25/04/2012 BBC Wales Today

Welcome to Wales Today. Tonight's top story: Green shoots for this

firm, as business leaders tell us they are surprised the economy has

fallen back into recession. Our other headlines: An Assembly

Member is being investigated by the Standards Committee after claims

about his behaviour after a night out.

Teenager Seren Barnard died in the care of social services. Her mother

says lessons must be learnt. something has to change and I think

my daughter will expose Pembrokeshire Council cancelled the

system. -- County Council. On its way to Wales, so what's this

jet got to do with the Olympics? And on the eve of the Queens

Diamond Jubilee visit, we look back at how she's been welcomed here in

Business groups across Wales say they are surprised by today's GDP

figures, which has put the UK back into recession. Employers say the

news could damage confidence and make recruitment over the coming

year less likely. The construction industry was the worst performing

part of the economy. Our business correspondent, Nick Servini, is in

Llanharan near Bridgend for us this evening.

There was a general acknowledgement that the construction industry was

suffering and had been suffering in recent months but generally, people

for the rest of the economy was holding up well. But people cannot

be totally unprepared for the news that we had today. I have lost

count of the number of times people say to me that we are not out of

the woods yet. Those people today were proved right.

There were hopes for green shoots but none came in the GDP figures

this morning which showed the value of goods and services produced by

the UK economy. Construction took the biggest hit, down 3%. Money fit

-- manufacturing was down by 0.4 %. Most will tell you retailing is

tough. The owner of this garden centre in Aberystwyth gave this

reaction. Generally, it is not too bad. We learnt there was negative

growth. There are areas within the market that a growing rapidly. If

you are in export or trade and you are up in the international

marketplace, you can pick up a significant amount of work. If not,

you are in a position of swimming against the tide. Be it is going to

be difficult for the next two Mackle three years. Companies have

to pull in when necessary but generally keep going. I think there

will be a slow climb out of where we are but I am positive. I have to

be positive. The Institute of Directors in Wales is confident but

says companies might be less likely to boost investment this year. The

business minister says it is a more complicated picture than the

figures suggest it acknowledges that confidence is a worry. You do

have to concentrate on the good news. If you concentrate on the bad

news, but it dares -- it does affect conference.

Let's pick up on what is happening in the building trade. Were you

surprised by how much the construction industry was

struggling? I am very disappointed to see the results. What we're

seeing is the culmination of a number of factors feeding into the

construction industry, particularly the Government cuts on the bigger

capital schemes. We are also seeing across the UK a number of planning

delays which are preventing some of the larger schemes from starting.

Vuillard in a conventional private- sector housebuilding project. What

is happening on that front? It is not all bad news. We are finding

the market is OK. The retro are experiencing our second year was so

excessive growth in South Wales. -- of successive growth. The point

about construction is the knock-on with the tradesmen and the

companies that feed into this. every new house built, we generate

one trade job directly and five indirect jobs. On the bigger

capital projects like roads across South Wales, that is an awful lot

of people that are not being put into employment right now. Thank

you very much. Back to you in the studio.

A Labour AM is under investigation by the Assembly's standards

watchdog after claims about his behaviour at a five star hotel. 70-

year-old Keith Davies, the member for Llanelli, was staying at the St

David's Hotel in Cardiff Bay after a night out. It's believed he had

an altercation with staff at the hotel in the early hours of

yesterday morning. Our political correspondent, Tomos Livingstone,

is in the Senedd this evening. What is Mr Davies alleged to have done?

The story starts on Monday night when Mr Davies and other Assembly

Members went to a birthday party in Cardiff Bay. Later on, Mr Davies

went on to a bar in the centre of Cardiff and in the early hours of

Tuesday morning he got back to the hotel. At some point, staff at the

Hotel became concerned about his behaviour and contacted the

Assembly of oddities. The Assembly arranges for Assembly men the --

Assembly Members to stay in hotels near the Assembly while they are

working here. It is all quite embarrassing for the Labour Party

and Mr Davies. The Standards Commissioner has launched an

investigation. What is likely to happen? The standards commissioner

will look at the evidence and decide whether Mr Davies has a case

to answer. If there is a case, he will prepare a report and that will

go to the standards committee. It will be up to them to decide

whether they should be any punishment. They could decide to

suspend Mr Davies from the Assembly. These processes take quite a lot of

time. Mr Davies is a well-liked and well respected member of the

Assembly but things do not look good for him this evening.

The inquest into the death of MI6 officer Gareth Williams from

Anglesey, whose body was found in a locked bag in his London flat two

years ago, has been told he was once found tied to his bed. His

former landlady at a flat in Cheltenham said he was dressed in

boxer shorts and called for help when he could not untie himself.

