20/11/2013 BBC Wales Today

Welcome to Wales Today. Tonight's headlines.

Welsh Greenpeace activist Anthony Perret is granted bail by a court in

northern Russia and could leave prison in the next 48 hours. We

speak to his family in Newport. I hope that this situation will get

resolved but there is going to need to be continued support and pressure

until Anthony is back home. Also tonight.

I am delighted to announce that the UK City of Culture 2017 is Hull.

Disappointment in Swansea as it loses its bid, but those behind it

say the show will go on. I am confident that with the public

support we have had, their media support, the support from

ambassadors across the Swansea Bay region that we are still going to

deliver the capital of culture going forward.

Benefit changes mean less money for repairs and new homes. The warning

tonight from housing associations. It's hoped it could rival venues

like London's Earls Court - plans for a convention centre in Newport

to bring more business to Wales. And the moment when this year's BBC

Wales Sports Unsung Hero finds out he's won.

A Greenpeace activist from Newport arrested by Russian authorities two

months ago has been granted bail. 32-year-old Anthony Perrett was held

along with 27 other activists and two journalists after a protest at

an oil rig in the Arctic Ocean. They're facing charges of

hooliganism, which carries a maximum sentence in Russia of up to seven

years in prison. In the past hour his partner has

just spoken to BBC Wales and says the focus must now be on getting him

home. It has been a mixture. It was a very busy. The phones and e-mails,

text messages have been very constant and it has really been

overwhelming to see and hear the amount of support that is there. I

have been confident. I hope that this situation will get resolved but

there is going to need to be continued support and pressure until

Anthony is back home. We hope to speak to a correspondent

in St Petersburg in the next few minutes.

The team behind Swansea Bay's bid to be crowned the UK's City of Culture

for 2017 admit they're disappointed not to have won, but will carry on

with the work they've started. Earlier, the UK Culture Secretary

announced that Hull will succeed Derry/Londonderry. Cemlyn Davies

reports. They gathered in Swansea in hope and

expectation. But then. I am delighted to announce that the UK

City of Culture 2017 is Hull. The culture secretary praised all the

cities but that did little to dampen the disappointment of those who have

worked so hard on Swansea's joint bid with Neath Port Talbot and

Carmarthenshire. I think we are naturally disappointed. We had a

strong bid. But I think it has been a really good gym -- Jamie because

we have something unique in the area. The Swansea Bay area has an

extraordinary wealth of talent, commitment, hard-working people and

great culture and I hope this will inspire all of us to push even

harder so that when we do get to be the City of Culture that we can put

on an even bigger and better time of it for everybody. In whole, there

were very different scenes as people celebrated, pipping Swansea Bay,

Dendy and Leicester to the coveted title. I think all four cities can

congratulate themselves on for very strong bids but Hull did present a

very compelling case on the basis of a city coming out of the shadows.

For Swansea Bay, it is a case of what might have been. It is

estimated winning the title would have been with ?70 million for the

area in 2017. But the ?7 million refurbishment of Albert Hall in

Swansea is expected to go ahead regardless and the team behind the

bid said there is still plenty to look forward to. One of the things

we were really clear about was that this was a policy we were doing

anyway. The bid allowed us to fast-track some of those ideas. It

might take is a little bit longer but we are still going to do them.

The team says it now wants to establish Swansea Bay as the Welsh

capital of culture. Hundreds of homes are lying empty

and hundreds more may never be built as a result of changes to the

benefits system. That's the warning from Welsh housing associations.

