12/06/2014 BBC Wales Today

cooler through the weekend, but the weather is looking pretty good for

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

Two companies are fined over the death of five-year-old Karolina

Golabek, crushed to death by electric gates. Her family said

Justice has been done. What I hear today, I know that was not safe, and

it could happen to anyone. It's an industry dominated by meat.

Now new targets to boost food production and create jobs.

Four men in court charged with historical sex abuse in children's

homes. A fifth man fails to appear. After 15 years of big changes, has

the education system delivered for the children of devolution?

And highs hopes for a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games. But

triathlon world champion Non Stanford is out through injury.

Good evening. Two companies have been ordered to pay nearly ?200,000

for leaving a gate that crushed a five-year-old girl to death

"desperately unsafe". Karolina Golabek was playing near her home in

Bridgend four years ago when she became trapped. Kate Morgan reports.

Karolina Golabek was a happy, young girl. Just days away from her sixth

birthday. She was well known to her neighbours in Bridgend. And in July

2010, they spotted her, as usual, playing outside near a car park. But

moments later, she was found trapped in an electronic gate, crushed by

the equivalent of more than 30 stone in weight. Karolina was rushed to

hospital, but died just hours later. Today her family were in court to

see two companies ordered to pay nearly ?200,000 for health and

safety failings. They say it's been devastating. She was lovely, cute,

our beautiful little girl, very clever stop I hear the judge said

today that we could not bring her back to life, nor change what

happened, but I hope everyone would listen to date. -- today. This

Health and Safety Executive video shows tests on the gate just after

Karolina's death. When something is put in its way, it doesn't slow down

or stop. It should have. John Glen Installation Services worked on the

gate a year before the accident. They didn't programme a crucial

safety feature or check its strength. A second company, Tremorfa

Ltd, was responsible for maintaining the gate. They inspected it twice,

but failed to check whether it met safety standards. It didn't.

Completely preventable and avoidable, both companies leaving an

unsafe date. -- gate. Both companies say they're deeply sorry for what's

happened, and they've both made sure it couldn't happen again. The judge

said that both companies left the gate highly powerful and desperately

unsafe and argued that the death of Karolina shattered her family and it

had been entirely foreseeable, but because of the deep remorse shown by

both companies, and changes behaviour, he said the fines were

not meant to liquidate the companies, but punish them.

The food and drink industry is being given a target to increase

production by 30% in the next six years. The minister in charge, Alun

Davies, says he wants the government to be held to account if the

objective isn't met. Our economics correspondent Sarah Dickins is at a

strawberry farm in the Vale of Glamorgan. Who would have thought

that here we have an absolutely enormous strawberry business, the

first crop, first TARDIS, has gone and we have little plants inside.

They will go to high-street stores. -- the first plants. They have five

acres under glass here. It is just part of an industry that is of

growing importance. But what is controversial is how much of it is

owned by Welsh people in Wales and how much by others. This company is

based on Haverford, but I have looked at the wider industry as a

whole. When we see fields of livestock, we

look at an industry worth ?5 billion and which 45,000 people work. The

Welsh Government says the sector could grow significantly by 30% in

six years, creating more jobs and making Welsh communities wealthier.

Morgan family have farmed here for two generations and have expanded,

but say it has been difficult. We have borrowed a lot of money on the

back of an overdraft or expand the business, so access to cheap money

or finances would be an advantage. Meat accounts for 32% of the

business, and bakery 22%, red meat accounting for 42%, and milk 2% in

farming. One of the weaknesses of the food industry in Wales up until

now is the large volumes of raw materials that leave Wales to be

processed. -- milk is 32%. The aim is to try and get more food taken to

the next age, more profitable state, within Wales. We were reporting the

opening of a new abattoir in one year ago, world-class facilities to

do what we have described in the heart of the Welsh countryside. But

it is owned by Ireland. We are investing in facilities that can

deliver the products you describe. If you look down the road, there is

another business which is processing that product. But it is fair to say

even those companies that are not Welsh contribute to our economy, but

not as much as it they were owned here. We have been eased in Wales

for over 20 years at this page, employing over 600 people in the

Welsh economy, as well as associated companies that supply us with

transport, canteen, other services, Eddie heavily invested in the Welsh

economy. The Minister says the buck stops with him. The pressure is now

on the industry to identify what the producers need to help them expand

and the government to help make it happen.

And one way in which businesses like this could expanded if the people

who pick the strawberries or perhaps given more permanent jobs, or they

had another crop working through their other times of the year,

practical way in which we did see that the sector grow. But we only

need to think back to issues with bakeries, where people have had good

contracts with supermarkets, then have lost them. That is the

challenge for Wales, develop the business but in a way it continues

for the future and is money back into communities right across Wales.

