Grants of up to £25,000 are available to Llangattock Businesses.  Follow this link to find out more.

https://en.powys.gov.uk/article/14860/Powys-Business-Growth-Grant

If you enjoyed the #communityspirit around #Halloween this year, do it all again with the Llangattock Village Society on December 6th.

The met office has issued a weather warning for rain and strong winds from 1800 today (Wednesday November 1st) to 23.59 tomorrow. Please follow this link for updates and advice on staying safe in a storm.

Important Message from Powys County Council regarding the closure of the waste recycling centre at Brecon for refurbishment:

Powys County Council would like to remind residents that the Brecon Household Waste Recycling Centre in the Ffrwdgrech Industrial Estate will be closing temporarily on Thursday 16 November to undergo important safety upgrades and improve the site user experience.

Whilst the recycling centre is closed, residents wishing to recycle items not collected at the kerbside, will be able to visit one of the other four centres in the county, the closest of which are in Llandrindod Wells (open Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sun) and Lower Cwmtwrch (open Mon, Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sun).

Cardboard can still be taken to one of the following local community recycling sites:

Brecon Richway
Crickhowell
Cwmdu
Hay on Wye
Llangynidr
Sennybridge
Talgarth

While we hope most people will be able to hang on to their waste and recycling which cannot be collected through the kerbside collections, or take to an alternative site, we appreciate this isn't so easy for garden waste. For the duration of the refurbishment (starting from 20 November), garden waste can be taken to the old Brecon high school site in Penlan, off Cerrigcochion Road, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday mornings (9am-1pm).

"We know that the closure of the Brecon Household Waste Recycling Centre for three-months will be unwelcome news, and we apologise for the inconvenience." Says Cllr Jackie Charlton, Cabinet Member for a Greener Powys. "The essential works planned for this refurbishment need to be done for the safety of all users and to ensure the site remains fit-for-use going forward.

"We are working closely with Potter Group, who run the councils recycling centres, and the contractors to ensure we have picked the quietest time of the year and to make sure we keep the length of time the site is closed to a minimum.

"With a county as large and sparse as Powys, we appreciate users of the Brecon Household Waste Recycling Centre will have to travel much further to visit another recycling centre whilst the refurbishment takes place. Thank you for your patience and understanding."

The refurbishment to the recycling centre will include new, safer hardstanding across the site, upgraded drainage, an improved one-way system with easier access and safer parking area, and a dedicated area for leaving items for re-use. Due to begin on Thursday 16 November, the work will take approximately three-months to complete.

Although many of the improvements to the site will not be noticeable to visitors, they are essential to make sure the facility complies with legal requirements, operates safely, and remains easy for visitors to access and use.

Please check online for details and opening days and times of all Powys Household Waste Recycling Centres: Recycling Centres

If you find it difficult to get about, hard to travel to a medical appointment, the garden centre or a sociable lunch, help is at hand.  Volunteers run the Dial-a-Ride service and serve Llangattock.  They are looking for volunteer drivers, too, so if you have a valid, clean driver's licence with 'D1' on it and can spare a few hours to help your community, please get in touch.  Call too if you could help on the admin side. The numbers are on the photos.

Crickhowell High School pupils from Llangattock have been filling out our survey, but we need to hear from young people from our community who are not at school as well. Click the link to take the survey.

Young people of Llangattock, don't let the older generation have more say in the future of your community. If you care about the environment, public transport places to live and work, then watch this video and fill out our 12-21s survey here.

Local Authorities, emergency services and other responders are required by law to form Local Resilience Forums (based on police force areas) to jointly plan for, respond to and recover from emergencies.

Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) are multi agency partnerships made up of representatives from category 1 responders. The LRFs are supported by the category 2 responders and also work with the military and voluntary sectors. LRFs aim to plan and prepare for localised incidents and catastrophic emergencies. They work to identify potential risks and produce emergency plans to either prevent or mitigate the impact of any incident on their local communities.

However, developing the ability to help each other at a local level will assist if the emergency services are overloaded in the initial response. It could also lessen the impact of the emergency on the community.

The Dyfed Powys Local Resilience Forum covers the counties of Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Powys.  The Chief Constable of Dyfed Powys Police chairs the lead group. Reporting to the DPLRF is a variety of groups and sub groups established to undertake specific activities. Officers from the Local Authorities are represented on each of the groups. Local Resilience Forums are not a statutory body.

Risk Assessment – Community Risk Register Category 1 and 2 responders have produced a community risk register covering the area of Dyfed Powys. The register is a list of risks that may cause an emergency in the Dyfed Powys area. Inclusion of a risk in a community risk register doesn’t mean it will happen. It means it is recognised as a possibility and organisations have made arrangements to plan for response to the incident and reduce its impact. The Dyfed Powys risk assessments are reviewed annually, or as required if sooner, and takes account of both national guidance combined with local knowledge and expertise across our area. This information is then given to the LRF professional partners to assess, discuss and act upon to improve our capability to respond to any form of disruptive challenge.