They say they're owed more than a million pounds in rent arrears since

April but the UK government argues that taxpayers can't be expected to

pay for people to live in larger properties than they need. Here's

Brian Meechan. This woman suffers from an incurable

illness which means her bedroom requires specialist equipment and

carers need space to look after her. It has meant her husband has

had to move into the other bedroom at their home near Aberystwyth. But

the couple have had their housing benefit reduced because they are

judged to have a spare room. They have rushed into this bedroom tax

without thinking how it affects people in different ways. Fair

enough if a bedroom is empty but it is being used. It supporters call it

the spare room subsidy. Its critics call it the bedroom tax. New figures

show it is having an impact in Wales. Welsh Housing associations

say it has made 700 properties more difficult to rent because people

don't want larger homes. It also argues that they have been able to

build 400 fewer houses per year because of the increase in rent

arrears. Housing Association chief executives say their long-term plans

are being affected. It has put a huge amount of uncertainty into our

long-term business plan. We are working quite hard to collect money

but that leads to uncertainty. We have got our capacity generally to

do new build and refurbishment but it is shrinking. It also has an

impact on local builders like Jason Brown who employs 120 people in

Merthyr. He says he is already feeling the pinch from housing

associations losing money. In the tough times, the housing

associations have carried through. We have been very lucky working for

these groups. But the figures showed that half of tenants are making up

the shortfall in benefits by paying the extra rent themselves. The UK

government says the new system is fairer. It says it is unreasonable

to expect taxpayers to subsidise people having extra rooms in their

homes. It also says it is helping the most vulnerable, with more than

?6 million being made available in Wales. What the changes will mean

for Yvonne and her husband are also uncertain as they try to work out if

they can stay in the property they call home.

The Welsh Government has confirmed that an NHS 111 phone line won't be

introduced here until April 2015 at the earliest. A similar phone line,

designed to deal with non-emergency medical problems, has been in place

in England since April. The Welsh Conservatives say the introduction

here is too slow but doctors' leaders have welcomed the delay.

I think the idea is excellent and if it is implement it properly it will

be good for patients because it will make things much simpler for

people. They will have a clear idea who they need to call. It is vital

that we publicise it properly but if it is implemented properly, it is a

good thing for the people of Wales. A teacher who it's claimed had sex

with a 16-year-old pupil who had just left the school has been found

guilty of professional misconduct. 33-year-old Claire Horton from

Newport has been struck off the teaching register for at least two

years. Caroline Evans is in the newsroom with more. What more can

you tell us? Claire Horton was a teacher for ten years. It well

respected member of staff at the Cardiff school where she taught

technology and was head of the year but last year, in the summer, as her

marriage was breaking down, she started chatting with former pupils

on Facebook and contacted 116-year-old boy and arranged to

meet. She told the disciplinary panel that she had driven him to

home, they talked, she had cried and then they had both fallen asleep but

nothing further had happened. But she said when she woke up she

realised she had abused her position of trust and that for her was the

ultimate sin. The panel today said they found her version of events and

convincing, particularly as she had told the headmistress that she had

slept with a boy. They found her guilty of an acceptable professional

misconduct and ordered that her name be removed from the teaching

register. Still to come.

He's a volunteer coach, helping homeless people through football.

Paul Scarfi is named BBC Wales Sports Unsung Hero.

The First Minister is in Scotland tonight, calling on voters there to

reject independence and stay a part of a strong United Kingdom. Carwyn

Jones is giving a speech at Edinburgh University, where he's

defending the Union as the positive choice for Scotland come next year's

referendum. Our political reporter James Williams caught up with him

before his speech. This is an intervention the first

minister would like to have made sooner but with the Westminster

government response to the Silk Commission on the further devolution

of financial powers to the Welsh assembly not forthcoming, he felt he

could not make the case for the union but with that response having

been made, the first minister is in Edinburgh tonight to make that case.

You say devolution can work for Scotland. It is working already for

Scotland but it is also important that we see devolved powers

transferred. It has happened in Scotland, we saw it in Wales and it

shows devolution can be flexible enough to accommodate the national

aspirations of Wales and Scotland. But they took a while to come. That

is true. It took longer than it should have done but we are happy

with the package we have had. It is a substantial amount of devolution,

building on the 2011 referendum results. But it is also at the whim

of the Westminster government. We can always talk about

hypotheticals. We have two governments at either end of the M4,

very difficult in terms of their vertical outlook, but can still work

together on devolution. The SNP government today said this is a

Scottish issue for the Scottish people. This is not for the first

minister of Wales to come and tell us what to do. I have not come here

to preach, I have come to offer a view. But if one part of the UK

leads the UK it is an issue for everybody who is left. Ultimately,

of course it is a matter for the people of Scotland. Are you coming

here as the first Minister of Wales or the leader of Welsh Labour? The

first Minister of Wales. It is important we can put forward a view

in terms of what we see as Scotland's place in the UK. If I had

the 100% backing of the Welsh public I would do very well but my view is

that the people of Wales have a strong appetite for more devolution,

not an appetite for independence, and it is important that we make a

case for a union that is flexible enough to accommodate the national

aspirations of those who live within it. A significant intervention as

Carwyn Jones said, but significant also before the publication of the

White Paper outlining the case for Scottish independence next Tuesday.