But thank you. A judge has dismissed a challenge by

an animal welfare charity to overturn a decision to allow a one

thousand cow mega dairy near Welshpool. It means plans to expand

a 300 cow farm near Leighton can now go ahead. The World Society for the

Protection of Animals was ordered to pay ?6,000 in costs.

Four men charged in connection with historical sexual abuse following an

investigation into children's homes across North Wales have appeared in

court. A fifth man, also charged as part of Operation Pallial, failed to

appear and a warrant has been issued for his arrest. From Mold, Matthew

Richards reports. Neil Phoenix, who's 62 and from

Wrexham. 54-year-old Roy Norry from Connahs Quay. Edward Huxley, a

69-year-old from Berkshire. And David Lightfoot, who's 71 and from

Ellesmere Port. They are charged in connection with a series of indecent

or sexual assaults against one person. A boy under the age of 16,

between 1981 and 1986. They were charged as part of the National

Crime Agency's Operation Pallial, set up to investigate claims of

historical sexual and physical abuse at children's homes in North Wales.

In total, 20 arrests have been made so far. The four men stood alongside

each other providing addresses, dates of birth and confirmed their

names, told each of their cases will be sent to the Crown Court one week

from now. A fifth man, Mark Lester, failed to appear, charged with

indecent assault and sexual assault. A medical note provided was

described as not adequate and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Another man, Keith Stokes from Cheshire, has already been before

the district judge. His case will also be heard before the Crown Court

on 20th June. Ice in the engine may have been the

cause of a light aircraft crash in Caernarfon in which a man was

killed. Iain Nuttal from Blackburn died in May last year after the

aircraft, flown by his father, lost power and hit a tree. An Air

Accident Investigation found no mechanical faults with the engine.

The centres of Newport and Bridgend will be revamped as part of plans to

regenerate areas across South Wales using ?58 million of funding. Other

projects include a similar scheme to move people into empty homes in Port

Talbot. Similar funding for projects in North Wales was announced by

ministers last week. A woman has been awarded ?2,500

after she was diagnosed with a stroke, which turned out to be a

brain tumour. The 45-year-old was admitted to the Royal Glamorgan

Hospital near Llantrisant in 2009. Opportunities to diagnose the cancer

were missed for more than a year. Cwm Taf University health board has

apologised. Dwr Cymru Welsh Water recorded

profits of ?50 million last year. Up from 29 million the year before. The

company says it's their strongest performance since it became

non-shareholder owned more than a decade ago. The firm has already

promised to keep any prices rises below inflation until 2020. It has

been our best year of operational performance, notwithstanding

challenges last year, the months of storms during the winter,

unprecedented, but a great effort by everyone, 2500 colleagues working

long hours, dedicated to keep the service to customers going.

Still to come in the programme... No George North in training.

But despite a virus, he's picked for Saturday's first test against South

Africa. If there's one area where we've seen

big changes since devolution, it's education. Our schools, colleges and

universities work very differently now to 15 years ago. And very

differently to the rest of the UK. There have been concerns about

falling standards here. But how well founded are they? And how did

officials cope with such a frantic pace of change? Our Education

Correspondent, Arwyn Jones, looks at how education has delivered for the

children of devolution. Let us look at the evolution as a

school project, what has been achieved over 15 years. In the past

few years, ministers flexed their new-found policy muscles. Out went

the annual sat tests and league tables and in came the play based

foundation test, a unique way to teach children, but what has been

the result? According to opinion polls be commissioned, the way that

you view standards over the past 15 years is a real mixed bag, around

one in five standards have improved, but over 25% and things have

declined, but the largest proportion think that it has made little

difference. There has certainly been a distance for this family, children

of devolution having all gone through a devolved school system.

