06/03/2017 BBC Wales Today

Slumped in the street in broad daylight, the pictures that claim

to highlight the drugs problem in one of our largest towns.

They are carrying syringes, some of them have blades. It's the concern

of safety more than anything else. Daryl Jones' son was killed by a man

who'd just left prison. Tonight the demands for an urgent

review of the probation system. Ashley Talbot, hit by minibus

on his way home from school. His parents call for all traffic

in school grounds to stop whilst Heathrow's expansion,

and its huge potential for Welsh Ahead of Friday's match

against Ireland, Wales wing George North is warned

about his form. The scale of the drug problem facing

Wrexham has been a cause Tonight it's become the focus

of talks involving Welsh government ministers and the north Wales police

commissioner, after a series of images were widely shared

on social media showing drug paraphenalia and people

collapsed in and around Our reporter Roger Pinney has spent

the day in the area. You may find some of the images

in his report upsetting. He appears barely awake. Here a plan

holder is used as a bed. It is suggested these people are highly on

drugs. Other images showed drugs paraphernalia, needles and filo

littering the bus station floor. These have been shed on social media

more than 3000 times. It's not just me, it's my

colleagues, drivers from different companies and passengers who use the

station. Gavin is a bus station driver who

put the pictures on the public domain. -- we've had an increase in

police presence which has been great for the bus station, but at the same

time the security guards we have here, they do a good job. But these

people know when to come in and go out.

They are good at being avoided. You've got someone taking an

interest in what you're seeing? He's won. He's one of the users.

Apparently the main problem at the moment our so-called legal highs.

Last week we were told that a strong batch came on the market and was

fast acting, seeming to lock users out particularly quickly. Around the

station these drug users are referred to as the zombies, I found

this on my mobile phone today. When I spoke to him he said he'd taken

something earlier on called mambo. He was trying to sit down and pull

himself together. The reason I got involved was to look after his

welfare. This inspected is in charge of

policing the town centre. He says where there is anti-social behaviour

is officers will act. But it isn't bad straightforward.

We need a clear distinction between people who are homeless and in need,

and people who make a life choice that they want to take certain

substances and products. Clearly with the former my officers and

myself are duty bound to look after them. With the latter we need to

look at an alternative. The bus station is owned by Wrexham

Council. Security has been stepped up, a redesign of the building is

being looked at. Brothers Phil and Andy run a bus station copy shop.

Despite improvements they say customers are still concerned.

A lot of people feel unsafe. A lot of people feel harassed. We get a

lot of people mentioning that they walk through and are getting asked

for money constantly. Spare change.

But the situation is improving? We feel it's improved since we opened

last year. But the power of social media has

pushed the issue into the spotlight. Today it was raised in talks at the

Welsh government between ministers and the police and crime commission.

But according to substance misuse workers there are no easy solutions.

If you will people away from here where would they go? They'll find a

spot somewhere in town. They've been moved on and at many times they will

find someone else to go. So what's the answer? I'm not really sure, to

be honest with you. When you see photographs of people lying around

sleeping, many of those people are under the influence of legal highs.

That is one of the real problems and we need Parliament to change the

legislation to give us more power to tackle that issue. For now in

Wrexham this remains a highly visible problem. The Home Office

says the sale of drugs like those being used at the bus station has

now been banned. And further action is likely to follow.

At the moment they're kept private,but reviews of serious

crimes committed by prison leavers should be published,

That's the call from the probation service union, and politicians,

who say a fundamental overhaul of the system is needed.

It follows a number of murders committed by offenders on probation.

He's still grieving, it's been just over a year since

It's a pain he says he wouldn't wish on anyone.

Birthdays, Father's Day, nothing is the same.

A father of two from Newport who suffered with schizophrenia

and was living in this supported accommodation hostel

in the city when he was killed by a fellow resident.

Released from prison just days earlier.

And in them five days he slaughtered my son.

Rhys Barnes has since been jailed for life.

The 28-year-old had 17 previous convictions including full violence

Daryl and his family have been battling to see the full findings

of a review held by the probation service into the

If my son had been alive today I know that if it had happened

to one of us to he'd have been pestering everywhere

This isn't the first case which has raised questions.

Conor Marshall, David Alan Lewis, Cerys Yemm, all were murdered

But families face an uphill struggle to find out

whether statutory bodies did all they could to

Once the report has been written, in my view, it should be published.

It's important that the public, particularly the families

of the victims, know what went on and why it happened,

and know what steps, critically, are being taken to ensure it

The probation union says more openness around these types

But they are concerned that since part of the service

was privatised standards have been affected and the threat of further

The probation service has been in absolute turmoil.

