04/10/2016 BBC Wales Today

Welcome to Wales Today. Our top stories:

A media scrum at Cardiff Crown Court for the retrial for rape

of former Wales international footballer Ched Evans.

Your council, the services we use and their future -

tonight the latest attempt at reform.

It is a public service. The public is entitled to know that we are

actually trying to deliver the best service. You can only do that if you

are talking to each other. Another day and another Welsh

football coach is fired. This time, Cardiff City sack

Paul Trollope after less than It has been their worst start to a

season for more than a decade. And we've been to Pontypridd

as the Conservatives claim the Welsh Government mismanaged

?4 billion of EU grants intended The retrial of former Wales

international footballer Ched Evans Evans is accused of raping a woman

after a night out in Rhyl in 2011. He denies the offence

and was in court today having won an appeal against his original

conviction back in 2012. The jury was told the alleged victim

remembered practically nothing of the night and was

too drunk to consent. Supported once again by his partner,

Ched Evans is back in court to try to clear his name once and for all.

He started his professional career at Manchester city in 2002. 13 Wales

caps followed. In 2009 he signed for Sheffield United for ?3 million. But

in 2012 that career pause. He and a fellow footballer were charged and

stood trial for rape. The jury at Caernarfon Crown Court acquitted the

other player but found Ched Evans guilty. He served half of a

five-year sentence. But new evidence emerged. His conviction was quashed.

A retrial was ordered. Ched Evans is extremely grateful that the Court of

Appeal has ruled that his conviction for rape was unsafe and should be

quashed. For the first time in four years, Ched Evans is playing

football once again with the League 1 side Chesterfield. There is no

prospect of Ched Evans going back to jail. He has already served a

custodial sentence as part of that first trial but he has always

maintained his innocence in all of this and that this retrial over the

next two weeks he will hope the jury will agree. It is the prosecution's

case that after a night out in May 2011, click on McDonald took a woman

back to a hotel to have sex but the court was told today that Ched Evans

also had sex with the woman in that hotel room. It is alleged she was

too drunk to be able to consent to sex with Mr Evans. Prosecution said

"We submit that she was so intoxicated, for whatever reason,

that she did not know what was happening. Sex without consent is

rape. She remembers practically nothing of the events of that

night." The prosecution also told the jury that although Ched Evans

steel is a well-known footballer, they should put aside any media

commentary or the views of anyone else during this retrial. The court

heard that some comments, especially those made online, were one-sided

and often unhelpful. Councils here will be

forced to work together, pooling their resources

with neighbouring authorities, to provide key services

like education and social care. This is the latest attempt at reform

after the Welsh Government dropped plans to redraw the map by cutting

the existing 22 councils Here's our political editor

Nick Servini. Regional partnerships don't sound

particularly dramatic but this would be a fundamental change. Big

spending services like social care, educational improvement, planning,

economic development and transport would be shared. Collaboration has

happened before but it has been done on a voluntary basis. The difference

now is that for the first time councillors will be forced to work

together. Even though the 22 councils would continue to exist, it

would mark the end of them being entirely self-contained bodies, able

to work independently. But there are concerns that adding a newly of

government would mean a lack of accountability, with confusion over

who is responsible for what. Local authorities work together in all

sorts of ways already. What we don't have is a systematic approach to

weight and we don't have an approach where local authorities know that

this is required of them. It is optional and it is very mixed. But

they do it and there is no suggestion this is somehow a new

tier of local government or you can't have accountability in it. One

of the big names is to help council's social services

departments to have better working relationships with hospitals. The

regional partnerships covering social care would mirror health

board boundaries with the aim of easing pressure on the NHS.

You cannot do this on the cheap to start it all off.

There are real efficiencies to be made about these organisations

working together, different social services departments working

But sometimes you just need that bridging money,

that finance, and we have got to make sure the Welsh Government

understands we may have to put up some money at the front

The last attempt at reorganising councils failed.

Are today's plans going to fare any better?

