10/03/2016 BBC Wales Today

The Welsh Government takes legal action -

after a damning report into the biggest sale of public land

And Assia Newton was stalked before she was killed - now police

are to be trained to spot the dangers.

The Welsh Government has confirmed tonight it's taking legal action

against its former property advisors - after a damning report

into the BIGGEST sale of public land in Wales in recent years.

It says it's also referred Lambert Smith Hampton

to its Professional Body - over its conduct in the case.

The latest development follows a report by Assembly Members

in January which said the taxpayers had lost tens of millions of pounds.

Our Political Editor Nick Servini has the latest.

Exactly four years after the sale of 15 publicly-owned sites

In January a report by the Public Accounts Committee

described the sale for ?21 million as cavalier and scandalous.

The sites were sold without an open tender by the regeneration

investment fund for Wales, a body owned by the Welsh

government to a company based in currency called South Wales Land

Developments, owned by one of the richest men in Wales,

These included a site in the Vale of Glamorgan which was bought

from the taxpayer for less than ?3 million.

It has since been sold on for housing by South Wales Land

Another was bought for ?100,000 for 1.9 million.

And the so-called jewel in the crown in Lisvane on the edge

of Cardiff was bought off the taxpayer for ?1.8 million.

The report says it now has a potential open market

A third of that will be paid back to the public purse

in what is called a claw-back arrangement.

The findings prompted the First Minister to

publicly apologise to assembly members.

The way that it was managed fell well below the standards we expect

as a government and for that we are sorry.

This has been a long-running saga which included an investigation

by the Serious Fraud Office but came to

nothing, internal enquiries and do report by the public spending

watchdog, the Wales Audit Office, which identified a conflict

of interest as one Lambert Smith Hampton employee had represented

both the seller and the buyer at the same time.

The Public Accounts Committee had recommended

the Welsh government carefully consider action against Lambert

Smith Hampton and a referral to its professional body the Royal

Both recommendations have been taken up by ministers.

And so we have another major development in

For years, those who sold this land insisted it was a good deal and then

we had a series of damning reports and a public

Now the prospect of those involved slugging

As the government tries to reclaim lost

There has been no comment from Lambert Smith

Hampton in response to today's developments.

A man from Caernarfon has been found guilty of attempted murder

after attacking his wife as she walked their children to school.

Mold Crown Court heard Sylvan Parry, who's 46, punched his wife

Fiona Parry to the ground and repeatedly kicked her.

The planned M4 relief road could cost over a billion pounds.

That's despite the First Minister, Carwyn Jones, saying last year

that the cost would be much lower than that.

New figures show the preferred route, South of Newport,

would cost ?857 million to build - but factors such as buying land

A new report has recommended that the body which distributes

public money to Universities should be SCRAPPED -

and replaced with a new organisation.

A Welsh Government-commissioned review says a new 'Tertiary

Education Authority' should REPLACE the Higher Education Funding Council

The Education Minister says a decision will be made

A national campaign has been launched to highlight the danger

posed by people who stalk their EX-partners.

The charity behind it - says the vast majority of women

murdered by ex-partners will have been stalked beforehand.

nearly 250 people reported suspected stalkers to police here.

Jordan Davies has been to speak to a victim's sister.

this is a sister, as you can seek to here was shaved off. She told us she

had done it for a charity but we found in court that he had done it.

Assia Newton was attacked regularly - by her husband

After decades of abuse - she separated from Kelvin Newton.

But he continued to turn up at her home unannounced.

A few days before she was due to go on holiday.

He turned up and strangled her with a dog lead.

Now - her sister - Nadia Salaman believes Assia

might still be alive - if Kelvin Newton's behaviour

I would have thought stalking was a stranger outside your house, he was

letting himself in the house, but he was unwarranted, she did not want

him there, he was stalking. Perhaps if he had been arrested, it would

have given my sister some breathing space, who knows what would have

happened. New stalking laws were

introduced in 2012 - campaign want more people to use

them before it's too late. The charity says that over a recent

two and a half year period - nearly 250 people reported suspected

stalkers to Welsh police - The charity says many victims

won't contact police until there have been

over 100 incidents. A lot of the research has been

published around stalking... Jane Monckton-Smith has written

several books on The issue. And says the relationship

between stalking and violence And that dangerous behaviour -

can often be missed. The most dangerous form of stalking

is that perpetrated by an ex-partner. Much more dangerous than

stranger stalking. The research has come out of America showing that up

to 90% of cases had stalking prior to the homicide.