Their mother is a teacher and supports much of the Welsh

Government's work, but is torn how we teach our youngest children. I

like the foundation phase in that it lends its wealth to the children

learning themselves. -- lends itself. I am not a fan because of

the lack of structure, and looking at where my elder two wed at the

same point as we are my youngest is now, I think their maths and

literacy skills and may be slightly better. But if devolution has

achieved something, it is that this little girl loves a tough object. It

is mathematics, I am in the top group and we do weird questions,

like providing four by two and adding six. But what has happened to

results over rail -- overall? Back in 1999, Wales and England were neck

and neck, but England is motoring ahead. But that is not the whole

picture. Importantly, in Wales, few Georgian undertake BTECs and NVQs,

and children are much more likely to be pushed into those than GCSEs,

which accounts for that apparent gap in the GSE -- in the equivalent. We

could use the millennium cohort study follows the lives of 20,000

youngsters born since devolution. Comparing children in Wales with

elsewhere in the UK, with similar circumstances and backgrounds, those

children do slightly less well in literacy test results, about the

same in new Morrissey, but better in other measures. -- the same with

numbers. When sat tests scrapped a decade ago, the plan was to replace

them with other tests, but that never happened. The man who made

those recommendations says we did not know how the children are

getting on in the most important areas. How much of a problem is

this? Literacy and numeracy at 11? You have to have evidence, and

unless you put the systems in place to provide evidence you can trust,

you cannot use it, and that is the problem. He also thinks there are

weaknesses and how officials went about work. I am but the Scots have

their own parliament in 1999. In Wales, they had none of that

experience. The government insists concerns have been addressed and it

is about to launch further changes to our schools, the curriculum here

than qualifications like ECSC is about to become totally different

from Elsevier. -- my GCSEs is about to become totally different from

elsewhere, and the picture is constantly moving.

And staying with devolution. The editor of The Independent newspaper

has told this programme that Wales has been neglected by Fleet Street

since devolution was introduced 15 years ago. Politicians in Cardiff

Bay complain regularly that they're overlooked by the London papers. A

situation the Presiding Officer said had contributed to a democratic

deficit. Our arts and media correspondent Huw Thomas reports.

Millions of us buy a daily paper. Their influence still strong in

politics, business, sport and entertainment. And whoever said no

news was good news clearly wasn't an Assembly member. As complaints come

regularly that they're shunned or simply overlooked by many of

Britain's most popular papers. If you buy a newspaper, chances are

it's one that's written and published here in London. Some Welsh

poltiicians think these papers should be reporting more regularly

on Welsh affairs. Adding updates from Cardiff Bay to the column

inches devoted to Westminster. Ultimately it's the editor who

decides what's in the paper. At The Independent, Amol Rajan is in

charge. And confesses to sometimes doing Wales a disservice. I think

Wales has been treated mostly as political stories, an independent

story, Labour Party story, but fair to say it has suffered from neglect,

which it is right to annoy some Welsh readers. Since the start, the

Assembly's suffered accusations that its debates and decisions aren't

always that interesting to the outside world. You were the one that

said... You said it was like watching paint dry. That was because

of the materials. Assembly business isn't necessarily boring. But it

does have to compete with Fleet Street's own news agenda. I think

Wales is interesting, hugely interesting, but we are given by the

news agenda and there is a practicality where we have to be led

by the fact that many of our readers are not in Wales, but the south-west

and south-east of England. Political programmes have come and gone. But

both the BBC and ITV Wales have continued covering Assembly

politics, even though the total number of English language

prorgammes produced by both broadcasters has fallen while the

assembly's been in existence. The Western Mail's also been covering

events from the start. And while it retains a strong readership among

the decision makers in politics, business and sport, overall it's

suffered the same declines in circulation as almost every other

paper. As the Assembly bedded in, the Western Mail was selling more

than 57,000 copies Monday to Friday. By 2014, and including Saturdays as

well, circulation's hovering just above 22,000. But focussing on hard

copy sales masks the rapid growth online. The digital arm of the paper

got almost two million page views a month during the second half of last

year. And it is on course to double that figure by 2015. We have a huge

audience online that is growing fast... One newsroom produces

stories for the Western Mail and Wales Online. And while the politics

of devolution can occasionally be dry, some issues do excite the

readers. A great example of an easy issue to report, and one that got a

lot of coverage, was the 5p charge for plastic bags, affecting

everybody, it is the Welsh Government doing something, making a

decision impacting one is all. -- on us all. Accepting that newspaper

circulations are down across the industry, the internet seems the

solution for politicians looking for greater coverage. An enormous

opportunity for them to focus on digital in the way they present

themselves to Wales and the rest of the world. Compared to making it

into print, the opportunities for being published online are vast. But

the politicians will need to make quite an impression if they're to

get noticed among the sites and apps delivering news to the modern world.

The Labour Party has written to its local branch in the Cynon Valley

saying it won't change its mind and that the new parliamentary candidate

will have to be selected from an all-women short list. Last week, a

meeting to select a successor to the outgoing MP Ann Clwyd was cancelled

because local party members objected to the short list.

Tonight's sport. And bitter disappointment for one of our best

Commonwealth medal hopes. That's right. Good evening. One of

Wales' best hopes of a gold medal at next month's Commonwealth Games has

been forced to pull out of the team because of injury. World triathlon

champion Non Stanford, who's from Swansea, has a stress fracture in

her ankle. She's been replaced by Carol Bridge from the Rhondda, who

works as a nurse in accident and emergency. More from our sports

reporter Ashleigh Crowter. As sensational race! She was

supposed to be the one getting the games for wheels off to a flying

start, crowned world champion back in September, Non Stanford was said

to compete in the first day in Glasgow and was the whole she would

an early gold medal, but not to be, just when she thought you was over a

recent injury, a scan revealed a stress fracture in her left ankle. I

was so optimistic, everything going so well, plenty of time to make sure

I was ready for Glasgow, and to take a second blow so quickly has been

tough. But unfortunately, it is part of the game that we play, injuries

happen to everyone, and the timing has not been ideal this year. She

will have to wait another four years for the chance to wear the Welsh

vest, a cruel blow on the day after her team-mates have their official

sendoff. Helen Jenkins was there and will lead the quest for medals. She

had her own injury lay-off not long ago, but is back in action and

approaching the form that saw her crowned world champion in 2011. Non

Stanford is promising to be in Glasgow to support the team. Before

setting her sights on a new future target, the 2016 Olympics.

