REVIEW OF 2011: May and June

THE number of jobs at Newport Passport Office was halved, as the Identity and Passport Service revealed its decision on streamlining the service in the city.

JOBS BLOW: Newport Passport Office, where workers learned their fate

While 150 customer service and fraud investigation posts would still be based in Newport, it was decided that Wales will no longer have a passport office which processes applications.

IPS chief executive Sarah Rapson said she had listened to the pleas of 26,000 people who signed an Argus petition calling for a U-turn on closure plans, which had been originally proposed in October 2010.

“The consultation was a true consultation and there were many contributors to that, including the South Wales Argus petition,” she said.

“We listened very hard to all of that.”

But local politicians and the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) said the job losses, while being around half those originally forecast, would still be a body blow to the city.

Remaining staff, however, were required to reapply for their jobs.

The new plan would see 50 people working in the office’s customer service centre, the rest in a central customer complaints and correspondence service, a telephone inquiry department shared with a regional office in Durham, and a specialist anti-fraud team.

Home Office Minister Damian Green said he appreciated it will be “a difficult time for staff in our Newport office, but we have sought to reduce the impact of these difficult decisions as much as possible while making the savings and efficiencies we need.”

The consensus from local politicians and campaigners was that without the Argus campaign to try to stop the original closure plans, those jobs that had been saved would have gone too.

Newport West MP Paul Flynn praised a “wonderful” campaign. “But it’s still a bad day,” he said.

Newport East MP Jessica Morden said there would still be a 50 per cent job cut.

“You have to feel deeply for the workers losing their jobs, who have had this decision hanging over their heads since October,” she said.

Newport council leader Matthew Evans said he was disappointed at IPS’ decision not to keep the office fully open, and Newport Unlimited chief executive Gareth Beer was “saddened” by the job losses. Paul McGoay, PCS group president for the IPS, warned the job losses would still have “a devastating effect on the community in Newport”.

As part of the plans the IPS will leave Olympia House, in the city centre, in 2013.

May 3/4:

A DEVASTATING forest fire got to within 20 feet of homes in Wattsville as firefighters battled through the night to bring it under control.

MOUNTAIN BLAZE: John Baker submitted this picture of the fire at Wattsville A South Wales Fire Service spokeman said the blaze – being treated as arson – was a ‘wild fire’, which is the most severe type that emergency services have to deal with, being deep-seated in the ground and tree roots.

At its height, the fire was being fought by 50 firefighters, who managed to contain it within an eight-acre area, while a change in wind direction eventually lessened the danger to property.

May 5:

THE Labour Party in Wales fell one seat short of the 31 required for a full majority in the National Assembly for Wales at the body’s fourth election.

Party leader Carwyn Jones hailed Labour’s improved showing on the 2007 poll, which left it requiring to make a coalition with Plaid Cymru, but he delayed a decision on whether to try to run Wales as a minority government.

The announcement to do so came on May 10, with Mr Jones declaring: “It was patently clear that the will of the people of Wales was that the next Welsh Government should be Labour-led.”

May 9:

TEENAGE Commonwealth Games boxing silver medallist Sean McGoldrick was poised to be elevated to a gold medal winner, seven months after narrowly losing out on the bantamweight division final in Delhi.

SUCCESS: Boxer Sean McGoldrick The Commonwealth Games Federation ruled that his opponent in that final, Sri Lankan Manju Wanniarachchi, should be disqualified and his medal forfeited after he failed a drugs test.

He described the achievement as “a dream come true”.

May 12:

TWO homes in Tredegar were evacuated after a 50-feet deep hole opened up in the front gardens.

Residents in Ashvale heard a loud bang in the night and found the hole. Torrential rain had caused the ground to crack, and a further collapse created a hole deeper than the height of three double-decker buses.

One of the evacuees, Yazmine Price, said: “It’s lucky my neighbour heard it. I could have just walked straight out into it.”

Infilling and stabilisation work began straight away, along with an investigation into whether the cause was mine-related.

May 19:

IT was announced that Newport’s historic Tredegar House was to be taken over by the National Trust.

CHANGING HANDS: Tredegar House, Newport The move to transfer management of the house, gardens and parklands to the trust could bring in 50,000 more visitors a year, and boost the local economy by almost £1.5 million.

The proposal was that Newport city council retain ownership, while the trust would take on a 50-year lease to oversee the running of the site, becoming responsible for repairs, maintenance and restoration work.

The 17th-century ancestral home of the Morgan Family needs around £4.5m of work to keep it in good condition.