Nadia - who lives near Porthcawl - now realises there were warning

She now wants people to report stalking sooner in the hope it'll

Anglesey and Pembrokeshire County Councils have decided to charge

owners of Second Homes - and long-term empty properties -

Anglesey voted for a 25 percent extra charge,

Meanwhile, Flintshire and Powys councils have already voted

But critics say the hike could hit the tourism industry.

We've got a huge issue with the service provisions we have

to give to second homes and they contribute so little

to funding those services but the priority must be to provide

homes for our young people in particular in the county.

First to rugby - and England's Manu Tuilagi

is on the bench for the first time in nearly 2 years as Wales take

on England in Twickenham this Saturday.

Meanwhile, Wales forwards coach, Robin McBryde, says England has more

of an edge - compared to when Wales beat them in last year's World Cup.

They have got the bit between their teeth and created

quite a bit of momentum in the first Six Nations.

So they are sitting pretty and are not too far away

from where they want to be I don't think.

Football - Swansea City coach Francesco Guidolin

insists his future remains at the club -

despite an illness which means he'll miss a third game

The 60 year old Italian has spent 5 nights in a London hospital

And boxer Lee Selby returns to London to defend his IBF

World Featherweight title next month.

He'll be taking on the American, Eric Hunter, at the O2 Arena.

29 year old Selby from Barry, first captured the World Title last

People living in a village in Ceredigion say it's been split

in half, after a historic bridge partially collapsed.

The bridge in Llanfair Clydogau near Lampeter connects the village,

but it was closed after part of it gave way at the weekend.

It's stood in this village for over a century and half.

But at the weekend the bridge in Llanfair Clydogau partially

Now too unsafe to use it's closed and split the village in two.

With half the village unable to get to the local shop unless the take

a long detour it's quieter than normal.

It has caused havoc in the village because their village that like the

shoppers on one side and people live on the other side. It is three miles

that way so it is seven miles round trip just to come to the shop.

So with shop and post office on one side and the bus stop and village

hall on the other I took the detour to see how long it'd take.

It has taken me just over 25 minutes. I had to go into the

village and in and out of two counties, no back into Ceredigion

council is to it has taken me just under 25 minutes which would

normally take two minutes. makes the drive to the shop daily

to pick up his morning paper There was a plan in 2014 for a plan

to fix the bridge. They did some blood and early work and then went

to eat claiming there wasn't any money and there we have the bridge

collapsed. -- went away. Engineers have carried out

an inspection and the bridge But it's a listed structure

so they are liaising with CADW and at the moment cannot say

when it will reopen. So with the village split in two it

looks like a frustrating wait Let's get the weather forecast

next - here's Derek. Thank you. We enjoyed a taste of

spring today. Look at that sky in Tenby, cleared and blue. Swansea one

of the warmest places in the UK. There is plenty more dry weather to

come over the next few days, thanks to high pressure. A dry story

tonight, a few clouds and clear sky, turning cold with the widespread

frost. Temperature could fall as low as minus three or minus four

degrees. A cold and chilly start tomorrow morning, dry with plenty of

sunshine. Close it in Monmouth and Newport, also cloud over Fishguard.

Across the rest of the UK, a chilly start in England with four patches

listing. A touch of frost, most places dry with sunshine. A

different story for Northern Ireland and West Scotland, Renee in Belfast

and Glasgow. Breezy as well with a high of eight Celsius in Newcastle.

More cloud tomorrow in the afternoon but many places dry, still bright in

places. Giving players and in the sunshine, at 211 Celsius on the

north coast. Tomorrow night, drive for many of us. Perhaps a few spots

of rain to the north-west. Not as cold as tonight. Temperatures

remaining above freezing. Plenty of cloud on Saturday, perhaps a few

spots of rain in the north-west. It should brighten up in the south with

sunshine. It looks drive for rugby in Twickenham on Saturday afternoon.

Hardly a breath of wind. High pressure for Sunday. That means more

dry weather and that goes for next week. We had an thread I spelt

change. Some sunshine, a chilly easterly breeze and cold enough

overnight frost. There's plenty more on all our

stories on our website. But for now that's Wales Today -

thanks for watching - from all of us on the programme,

nos da, goodnight.