There's been a lot of chaos across the service both

in the public sector and private sector.

We've seen job cuts, experienced skilled staff

We are seeing privateers coming in with what we deem as an safe

operating models to run the service, which is now much more profit driven

I think it's important the public have confidence

in the probation service, that we are doing our

job, which is mainly to protect the public.

Last month the Jones family finally received a written summary outlining

It questioned whether his killer's risks should have been reassessed.

And whether alternative accommodation should

The national probation service they see as further offences are rear.

But are always taken seriously, and lessons from this review have

For Daryl nothing will ease the pain of losing his son,

but he takes comfort from the hopes that greater openness may

A 15-year-old boy is believed to have fallen from cliffs

near Sully in the Vale of Glamorgan and died from his injuries.

Stanwell School, where Miller Coyle was a Year 10 pupil,

says it's with immense sorrow they learned of his death,

he will be greatly missed by pupils and staff.

The leader of the Green Party in Wales has resigned.

Alice Hooker Stroud says the lack of funding for smaller parties

in the UK meant she was unable to carry on in the voluntary role.

She'll be replaced by the deputy leader, Grenville Ham.

A sex offender from Pembrokeshire, who slashed his throat

in front of magistrates, has been given a 36 month

community order for taking a kitchen knife into court.

In January, Lucasz Pawlowski was due to be sentenced for kissing a shop

But he started slashing his neck with a knife he'd hidden

The parents of a teenage boy who was run over in the grounds of Maesteg

comprehensive are calling for a lockdown of all school grounds by

law at the start and end of the day. Ashley Talbot was hit by a minibus

as he was running for a bus home in 2014. His parents want the law

changed so vehicles remain stationary while children enter and

leave school premises. Caroline Evans reports.

15-year-old Ashley was heading home, running for the bus when he was

knocked down inside school grounds. His mother, who is battling cancer,

and his father, told me two years on emotions remain raw. I'm really

angry. It was shocking. Maybe because the children were inside a

locked compound. They felt a lot safer. And treated it as a car park

instead of a road with traffic. You know, all kids run. You know. They

run for the bus. Kids will be kids. The driver, PE

teacher Christopher Brooks will not face prosecution. Police say he had

less than one seconds to react. One bus driver told the inquest it was

an absolute and waiting to happen. Accident waiting to happen. The

family want the law changed so no vehicle is allowed to move one is

cool site whilst children across on the grounds.

We are hoping to take this to London. To get it passed, you know,

and hopefully have something more that makes the school environment

safer. To have lockdown is an all schools. Nationwide. Just to make

the children safer. If you take away the traffic you will at the danger.

If nothing is moving nobody can be knocked down or run over. It's

common to us, it's a very simple thing to do. The coroner has raised

concerns with the design of the school and demands to know from the

school and Bridgend council what actions are being taken to improve

safety on site. Its report is also being sent to the Welsh government

so that wider lessons can be learned. Because of the incident in

Dunblane you ended up with Key codes on doors. So nobody was allowed to

walk into a school anywhere. You know, we are hoping that, you know,

we want to raise the standard of safety in schools for children. To

improve it, really. So nobody has to go through what we went through.

Ashley would have been 18 next month. His mother says she is

determined to see change happen in his name. Caroline Evans reporting.

This was Britain's worst mining disaster.

Tonight the search for the missing millions donated to the relief fund.

And ahead of Friday's match against Ireland,

Wales wing George North is warned about his form

Bosses at Heathrow Airport were in Cardiff today meeting Welsh

government ministers. They signed an agreement aimed at identifying

business opportunities for Welsh companies during the construction of

the new runway at London airport. The expansion could provide

thousands of jobs for Wales over the coming decades. Here is our business

correspondent. He felt's plans are a major

investment at one of the world's busiest airports. -- Heath Row's

plans. But what can Wales get out of it? Wales will benefit from the

third runway at Heathrow according to a report. It estimated 8400 jobs

will be created over 33 years. It could be worth ?6.2 billion to the

Welsh economy. The chairman of Heathrow signed a partnership

agreement with the First Minister to try and identify opportunities for

watch businesses from the expansion. That includes the chance for

airlines to bid for a shade of a ?10 million fund to provide flights run

while she puts to Heathrow. It's not just about Cardiff, remember. What

we are interested in doing is about looking at the spray being put

between Reading and Heathrow to make it easier to get to Heathrow.

