12/11/2015 BBC Wales Today

The plan to boost the economy across south east Wales Welsh ministers

pledge over half a billion pounds and ask the Treasury to do the same.

But does it make economic sense to focus growth around the capital?

It was Britain's worst oil refinery disaster for decades, killing four

workers - the CPS say they won't bring any criminal charges

Carolyn Davies is paying for her own breast cancer treatment.

Are patients here getting a raw deal when it comes to getting

The Rally Championships in Wales, and the latest weather, high tides

and the risk of flooding. A massive shake-up of tax offices

has been announced in Wales, which Offices in Swansea,

Wrexham and Porthmadog are to close with a new regional office to be

based in Cardiff. But the HMRC says the overall

result could be more jobs here. The news comes as Welsh ministers

ask the UK Treasury to agree a deal to spend half

a billion pounds of public money More on that in a moment, but first,

on the tax office jobs, There has been a mixed reaction to

did a's message from the taxman. A re-organisation

which will bring efficiencies to A devastating cut which will

hit staff and communities. But whichever way you look

at it now, tax workers face It will all be worthwhile,

says the HMRC. The net increase is up to 3800, I

really big increase in the number of jobs in Wales. There will be a

complete range of jobs, from tax professionals to compliance

officers, and the thinking is, if we can build a good regional centre,

when we build it, people will have that career progression, be able to

work up the ranks and stay within the major centres.

Nothing will happen overnight, but the phased changes over the next

four to six years continue a trend which started almost a decade ago.

Since then a network of High Street Tax offices has steadily contracted.

Now we are left with Merthyr, where the closure had

Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham and Porthmadog.

By 2021 all the work will be done at new regional hubs in Cardiff

The HMRC says staff will be able to relocate.

From here in Wrexham that would mean a commute to Liverpool.

I've approached tax workers here today to see what they think.

They all said they'd been told not to speak to me.

But it was clear they are not very happy.

Workers in Porthmadog would have to move to Cardiff if they want

to continue their work dealing with Welsh language returns.

And critics from opposition parties and the

unions point out that even if the total number of tax jobs in Wales

stays the same or even goes up, those jobs will be concentrated in

the capital weakening the economies of other parts of the country.

Losing 350 jobs is not just about the workers there, it is about the

public service those people give, the local shops and communities

where they spend money and so on, and in some communities we have

found that the closing of an office has led to the closing of local

shops. We know that women are much more likely to be employed in the

public sector than men, more men are employed in the private sector, so

many of these people losing their jobs will be female, many will have

a long time with the tax office, people tend to have long tenure in

public sector jobs, so it is not easy making the adjustment to

private sector jobs. It is if you listen to the bosses at

HMRC. And today's announcement will have been cleared by ministers

at Westminster. But don't expect the critics

to go down without a fight. The news that those hundreds

of jobs will be centralised in Cardiff comes on the same day

as plans for a so-called Cardiff The Welsh Government says it's

earmarked nearly ?600 million to get the scheme going, but now needs

the UK Treasury to do the same. Despite the focus on Cardiff, ten

councils are also involved, from Monmouthshire in the East, all the

way to through the capital and the Valleys, to the Vale of Glamorgan

and Bridgend in the West, have also It feels like a long way from the

city, but it is one of the areas in their heads of the valleys looking

to join up with the capital to invest in the future. It is talking

about a city deal here, and if you think about it, it is a risk for a

local authority leader in an area like this that at the time of tight

public finances they are prepared to put their lot in with their

neighbours, possibly at the expense of carrying out pet projects

themselves. I asked the leader of the local council whether the fear

of losing out was a problem in putting the bid together. There is a

shared understanding of how it would work. Every local authority leader

is elected by his own people and therefore we need to make sure there

is fair representation, Sony to make sure there is a fair spread of

projects. So what could they get out of it? Council says, for a start,

new roads to open up housing developments, and new park-and-ride

schemes. But the city deal will mean different things to different

areas. From the country to the city, the boss of this company which

develops computer games in the centre of Cardiff would like to see

better rail and bus services but would form part of the new Metro

system that is widely expected to be included in the project. A number of

my team commute from the valleys, and it is not straightforward, and

it is time consuming and a little bit painful. I think if that could

be improved it would make a big difference. People not having to

leave at 6:30am to get 30 milestone the road in time to start work.

