tis the party season.....

so it's the party season and mad friday but sometimes corporate hospitality in llandod is not all that it should be.
A former employee of the metropole regaled to us how the metropole were given a couple of crates of grot by carlsberg tetley by way of thanking them for their business.
So slimeball MD Baird Murray decided to keep them for the staff xmas party.
Quite generous when you think about it.
However Mr Baird Murray in the true spirit of xmas decided to charge his staff £1 a bottle for the freebies at the party.

Bah humbug

continuing discomfort

it is at this time of year that the metropole in llandrindod has it's busiest time in way of conferences, this week has seen major problems with parking in the surrounding areas.
Areas where elderly supported housing folk shuffle about their business and school kids and young mums try to get to and from school.
The chaos this week has come directly from the metropole who invite delegates in numbers that their car park cannot accomadate, this has seen the towns streets oversubscribed and left in perilously dangerous conditions,cars straddling pavements,blocking bus routes and traversing junctions.
The metropole are employing a car park attendee whos job is to direct traffic onto the neighbouring streets when their car park is full.
the same family that owns and manages the metropole also owns the derelict site adjacent to the auto palace that has been an eyesore for over 4 years and could at redeemable cost have been turned into a overflow car park.

I do feel sorry for many of the delegates attending conferences at the metropole as they sometimes have to walk a quarter of a mile to the conference from where they have parked.

Perhaps they should park in a pay and display car park and send the bill to the metropole who claim on their website that their is adequate free parking.
or perhaps delegates will no longer feel like parking on the adjacent neighbouring streets especially if they find out about some of the short term serial offenders who take residence at the nearby gwynfa hostel.
perhaps they might even consider taking their meetings somewhere more accomadating.

when lines disappear

It looks if there is a big conference at the metropole today.
With a large overspill of traffic parking in the streets.
one of the affected streets has recently had some road resurfacing and the council have ye to repaint the double yellow lines.
This allowed conference delegates to traverse a junction,park where the lines should have been and generally over subscribe the streets.
Most of the offending drivers seemed to be women as well which makes you wonder if general anti social and enviro degradation permeates through all sexes.
Particular offenders were thedrivers of vehicles DY03WXL and DA56 PXC.
Having informed dyfed powys police of the scenario and offences committed they were unsure the legal position,that is if fined for parking in such a spot whether a prosecution could be successfully brought against the drivers of the offending vehicles.

If a success is to be made of the commitment to clearways then all sides should be proactive and up to date, this includes dyfed powys police and powys county council road division.

friday tis the day!

so the much debated drinking in designated places comes into force on friday 1st of august.
some would say a loss to liberties and freedom of choice,although as we all know it is more of an oppertunity lost to help people with psychological addictive illness!!!
that doesnt mean that the work of powys challenge and david peter in particular has been wasted as the numbers of drinkers dwindled to almost none.
I suppose this is another example of power relations with those who have meansdictating to others and this case especially highlights the ignorance of so called professional people who are only interested in making money and keeping it to themselves.
pathetic.
the guilty are as follows:Justin baird Murray managing director of the licsensed hotel metropole,Dr herman Venter local dentist and afrikaaner who obviously beleives in birth rights and two tier systems.
Councillors keith Tampin,gary Price and Mike Hodges who is a proprieter of a off license.

migrant workers exploited

Heres an example of how the system of migrant workers are being exploited and whilst recognising it is in no way comparable to the way staff at the Metropole are treated or rewarded it emphasises the potential to exploit when there is an endless supply of cheap and accessible labour.
It is typical of the way the 'borgoise' can maximise their profits whilst at the same time furthering social ills.
Atthe metropole the migratory staff are mostly contracted through agencies and are made to work long unsociable hours for wages that work out at barely the minimum wage when you consider the length of shifts and the times of the day that the shifts cover.
it also alienates the large number of local unemployed who quite rightly decide not to put up with such measures in 2008.







Gangsters make migrants work on building site for 22p an hour
EXCLUSIVE: Scandal of immigrant builders who work for peanuts with no sick pay or holidays

(What's this?)Ruthless gangmasters are putting migrants to work on building sites for as little as 22p an hour.

The scandalous pay abuse saw one man get £8.80 for a 39-hour week and another £66 for 70 hours.

Mean bosses are illegally deducting large sums from wages for rent and utility bills - leaving many workers destitute. One had £228 taken in a week for tools.

Despite grafting round the clock, most do not get overtime, sick pay or holidays.
Scandalously, the worst example of the modern-day slavery was found on a £600million Government redevelopment site.

But with 800,000 immigrants having arrived from Eastern Europe in four years, it is feared the abuse could be far more widespread.

Alan Ritchie, boss of construction union UCATT, said: "This case is the worst we have seen, these workers were virtually destitute.

"We have been building up a big file on abuses of ganged workers.

"The fact it has occurred on a Private Finance Initiative site using taxpayers money is scandalous."

In the worst case the Mirror uncovered, Lithuanian men were recruited to work on the Government site by small dry wall lining firm called Produm Ltd.

