27/09/2013 BBC Wales Today

Welcome to Wales Today. Tonight's headlines. Wales' biggest house

builder pulls out of some of our poorest communities. Persimmon say

costly regulations wipe out profits and they're warning of the

consequences. People will up sticks, they will move, they will follow the

jobs, follow the homes and the valleys will decline and decline and

decline. Millions of pounds of public sector money has been spent

trying to regenerate the South Wales valleys. What next when such a big

private-sector house-builder pulls out?

Also tonight. The murder of Lynette White in 1988. Three men were

wrongly jailed. The Home Secretary rules out a public inquiry into the

collapse of a police corruption trial. Trying to make Wales a

healthier nation, but £10 million spent on schemes like this has made

little or no difference. The families left wondering how they'll

pay for Christmas after money they've saved goes missing. And in

tonight's sport. Lions Captain Sam Warburton returns for the Blues, as

the French media reports his team-mate Leigh Halfpenny will have

talks tomorrow with Toulon. Good evening. The biggest house

builder in Wales has stopped developing sites in many of the

country's poorest communities because it says it can't make any

money there. Persimmon has told BBC Wales that it's pulled out of the

heads of the South Wales Valleys. It claims the cost of planning and

building regulations are wiping out any profits. Our Political Editor

Nick Servini is in Pontypridd for us tonight.

I am at the dividing line for Persimmon at Pontypridd because to

the south of me is where this company has got to focus its

attempts to build around 1000 homes, which occurs every year in Wales. To

the north is a no-go area. Despite all the efforts of the Welsh

Government and the local council. A senior planner told me this

Government and the local council. A afternoon that these challenges are

faced by many other house-builders but Persimmon is the only one to

have gone public with its policy. The chairman in Wales says without

investment many of these areas risk going into a spiral of further

decline. Persimmon has dubbed it the snow

line, running through Neath in the West to Pontypridd and Pontypool in

the East. Above it, the company is to stop building. This is Persimmon

's last site in the heads of the valleys near Aberdare which will

take a few years to finish off. It says it cannot make money in areas

like this because of planning conditions from councils such as

enforcing a quarter of social housing and Welsh Government

regulations on energy saving such as wall insulation. What will happen is

we will provide homes for the South, people will up sticks, they will

move, they will follow the jobs and the homes and the valleys will

decline and decline and decline. Until it is a situation where nobody

is likely to rush back there. House-building is considered a quick

and effective way of boosting and economy. The Welsh Government is

trying to encourage it. In fact, it is one of the reasons why it wants

control over stamp duty. But here is an example of one of the problems it

faces. By far the biggest house-builder in the country is

pulling out of some of the most deprived communities in Wales. A

small three-bedroom house near Aberdare will go on the market for

£120,000. That same house will cost 160,000 further south. Persimmon

says the low sale price means it cannot recoup the cost of

regulations and still make a profit of 15% which it says it needs. In a

statement, the Welsh Government pointed to a major relaxation of

energy efficiency targets for house-builders this summer. And said

it had been pushing for a more flexible approach from local

planning authorities. I would say this is the wrong time to be doing

this. There seems to be a genuine willingness within Welsh Government

and indeed across the whole housing community to roll our sleeves up,

get involved, get engaged and focus on the solutions to the problem

rather than the problem itself. But for people living here, one of the

areas affected, what did they make of the decision today? You cannot

blame them. If they have restrictions from the council.

People cannot afford a ground here. If you build houses here, more

people will come into the valleys. It is a stupid decision. It is sad

that they are giving up on the valleys. There is a good community

in the valleys that unfortunately it all boils down to money. Persimmon

is in the first of the major house-builders to complain about

conditions in Wales. Last year, red Rose said part of the company could

become no-go areas. It appears that warning is becoming more of a

reality. The Welsh Government wants control

over stamp duty, yet it's partly their policies that have led to

today's decision? Yes, the Welsh Government has a difficult

relationship with house-builders in recent years. Including Persimmon.