Although called authorities in south-east Wales have contributed

?120 million over a 10-year period. The Welsh government has pledged 580

million, and the UK Treasury has been asked to stump up the same,

starting with the Chancellor's spending review later in the month.

There is no reason why it should not be approved. Local authorities have

shown their commitment, it is now up to the Treasury to fulfil its side

of the bargain. If it happens, politicians like the First Minister

will have the job of making sure people in places like banger don't

feel left out. Kind of left out, and they? They're not getting a fair

deal. Everything gets to London, everything Wales, nothing at at this

end. Banger is a city as well, but there is nothing going on, there is

nothing to make it be spoken about. It is over to the Treasury to see

whether it will support the plan for valleys like this one. That is

unlikely to happen before the spending review, but it spending

the' -- something that is desperately needed in this part of

Wales. Are expensive ambitious plan, but

plenty of challenges? There are three main challenges. First of all

they have to persuade the UK Treasury that it will actually

deliver a more prosperous Wales, in more prosperous south-east Wales,

and they have to reach a target on that, be able to prove that there

are more jobs and more prosperity, and for people interested in

technicalities, it will be the value of the goods and services developed

here. Another hurdle is that people living in the areas need to feel it

is fair, and to be honest, all of Wales needs to feel it is fair, and

that is a challenge. To extend that will be some people that says, no,

it is the capital that must be strong. The other thing they have to

do is get the private sector on board. What stands out in terms of

this deal compared to others we have seen in England is that there is no

private sector involvement at this stage, not directly. Cannot around

the table as they are in many English places. They are the three

big challenges posed to go ahead and win the money. Two stories today

would see investment in Cardiff and the wider region. Doesn't make

economic sense to have so much growth around the capital? Yarmouk

for the last 20 years so academics and Department of economic 's and

geography have agreed that if you to help the prosperity of the nation,

the capital on the big cities is where you need that your effort. The

idea is that cities attract creative people who spend more and attract

more and so the cycle goes around. Other people would argue that is not

fair on the people that are not in the cities, and areas like the heads

of the valleys for instance get left behind.

The Crown Prosecution Service say they will not bring any criminal

charges following an explosion which killed four workers at an oil

The blast at the Chevron refinery - now Valero - also left another

It was Britain's worst oil refinery disaster for decades

a routine maintenance job at the former Chevron refinery in Pembroke

The force of the blast killed four workers - Robert Broome,

Denis Riley, Julie Jones, and Andrew Jenkins, and seriously

The sounds and the thick black smoke were captured on camera

In the years that have followed, Chevron sold the refinery to

Then memorials were put up to remember those lost.

It's taken almost four and a half years to learn that none

of the companies involved will face corporate manslaughter charges,

and the slow pace of the investigation has been frustrating.

They had dedicated police officers, high-paid officers, and it has been

for years, still no answers. The families don't understand it.