It was a striking feature of the last attempt which involves merging

local authorities that it was fiercely resisted right from the

start. This time around, the prospects are pretty good. Labour

does not have an overall majority. But a number of these policies were

very similar to the kind of things Plaid Cymru were talking about in

the Assembly campaign. They could get support there. And with the

councils themselves, this would not make -- involve major upheaval, a

major round of redundancies, and the 22, even though the door is open to

potentially some voluntary mergers, would continue to exist. But the

point about council reorganisation is that it can be deeply unpopular

with the grass roots party members around the country and none of the

parties are going to want to be involved in that at the moment

because guess what we have got in the spring of next year, council

elections. Thank you very much. A 33-year-old man from Cardiff has

been charged with six terrorism offences, including membership

of so-called Islamic State. Samata Ullah was arrested last

Tuesday by the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command supported

by the Wales Extremism Two houses in the city were searched

as part of the investigation. An employment tribunal has heard

that a former managing director of a Welsh food company referred

to a transgender employee as "it" and said she wasn't wanted

in the organisation. Chris Morton denies making

the comments while at His former head of Human

Resources Jackie Atkinson has accused him of unfairly

dismissing her after she criticised his behaviour in relation to two

members of staff who can't be named After just five months in the job,

Cardiff City have sacked their head The Bluebirds are second from bottom

in the Championship after only This has been the club's worst start

to a season in over a decade. Our reporter Ben Price is live

at the Cardiff City Stadium Sports fans watching tonight might

find it hard to recall a time quite like this in Welsh football. Paul

Trollope became the third Welsh club site manager to be sacked. He was

brought into the club back in May to replace Russell Slade but after just

two wins in the league this season, the club decided it was time for him

to go. Cardiff City is a club with big expectations. The owner Vincent

Tan wants them back in the Premier League as soon as possible so

whoever comes here next as manager will have a mammoth sized task on

will have a mammoth sized task on their hands.

It has been three seasons since Cardiff City rubbed shoulders with

the elite but a return to the Premier League is all but a distant

dream. It was all change once again at Cardiff City at the start of the

season. " Trollope, once a coach at the club he was soon handed the top

job back in May. This is a club with big expectations and so an eighth

place finish last year was not enough to satisfy the bosses. The

new head coach promised to deliver the goods. We are going to try and

hit the ground running, we are going to try and give the fans a team they

are proud of and proud to support. But that has not quite happened.

They are in a shocking position, second from bottom in the

Championship, they have only scored in a couple of matches. It is not

look like a man or manager who could turn things around so the club had

to react. Despite very little activity in the summer transfer

window, some may argue the current team has enough experience to get

themselves back up the table. It has been a tumultuous few years for the

bluebirds faithful, both on and off the field. They have been fallouts

and protests over changes to club colours and other big decisions. It

has left many fans feeling fed up. We have got a lack of experience

within the football world on the board, we have got people who are

good financial backgrounds but no football experience and that is

proved in the way we were rebranded. I think the coach has got a lot to

do with the result so something has got to be had by him. With an

international break this weekend, Cardiff have ten days to find a

replacement. The question is, who will be ready for such a challenge?

The question is, who will be ready for such a challenge?