There is a feeling within the industry, some of the energy

regulations have been unfair, compared with the industry in

England and particularly the introduction of sprinklers in new

homes in three years time. But to be fair with the Welsh Government, that

improvement with macro relationship had improved. They announced a

pretty drastic reduction. But Persimmon are keeping the pressure

on for further change. From the local authorities perspective, they

say they have tried to be as flexible as possible but they have a

duty to the existing residents within a community, as we all know,

when a new housing estate is built, it puts a lot of pressure on the

roads and schools in a particular community and as a result, they say

it is unfair that the taxpayer picks up all of the bill. It says the

house-builders should pick up the tab for some of that. We are seeing

the difficulty of doing that in the heads of the valleys. Let's put this

into context, what are the wider implications of this decision? The

reality is lots of communities in Wales have a shortage of housing. In

Rhondda Cynon Taff, where I am, they have a target to build 14,000 homes

over the next years with macro ten years. It has two attract

house-builders like Persimmon. On the other wider field as well, Lucy,

is the potential risk of a kind of hollowing out of the valleys, of

people, if investment, and many, to the detriment of the towns and

villages. The Home Secretary has ruled out a public inquiry into the

collapse of a police corruption trial relating to the Valentine's

Day murder of Lynette White in Cardiff back in 1988. Three men were

wrongly jailed for the crime, and in December 2011 the trial of eight

police officers, charged with perverting the course of justice,

was halted when evidence temporarily went missing. Nick Palit reports.

Lynette White was stabbed to death in this Bute Street flat in

Cardiff's Docklands back in 1988. The so-called Cardiff Three were

wrongly jailed for her murder. Their conviction only quashed by the Court

of Appeal in 1992. A decade later, after the jailing of the real

killer, Geoffrey Gaffoor, a new inquiry was launched into what went

wrong with the original police investigation. Eight former South

Wales officers were charged with perverting the course of justice.

However, their trial collapsed two years ago when it was thought

evidence files had been shredded. The missing paperwork later turned

up. Despite calls for a public inquiry the Home Secretary today

decided there should be no further inquiry surrounding the collapse of

the 2011 trial at this stage. That announcement has shocked a leading

barrister who's been following the case. This is by some distance the

most expensive case in Welsh legal history. It is also a case that has

attracted huge attention, I think, it has also undermined public

confidence in the police, it has gone woefully wrong and the public

and the Welsh people deserve an extra nation. The fact there is no

public enquiry intended is both shocking and outrageous. It's

possible the Home Secretary she may rethink her decision upon the

completion of a related investigation by Devon and Cornwall

Police. But a recent report by the Crown Prosecution Service has

already concluded there was no evidence to suggest prosecutors or

police acted improperly. Nevertheless Tony Paris, one of the

so-called Cardiff Three, originally jailed for the murder, says a public

inquiry is necessary. There must be an enquiry into what caused the case

to collapse. Who killed Lynette White in this flat nearly a quarter

a century ago is no longer under question, but what remains

unanswered are allegations of possible police corruption during

that murder investigation. Although the Home Secretary has refused calls

for a Public Inquiry, legal teams acting for those who were wrongly

convicted aren't giving up and are seeking a Judicial Review of that

decision. That's likely to be heard in the High Court in London early in

the New Year. A man who attacked a teenage ballet

dancer and broke his neck, two years ago, has had his sentence increased

dancer and broke his neck, two years from 13 to 18 years. Mohammed Ali

Mohamoed, from Cardiff, was jailed in June for attacking Jack

Widdowson, who was left paralysed but has now recovered. The three

appeal judges ruled the sentence was inadequate, because the trial judge

wrongly thought Mohamoed would automatically be deported on

completing his sentence. A copyright tribunal, which will determine how

much money the BBC has to pay to use some Welsh language music, has

finished hearing the case at Caernarfon Crown Court. EOS, the

group which represents some Welsh language musicians, wants the BBC to

pay £1.5 million a year for the right to broadcast their work. The

Corporation has suggested £100,000. The three members of the tribunal

are due to issue a written judgement in the next few weeks. There are

fresh questions tonight about the way the most senior staff at Welsh

local councils get paid. It's emerged that some councils are

paying pension contributions straight to bosses for tax reasons.

