilt reflect two

things. Firstly, that given the demands of health and safety law,

our tree management system could and should have been better.

Secondly, the prosecution and the court have accepted that our tree

management system between 2008 and 2010 played no part in the accident

in that no pre- excellent inspection would have alerted me or

any of my staff to the risk of Today the judge praised a medic who

helped Griff and his mother, saying his efforts may well have averted

an even greater catastrophe that day.

First Minister Carwyn Jones says Wales could lose out if talks in

Brussels result in a cut to the European Union budget. Some of

Wales' most deprived areas have benefited from EU grants, but how

has that money been spent? And will these budget negotiations impact on

the money that comes here? European funding has been the building block

for this timber design and manufacturing company.

This machine paid for in part by the European Union has been the key

to success. We have worked closely with countryside parks in the local

borough to develop large bespoke signs that come off that machine

and things were local schools. It has been good to help us expand and

push on. But there are critical voices. I am told that a report to

be published soon by the Assembly Finance Committee will make 15

recommendations, one of them being that the Welsh government should

take a more strategic approach to the way it spends European money.

Since 2007, �1.7 billion of European funds has been spent on

273 projects. But economic performance per head in those areas

is lagging behind the rest of Europe. GDP was 68 % of the

European average in 2009, compared to 79 % in 2005. The head of the

office in Wales says progress has been slow as a result of the

recession. I would say it is a necessary restructuring which takes

longer than perhaps some of us had hoped. But looking to the future, I

see no reason to view the future with pessimism. And I believe that

the next seven years could be key in helping to turn the Welsh

economy around and to modernise it. In Brussels, members of the

European Union are debating the budget for it 2014 and the Hon.

Labour MPs have called for a cut. Colleagues in Wales disagree.

need an adequate to appear in Union budget. We need to create jobs and

growth. -- European Union budget. Planning for the next round of

funding for companies like this will be very difficult otherwise.

They're already massive underdogs, and tonight another blow for Wales

as they prepare to take on the mighty All Blacks. Live to the

Wales Team HQ in the Vale of Glamorgan and our sports reporter,

Ashleigh Crowter. There aren't many people who think

Wales can beat the All Blacks, except here at the Wales team hotel.

But tonight, the task of beating the World Champions looks even more

difficult after star winger George North withdrew after getting

injured in training. His Scarlets colleague Liam Williams will

replace him, winning only his second cap. The All Blacks,

meanwhile, have recalled their World Cup winning captain and the

best fly-half on the planet. The big guns are back and the guns

don't get much bigger than these. Captain Richie McCaw, the man who

lifted the World Cup is back in the side to face Wales. The team does

not rely on just muscle. Their The back line is also the most

dangerous in world rugby. Dan Just growing up, seeing the

Millennium Stadium built and the awesome atmosphere, the way it

sounded, I was lucky enough to come in 2008 with the Under 20s team.

I said to myself, I am going to play here one day for us of Wales's

autumn series has not gone well and today another setback. George North

withdrew from the sand -- it Deeside after injuring his hip in

training. Lee Williams will deputise. He has played most of his

You do not know how they react until they are in there. He is

quite grounded. As an individual. That is evident. He is full of life.

There is no backward step. He gives as good as he gets. The All Blacks

are unbeaten in 19 matches but today they finally did lose out the

Welsh weather. Their training session had to be cut short.

The world champions are of course red-hot favourites to beat Wales.

We won't have too much sympathy for them. I am in the opposition camp

these days. But I know what will make them tighter. When they are

criticised, they are tighter and more dangerous. Scotland and Italy

have been comfortably beaten on the tour so far. It is hard to see how

we as can't stop the world's best team. Bath Wales can beat the

world's best team. A jubilee mug, a squash racket and

a cuddly polar bear - just some of the items on sale at Swansea's

newest pound shop. They were all items people have consigned to the

rubbish heap but, in a bid to reduce waste, the council has

decided to step in and give them another lease of life, as James

Williams reports. Out with the old and in what he knew. It is the end

of the line for many of these items at the recycling site in Swansea

but for others, there is a ray of hope. With stringent waste targets

to meet, councils are thinking of innovative ways to reduce the

amount of rubbish they have. Swansea Council are faking along

these lines. -- thinking. We have always known there is a lot of good

items that were coming through some of the sites that were being thrown

away. And we knew that a lot of them were in the awful good

condition. Some of them are brown ale. We decided -- Brown -- brand

new. I would be delighted to by other

people's rubbish, if it was something that I could do with. I

have wanted to see that four years. I would take it to the local

charity shop. I have some stuff in the House that I will bring down.

It is one of the better ideas the council has had. Whatever you buy,

the money raised from the shop will go towards children's education

projects hoping to change attitudes towards rubbish. It is the kind of

project being run in the Rhondda. The driving force to end these

initiatives is the Rhos government's game to make Wales A

zero waste country -- the Welsh With the notoriously wasteful Chris

appeared around the corner, they are hoping to spread a message and

a little Christmas cheer -- It's our main story, let's get the

all-important forecast. The Welsh government is warning people not to

travel unless absolutely necessary. I think the worst is over. Things

will improve tonight and tomorrow but what a day it's been today.

Torrential rain, gales, disruption and flash flooding. Some rivers are

swollen. One flooding warning in force on the River Erch. Plus nine

flood alerts in force. More information on the Environment

Agency website. The highest wind gust recorded 86 mph at Capel Curig

in Snowdonia. Over 100mph at Clogwyn on the way up Snowdon. And

over 90mph at Worm's Head on Gower. Thankfully the wind has now eased

but there is still an amber warning of heavy rain in force for the next

few hours. The rain this evening not as intense as it was earlier

and it will clear. So turning much drier overnight. Clearer too, with

just a few showers. A colder night with lighter winds. Temperatures

inland falling as low as two or three Celsius with a ground frost.

Here's the picture for 8:00am. A much better start to the day. Still

a lot of water on the ground but much of the country dry and clear.

Calmer too with lighter winds. Good visibility and feeling chilly. So

the weather much nicer tomorrow after what we've had to endure

today. We'll all see some sunshine. Just the odd shower. Mainly in the

west, Cardigan and Gwynedd. Top temperatures eight to ten Celsius.

The wind much lighter than today as well. In Gwynedd tomorrow much

drier and brighter than today. Some sunshine. You may catch a shower.

Temperatures ten Celsius with lighter winds. Tomorrow night dry,

clear and cold. Temperatures falling close to freezing with a

slight frost. A few mist and fog patches. The weekend will start

fine and dry but we're keeping an eye on this low pressure moving up

from the Bay of Biscay. It looks like bringing another dose of wet

and windy weather with a risk of more flooding and disruption. Next

week unsettled and turning colder. The rain will clear tonight. Much

drier and calmer tomorrow with sunshine. Keep an eye on the

We can now return to Matthew Richards in Llanberis.

The people I have been speaking to this evening have lived here for

decades and they have never seen it this bad before. We had a school

close to where the stream burst its banks and many of the staff and the

pupils found it difficult to get out. But now the water is subsiding,