Plans to build an international conference centre here in Wales to

rival venues like Earls Court in London have been revealed. Based at

the Celtic Manor in Newport, the aim is to attract more high profile

business into the country. Our reporter Jordan Davies has more.

The NEC in Birmingham, Earls Court in London and Liverpool's Echo

Arena. Conference centres that attract thousands of visitors every

day, making millions for their local economies. Can this success be

copied here? Said Terry Matthews who owns the Celtic Manor in Newport

thinks so. He wants to build an international standard conference

centre to rival them all. This is a suite in the Celtic Manor, the

biggest room there, and part of the existing conference centre. It can

hold 1500 people, but the new site will have rooms that can hold three

times as many. There will be enough seats for 4000 people. It will cost

between ?45 million and ?55 million to build with ?500,000 from the

Welsh government to get it off the ground. The resort says it will be

worth between ?60 million and ?70 million a year to the local economy.

It will address the big association and convention business. We pretty

much run at full capacity at the moment but the really large

conferences, the party political conferences, we can now bring those

to Wales because we will have the capacity to do that. It will also

want more high profile international events like this, last year's NATO

summit in Chicago which next year will be coming to the Celtic Manor,

complete with a typically low-key visit from him. Other targets

include blue-chip firms, major exhibitions and national trade

associations. Earlier this year, Cardiff Council announced it was

looking to build a conference venue so how do they feel about the

announcement? I think we have been expecting that for some time. We

have always known. We have developed our plans in Cardiff. They are well

aware of what our plans are and what our aspirations are and they have

not changed as a result of this announcement. This new conference

venue will be ready in three years. The Celtic Manor says it will

attract investment to the whole area. But what it will be will be on

a typically grand scale. When we have now become used to hear.

Calvin Jones is from Cardiff Business School. There will

certainly be high hopes for this. What impact do you think the

conference centre will have on the Welsh economy? It is somewhere we

have failed to compete in the past in Wales. Our business tourism

visitors are much lower than other parts of the UK, for example. We

have got any the structure in Cardiff with the motor point arena.

But I think this is a gap that needs filling and busy it is good to see

it being filled. Is there a quantifiable benefit? There is. We

would hope high spending visitors. You can argue it is not in the

perfect place because if you look at the Millennium Stadium, that works

so well for the Welsh economy because it is in the heart of

Cardiff, people can spend in the locality, they can get a sense of

the city and with the Celtic Manor, it will work if the Celtic Manor can

internalise all that revenue and keep all that money on site. Do you

think it can rival places like the NEC in Birmingham? It will be

difficult. That works in part because it is at the heart of the

motorway system in England and we don't have that kind of thing in

Wales. The fact there is not another one similar in the South West and in

Wales will help and the problem for Cardiff is that it has always got to

look over its shoulder at Bristol which has got its own convention

centre. In a way, this project at Celtic Manor my not be the best for

Wales but the other option is Bristol. The NATO summit is on its

way to Newport as well. It could have a big impact on Wales's profile

and this could be a big boost. The question is, how far can you link

the Celtic Manor with Wales's wider tourism? How far can you show people

a greenfield site and encourage them not to come just that site but the

rest of Wales? One in six people in Wales have cut

back on food so they can pay their food bills. A report shows that one

in five of us is paying -- struggling to pay our energy bills.

This woman from Cardiff has said she has had to put heating before

eating. I do not have that many years left in me and why should I be

left worrying about the bills now, at my time of life, when I should

just turn the heating on and enjoy life. Not to be struggling. One in

six people say they are cutting back on food, clothes and other bills but

they are also trying to reduce the amount of energy they use in the

house. But they are not doing that in a positive way by improving

energy efficiency. They are just turning down the thermostat or

heating a single room, which can put their health at risk.

Just a few days to go now until we find out who's on the short list for

the BBC Wales Sports Personality of 2013. But tonight we can announce

the winner of this year's Unsung Hero Award. Paul Scarfi from Newport

is a football coach who's devoted his life to helping homeless people

get back on their feet. We sent Ashleigh Crowter to break the news.

We are hiding in the bushes here in Newport because just over there,

coaching one of those football teams, is a man who we need to go

and surprise. Let's do it. I am really sorry to interrupt the

half-time team talk. I know Paul was probably passing on some tips but I

have got an important message as well and that is to say Paul Scarfi,

you are the BBC Wales Unsung Hero bought for 2013. What are you

thinking? Shocked. I am stunned. Amazing. I never thought I would

win. Did you know we were coming? Not a clue. Did they know? They did.

