07/10/2016 BBC Wales Today

Welcome to the programme.

Tonight's headlines:

It promises 400 jobs -

work starts on a multi-million pound retail development

in Merthyr Tydfil.

And one of Wales' leading heart surgeons

calls for a ground-breaking operation to be made routinely

available on the NHS.

Good evening.

It's been on the agenda for 20 years

but work is now underway on a ?40 million retail

and leisure complex in Merthyr Tydfil.

Trago Mills - which already runs three stores in Cornwall and Devon -

says it'll create 1,000 jobs in construction

and 400 in the long term.

It was granted planning permission in 1999, but work has

been stalled until now.

Here's our Business Correspondent, Brian Meechan.

This was once an old brickworks, part of Merthyr Tydfil's industrial

past.

On the hill above the town's Cyfarthfa retail park,

home to many big chains, work is starting

on a less familiar name.

This the new Trago Mills site.

The discount store's first site outside the south-west of England.

It sells everything from carpets to clothes.

Cyfarthfa just across the road is trading very well indeed.

They have all the brands, a typical retail park,

the pre-eminent retail park in the valleys already.

You will add our proposition to it, I think it

is an offer that the shopping public will not resist

and it will put Merthyr as a destination on the map.

This is what it should look like but it has

been a long time coming.

We've been reporting on the development for 20 years.

Merthyr council has tonight given the

go-ahead to a ?20 million out-of-town development.

Planning problems and economic turmoil caused

continued delays but now work is finally underway.

It is the latest in a series of big investments in Merthyr

in recent years.

In March, General Dynamics opened its new plant in the

town where it assembles and tests the next generation of armoured

vehicles, creating 250 jobs.

And more than 250 people are employed at

exhaust maker Tenneco Walker which opened in Dowlais.

Part of the council strategy is to develop

economic development and regeneration.

We have got a very strong development team and they work with

manufacturers and retailers from start to finish.

It really is a good package we offer.

There are concerns that the new shopping development could attract

people away from the town centre.

Amongst Merthyr's for sale signes, this restaurant opened a year ago.

The owners say it is thriving and believe

Trago Mills adds to what the town has two offer.

I think a lot has been done by Merthyr Council,

the college in the centre of town as well, that is all creating

excitement in the town itself.

There is a need for both a retail park and Trago Mills but

also the town centre should be a thriving hub as well.

Trago Mills rejects any suggestions that its

plans will hurt shops in the town.

Children celebrating today were not even born

when this was first planned.

But the council say this is a clear sign that Merthyr is on the up.

A pharmaceutical company in Flintshire is to close

with the loss of 66 jobs.

NuPharm will cease trading

at Deeside Industrial Park by the end of December,

due to "significant cash losses".

The company makes products for the pharmaceutical

and healthcare industries.

The cause of a 100,000 litre oil spill

into a Carmarthenshire stream, is yet to be found.

The pipeline which carries Kerosene from Pembroke's Valero refinery,

breached near Nant-y-caws on Tuesday.

Valero say it's a complex operation and it could take days

to stop the leak.

Heart surgeons in Cardiff recently became the first in Wales to perform

a ground breaking procedure which could help save

and transform many lives.

But as things stand the surgery isn't routinely

available on the Welsh NHS.

But one of the country's leading heart surgeons has told Wales Today

it's "essential" it should be.

Our health correspondent Owain Clarke has this

exclusive report.

It's early morning but this surgical team at Wales' biggest

hospital is already hard at work.

This elderly patient had been complaining about chest pains.

Doctors found out that one of the valves in his heart

was becoming blocked.

It's quite a complicated thing to repair but with one of Wales'

most eminent heart surgeons in charge, you would not know it.

He is having an aortic valve replacement and coronary bypass.

It should hopefully give him a better quality of life.

Any type of heart surgery, by its very nature, can be really

tricky and certainly very advanced.