But we want to develop their keyboards further west. Looking at

Anglesey and possibly with the Bush to create that as well. Cardiff did

play its part today. The chairmen met with council leaders there to

tell them he was committed to making sure Welsh companies knew about the

opportunities available to them. There's no figures that for the

amount of business available for Welsh companies as part of

Heathrow's third runway development. The Scottish Government, meanwhile,

has agreed a deal with Heathrow that will see ?200 million spent in

Scotland and construction. I asked a Heathrow boss why there was no

similar deal for Wales. Historically, Scottish businesses

have commanded that amount of business, the 200 million you are

talking about just happens to be the amount of business we do there. What

we are now discussing with the watch businesses is the opportunity to get

to that scale. Some are welcoming Heathrow's engagement. The chairman

made an opening statement that the Welsh supply chain was a major

factor in the reason for his visit today.

That's why they are engaging at this early stage with the business Summit

on the 5th of July. Opposition parties say there is

nothing concrete in this deal between Heathrow and the Welsh

government. They say ministers have been pouring negotiations.

Heathrow offers huge potential on our doorstep, but we haven't always

got it right in the past? That's right, Jamie. We heard from

pro-steel engineering in that report. That is a company that did

get contracts with the Olympics and with another major project that is

going on in London at the moment, Crossrail. But that's unusual. It's

generally accepted that Wales and Welsh companies don't do

particularly well out of the Olympics, and Crossrail has been in

Wales number of times and held a series of events to try and

encourage businesses to come forward. Heathrow says it plans to

do the same. It is to this. But it also has to be said it's not just

about what Heathrow can offer Welsh businesses. Thank you.

The MP for Wrexham, Ian Lucas, has said the proposed sale

of Vauxhall to the French owners of Peugeot and Citroen makes him

"uneasy" and there's " a lot of doubt" in the automotive industry .

It's estimated around 300 people from North Wales work

at Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port plant in Cheshire.

UK business secretary, Greg Clark, says he is "cautiously optimistic"

about the future of Vauxhall following the deal.

A Plaid Cymru candidate is pulling out of May's local elections

because he says he "cannot bear the prospect" of being in the same

group as Neil McEvoy on Cardiff council.

Mr McEvoy, who is also a Plaid assembly member,

was suspended from the council for a month after a tribunal found

he made a comment to an official that amounted to bullying behaviour.

Essex Havard had been chosen to stand for the party

in the Llandaff North ward, but has now resigned.

A heritage charity in the south Wales Valleys is searching for money

which was raised to support bereaved families of Britain's

A fund was established after the 1913 Senghenydd disaster.

But records seem to show that just a fraction of it was spent.

Anything left over could now be worth millions,

On the 14th of October 1913 a massive underground explosion at

Senghenydd universal colliery killed 439 men and affected virtually every

family in the village. Four years ago on the centenary of the worst

mining disaster in Britain a statue was unveiled and the community

garden opened to remember those who died.

This is a memorial which depicts a minor and a rescuer. It is a

beautiful sculpture. Jack Humphreys was involved in the

fundraising to build the gardens, but now they need more money to

maintain them. At the moment we are relying on volunteers to come and

maintain the gardens. But we are all pensioners, the majority of us are

pensioners, and we can't wait for ever. There's going to come a time

when we have to employ people to look after the gardens us.

Now Jack's charity believe they may have found a way of funding the

work. This is the indenture we received

from the Richard Burton archives which means the trustees and how the

funds should be run. His colleague has been researching what happened

to the original disaster funds which were collected in 1913. They are

confident not all of it was spent. We know people were paid up until,

perhaps the late 1950s and 60s. There was nobody left them to pay

the money too. So what we would like to know is what happened to the

money and where did it go? Research has revealed the funds were paid to

the accounts in Cardiff with the provincial bank and lives, but

without account numbers they've drawn a blank.

We can't get any information whatsoever. The next step is to

write to the Treasury. We don't know how much is there, but for a very

little amount we could maintain this garden forever. It's more than 100

years since the mining disaster on the site. Local campaigners are

convinced that not all of the ?127,000 disaster fund was spent. If

they raise cash left over it could be worth millions in today's money

and be a huge asset for this community.

The countdown to another Six Nations week starts tonight, here's Tomos.

Ahead of Friday's match against Ireland, Wales wing

George North has been warned about his form.

Defence coach Shaun Edwards highlighted the right wing,

where North played in the defeat in Scotland, as an area

Well earlier, I caught-up with two of Wales' most respected rugby

writers to assess the importance of the game, and whether there

One built into touch and the job is done. Scotland have beaten Wales.