Our Political Correspondent Tomos Livingstone is here. What's the

background to all this? Well, Lucy, problems have come up in three

different councils across Wales and one of the main issues is that some

well-paid staff have been allowed to leave the pension scheme and get

those pension contributions paid to them directly. In Pembrokeshire the

auditors have refused to sign off the accounts (because of this type

of pension payment to the chief executive Bryn Parry Jones. Come

down the A40 to Carmarthenshire and the auditors say payments, including

a similar pension arrangement to the chief executive Mark James, were

unlawful. And in Caerphilly there's a slightly different issue. The

auditors are unhappy there at compensation paid to senior officers

after their holiday and car allowances changed. Pembrokeshire

and Carmarthenshire say their legal advice is that there are no

problems. Caerphilly say they are waiting for their own external

auditor to give a view. But these disputes are once again shining a

light on a very controversial issue. The amounts that get paid to the top

people in local government. And this is already causing a political

storm. Yes, this is all happening of course at a time when many staff in

the public sector have had their pay frozen. The unions say say they

can't support what's been happening and they want much more transparency

in the way these things are decided. Plaid Cymru have asked for an urgent

question in the Assembly next week to try to get the Welsh Government

to intervene, so this isn't an issue that's going away. Members of a

savings club near Merthyr Tydfil say they're shocked after finding money

they'd paid into a Christmas fund has gone missing. Several families

from Treharris, who thought they were saving with Park Christmas

Savings Club fear they've lost hundreds of pounds each. A

36-year-old woman has been arrested in connection with a number of

allegations of theft. Tomos Dafydd reports. Saving for Christmas has

never been easier. It is a popular Christmas club allowing families to

budget for that expensive time of year. People can pay into Park

Christmas Savings club every week so as December approaches, they have

vouchers for toys or festive hampers. These women believed they

had been paying into their accounts every week since January. But now

the company has told them their agent may have fallen behind with

the payments and that they should consider contacting police. The

group has also advised them not to make any further payments to the

agent. I saved £310. My mother saved over £700. And my sister, I am

notched with macro not too sure, but it was a few hundred. And Natasha is

not the only one affected. Joanne says she is worried about losing the

£870 she saved. I had to cut back on a lot of things. My seven-year-old

son has asked me if I want his pocket money for my savings. The

company says it is aware of the situation but as an arrest has been

made, it cannot comment but says it is cooperating fully with the police

enquiry. Back in Treharris, people have clubbed together, raising money

for the families affected. We got in touch with all of the local

supermarkets, hopefully they can donate stocking fillers and

vouchers. And we have got to delivery points for people to drop

things for raffles. Everyone is clubbing together and offering to

help in every way that they can. Some comfort then for those who are

waiting to find out what is going to happen to the hundreds of pounds

they have saved. Money they cannot afford to lose. Still ahead tonight

- Lions captain Sam Warburton is back from injury. He'll start

tonight for the Blues as they take on defending Champions Leinster. And

it's been rolling off the presses for more than a century. Now, a new

chapter for the South Wales Evening Post.

