We’ve put together a roundup of the latest news making headlines in Wales and North Wales, for Thursday 17th March, which will keep you up to date for the rest of the day. They include Health Minister Eluned Morgan banned from driving for speeding in Wrexham, Wales, becoming the first UK country to launch a fishing gear recycling scheme and a row over a 100,000 job £ in Denbighshire Council.

Here are the latest headlines in Wales and the UK:

Wales titles

Welsh Government Health Minister Eluned Morgan banned for speeding in North Wales

Wales’ health minister has been handed a six-month driving ban for speeding in North Wales. Eluned Morgan has apologized after breaking the 30mph limit on a road in Wrexham last June.

She received the disqualification for accumulating too many points on her licence. The Mid and West Wales Labor MS was dealt with in Mold Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday March 16, WalesOnline reports.

In a statement, Baroness Morgan said she pleaded guilty to the speeding charge and accepted the court’s punishment. “It’s not something I’m proud of and I apologize unreservedly,” she said.

Wales becomes the first UK country to introduce a fishing gear recycling scheme

The new scheme will help boost Wales’ recycling credentials – Wales has the best household waste recycling record in the UK and third best in the world.

Recycling bins for used fishing gear have been placed in the ports of Swansea, Milford Haven, Fishguard, Cardigan, Conwy, Anglesey and Holyhead. They were filled to the brim with fishing nets, ropes and buoys, which might otherwise have ended up in the sea or in a landfill.

They will instead be crushed and transformed into pellets, before being reused in kayaks, bodyboards or street furniture.

Climate Change Minister Julie James said: “Programs like this show that through collaboration, innovation and action, we can find practical solutions that will ensure we leave our seas in a better place. condition for our future generations”.

North Wales titles

New £100,000 Denbighshire council job branded ‘odious’ in cost of role row

A row broke out at Denbighshire Council when councilors were criticized for not reading paperwork before creating a brand new £100,000-a-year leadership job. Councilors met in a special meeting this week to discuss the restructuring of the council’s leadership team, which involved the creation of a new and third position of corporate director.

This new role – the corporate director of support services – is being created in addition to an already vacant position for a second corporate director, which seemed to confuse several advisers. Managing director Graham Boase said the management team was fighting the fires and needed to invest in strong leadership.

Cllr Joan Butterfield then encouraged members to vote in favor of the new role. She said, “After all, we’re just filling a vacancy.” Read the full debate here.

Guests ‘flee Llandudno hotel’ as cases of diarrhea and vomiting investigated

An investigation has been launched after guests at a hotel in Llandudno said they cut their holidays short following several cases of diarrhea and vomiting on the premises in recent days. An investigation is currently underway into cases of viral gastroenteritis at the Hydro Hotel, Conwy Council has confirmed.

A hotel guest who decided to return home early after staying at the hotel after falling ill says ‘about 30 people had left’ by Thursday morning for fear of falling ill.

Graham Brown, communicable disease control consultant for Public Health Wales, said: ‘Public Health Wales has been informed that Conwy County Borough Council is currently investigating a number of cases of hotel-related diarrhea and/or vomiting. Hydro at Llandudno.

British titles

Ofcom revokes UK license of Kremlin-backed broadcaster RT

The TV watchdog says RT licensee ANO TV Novosti is ‘not fit and proper’ to hold a license amid 29 ongoing investigations into ‘due impartiality’ its programs, reports PA.

A statement released by the regulator on Friday said: “We consider the volume and potentially serious nature of the issues raised in such short notice to be of great concern – particularly given RT’s compliance history, which has seen the chain fined £200,000 for previous breaches of impartiality.

“In this context, we have launched a separate investigation to determine whether ANO TV Novosti is fit and proper to retain its broadcast license.”

Ofcom said the decision to suspend the license came amid ongoing investigations into RT’s news and current affairs coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Prime Minister Boris Johnson having also previously called for an Ofcom review.

RT is currently not broadcast in the UK due to sanctions imposed.

To have your say on any of these stories, use the comments section

Safety fears rise as P&O Ferries replace sailors with temps

Safety fears have been raised by P&O Ferries’ decision to lay off 800 seafarers without notice and replace them with cheaper temps.

The Nautilus International union, which represents some of those made redundant, has urged the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to ‘make sure the ships are safe’ as new crews are ‘unfamiliar’ with the ships and roads.
P&O Ferries said passenger crossings would be suspended “for the next few days”, PA reports.

Nautilus International general secretary Mark Dickinson said it was “an extremely worrying situation” as sailing boats crossing the English Channel are “like crossing a six-lane motorway at rush hour”.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘There are serious security concerns which is why the company cannot reintroduce services with the lower paid agency crew they have recruited through this company called International Ferry Management of Malta.”

Peter Aylott, director of policy at the UK Chamber of Shipping, which represents the industry, said today that he was “very confident that P&O will have procedures in place to ensure that the people who are going to monitor these vessels will be familiar with the vessels, familiar with the systems and will be competent and qualified to operate these vessels safely”.