The first tweak I would make, is definitely moving

I think, as we've seen in this tournament, and over the last 12

months Leigh Halfpenny isn't cutting the line quite as much

I'd bring in Sam Davies to start the stand-off.

I think after five matches on the benches waited long enough.

George North, I thought was dreadful, let's not

He touched the ball three times in 80 minutes.

He touched the ball, missed about three or four tackles.

No, I don't think it gets to the stage where

you drop George North, because he is a formidable player.

But you hope that the psychological kick up the rear end will spur him

to make sure that the real George North comes back this Friday.

If not, then it's Steph Evans, that you can't he should have been

an instead of Alex Cuthbert against England, wrong call.

The time for Keelan Jones to have played was off

I don't know, really, whether now is the time for Keelan.

I think it's more the style of play, actually.

I think it's largely academic talking about

It's more or less what you do with the centres in the midfield.

I think John Davies is going to have to start distributing the ball more.

Otherwise the wing simply aren't going to touch the ball.

Talupe Faletau is fit, does he start?

Only we could see a problem in having Faletau and Moriarty.

At the moment I think I would start with Moriarty.

Obviously, wheels will want to win on Friday.

But there are also crucial world ranking points up for grabs.

Wales are in real danger of dropping out of the top eight.

And landing a tough draw in the World Cup in 2019.

Wales don't want to be finishing ninth.

And from Rob Howley's point of view, you know,

Because he can't afford to lose both of them.

Wales haven't lost three in a row in the six Nations for ten years.

What will happen on Friday night, get your crystal ball out.

They've won one grand slam, three European cup finals year.

Much as I would like to think otherwise, I can

Wales need to score two to three tries to compete.

Football, and the Newport county Manager, Graham Westley,

is expected to stay in charge, for now.

The board's been discussing his future and will review the situation

County have just one victory in 20 games and are bottom of League 2,

11 points from safety after losing 4-nil to relegation

Wales' women have lost their final group match

They've finished 2nd in their group, meaning they'll now play

Swansea City have moved 5 points clear of relegation

Head Coach Paul Clement says striker Fernando Llorente,

who scored the winner in the dying moments, is one of the best

This is the moment the Cardiff Devils won the Challenge Cup

Congratulations also go to TNS, after securing a 6th straight

Craig Harrison's side is already looking to make a mark

in Europe next season, with progressing beyond

This is the moment the Cardiff Devils won the Challenge Cup

after coming from behind to beat Sheffield Steelers 3-2.

It's their 30th year, and they can still clinch the treble

by winning the Elite league and play-offs.

A couple from Abergele have won the 2017 UK Wife-Carrying title.

Kirsty Jones and husband Jack McKendrick saw-off

the challenge from 34 other couples, to win the annual race in Surrey.

They won a barrel of ale, and will now represent the UK

in the World Wife Carrying Championships in

Let's take a look at the weather forecast with Sue.

After a day of sunshine and showers, more rain at times

Breezy with brighter spells, turning milder.

Tonight, just if you showers moving from west to east,

but drier conditions will develop and clear skies and light winds.

A slight frost possible in the cold spots overnight,

The risk of ice on untreated services.

Tomorrow, cold and dry, but this occluded front will bring in rain

Tomorrow, a chilly start with some frost, the north-east holding

Outbreaks of rain pushing in from the south-west.

Turning heavy at times, briefly wintry in the hills.

Southerly winds pick up, highs of 7 degrees in Gwynedd

Another wave on this system brings more rain tomorrow night,

That front eventually clears eastwards.

Tomorrow night to further rain on and off, maybe drier

Cloud holds the temperatures between five and 8 degrees.

More rain on Wednesday, which should clear by the afternoon.

A few lingering showers, often overcast, but some brighter spells.

Brisk winds bring in warm air from the south-west.

We keep those milder south-westerly winds into Thursday,

it looks dry for a time, but the unsettled Atlantic

Another front brings rain from the south-west later in the day.

And a reminder of the top story from the BBC, President Trump has

announced a new travel ban to prevent citizens from a number

of predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United states.

His original version was blocked by the US courts.

This time Iraq has been left off the list.

The scale of the drugs problem facing Wrexham has become the focus

of talks involving Welsh government ministers and the North Wales Police

commissioner. This comes after images were shared on social media

selling drug paraphernalia and people collapsed in and around the

update for you here at 8 o'clock and again after the BBC News at Ten.

Thank you for watching, from all of us on the programme, good evening.