He'd explained to her that he'd wanted to see if he could get free

himself. The mother of a teenage girl who

died while in care has accused Pembrokeshire Social Services of

being complacent. 14-year-old Seren Bernard was found dead earlier this

month and is believed to have killed herself. Her mother claims

it was not the first time she'd tried to take her own life. She's

been speaking to Abigail Neal at her home in Haverfordwest.

Seren's mother believes her daughter felt rejected by her

absent father and that's when the problems began. She wanted her

father's love and that is what she was looking for. Aged 12, Seren

told social services her mother was aggressive and she didn't want to

live with her. Sarah Pollock denies this and says that against her

wishes and without any investigation, she lost custody of

her daughter. She manipulated the system. Social services actually

phoned her father and said she did not want to live with her mother

any more. For the next two years, Seren was passed between family and

friends, but her behaviour just got worse. In September 2011, she went

missing for 10 days whilst living with her grandmother. Sarah Pollock

says Seren made an attempt on her life during that time and because

of this she begged social services to put Seren in a secure unit, but

they wouldn't. They were so complacent in their attitude. I

have stated in a letter of complaint that I have always felt

that social services have never worked in my daughter's best

interest. They took the easy path. Placing my daughter with family was

the easy option not the right option. I was unable to be heard

and then -- unable to get through to anybody whilst my daughter was

in a state and going downhill fast. The performance of social services

in Pembrokeshire has been under the spotlight recently. Last year, the

council was criticised in an investigation into the way it

handled child abuse allegations in education. Since then, it says

improvements have been made. The council wouldn't comment on Sarah

Pollock's specific allegations, but told us, "The death of a child is

obviously a matter of great concern and sadness. It has been referred

to the Pembrokeshire Local Safeguarding Children's Board. The

Board will examine all the issues surrounding the death". Seren's

mother never wanted her daughter in care. She believes Seren's death

shows there are serious flaws in the system, flaws she's determined

to expose. Still to come in the programme: It

was the shock of the World Championships so far. Jamie Jones

from Neath tells us he's now ready for anything. Defiant -- if I have

a good few days, I could be world champion in a few weeks.

Now, the latest in our series looking at the issues which matter

to you ahead of next week's council elections. Tonight, it's housing,

and across Wales local authorities have been trying to earmark land

for tens of thousands of new homes to meet planning targets. Not

surprisingly, in many areas, this has become a major election issue,

as Roger Pinney reports. It was so straightforward then. The

nation needed new homes and our councils built them. In any era of

post-war reconstruction, finding the land never seemed to be a

problem. It is now and identifying where new housing can go may be one

of the biggest headaches facing councillors after the election. All

22 of our local authorities have been grappling with something

called local development plans. There are planning blueprints for

the next decade and so far, just three have managed to deliver. The

ins and outs of planning may be a bit dry but there is nothing boring

about waking up one morning to find thousands of new homes are planned

for your doorstep. That is what happened in Denbighshire and across

Wales they have been protest after protests. There's no inward

migration from the Merseyside and Cheshire. Critics say the problems

in Llandudno have been caused by housing targets set by the Welsh

government. The protesters asking where will these new neighbours

come from? If people want to come here from Manchester or Liverpool,

it is up to them to find their own properties here that are for sale.

We should not be providing houses for them. The housing element is

wrong. It is totally wrong. much of an election issue is this?

A major one. This is the election issue for here. It is the election

issuing lots of areas and the politicians know that. The

political parties have their views and the Labour Welsh government is

being blamed. You have the local authorities saying these figures

are being forced upon them and the Dutch government is saying they can

decide their own figures but they have to be justified. There is a

stalemate at the moment so there has to be some strategy. What you

can't have is a massive democratic deficit and the planning system. --

in the planning system. There is going to be a clash between what

those new councils think they have been elected to do and what the

government tells them they have to do. That is something which will

have to be resolved. I think there needs to be a more regionalisation

of the targets. If you don't have targets for homes, you run the

risks of saying to our children and grandchildren, we are not planning

for your future. That would have disastrous consequences. And so to

the big question, should these housing targets go? Yes. Know.

Some clear water between them but independent candidates and some

party standard-bearers won't toe the line.