Rugby, and George North has been named in Wales' team to play South

Africa on Saturday, even though he's suffering from a virus. The

Northampton wing was withdrawn from the midweek team because of illness.

But Warren Gatland hopes he'll recover in time to join a side in

which Matthew Morgan and Gareth Davies could win their first caps

from the bench. From Durban, our rugby correspondent Gareth Charles

reports. With two train stations -- training

sessions in one day, the main thing to content within the heat. One

absentee is George North, consign to his hotel room but making some

progress. The real surprises in the starting line-up, plenty of

experience, with Wales in particular utilising the centre partnership.

Against an inexperienced hearing. Up front, Adam Jones places 100th

International. The midweek skipper, after proving his fitness. And the

number seven shirt taking over an absence. And quite ending oppression

created midweek by some. And Wales eye to create an impression on

Saturday. -- and making quite an impression. We're not here to make

up the numbers, we feel we have trained well, going out there with

the belief and confidence we could win. The surroundings and weather

conditions sometimes make it easy to forget you are in the middle of a

South African winter, but those players chosen by Warren Gatland

know it will get hotter before they can contemplate any relaxation and

an end of season break. One final bit of sports News for you

tonight. Football, and Cardiff City have signed midfielder Kagisho

Dikgacoi from Crystal Palace. The 29-year-old South African is out of

contract. He's the fifth player to be signed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

this summer. Thank you. Primary school children

in Aberystwyth took a giant leap for mankind earlier today by launching

their very own space mission. Three, two, one! CHEERING.

The space capsule lifted off from the playground with the help of a

large helium balloon. It spent three and a half hours in the sky,

reaching a height of nearly 18 miles, before finally coming down in

a field near Llandrindod Wells. And they certainly have the weather for

it. It feels more like summer again today. Derek is out enjoying the

sunshine. Don't fall in! I will try my best not to, it is

gorgeous here. And the rowing club making the most of the sunshine, out

on the water this evening. The top temperature today was in Cardiff. 22

Celsius. Not quite the warmest day of the year so far. That was back in

mid May when 25 Celsius was recorded at Hawarden in Flintshire. There's

more fine weather to come. But it's not all plain sailing for the

weekend. Cloud on the way. One or two showers as well but still some

sunshine. Fine and sunny this evening. Dry overnight. The sky

fairly clear. Lowest temperatures dropping to nine in Rhayader. 13 in

Caernarfon and Newport. Tomorrow's chart shows a ridge of high pressure

across southern Britain. Further north, fronts will bring some rain.

So tomorrow morning. Friday the 13th! The whole country dry. Lots of

sunshine and a few clouds. During the afternoon, cloud will increase.

The odd shower possible. Mainly in the north but most places dry.

Sunniest in the south. Warm and humid. Highest temperatures in the

south-east 23 Celsius. Cooler in the west and northwest, especially on

the coast. Around 17 Celsius in Nefyn. And the pollen count will be

very high inland. Lower on windward coasts. The chart for the weekend

shows high pressure over Ireland with a weak front over Britain. This

will move south-west, bringing cloud and a few showers. So Saturday

bright for a time in the south and west with some sunshine. But a

cloudier day overall. One or two showers. Some dry weather as well.

Temperatures still up to 20 Celsius. On Sunday the odd shower. But most

places dry. Some cloud, but generally more in the way of

sunshine compared to Saturday. 16 Celsius in Conwy to 21 Celsius in

Kidwelly, with a light breeze. More fine and warm weather to come

tomorrow. Not quite as nice as this over the weekend, but still some

pleasant weather. It looks absolutely beautiful.

The main news again from the BBC. Iraq says it has launched air

strikes against Islamist militants advancing on the capital Baghdad.

They're targeting the ISIS fighters linked to Al-Qaeda. Tonight,

President Obama has spoken of the need for immediate, short-term

military action in Iraq. And tTwo companies have been ordered

to pay nearly ?200,000 for leaving a gate that crushed a five-year-old

girl to death "desperately unsafe". And that is Wales Today. We'll have

an update at eight. More after the BBC News at ten. For, now though,

from all of us here, have a good evening. Goodbye.