They're not able to have any closure until they can understand what

happens to their loved ones. Dyfed-Powys Police maintain

the inquiry was extremely complex, Chevron said today they remain

profoundly saddened by the loss of lives

and are deeply committed to safety. The lawyer representing

the sole survivor of the blast, Andrew Phillips,

says his client was left with severe He sustained serious injuries from

the physical and psychological perspective. His life will never be

the same again. He has not worked since the accident and is unlikely

to work again in the future. All aspects of day-to-day living have

been significantly affected. The investigation moves into the hand of

the health and safety in this executive who will look into whether

there are charges to be brought in relation to health and safety at

work legislation. I spoke to a family member of one of the victims

who told me that after such a long delay they are eagerly awaiting the

result to see how things proceed. A decision on reducing the cost

of care for elderly people has been shelved, with the Welsh government

blaming delays at Westminster. The previous UK Coalition Government

had pledged to cap the cost so no-one pays more than ?72,000

in England. But it's now delayed until

at least 2020. The Health Minister Mark Drakeford

is also considering a limit, and says the wait has left him

without the money for a cap here. There are claims it leaves

pensioners in limbo. Kicked into the long grass would be

the phrase we would use around this policy. For many years paying for

care reform has struggled to get priority amongst many governments of

different colours in England and Wales. Unfortunately, having looked

like we would achieve some significant degree of reform, that

looks very unlikely, and it looks like this policy will be delayed for

the foreseeable future. Do cancer patients in Wales get

a raw deal when it comes to access It's a question that's led to fierce

rows between the governments The Welsh Conservatives say if they

win the Assembly election next May they'd set up a ?20 million a year

cancer fund, which the party claims will stop the "exodus" of patients

moving to England for treatment. But critics claim the proposal is

unfair, as our Health Correspondent - as any mother would, she wants to

spend as much time as possible with her family. She has breast cancer,

so every minute matters even more. The drug her doctor says could

extend her life is not generally prescribed in Wales but is available

to some patients in England through the Cancer Drugs Fund. Carolyn

argues it is impossible for her to move to England as other patients

have because of her children. Instead she has to raise almost

?50,000. Yellow night we need a cancer drug fund in Wales, it is

like the second-class HS otherwise. If you have a type of cancer that is

not on the NHS, you realise that it needs to be brought into Wales.

Welsh Conservatives say it is an injustice. We need to stop this

exodus of people in Wales leaping over the border and give them the

drugs they need here, drugs that are effective and proved to work. Since

being established, the Cancer Drugs Fund has allowed patients to get

access to new medicines, but they are drugs that have not been

approved as being cost-effective for general use in the NHS. The bill for

the fund has soared up to ?416 million last year. In an effort to

get spending under control, just this year around 40 treatments, half

the total, were taken off the list. Researchers also found that the cash

could have been five times more effective had it been spent on other

NHS services. It is unclear, unethical, inefficient, and simply

does not deliver on the promise it started out with. -- it is unfair.

The future of the fund is uncertain, but the Welsh Conservatives argue

their fund would they not just for new drugs, but drugs like this one

which allowed patients to be treated closer to home. But what about

people with other conditions? This woman depends on the contents of

this coverage to survive. She has cystic fibrosis and is recovering

from a double lung transplant. Until recently drugs were only able to

control the symptoms of the disease, but now a new generation of

expensive medicines could help tackle the causes. There needs to be

a system that treats all patients in the same way. And all medicines in

the same way. I think there would be quite a lot of animosity with

patients, because it almost puts a hierarchy of patients and disease

types. In try to make sure more patients get the treatments they

need, she says there has been imprisoned, but any efforts to

improve things will not be right if some patients get left behind.

Stay with us, there's plenty still ahead.

The designer Julian MacDonald was in Newport to help open the city's

new shopping centre - but will it revive the fortunes of the city?

And the forests of mid Wales play host to the latest stage

A court case is looming over waste water getting into the sea

Dwr Cymru Welsh Water has already invested ?15 million to separate

rainwater from sewage in some parts of Llanelli.

But the UK Government has been referred to the European Court

of Justice over its failure to ensure that authorities deal with

On the streets, a ?15 million project to direct rainwater from

gutters and rode away from the drain. Another ?50 million promised

by Welsh water as the company attempts to reduce the amount of

waste water from the mixed Victorian sewers under the town. During heavy

rains is discharged into the inlet. It is also the surrounding areas.

All the rainwater runs down, and that adds to the problem because the

road water mixes with the sewage water. Waste water permitting the

sea around Britain has grabbed the attention of European Union

officials, but Dwr Cymru said the only discharge from pumps like this

what they are legally entitled to. The UK Government has been accused

of failing to deal with auburn waste water adequately and 70 locations.

There are discharges from 14 overflow pipes nearby. They are

there to protect public health. We don't want to see sewage and

rainwater back up into people's homes and cars flooding, so they are

there for a good reason. Our job is to try to reduce the number of times

they are operating. Part of the multi-million pound investment this

year includes solar panels and treatment works. Treating sewage

uses a lot of energy, and using green energy reduces running costs

and allows the Company to export gas to the great. Work as a new pipe is

ladies to avoid filling the sewers with rainwater. Dwr Cymru has over

800 sewage treatment works in Wales, but with more houses and developers,

the greater the pressure on the old system, and the root of the problem

they will be poorer regulating. Natural resources Wales is

statutory, they have signed a memorandum of understanding with the

county council, but it does worry me that they do not seem to point out

often enough what the problems might be. Natural Resources Wales city

have prosecuted Welsh water ten times, mostly after incidents in

rivers in North Wales. The case against the United Kingdom

government for failing to treat waste water adequately in 70

locations in Britain, including here between the dour and Llanelli is

about to start. If found guilty, financial penalties could follow.