May 28:

THE Argus reported that Richard Parks had conquered Mount Everest as he continued his 737 Challenge to climb the highest peaks in each continent – and reach the North and South Poles – in seven months and raise £1m for charity.

TOP OF THE WORLD: Richard Parks conquered Mount Everest But the former

star faced a new and potentially quest threatening obstacle, in the form of frostbite on his right big toe. Despite standing on top of the world, the physical setback left Mr Parks “shellshocked, gutted and angry”.

But he vowed to soldier on, with Alaska’s Mount Denali the next stage of his journey.

June 1:

GWENT health bosses announced that smoking would be banned in the grounds of all hospitals in the area by the next No Smoking Day, in March 2012.

A ban was already in force for hospitals and health premises, with smoking also banned in the grounds of Gwent’s newest hospital, Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan, in Ebbw Vale.

It signals the end of smoking shelters in hospital grounds, though policy planners have faced a challenge in preparing the Royal Gwent Hospital site, due to worries about patient safety if some decide to go for a smoke in the narrow and busy Belle Vue Lane.

June 3:

A CHEPSTOW community was left devastated after a fire tore through its infants school.

DEVASTATING: Demolition work in progress at Thornwell Primary School, Chepstow, after the fire Forty firefighters from across Gwent spent four hourts tackling flames up to 40 feet high that ripped through Thornwell primary school’s nursery and infants building in the early hours.

As alternative schooling arrangements were made for scores of pupils, police and fire services experts investigated the cause of the blaze.

The cause was revealed later in the month to have been a tealight candle left alight, and police were trying to find out who lit it and what they were doing in the school.

June 11:

JIM McKenzie, head greenskeeper at the Celtic Manor Resort, received an MBE for services to sport in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

RECEIVED MBE: Head greenkeeper at the Celtic Manor Jim McKenzie Mr McKenzie was acclaimed for managing to ensure the smooth running of the 2010 Ryder Cup despite some of the worst weather in the history of the world famous event.

The 49-year-old Scot paid truibute to his team and to an army of volunteers whose work over that memorable wet early autumn weekend helped make the Europe v USA clash so memorable. “In just 12 months we have had the most successful Wales Open. I got married (to Debbie) last June, then there was the Ryder Cup, and now this –-it’s been quite a year,”

he said.

June 13:

THE Argus revealed that emnergency services staff have been bitten, butted, kicked, punched, rammed in vehicles and spat at – all in the course of their work.

Over the past two years, hundreds of ambulance, fire and police workers faced violence at the hands of members of the public while trying to do their jobs. Police officers, paramedics and firefighters in the region were among the 328 emergency workers who had reported incidents since April 2009.

June 17:

BRAVE Richard Parks announced his decision to continue his 737 Challenge, despite admitting it posed a threat to his life.

The 33-year-old, from Ridgeway, Newport, headed to Alaska to climb Mount Denali, despite his frostbitten right big toe, risking refreezing it or it becoming infected with life-threatening blood poisoning.

Denali represented the sixth mountain of the challenge and despite 16 days’ intensive treatment, the toe would not be fully healed for months.

He admitted he could pay “the ultimate price”, a comment that almost came true two weeks later when a crevasse fall on Denali left him trapped inside a glacier. He was rescued after two hours by climbing partner Matt Parkes and another climbing team that happened to come by.

June 21:

FINLEY Ellis-Hall and his sister Poppy – whose bone marrow donation may have prevented him developing leukaemia – were back at home in Llanmartin after weeks of treatment-induced separation.

HOME: Finley Ellis-Hall with his sister Poppy Four-year-old Finley spent almost two months in isolation at Bristol Children’s Hospital as a result of the transplant in April, and previous chemotherapy.

Parents Mark and Karen faced a wait of several weeks before having a better idea of whether the transplant had been a success.

By 100 days after the transplant – toward the end of July – doctors hoped to be able to stop Finley’s anti-rejection medication.

June 25:

TWENTY-YEAR-OLD Newport boxer Fred Evans capped a great couple of months for Gwent fighters by becoming Wales’ first European amateur champion in 86 years.

The St Joseph’s boxing club welterweight, a clubmate of Sean McGoldrick (see May 9) was eyeing a place in the British team for the London Olympics, beating a tough Belarussian opponent in the final in Ankara, Turkey.

Evans was the third big Gwent boxing winner in amatter of weeks, after McGoldrick’s belated gold medal, and Cefn Fforest boxer Nathan Cleverley’s being crowned World Boxing Organisation light-heavyweight champion, after champion and scheduled opponent Jurgen Braehmer pulled out with injury.