25/07/2014 BBC Wales Today

Welcome to Wales Today - live from the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Wales athletics captain and reigning European Champion Rhys

Williams is suspended from the Games after failing a drugs test.

Team Wales in need of a boost - and it's come.

More medals today in the shooting and velodrome.

Are children with additional learning needs about to be worse

A poultry processing plant on Angelsey is under investigation

following allegations of hygiene failings.

And would setting a minimum price for alcohol in Wales

Welcome to Wales Today - live from the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow,

where it's been a day of drama - but for all the wrong reasons.

Team Wales has been rocked by news of another drugs suspension.

Reigning European Champion Rhys Williams has been withdrawn from the

The 400 metres hurdler, son of Rugby Legend JJ Williams, is

the second Welsh athlete to miss the Games over alleged drug violations.

He issued a statement saying he is utterly devastated.

Rhys Williams is having a really difficult season. Welsh hurdler Rhys

Williams did not know when he raced at Hampden Park at a Grand Prix in

Glasgow earlier this month that his season is about to get worse. A

you're in sample he submitted after the race was found to contain a band

substance. He has been suspended from all competitions including the

Commonwealth Games for an anti-dumping violation. In a

statement, he says he is devastated, as he had never knowingly taken any

banned substance and he had always been an advocate of clean sport. He

recognised the responsibility for the situation lies with him. His

former team-mates like Christian Malcolm don't think he is the sort

of person to cheat deliberately. Shocked, as shocked as everyone

else. Rhys is a good kid, someone who I know would not knowingly take

drugs. It is unfortunate this situation has happened and hopefully

we can get to the bottom of it. In recent years, Welsh and British

athletics have developed are no excuse culture when it comes to what

athletes put in their own bodies. They are given information about

what they can and can't take. The advice is strict. Only other

drinking from sealed water bottles, and avoiding over-the-counter

medicines unless they have been tested in one of the official

laboratories. A lot of athletes take supplements and sometimes

supplements may be tainted. Athletes are 100% responsible, whether it is

a contaminated supplement, you are 100% responsible. He understands

that. They will have to suffer the consequences. The sports supplements

will be checked as part of the legal process. One of the product he took

is manufactured by a company called Mountain Fuel. They are based in

Wales. Company bosses are cooperating and carrying out their

own tests, as he tries to discover how he gave a positive anti-doping

test. Sources close to the company say they are confident they will be

cleared of blame. Their website states that products contain no

active ingredients on the list of banned substances. Rhys Williams is

the second senior Welsh athlete to fail a drugs test in the run-up to

the games. Gareth Wharton was also suspended last week. Welsh athletics

say there will be an internal investigation. We will make sure we

are speaking to everyone involved in performance athletics in Wales,

understanding the risks out there and working with Sport Wales and

Team Wales to make sure if anything needs to be done, tightening up the

education, lessons to be learned, then they will be learned. It is the

news that Team Wales least wanted. Today, their management hoped to be

talking about medals. As they spoke to the media. Instead, they were

interviewed about the third athlete to pull out of the team in

controversial circumstances in ten days. It is a tough day but we have

a big team, the biggest team ever. Our job is to support that team.

They have to focus on their competition. We want to help them

perform to their best. Last summer, Williams was celebrating being

crowned European champion. Tonight, it is not clear if or when he will

be back on the track. Earlier, Ashley spoke to Baroness Tanni

Grey-Thompson, who led a review into the anti-dumping policy in 2008. She

knows Rhys Williams. This was her reaction. Shock. I haven't been in

sport for a long time where there is an adverse finding and there is not

a lot of surprise, but with Rhys I never imagined that he would go

through something like this. If an athlete hasn't deliberately cheated,

how can this failed test happen? The athlete education programme is

strong, telling you what your responsibilities. You are

responsible for every single thing in your body. There are websites,

people to call, officers who you can check every single product you take.