But earlier on this year in the summer, the lead

surgeon here and her team managed to push the boundaries further

than ever before and perform a procedure that has never before

been attempted in Wales.

Blood is pumped from the heart through a big blood

vessel called the aorta.

But if there is a weakness in its walls, it can begin to bulge.

It is what is known as an aneurysm.

Although it is rare, if any of the bulges

burst, the consequences can be catastrophic.

Previously repairing certain types of aneurysms would have needed

a patient to undergo two separate big operations.

Now they can be fixed in one go.

We open the arch of the aorta and we deploy this,

this is how it looks when it comes out of its package,

we deploy it into the aorta and all these bits, blood vessels

to the brain, come out.

She carried out the procedure for the first time in Cardiff just

a few months ago.

Former nurse Menna Hurford is that patient.

She had a family history of heart problems.

Her father died in his early 60s.

I would go to New Zealand every other year because my

daughter lives there.

I lost that but now I have had my operation I can go.

The problem is, the operation, as things stand, is not

routinely available in Wales.

It only took place because there was a special request for funding.

But the process of making those requests is long and drawn-out.

The alternative is to send a patient to Birmingham.

Especially with advanced screening, more of these are diagnosed,

so it is essential that we offer this as a service routinely and have

these cases referred to us.

This team and the heart surgery unit in Cardiff can already boast

some of the best results anywhere in Britain.

The hope is that soon they will be able to do even more,

offering surgery that is right at the cutting edge.

Football and Swansea City's new manager, Bob Bradley,

has been getting used to his new Welsh surroundings.

The 58-year-old American has been speaking

for the first time today and says he's hoping to create a special

atmosphere at the club.

An ability to deliver a message and establish an identity

where every time you step on a field you go for it.

You're not afraid.

You put your front foot forward.

I like that kind of approach and I go out of my way

to make sure that players understand, come on,

let's enjoy the moment and let's go for it.

Rugby and in the first Welsh derby of the Pro 12 season

it was the Ospreys' night.

They beat the Cardiff Blues 51-24.

It means the Ospreys are now above the Blues in the table.

Let's take a look at the weekend weather forecast

now - here's Derek.

Hello.

If you've got any outdoor plans this weekend the weather is not

looking too bad at all.

Mostly dry and settled.

Lighter winds.

The best of the sun on Sunday.

In the meantime tonight, dry for most of us

with the odd light shower here and there.

A bit misty in places and not a cold night with lowest

temperatures 7-11dC.

A big block of high pressure still with us over

Scandinavia tomorrow and that's stopping any weather fronts moving

in from the Atlantic.

Tomorrow morning generally dry.

A bit of a cloudy and misty start in places first thing but bright

spells and sunshine breaking through as well.

Across the rest of the UK, East Anglia, the south-east of

England, rather cloudy with a few showers together with a cool breeze.

Elsewhere a mixture of broken code, sunny spells.

Most places dry bar the odd shower.

The rest of the sunshine in the north and west of

Scotland and Cornwall.

Close to home, much of Wales dry tomorrow

afternoon.

Some cloud around but bright spells and sunshine as well.

Maybe the odd shower but no more than that.

Highs of 16 Celsius, 61 Fahrenheit with light winds.

Tomorrow night cloud will come and go.

Maybe one or two showers, otherwise dry.

Clearer later in the night and chilly with a couple

of mist and fog patches forming.

Now, Sunday looks like being a nice day.

Fine and bright and a good deal of autumn sunshine.

Maybe the odd shower in the south-east and the

Marches later in the afternoon and in the sunshine it will feel very

pleasant with a light breeze from the east and north-east.

Should be a lovely afternoon in Cardiff for the

football on Sunday afternoon.

A high of 14 Celsius.

Sunday the sunniest day of the weekend with more dry

weather for the start of next week.

Have a nice weekend.

And that is Wales Today.

Our next update is at 5:45pm tomorrow evening.

For now from all of us here, have a great weekend.