BBC Wales has discovered that more than £10 million was spent last year

on public health initiatives that delivered little or no identifiable

health benefits. Experts assessed the efficiency of a number of

health benefits. Experts assessed schemes, funded by the Welsh

Government and Public Health Wales, as part of a wider health

improvement review. Learning about food on the cooking

bus, a scheme that was set up seven years ago that cost more than

£650,000 worth of public money to run last year alone. By Public

Health Wales who allocated its funding said it delivered no health

benefits. It is one of 25 schemes that were assessed by a panel of

experts. 19 of those had little or no impact on people 's health and

for some, it has left a sour taste in the mouth. We have got £5 per

second in terms of the real term cuts of the NHS in Wales and 800

million over a five-year period. Every pound really does count when

you are spending millions. The public will quite rightly question

what the Welsh Government has been doing with their money. Other

projects that were deemed unlikely to bring a health benefit were the

mental health first aid scheme. And a project to stop children smoking

cost around £131,000 in 2012. And a childhood obesity scheme was set up

with an initial £1.4 million of funding. This national exercise

referral scheme in Rhondda Cynon Taff is designed for people at risk

of all living with chronic disease. They come once or twice a week to

take part in exercise classes. We have been operating for 4.5 years in

Rhondda Cynon Taff and we have over 400,000 referrals coming along. We

find that the success stories are quite tremendous with people

improving in confidence, improving their physical state, and so on. It

is hoped that more programmes like this can be developed but to do

that, public health says -- public health Wales says it must make

changes. What we are doing today is acknowledging that we need to do

things differently. It is no longer acceptable to do things in the way

that we did them in the past. We now need to look forward to a whole

transformational change. And while this scheme is likely to fold, the

Welsh Government is looking forward to rolling out new and improved

public health schemes. Let's catch up with the day's sports news now.

Here's Claire. Good evening. Rugby of late has been

dominated by nothing else but talk of what part, if any, the four

regions will play in a new Anglo-French competition. As that

rumbles on, a boost tonight for Wales and the Blues with Lions

captain Sam Warburton back from injury five weeks earlier than

hoped. The Blues take on defending champions Leinster this evening.

Brian O'Driscoll is back for them. Let's get the views of former Wales

international Robert Jones. Yes, it is a big game for the Cardiff Blues

after last weeks disappointment. They have two bounce back and I

expect a reaction from the players as they take on one of the best

sides in Europe. The Brian O'Driscoll and Jamie he's living

there, they are a formidable outfit. Sam Warburton is a target at the

moment but there is news this evening, the French media talking

about Leigh Halfpenny flying out after the game this evening to have

talks with Toulon. It is not surprise me. He is one of the most

valuable assets in the world game at the moment. With Jonny Wilkinson

nearing retirement, there is no better replacement in terms of

goal-kicking duties than Leigh Halfpenny. I would expect him to be

at the forefront of most clubs wanting to progress and develop as a

team. The Welsh regions and the Welsh Rugby Union will do well to

keep him because the many out there is so vast. Every region and that

dark cloud that is the uncertainty over the future of the Heineken

Cup. It is fair to say that things are incredibly bleak. How worried

are you? Very worried. We need European rugby. There is no doubt

about it. Ultimately, the European competition is the biggest thing of

all. The one thing you have to say about the French and English clubs

as they have been decisive and they have made a decision and they have

made an announcement and they are moving forward with their plans.

There has to be a compromise somewhere for the Celtic nations and

the Italians because without it, Welsh rugby could well fall apart.

The game at the top end is good at the moment but without good regional

base underneath it and a good community game, then obviously the

Welsh game could suffer. Rob is part of Scrum V's team tonight. The

Scarlets are away in Edinburgh and you can catch all the action from

7:30pm. And to whet your appetite, Sport Wales is on before that.

Football and after crashing out of the League Cup this week, both

Cardiff and Swansea are hoping to bounce back in the Premier League.

Cardiff are away to Fulham tomorrow afternoon looking to pick up their

first away win. The club announced today, fullback Kevin McNaughton has

joined Championship side Bolton on a month's loan. Swansea welcome

Arsenal to the Liberty Stadium and Arsene Wenger has been full of

praise for Swansea's Michu, comparing him to Dennis Bergkamp.

Wales's women got their World Cup qualifying campaign off to perfect

start last night at the Cardiff City Stadium. With Michu, they can play

with both because he is a kind of striker who is as well a midfielder.

Yes, I see him a little bit positional wise like Dennis

Bergkamp. He is more than man upfront striker but he can play both

positions. Overall, they buy well and play attractive football, it is

a very good team. Wales' women got their World Cup qualifying campaign

off to a perfect start last night that the Cardiff City Stadium.