The advice these days is be very careful, don't take any products you

don't absolutely need, even down to vitamins and minerals. There is no

excuse. If in doubt, don't take it. Are you satisfied the education and

support programme that is there for Welsh athletes is good enough? Welch

athletics have said they will run an internal Lenten -- and in turn

linked to best edition into their education and that is important.

British athletics did something similar when Dwain Chambers came

back into the sport. It was confusing. It is important to figure

out what the athletes understood their obligations were. It is a huge

blow for Team Wales. It is a blow for athletics. I am grateful that

Rhys did not come into the village, because to remove him from the

village and for the rest of the team, that is really hard to deal

with. And it's been an afternoon

of medals for Team wales. It was a dramatic night

for our rhythmic gymnasts - they won Live to the Hydro -

Catrin Heledd is there. There has been an individual

all-round silver for Frankie Jones and a bronze for Laura Halford. For

those of you who may not be familiar with the format of this

competition, it is 16 gymnasts with four different pieces of operators

competing over four hours. The champion was a Canadian. What a

result for the Welsh girls. You could tell exactly what it meant for

them. As they stood on the podium just behind me for the medals

ceremony less than an hour ago, Frankie Jones in floods of tears.

She said after tomorrow, that is that. She will finally retire. She

has been a fantastic ambassador for the sport and what a way to retire.

Let's hope we may be able to change her mind! Tomorrow, more medals

could be up for grabs? Yes, they said they wanted some cake this

evening. They are not having their cake this evening. 9am tomorrow,

they will be back here for the individual apparatus finals, the

hoop, the ball, the clubs and the ribbon. We could get more medals.

They have hit the target of three and we could have more medals in the

hoop and ball. Both could medal and in the clubs, Frankie could do well.

The gymnasts really making their mark on these Games.

No golds yet, but I'll bring you right up to date

with the medal counter a little later in the programme.

For now though, the rest of the days news - let's cross to

One in five children in Wales has additional learning needs.

And tonight there's a warning they'll be worse

off than their counterparts in England - if proposed legislation

One of the UK's leading education solicitors says new

Hayley Thomas has three children with a range of needs.

Autism, a heart condition and dyspraxia are all

Hayley had to fight for something called a statement

That is a document that outlines the child's needs

Schools by law have to provide this support outlined in the plan.

Around 12,000, 4% of children in Wales, have a statement.

Hayley says the process is important.

The statement is imperative to give them access to the curriculum.

I am pleased very difficult for parents going through the process.

Now there are proposals to change the system.

Currently support falls into three categories.

Statements, school action and school action plus.

The proposed changes would see all of these scrapped and replaced

It is these plans that some say could the same degree

of protection does not exist in Wales at the moment

There is not the same degree of protection available in Wales. This

White Paper is not doing anything to address that.

There is little understanding at the moment but we don't think to

have the legal status the statement has, which I find concerning.

An investigation into allegations of hygiene failings

at a poultry processing factory on Anglesey has been ordered

It follows claims by a newspaper that safety guidelines were breached

at the 2 Sisters Food Group plants in Llangefni and Scunthorpe.

No risk to public health has been found and the company has denied

What prompted this investigation? The day shift has ended here and

there is sensitivity about the fact this plant is in the spotlight. We

understand that the audit was due to take place today. 2 Sisters Food

Group produces poultry products for major supermarkets, but the article

in the Guardian yesterday said after a five-month -- investigation they

made allegations of hygiene problems this plant and a plant in

Scunthorpe, including carcasses coming into contact with workers'

boots and being placed on the production line. The company, in a

strongly worded statement, says the article is untrue, inaccurate and

misleading. They say any meat which touches the floor is regarded as

waste, not fit for human consumption. You have been speaking

to the Food Standards Agency. What have they said? They said they would

not do interviews at this stage, but they said they have recently carried

out an audit at this plant and did an investigation following the

allegations in the Guardian. They say they are satisfied the meet the

highest hygiene standards. Jeremy Hunt has asked for an extra

inspection to make doubly sure, looking at CCTV footage and if they

find anything, issuing a warning or maybe a prosecution. What have the

supermarkets had to say? Tesco, Sainsbury and Marks Spencer all

get their supplies of chicken from here and say they are carrying out

their own investigations and should find out shortly what the results of

the Food Standards Agency investigation is. Everyone hopes a

clean bill of health is given because this is a big employer.