It is an honour. But these guys are my own heroes. Without these guys,

we would not be doing what we do. It is really down to these guys. Well,

while he gets his breath back, let's have a look at why he was nominated

for this award. I'm save!

These footballers will always be grateful that Paul Scarfi is on

their side. He is a volunteer culture for the street football

Wales project, helping young people at their lowest ebb to get back to

mainstream life through sport. I met Paul four years ago when I was in a

hostel because I was homeless and it all started from there. He got me

into the project. I would not go out without Paul at first and then he

got my courage up and got me more confident and now I can run

projects. Paul, who is a former soldier, gives hours of his own free

time every week. He uses his annual leave to coach the Welsh Dragons

football team. Without his dedication, travelling around Wales

at his own expense, it would be impossible to send the team to the

homeless World Cup every year, giving young people on the margins

of society and unforgettable life changing experience. Words cannot

Article eight what I hope all, and not just Paul but the project

because I was in the gutter. Now I have to myself out of it. If it was

not for him, I would probably still be in the same vicious circle I was

a year under half ago. I was homeless, I was taking loads of

drugs and I was also very violent. Food his support, he helped me get

off everything. If it was not for him, I would not be where I am now.

He did have a positive impact on everyone. We have got several

players from within this team we have just come back with who have

gone on to full-time work and we don't see them but that is

fantastic, that is what we are aiming for. Paul works at a homeless

hostel in Newport. He set the girls there to set up their own team to

play in the street football league. Under his guidance, Wales now has a

national women's's team for the first time. People look at homeless

people as drunks on the street but Paul does not judge anybody, he just

gives everyone a chance in life. I think he is amazing. Huge

congratulations. Very well-deserved. The man who created the Daleks,

Terry Nation, has had a blue plaque unveiled in his honour at the house

in Cardiff where he was born. Nation, who died in 1997, was a

screenwriter on Doctor Who when he came up with the idea for the

Daleks. The unveiling comes as the BBC sci-fi series celebrates its

50th anniversary. Well, hopefully the weather forecast

won't be as scary as those Darleks. Derek, what have we got to look

forward to? It is cold and windy out there.

Staying windy tonight and into tomorrow as well. The strongest

winds on the north and west coasts. Severe gale force in the Irish Sea.

We've already seen some lively gusts today, especially in the northwest.

61mph at Aberdaron in Gwynedd. So a windy night with blustery showers.

The showers heavy in places with hail and sleet. Snow on some hills

and mountains. Some dry weather as well. Temperatures staying above

freezing. Lowest in Powys and Gwynedd with a risk of icy patches

on high level roads. Here's the picture for 8.00am in the morning.

Better than today. A few showers in the north. And windy, especially in

the northwest. Strong winds on the west coast. One or two showers in

the south and Powys but some places dry. Sunshine in Swansea. During the

day, the weather will improve. A few showers in the far north and west.

One or two in Monmouthshire. Otherwise most places dry. The best

of the sunshine in the west and southwest. The wind easing during

the afternoon. On Snowdon tomorrow, a few wintry showers. Becoming dry.

Bitterly cold with gales easing. Tomorrow night will be dry for most

of us. Just a few showers in the far north. On Anglesey and in Gwynedd.

Maybe a shower in north Pembrokeshire. The wind lighter so

colder with patchy frost. Friday will be generally dry. Sunny spells.

Chilly with a light breeze. The chart for Friday shows high pressure

over Ireland and that's not going to move very far over the weekend. So

the outlook is mainly dry with light winds. Some sunshine and overnight

frost with a few freezing fog patches possible. Next week, more

dry and settled weather. No sign yet of any widespread, heavy snow and

that goes for the start of December. Our picture is by Julie Cuffin.

Our top story. A Greenpeace activist arrested two months ago has been

granted bail. Anthony Perrett was held along with 27 other activists

and to journalists after a protest at an oil rig in the Arctic Ocean.

His partner said the focus now has to be on getting him home. It has

been a mixture. It was very busy, the phones and e-mails, text

messages have been very constant since after the news and it has been

overwhelming to see and hear the amount of support that is there. I

have been confident. I hope that the situation will get resolved but

there is going to need to be continued support and pressure until

Anthony is back home. And that is Wales Today. We'll have

a quick update at 8.00pm. More news at 10.25pm. For now though, from all

of us here, have a good evening.