Unlike Swansea City, Cardiff City are yet to name their replacement

manager. There has been quite a bit of speculation. The bookies

favourite is Neil Warnock, a man with a lot of experience in the

championship. He has also taken close to the Premier League. But

this is a situation we will have to watch closely over the next few

days. Much more to come before

seven o'clock: Frank Kitt has benefitted

from talking therapy but mental health charities say the waiting

lists are too long. When people do get access

to psychological therapies early, there is a reduction in the use

of prescriptions, a reduction Six members of staff have been

suspended at a mental health unit The action was taken

at Bryn Hesketh Unit after concerns were raised by another member

of staff over some Chris Dearden is in

our Bangor newsroom. The unit is run by the Betsi

Cadwaladr Health Board. It said it acted quickly when these concerns

came to light last week. It has not given as much detail about what the

problem is. A member of staff came forward with concerns about the

quality of care last week. The health board says it has reacted to

that, it has followed all the official guidelines on how it deals

with a case like this. It has also called in an independent outside

investigator and suspended six members of staff, although it

describes those suspensions as a neutral act. The unit is one of the

places where staff and patients were transferred to back in 2013 when

they were problems with another psychiatric ward. These

investigations are not connected at all, this is completely separate,

but they have still been calls from the Welsh Conservatives for some

reassurances in this case, firstly to people in North Wales that the

mental health service is being well-run, but also patients and

relatives at the unit that there would be any disruption while this

investigation is going on. Thank you very much. We will have more on this

during the course of the evening. One in four of us will suffer some

kind of mental health issue during our lives but when it comes

to getting psychological help people That's the view of a new coalition

of mental health charities. We Need to Talk Wales says half

of all people wait more than three months before their first

talking therapy session. He suffered from severe

depression and anxiety. At times he thought

about ending his life. Frank believes talking therapy

in the form of cognitive behavioural therapy changed his thinking

and saved his life. If I hadn't had that timely

intervention and a considerable amount of cognitive behavioural

therapy sessions, I don't think I would be here today

because I think that gradual decline into a depressive state,

I probably would have One in four of us will experience

some kind of mental health issue during our lifetimes and talking

therapies are widely seen as one of the most effective ways

to treat conditions such Earlier today, a new coalition

representing mental health charities Those behind it say all patients

should have access to talking It makes economic sense to do it

because it is going to cost the health service more if we don't

see people in a timely fashion. What research has shown is that

when people get access to psychological therapies early,

there is a reduction in the use of prescriptions, hospital

stays and GP visits, so it does make economic sense

to make it happen. The coalition has set

this target of 28 days. The Welsh Government has worked

on a new delivery plan and that has been done in partnership

with members of the coalition and people affected directly

by mental ill health as well. The new delivery plan will set

a target of 80% of people How soon before that

becomes a reality? The Minister will be launching this

delivery plan on World Mental Health Day, the 10th of October,

and we hope to see progress The cost of mental health problems

in Wales is estimated at ?7.2 billion a year

and prescriptions for The coalition warns if patients

continue to face long waits, the cost for Wales

will continue to rise. The Secretary of State for Wales has

launched a fierce attack on the Welsh Government's handling

of European Union funds Alun Cairns told the Conservative

Party conference in Birmingham that the Labour-run administration

in Cardiff had "mismanaged" grants Our Parliamentary Correspondent

David Cornock is at the conference Alun Cairns is very critical of the

way the EU funds have been spent in Wales but what he is not doing is

naming names. He won't tell us those projects he thinks have failed.

Instead he challenged us to go out and talk to people and to find out

whether they think they have got value for money, so that is what we

did. Restored to its former glory

and making a splash, the Pontypridd lido reopened last

year thanks in part to ?3 million And it is not the only part

of the town to get EU cash. Pontypridd, like much of Wales,

has received money for things like town centre regeneration,

improvements to its railway station The lido is now closed

for the winter but as politicians reflect on the summer's Brexit vote,

many are still asking why so many people in areas like this that have

qualified for European funding for so long decided to take

the plunge and vote to leave the EU. A big message of the Leave campaign

was there is no such But the Remain camp in Wales

used EU spending as one ?10 million for Pontypridd station,

the Church Village bypass. Pontypridd's AM made this video

listing EU backed projects, but the Welsh Secretary told

the Conservative conference today that the Leave vote in areas

like Pontypridd is in part down to Welsh Labour's handling

of the EU money. If you talk to people

in those communities, have they really felt an uplift

in their well-being, an uplift in their economic prosperity

because of the European aid? I would suggest the referendum

outcome tells you they didn't. Despite there being plenty of signs

like this in Rhondda Cynon Taff, People who live in the poverty

of the Valleys, as much as the money goes into these projects,

which is great, that I think once they get things sorted,

there will be more money for Wales. One Valleys Labour AM says

Alun Cairns is wrong to criticise You can't just put money

in for a short period of time They really are long-term projects

and it is not over yet. As Brexit gets closer,

the argument is now turning to the extent to which the UK

Government will deliver replacement funding and how that

funding will be spent. Well, also speaking at

the conference today was the leader of the Welsh Conservatives

Andrew RT Davies. Mr Davies reminded members here

that he had campaigned for Brexit - But his speech may be

remembered for other reasons. Conference, mark my words, we will

make breakfast...Brexit a success. That is one word that was not meant

to come out like that, was it? I will have a word with

the autocue at the back. Mark my words, plenty of food for

thought from the Welsh Conservative leader.