Hundreds of bakers are preparing to march on Downing Street tomorrow in

protest at the so-called "pasty tax". In the recent Budget, the

Chancellor announced plans to charge VAT on freshly baked pies

and pasties. Among those travelling to London to lobby MPs is the boss

of a South Wales bakery that's been going for close to a century. Nick

Palit reports. It is a bit more mechanised these

days than when this bakery started in 1921 but the pies and passed

these are as possible -- popular as ever. The business has a chain of

25 shops but there is disquiet about the Chancellor's decision to

add VAT to bakery products from October. They sell 50,000 of these

corn beef parties across South Wales every single week. This VAT

increase will raise the price from 95p to �1.14. The company believes

that will result in fewer sales. A petition in every shop has been

signed by hundreds of customers. There are other things they can put

tax on. They don't have to tax the food we have. Armed with the

petition, the baker is marching on Downing Street tomorrow. He will be

joined by bakers from all over Britain. It is grossly unfair for

the consumer to pay an extra 20 %. We live in a very difficult

economic climate and a lot of our customers are on tight budgets.

They can't be expected to pay the extra amount. The government has

defended the move as a way of standardising VAT on all hot

takeaway food but retailers say the system of deciding what constitutes

hot and warming is unworkable. They have condemned the idea as half-

baked. Claire's here now with news of how

Wales is getting involved in the cultural side of the Olympics.

Yes, Lucy. It's three months to the day until Cardiff hosts the first

sporting event of London 2012 and today, these giant Olympic rings

were unveiled in the capital. But the Games are not just a

celebration of sport, they're also the inspiration for a host of

artistic events taking place across Wales this summer and today the

Cultural Olympiad was officially launched.

Three tonnes of aluminium and 18 metres long. These giant Olympic

rings, unveiled today, will be the backdrop for Cardiff's sporting

celebrations this summer. But today was also about kick starting an

ambitious programme of cultural events, bringing leading artists

from around the world to Wales. As part of the London 2012 Festival,

you'll find an aeroplane transformed into a mobile art space,

a world record attempt for the largest Bollywood dance performance

and a drama set against the backdrop of the film Zulu, using

actors from South Africa and the South Wales Valleys. The great

thing about this summer is we have 40,000 journalists coming from all

over the world and we want to show them a how great our creative

industry is. There is something for everyone all over the UK. Running

from the 21st of June, the festival will feature 19 different events in

12 areas across Wales. On the Anglesey Coast, actress Fiona Shaw

will be encouraging us to recite love poetry and Newport will host a

free music festival - Busk on the Usk. Meanwhile on cinema screens,

these twins from Caerphilly will be starring in a special film made by

Oscar nominated director, Mike Leigh. We got a call from our agent

saying, he would like a meeting with you for an exciting new

project. It is one of those things that you don't expect to happen to

you but we're thrilled to be part of it. When it comes to creativity,

there are no boundaries and that goes for language too. The writer

Gwyneth Lewis has produced a new Welsh translation of Shakespeare's

'The Tempest', which will premiere at the National Eisteddfod in

August. Shakespeare is one of the world's favoured playwrights. This

opportunity to present it in the Welsh language will make people

realise that Welsh language culture and Welsh Language Theatre has

something to offer. Most of the events in the London 2012 Festival

are free and organisers hope that this summer, art and sport will

share centre stage. At the World Snooker Championships,

another Welsh player has pulled off a big shock. Ryan Day from

Pontycymmer came back from 9-6 down to beat world number 10 Ding Junhui

10-9 in the first round. But Dominic Dale from Penarth couldn't

quite match his heroics. He ran bookies favourite Judd Trump close,

but ended up losing 10-7. The first Welshman to make an

impact in Sheffield this week was Jamie Jones from Cimla near Neath.

He caused a major upset on his Crucible debut, beating former

world champion Shaun Murphy. His next match in Sheffield is on

Sunday, so he's taken the chance to come home to Wales between matches

and I caught up with him a little bit earlier.

The moment Jamie Jones knew he had caused one of the biggest shocks in

world snooker, knocking out former world champion Sean Murphy in round

one. Today, practising, he was keeping one eye on the Crucible and

he'll be back playing on Sunday. But for now, he is still relishing

in that win. During the game, I was getting moments where I was

thinking, I am in the Crucible. Then I would get back into it and

place to be. I looked pretty calm but I wasn't. I was going there to

enjoy the experience but as the match went on, I thought, I good a

chance to win. He has made headlines before. At 14, he was the

end this ever player to make a one for seven break in an official

event. He was working in his local bar two years ago but now he's in

the last 16 of the world championships. He has been

overwhelmed by the support back home. He is also making his gran

very proud. She was just very happy. She could not really watch. I put a

new tip on my cue yesterday and I was getting stopped for pictures in

my local town. I am not used to it. I do get a bit nervous, watching. I

can't wait to go back and watch him play on Sunday. I am playing well

enough to beat anybody on my day. If I have a good few days, I might

be well champion in a few weeks. Wrexham won last night's Welsh

derby in the Conference. They beat Newport County 1-0 at Spytty Park,

with a goal from Adrian Chizlevitch. Wrexham are already guaranteed a

spot in the play-offs. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh

start their two day tour of South Wales tomorrow to celebrate the

Queen's Diamond Jubilee. They'll visit Cardiff, Margam Park and

Merthyr Tydfil tomorrow, before going to Aberfan, Ebbw Vale and

Glanusk Park near Crickhowell on Friday. The visit starts with a

service of thanksgiving at Llandaff Cathedral for 600 people. The

Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, will give the sermon.

visit like this means an enormous amount of work for a lot of people.