The jury in the Alfie Selet murder trial has been sent home for the

night after its fifth full day of deliberations. The baby died in

Caerphilly last October. His mother's boyfriend Michael Pearce

denies murder and an alternative is charge of manslaughter.

Glyndwr University says it has sent it's response to the Home Office

following the suspension of the licence which enables it to recruit

students from overseas. It lost its trusted

Home Office investigation into visa fraud. The UK Visas and Immigration

Department now has 20 days to respond.

The drinks industry sometimes exploits vulnerable people

That's according to the Health Minister Mark Drakeford.

His comments come as a group of academics support his plans to

bring in a minimum price of 50 pence per unit - but will it work?

Getting around, put for Ray Preston from Cwmbran it is just soft drinks

-- getting a round in. I have spoken to him before about how his family

helped him give up heavy drinking, which nearly killed him. It was easy

to pick up a glass of whiskey, have a drink, and daughter out of the

kitchen and get another one. -- and walk out of the kitchen. I can't go

back. A group of academics has told the Welsh Government that to stop

people from hitting rock bottom, alcohol should not be sold for less

than 50p per unit. That is about ?1 50 per point. It would not make much

difference to many brands of cider, apart from ones with high alcohol

content. 50p for every unit of alcohol would make no difference to

these bottles of wine prices. Some of the drinks industry say there are

other ways of reducing the harm that alcohol can cause. But the health

minister says he has public opinion on his side with minimum pricing.

They see an industry which is sometimes exploitative of vulnerable

people, which prices its products at a level which does them harm.

Members of the public regard this as a sensible, modest contribution,

just one strand in a wider picture. What does raise make of the plans?

50p is the right unit price to be consulting on and we have no

proposals to go beyond that. A lot of what he said makes sense. I don't

think minimum pricing is the complete answer. They should stop

the supermarkets, nightclubs and other licensed premises from making

the offers, all you can drink, 241. The idea of a 50p minimum unit would

not have made any difference to you? No, I would have kept drinking.

Plans for minimum pricing have been referred to the European court of

justice, to decide if it is it EU rules.

People with genuine disabilities are being refused blue badges

for parking, following a crackdown to prevent abuse of the system.

That's according to Liberal Democrat Assembly Member, Peter Black,

who says he's helped several people win appeals against councils.

Councils took over eligibility tests from GPs two years ago.

The Welsh Government said tighter regulations ensured consistency,

The hot weather has seen the Coastguard deal with more than

2,500 incidents in the past month - ranging from struggling swimmers to

The Agency is asking people to take safety precautions, including using

beaches with lifeguards, checking tide times and always using

Technology pioneered in Pembrokeshire is being used to track

A company based in Solva has developed new mobile

phone technology to record the birds' position.

The app is free and can be used in remote areas without wi-fi.

It's inventor told our reporter Abigail Neal how

mapping these sightings could help protect the birds.

Vultures. We love to hate them, vultures may suffer in the public

relations stakes but the truth is they need admirers now more than

ever. Under threat, they are disappearing. They have been

poisoning these vultures. 98% of vultures in West Africa have

disappeared, mainly from poachers putting out poison to kill them

deliberately. So they don't lead the game scouts to the Kills, where they

have killed rhinos and elephants. From his office in Solva, Doctor

Davies-macro has set up a project to try and map the state of all African

birds of prey, or raptors. -- Dr Davidson. His company has created a

free raptor For bird-lovers in Africa to use. You point the phone

at the Bird and it calculates its position accurately will stop it

gets recorded. You specify a distance, and approximate distance.

It takes away all the headache of managing geographic information.