We are just getting news of a fire on a train in Caerphilly station.

The train was evacuated and crews were called around an hour ago.

National rail say it is causing delays of up to two hours and a real

replacement service will be available. We will bring you more on

this in our later bulletins. Every child in Wales

should be given the chance to play football, according

to the Assistant Wales Osian Roberts believes it's the only

way to develop another Gareth Bale or Aaron Ramsey and he's calling

for more investment in sport There are plans to install 100

all-weather artificial But those who run children's clubs

say they are often Even at this level, football can be

an expensive business. And those at the top

of the game are warning, as a result, Wales could fail

to nurture future talent. Wales midfielder Joe Allen,

for one, says he has seen talent We had examples of kids in my team

at Swansea or even in the local teams and local clubs

in Pembrokeshire that had talent but it was difficult

for the families to provide That is another area,

that is what I am hoping that The FAW made ?3 million

through Wales' success in the Euros There are already plans to install

100 3G pitches across Wales by 2020. But running costs can be up

to ?50,000 a year. So some clubs can't

afford to use them. The 3G pitches, it is ?89,

that is four or five week's subs for us, and that is if we get subs,

because it's voluntary. A lot of them say, we'll give it

next week, and then we've Wales assistant manager

Osian Roberts has his own idea I was speaking recently

to our colleagues in Iceland where they give a ?150 voucher

to each child to spend on any sports that they want to get

involved in every year. You decide how you want to exercise

and be involved in sport but we will remove the obstacle

and that is what we have got to do. We have got to remove those

obstacles that deter children Sport Wales says while it can't help

clubs pay for the hire of pitches long term, it does provide grants

for equipment and training. The Welsh Government says it invests

more than ?20 million every year in sport to support ambitions

and that is allocated to all levels, You can see more on this story

as former international Dean Saunders looks at how Welsh

grassroots football can help keep the Euros dream alive,

tonight at 10.40pm on BBC One Wales. In rugby, Sam Warburton has

undergone surgery for a fractured cheekbone today and is expected

to be out of action for two to four weeks, according

to the Cardiff Blues. He sustained the injury

after clashing heads with Josh Van der Flier during a defeat

to Leinster on Saturday. But the Wales captain should be

available for the autumn opener against Australia in Cardiff

on November the 5th. Lets see what the weather has in

store for the next couple of days. October is normally a wet month

but little if any rain Misty and cold in Llandrindod this

morning. But the cloud did lift

and break with a little Dry this evening and most

parts dry overnight. Just the odd spot of drizzle

on the hills. A few breaks in the cloud and milder

than last night with a breeze. Lowest temperatures,

nine, ten or 11 Celsius. Tomorrow's chart shows high pressure

over Norway and that means The high acting like a block,

keeping these fronts away from us. Here's the picture for

eight in the morning. A lot of cloud around but bright

in places with a breeze. So another dry day tomorrow

and during the day more More sunshine in the afternoon

than we saw today. Top temperatures

of 14 to 17 Celsius. A little cooler than today

and breezy with a moderate to fresh In Caerphilly tomorrow,

dry and breezy. Sunnier than today

and a little cooler. A cloudy start but cheering-up

with some sunshine. A bit breezy on the golf

course with a high of 15 Cloud will increase

overnight but staying dry. Parts of the south and west clear

and a cooler night. On Thursday, a mix of cloud,

bright or sunny intervals. The wind from the east with a light

shower possible in parts One or two light showers in mid

and north Wales, otherwise dry. The best of the sunshine

in the south-west. So benign weather this week

with subtle differences One or two showers, colder

nights with ground frost The headlines again. The retrial of

former Wales international footballer Ched Evans has begun. He

is accused of raping a woman after a night out in 2011. He was in court

today having won an appeal against his original conviction. The jury

was told the alleged victim remembered drastically nothing of

the night and was too drunk to consent. Mr Evans denies the charge.

And after five months in the job, Cardiff City have sacked head coach

Paul Trollope. The bluebirds are second from bottom in the

championship after only two wins in 11 matches.

I'll have an update for you here at eight o'clock and again

From all of us on the programme, good evening.