Payslips show on top of money deducted for accommodation, each man had £76.80 taken weekly as their payment to the "construction industry scheme".

This basically registers them as self-employed - meaning their employer does not have to pay National Insurance But it is in breach of the law because none of the workers are believed to have given consent.

The pay abuse only came to light after some workers' wages stopped altogether with Produm owing up to five weeks' pay.

Last night most of the workers were too frightened to talk.

But one colleague, who refused to be named, said: "At the beginning of this month there were seven workers living in a cramped three bedroom flat in Mansfield. They cycle to work every day and are very hard grafters.

"They are being paid around £6 an hour but were hit heavily by illegal deductions which left them with next to nothing to take home.

"One week Produm took rent or tool money, then they'd take for utility bills, it was unbelievable.

"They struggled to find money for food some weeks. £8.80 won't even get you a few pints."

The migrants had been working at the Kings Mill hospital site in Mansfield, Notts, which is a closelymonitored development. According to industry guidelines, workers there should earn a basic £7.31 an hour.

Experts said wages of the man paid £8.80 for 39 hours makes a mockery of the National Minimum Wage, which is £5.52 an hour.

underwhelmed at overwhelmed

Huge support for drink ban





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THERE is overwhelming support in Llandrindod Wells for a drinking ban to be introduced in public areas of the town.
Mayor Derek Law says he does not want to prevent young people from sitting in park areas such as Temple and the Memorial Gardens enjoying the sunshine with their friends, but he does want to rid the town of the often “dubious behaviour” reported of people consuming alcohol in public.

More than 300 people are believed to have contacted Powys County Council (PCC) in support of such a ban.

After such a huge responsefrom the public it is hoped a designated public places order can be brought in by spring 2008.

A draft report recommending that such an order be created is scheduled to go before the PCC Board shortly for a final decision.

Cllr Law said: “A lot of young people in the town have no jobs, so with no cash and no motivation the situation is exasperated.”

Cllr Keith Tampin said: “I know we have got to help these people that drink on the streets but the organisations and facilities are here in the town to help them, such as Powys Drugs and Alcohol Centre and Alcoholics Anonymous, but a lot of them don’t seem to want help.”

Cllr Jean Christopher said her concern was where would the drinkers go if such a ban was imposed.

“If we move them from the village green and the town hall area, where are they going to go?

“Are they going to be a problem some where else in the town?”



This is the report of the town councils joy at their response to the mailshot.why are they overjoyed at less then 10% of the town supporting their proposed ban!
the actual numbers that replied was 245,with 241 in support of a ban,4 opposed on concerns about a lack of freedom to choose.
you will notice the quote from cllr Tampin which states he knows these people need help but they dont want to seem to do that,well Keith my old cockney sparrow,people who are in a grip of addiction the hardest part is to admit to a problem, its hard to get off the destructive spiral.
I know two members of the crew who have really worked hard this year to sort themselves out,yes they have fallen off the wagon a couple of times due to bad influences mainly so called friends but their overall improvement is a joy to behold.In fact the lady involved is blossoming.
they had the strength of character to do it themselves others dont find it as easy.
As cllr christopher says 'where are they going to go'
imposing a ban on certain areas will not cure alcoholism and it will not adress anti social behaviour in the town.
what about the yobs who drink in the pubs at the weekend and on exiting often cause mayhem,why dont they get picked on by the town council.
oh yes they are spending a couple of quid on a pint so that is different of course.
I wonder if the Metropole beer garden has a license to drink in, perhaps after the ban is in place the last members of the brew crew could perhaps congregate there instead.Or perhaps maybe at the 'crown jewel' of Llandrindod, the lake.

the red car parked on the right hand side of the road belongs to the Hotel Metropoles manager Mr Robert Hughes,it is parked outside the elderly day centre and adjacent to the county library.

In his wisdom mr Hughes parks his car on the hotel car park overnight when it is empty but during the day he vacates that area to allow delegates cars into the hotel car park and impedes the local community by parking in the street opposite!

this is obnoxious and selfish!

you can tell mr Hughes what you think of his selfishness by ringing him at the hotel on

01597 823700

Llandrindod wells has an unemployment figure at near 4%,that is above national average,over the last ten years major employerswith the town mostly factories have succumbed to the global market and have either closed or laid off large amounts of staff.Two of these factories were established in the town for over twenty years and have now closed.theremainding large factory employer has recently laid off a quarter of its staff,some of these were natural wastage such as voluntary redundancy.
that leaves two small supermarkets and the hotel metropole as the only providers of 'unskilled' work available.Somerfield has a good mix of workersi.e. women,young people,locals.Aldi who arrived after the demise of Kwik save only employ around twenty which is dissapointing.The hotel Metropole has a staff of around 90!apart from around 8 the remainder are short term economic migrants!
nothing wrong with that! its not their fault!
but there must be a reason why The Metropole dont employ locals!
Must be the way they treat their staff!
Llandrindod job centre is full of young people who could be employed at the Metropole!
sp why arent they.
Because economics are more important than the local community to the Metropole!