That information is fed back here to West Wales. So far, they have been

sent 60,000 recordings. You can see how that changes over time. It is

going to be a longer term project than we envisaged. That is where the

real value will come in terms of saying what is happening to the

populations from the bird of prey point of view, but also saying what

is happening to the habitat and environment from our point of view,

because the raptors can indicate the health of an entire ecosystem. The

challenge is how to make the app so popular that technology developed

here in Wales can make a difference to the survival of species thousands

of miles away. At one point this afternoon

the medals were coming in thick and fast for Team Wales -

it was hard to keep up! Let me bring you an update

on how some It was silver this afternoon for

Elena Allen in the skeet shooting. She was beaten to gold by

Australian Laura Coles. It's Wales' 22nd shooting medal

in Commonwealth Games history. Para-cyclist Matt Ellis and his

pilot Ieuan Williams won bronze in In the Velodrome earlier the Welsh

pair broke the Games record and were in gold medal position,

but stronger rides from Australia and then eventual winners Scotland

meant they has to settle for third. Disappointment in the last hour of

the Cardiff cyclist Owain Doull. He had a chance of claiming bronze in

the four kilometre individual pursuit, but was beaten by a New

Zealand competitor. The Welshman finished fourth.

Over in the pool tonight, Calum Jarvis goes into the final

of the 200 metre freestyle full of confidence after he broke the

Also in finals are Jemma Lowe in the 100 metre butterfly and the men's

There are times when you just know a competitor is really enjoying

themselves and that was certainly the case for weightlifter

Just look how pleased he was with his performance.

He lifted 150 kilograms with his first attempt in the clean and

The painter and decorator from Holyhead topped

the B group and although it'll take something special to snatch a medal,

his family who've travelled up from North Wales will be there

We knew he was going to lift well. He was really up for it this

morning. We spoke before he went into lift. He was really confident.

He felt really good. We were keeping our fingers crossed. It is pride in

how he lifts, pride in his country, it bursts out of him. He has to show

it off. Bare this time yesterday -

but as we approach the end of day Three silvers coming

from the gymnastics And two bronze -

Laura Halford at the gymnastics Now a busy day tomorrow,

the Rugby sevens starts. Wales play three matches tomorrow

at the home of Rangers Football club and veteran weightlifter

Michaela Breeze is in action That's all from us -

on day two at the Games. A day that showed the two sides

of sport - glory and more success for our gymnasts - but also

the darker side - Rhys Williams, athletics captain failing a drugs

test, dominating the headlines. The weekend is upon us -

and there's a change It's hotter

in Wales than the Algarve. 29 Celsius in Porthmadog

again today. But temperatures are going to drop

over the weekend with a change Still

in the low to mid-20s tomorrow. But on Sunday it will

feel cooler and fresher. A relief to those of you who

don't like the heat and humidity. This evening,

generally fine and dry. Cumulus clouds will disappear and

another warm night for most of us. Tomorrow's chart shows a small area

of low pressure near Scotland. A cold front over Ireland

and that's heading our way. The sunshine hazy with patches

of high cloud. Feeling warm with hardly a breath

of wind. During the day,

cloud will increase spreading from I wouldn't rule out

an isolated shower, otherwise dry. Temperatures not as high as today,

especially on the west coast. So warm or very warm with

a light breeze. Pontardawe Rugby Club are holding

a proms night tomorrow evening Elsewhere, the odd shower -

otherwise a dry night. A few showers are likely,

especially in the north If you're hitting

the beach this weekend, Saturday the warmest day although not as sunny

as today with increasing cloud. The sea temperature

a refreshing 19 Celsius. Next week,

showers on Monday will clear. Tuesday and Wednesday mostly dry

and still on the warm side. Our picture this evening is

from Maddy Ottaway. The hot and humid weather is

on its last legs. The headlines. The reigning European

champion Rhys Williams is out of the Commonwealth Games after failing a

drugs test. The 400 metre hurdler, son of JJ Williams, is the second

Welsh athlete to miss the games over alleged drugs violations. He says he

is utterly devastated. I will have an update after the BBC News at Ten

PM. That is Wales Today. Thank you for watching. We will leave you with

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