Striker Helen Ward got the only goal of the game. Her 30th for her

country on her 50th cap. Cricket and Glamorgan ended their season in

style this afternoon. They won their final county Championship match

against Gloucestershire. It's been a disappointing season despite getting

to the Lord's final in the YB40, but with a new coach expected to be

appointed shortly and the return of Hugh Morris, there are big hopes for

next season. In patches we have played very well and we have got

into positions where is certainly early on in the competition if we

had won the odd crucial game, it would have catapulted us up the

league and given as a lot more to play for. We had a Lord's final.

Glamorgan have only reached three of those in our history. It was an

achievement. We know what the players can do and a little bit more

back-up and support and hopefully that will put this in the right

spot. That's all for tonight. Enjoy your weekend. Lucy. The first copy

rolled off the presses back in 1893. During the '30s, it even had Dylan

Thomas on its payroll. But this weekend marks the start of a new

chapter for the best-selling Welsh newspaper. After being based in a

1960s office block for nearly half a century, the South Wales Evening

Post is moving to a brand new home, as Carwyn Jones now reports.

It has been providing readers with the latest news, sport and

entertainment for 120 years. From victory in Europe to the Silver

Jubilee. The South Wales Evening Post has moved offices a fair bit

over that time but since 1968, it has been based at this office block

in Swansea City centre. The architectural merits of the

buildings it firmly in the Love it or loathe it category. But what is

no longer up for debate is the challenge of producing a

21st-century newspaper within these four walls. We are very much tied to

the past and that is a great thing in many ways but it is a sad reality

that today's newsrooms are very different. The building is no longer

fit for purpose. Plans for the newspaper to move were first mooted

ten years ago but now it is a reality. One of the first tasks has

been to pack up the contents of the archive. We have recorded everything

from Triumph and tragedy. We think of tragedy, Swansea is effectively

flattened by the Blitz in 1941. And it was our job as the local

newspaper to be out on the streets, taking the pictures. Since then,

much of Swansea City centre has been rebuilt. This is one of its newest

buildings and it is here that the South Wales Evening Post will be

based as of Monday morning. It is a high-tech office, 7000 square feet

in all, with even a miniature putting green. Paul Carter is in

charge of the move and for him there is one big challenge. We have got to

keep the newspaper going out so whereas we cannot close on a Friday,

and reopen on a Monday, we have the newspaper to go out on a Monday. It

may look like a work in progress but come Monday morning, 136 people will

be based here. Providing news for readers across south-west Wales,

just as the newspaper has been doing since 1893. Here's Sue now with the

weekend's weather. It is not looking too bad at all for

the weekend. A risk of a few showers. A fine evening to come.

Tonight, dry with variable cloud. Some clear spells and under the

clear skies, the heat will escape. Feeling colder than recent nights.

Temperatures down to single figures inland. Tomorrow morning looking

dry, fine and breezy but it could cloud over later. Showers are more

likely but not exclusively in the south and west. And with easterly

winds, the highest temperatures 20 Celsius in Pembrokeshire and

Swansea. The chart shows why the south-west is at greatest risk of

those showers. Warm, moist air coming up from France and Spain.

Whether France trying to push in over the Bay of Biscay and the

threat of showers is diminishing. Blustery showers further west early

on Sunday. Otherwise a largely bright day. Very windy on high

ground and along the coast. Temperatures in the high teens and

low 20s again. Above-average for September. The wind taking the edge

of those temperatures. Not bad this weekend. A chance of showers but

staying relatively mild for the start of next week. No big changes

in store. The rain at times on Monday and Tuesday. Finally, today's

picture. A beautiful sunset. We could see more like this over the

weekend. Don't forget, you can send your pictures to us by e-mail or

twitter. The main news again. A BBC

investigation has revealed how the shopping mall siege in Kenya was

helped by security breaches, incompetence and confusion. The

terrorists rented a shop in the mall in the weeks before the attack as a

place to store their weapons. The biggest house builder in Wales,

Persimmon, has stopped developing sites in the heads of the South

Wales Valleys because it says it can't make any money there. The

company says, without investment, the Valleys risk heading into a

spiral of decline. That's all for now. We will have an

update for you at 8pm. From all of us on the programme, thank you for

watching and have a good weekend.