The key risks include:

Pandemic Flu

Flooding

Severe Weather

Loss of infrastructure

Pollution

Animal disease

Industrial incidents

Transport incidents

Emergency Planning

Emergency planning is a comprehensive, multi-agency process to identify and assess relevant risks, to plan and prepare, to train and exercise, to mitigate the effects and respond effectively to incidents, when they happen. Emergency planning is undertaken at county, regional and national levels. Emergency response plans are produced at local resilience forum level and by each responder agencies to describe arrangements to respond to emergencies and/or specific risks as outlined in the community risk register. Officers are trained in the content of the plans and a series of exercises (multi agency and individual agency) are regularly organised to test the response. Following training, exercises and incidents, plans are reviewed based on debrief and lessons learnt to ensure the response to future emergencies is more effective.

Business continuity

Business continuity is about planning to mitigate the effects of a potential disruption to vital public services, so that they can continue to be delivered during an emergency. Category 1 responders have a legal duty to have business continuity arrangements in place for their organisation, sharing best practice. Whatever the incident, the local authority should strive as far as reasonable for “business as usual” in service delivery which is detailed in their Business Continuity Plan (BCP). This also involves ensuring that critical suppliers can still deliver in an emergency.

Warning & Informing

Arrangements are in place on a multi agency basis and within each organisation to warn, inform and advise the public before and during an emergency. Documents and links have been  placed  on  local  authority’s  websites  giving  information  to  the  public  about emergency planning and preparedness. During an incident, the local authority will work with relevant multi agency partners to ensure a common message is disseminated to the public and media on the response and its impact. Elected Members will have a role to play acting as a liaison between their communities and the council.

Community Resilience

In addition to formal statutory duties, there is an increasing recognition that responders (local authorities especially) need to draw on the resources and abilities of their communities as part of emergency preparedness and response. This is known as community resilience and can be defined as “communities and individuals harnessing resources and expertise to help themselves prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies, in a way that complements the work of the emergency responders”. Elected Members can play a key role in encouraging communities to become more resilient notably through the production of community emergency plans. By becoming more resilient, individuals and communities can supplement the work of local responders and reduce the impact of the emergency both in the short and long term.

Work will begin shortly on the next round of making Llangattock's public loos more energy efficient and comfortable to use.  It's after we received a further grant from the National Lottery. In this video, Cllr Tim Jones explains what's going to happen.

Thank you to those residents who turned out for walkabouts at Ffawyddog and the meeting at Llangattock Community Hall for people living in Clos Cillau, Tan Derwen and Plas Derwen. Thank you also to those people who delivered leaflets and encouraged their neighbours to take part. It was really useful to know what you like and don't like about living in our community. All images with permission from children and/or parents/guardians. The next meeting is on Monday at 1830 in the car park on Owens Row and in St Catwgs church room after that for teas and coffees.

Here's the next round of community consultations in small areas around Llangattock, on Ffawddog this Sunday morning, Clos Cillau, Plas Derwen and Tan Derwen on the evening of the 20th and in the centre of the village on the 25th. Please pass the details on to your neighbours.

Thank you to everyone who attended a very lively meeting with Legar residents this morning as part of Llangattock Community Council's place plan consultation. It was brilliant to hear everyone's views on traffic, speed, affordable housing and infrastructure as well as flooding and healthcare. Thank you to the residents who organised it and for The Vine Tree  for hosting it.

Thank you to those residents who shared their views about the future of Llangattock at small-area consultations in Bethesda Chapel and the Rectory Hotel yesterday. It was fascinating to learn what you think about our community and inspiring to listen to how much you care about it. We will be holding similar consultations in Legar next Tuesday at the Vine Tree, Clos Cillau/Plas Derwen and Tan Derwen on the 20th and Owens Row/Swan Lane on the 25th. Watch out for the leaflet through your door.

As part of the Llangattock Place Plan Consultation, Community Councillors will be available to talk to residents of Church View and Rectory Close, Legar, Church and the village centre/Owens Row/Swan Lane areas tomorrow, Tuesday 12th and Monday 25th September, respectively. Please see the posters for information. These small area walkabouts have been organised by local people who want to make sure as many people as possible have a chance to have a say about the future of Llangattock. Please join in.

We are very pleased to say that phase 1 of the recreation ground toilet block refurbishment has been completed and the toilets will reopen this Monday. Many thanks to our contractors, Land & Stone, and our project manager, Richard Jones. Also grateful thanks to the Bannau Brycheiniog - Brecon Beacons - National Park #Sustainable Development Fund and The National Lottery Awards for All scheme. Doesn't it look great with its lovely, insulated new roof? Phase 2, which will see the installation of a solar/battery system, hot water and infrared heating will commence next month following a further award from the National Lottery Community Fund