It's predicted to create more than 1,000 jobs and add more than ?100

Friars Walk, Newport's new shopping centre, opened today.

It's hoped the multi-million pound development

will help revive the fortunes of Wales' third largest city.

And with that, it is open. Newport's brand-new shopping centre,

aimed at breathing life into the heart of the city. Willets? We know

that Friars Walk will make Newport all run place to shop, eat and have

fun. One report suggests it will add ?120 million a year to the local

economy, creating 1200 jobs, and increasing the number of people in

Newport's catchment area beyond the number found in Swansea's. But it

has been a long time coming. Long before this, there was Friars Walk

mark one which was scrapped in 2009, a victim of the credit crunch. This

is the cheaper but no less ambitious version, attracting high Street

names back to a city centre they had deserted. It is about time we have

something to save us travelling to Cardiff. How often will you come

down? About two or three times a week. But there was anger in the

council tore down a mural representing Newport's most famous

moment. The council is also old ?90 million by the developer. The

authority says it is confident it will get it back. Some will see this

impairs the shopping centre, but others will see it for what it may

represent, change. Part of an evolving city with one eye on nearby

rivals. That is a view shared by a Welshman who has made his name in

global fashion. I think it will bring a lot of people to the town.

Ya fabulous shopping, great cafes, great restaurants, and I think it is

what Newport has been waiting for for a long time. Some independent

traders are giving it a tentative welcome, fuelling shoppers may

deserve them. Friars Walk has boosted Newport's morale, the

question is whether that will be matched by the money it hopes to

attract. Football and Wales manager

Chris Coleman insists international matches should not be viewed

as an opportunity to rest players. Coleman and Arsenal boss Arsene

Wenger had a public argument last week about an injury to midfielder

Aaron Ramsey, which has ruled him Wales host the Netherlands

in a friendly tomorrow, and Coleman says all international

fixtures are important. We are not a vehicle for clubs to

think players can come to us and have a rest, because we will have

30,000 Welsh people on Friday night and they will not expect our boys to

dig it easy and have a rest, they have come to see us to perform for

Wales, that is the endgame, it is as simple as that.

If you're near any of the forests of Mid and North Wales over

the next few days you'll almost certainly encounter the

Wales Rally GB - the last stage of the World Rally Championship.

70 teams from around the world are back to compete

over 193 miles across Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Powys.

The event is about to be launched in Llandudno and Matthew Richards

Welcome to the wild and blustery thunder now, the drivers are soon to

get behind the wheel. With me is the director of Wales Rally GB. How are

you marking the anniversary of Colin's title? Yell back 20 years

ago Colin won the rally as it was then in Chester, and Kandel

generation of people into fans. Has father is in a national rally and

David Higgins is in a special Subaru with iconic 555 livery, and it looks

evocative and amazing. It will be a great party to remember Colin who

was a hero to us all. Local interest, element in particular has

had a great season. It would be amazing if he could finish the

season on the top step of the podium at his home event. Lets hope the

weather is not too much of a challenge and the event continues

until Sunday. There is more wet

and windy weather on the way. We're keep a close eye on

Storm Abigail tonight. Amber warnings are in force with

gusts between 70 and 90mph. Here in Wales, not so bad but

the wind has been increasing today. The highest gust recorded so far

70mph near Capel Curig. This evening a short spell of heavy

rain and squally winds will clear. Followed by clearer, drier weather

and a few showers overnight. Some heavy showers later

in the night with hail and thunder. Here's the picture for 8

in the morning. Snow on the mountain tops

in the north and turning colder. Some dry, bright weather

and sunshine as well. feeling much colder than recently

with a fresh to strong wind. Heavy in places with hail

and thunder and little snow But some dry, brighter spells

and sunshine at times. Heavy in places but

the showers will ease overnight. The chart for Saturday shows

low pressure over the Atlantic. Some heavy rainfall expected, and

some flooding is likely. There is also a risk of some coastal flooding

with strong onshore winds combining with high tides. Some rough weather

over the next few days. If you are weather watcher would love to hear

from you. Let us know what the weather is doing you are and send us

your photos. We'll have an update for you at 8pm

and a full round-up after the BBC