The cathedral looks immaculate. It is a joy to behold. It doesn't

matter -- it does not matter who you preach in front of, there are

always butterflies. Well, the Queen has visited Wales

many times before, starting from when she was still Princess

Elizabeth. Rebecca John has been looking through the archive.

1946 at the National Eisteddfod in Mountain Ash. A 20-year-old

Princess Elizabeth is made a member of the Gorsedd, the bardic circle.

It was a year after war ended and a year before her wedding to the then

Prince Philip of Greece. In 1948, the year of Prince Charles' birth,

the young future Queen is given the freedom of the city of Cardiff.

am always glad I have an opportunity to visit Wales. It is

with special pleasure that I come to Cardiff today to receive the

freedom of your famous city. After her coronation in 1952, the new

Queen and her growing family visited many parts of Wales and

always drew large crowds. This week, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh

will revisit several places they first visited towards the start of

the Queen's reign, including Llandaff Cathedral and Aberfan. In

the 1960s, the tone of the Pathe news commentary changes slightly,

acknowledging the existence of tensions towards the monarchy.

Cardiff. The Queen and Prince Charles enjoyed one of the happiest

of visits to Wales on the day when her Majesty opened a new building.

The visit went off without a hitch. The police took no chances. The man

involved in the nation's money matters sore the Queen strike the

first decimal coin. The monarchy and the economy have faced testing

times since, and there have been huge changes in society. But the

Queen has remained constant. And, aged 86 and 90 respectively, the

Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are still travelling, meeting many

thousands of people across the country.

We'll bring you full coverage of the Queen and the Duke of

Edinburgh's two day visit. I'll be at Margam Park on Wales Today

tomorrow lunchtime at 1:30pm and at Cyfarthfa Castle in Merthyr Tydfil

tomorrow evening at 6:30pm. Bad weather and flash flooding has

affected many parts of Wales. Allotment holders at Bettws near

Newport say a tornado swept through their plots leaving a trail of

damage. The twister smashed green house windows and uprooted plants

as well as some structures. A trampoline from a nearby garden was

also lifted in the air before ending up in a neighbouring

property. So miserable weather. Any sign of

There is a Met Office warning in force covering the next 24 hours.

Heavy downpours in places with hail, thunder and a risk of flooding. The

radar shows today's rain spilling northwards. Over an inch of rain in

Tredegar. Strong winds too. The highest gust was 55mph at Mumbles

Head in Swansea. It did dry and brighten-up for a time, but then

more downpours moved up from the south. Tonight, heavy showers or

longer spells of rain. A few places dry. Breezy on the coast. Lighter

winds inland with lowest temperatures around 6C. Tomorrow's

chart shows a huge trough of low pressure over Britain. And that

means more unstable air. So tomorrow morning should be better

than today. The wind will be lighter. Some places will start dry

and bright. Others wet with rain and showers. The showers could be

heavy. Temperatures in Carmarthen around 9C. During the day, more

showers will break out. Torrential downpours with a risk of hail,

thunder and gusty winds. Mind you, some places will be drier and

brighter than others. Pembrokeshire and the west coast may become dry.

Top temperatures, 10C to 12C. The wind lighter than today but any

storms will suddenly pick-up with strong gusts. So not the best of

weather for the Queen's visit tomorrow. The umbrella will come in

handy. Tomorrow evening some places dry, but rain and showers will

become more widespread overnight, spreading from the north. Friday

will continue unsettled. Cloudy and damp with rain or showers. The

showers heavy in places and feeling cool, especially along the north

and west coast. There might even be a little snow on Snowdon. What

about the weekend? Saturday should be drier and warmer. Still a few

showers, but more wet and windy weather may spread from the south

overnight into Sunday. Longer term, there are signs that May will bring

us some better and warmer weather us some better and warmer weather

but still changeable. Tonight's headlines. Britain is

back in recession. The latest figures show the economy shrank by

0.2 % in the last three months. Business leaders say the news could

damage confidence and job recruitment.

And that is Wales Today. Don't forget, tomorrow we'll be following