Cardiff-Swansea electrification zapped by UK Government

Rail electrification between Cardiff & Swansea (including Bridgend) was promised by a Conservative-led government in 2012. Five years later they've scrapped it.

I'm not surprised as we've been softened up for this news. It's happened the same week the first round of contracts (worth £6.6billion) for the (estimated) £56billion High Speed 2 project in England – to which Wales will be paying our share of at least £2.7billion – were announced.

The Welsh Secretary, Alun Cairns, slimed his way through the issue earlier this week by talking up the benefits of the new trains. You know what contempt rail passengers are held in when the replacement of 40+-year-old trains that are frequently overcrowded during rush hour is seen as a gift instead of a basic necessity.

Alun clearly knew what was coming, but there's been dishonesty and shadow playing on this from the start. Extending electrification from Cardiff to Swansea is something the Conservatives were reluctantly talked into by the Lib Dems in 2012. They've never really wanted to do it, having wrangled over who was going to pay for it and dragging their feet. It was even omitted from their 2017 manifesto, which should've set alarm bells ringing.

The English transport secretary, Chris Grayling (who also has responsibility for rail infrastructure in Wales), argues the benefits of electrification can be delivered with the new Hitachi intercity express trains, coming into service in south Wales later this year. Fortunately, the new trains are both electric and diesel powered meaning they can run on tracks without overhead lines.

This also means they're more expensive to build, heavier, more things can go wrong with them, are less environmentally-friendly and noisier. That means higher maintenance costs for the track, inefficient engines, no real difference in journey times between Swansea and Cardiff, as much noise as today....it's almost as if there'll be absolutely no difference to things as they are now.

It's a typical solution of a government, party and nation-state that does everything by spreadsheets, divorced from both how things work on the ground and long-term thinking.

Hitachi has built a new maintenance facility in Swansea for the new trains. If you've gone past it recently you will have noticed it's come complete with the infrastructure for overhead power lines. They're going to get rusty.

Electrification between Cardiff and London is still going ahead, but you've got to wonder – with the current state the UK Government's in – what other plans they have in store for us. As Prof. Stuart Cole has argued, this project can't simply be restarted if the expertise and resources are moved. If it's scrapped now it's unlikely anything will happen for a long time; in 15-20 years when we're still talking about this we'll wonder, "Why didn't we do something back in the 2010s?"

I suppose the only question is why has it been scrapped?

We haven't been told because the Conservatives know we won't like the answer: the money and resources for electrifying Cardiff-Swansea are needed in England.

The budget for current electrification work has over-run and if the UK Government are going to deliver pledges in parts of England, "less important" projects need to be ditched.

On an EnglandandWales scale, this is an easy to write-off project between two small provincial cities and should be placed behind the likes of Bath, Liverpool and Manchester. It also means some English cities miss out, like Nottingham and Sheffield - so it's not just Wales being left behind.

At a Welsh level, it's about providing electrified rail services between the capital, one of the most important industrial centres (Neath Port Talbot & Bridgend) and the country's second and third largest cities (Swansea & Newport respectively), as well as being a springboard for electrification in north Wales. Westminster doesn't see this.

Wales has about 6% of the UK's rail network, yet receives around 1-1.5% of Network Rail funding. Scotland gets a population-based share because rail infrastructure is devolved. It isn't devolved here because if Wales received a ring-fenced 4.9% share of UK rail spending, it would mean less money to spend in England London.

As they've significantly underestimated the costs involved, yet again Network Rail's bungling will hamper a major infrastructure project in Wales. It doesn't bode well for the new Wales & Borders rail franchise, Metro, north Wales electrification and pretty much any significant project you can think of either.

Network Rail is really good at putting new shelters in stations, painting lines, fixing bridges and installing new signalling, but beyond that, they're not looking fit for purpose when it comes to running Welsh railways.

The first rule of politics is "Don't make promises you can't keep", but that doesn't seem to apply here. So we've been lied to and let down again. The most depressing thing is you know we're going to sit back and take it because we've got no cards to play and we're used to it.

I can't wait to see what happens with the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon! Fingers crossed!

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Senedd committee calls for more medical school places

(Pic : BBC Wales)

Medicine is already one of the most competitive and academically-demanding university courses. On top of that it's becoming a struggle for Wales to recruit and train tomorrow's doctors – subject to an inquiry by the Health & Social Care Committee (pdf).

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Coast with the most?

(Pic : The Telegraph)

Wales doesn't have the longest coastline in the world – and the Welsh perhaps aren't considered "seafaring" in the same way as the Cornish or English. Nonetheless it's a spectacular addition to the natural beauty of the country and could also provide a significant economic boost, which was the focus of the latest backbench debate in the Senedd.

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FMQs: City Deals, IndyWales & Rough Sleeping

It was a rather sedate edition of FMQs this afternoon (not that it's different to any other week) with today also marking Carwyn's 50^th birthday 🎉 - to the jocularity of opposition leaders.

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Committees Bite Size #3: March 2017

Here's another round up of some of the committee inquiry reports that've come out of the Senedd over the last few weeks, including: ovarian cancer screening, two Stage One reports on Welsh laws, the Kancoat grant scandal and support for ethnic minority and traveller school pupils.

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FMQs: No Love Lost

The increasingly fractious row over Carmarthenshire Council's decision to make Llangennech School Welsh-medium-only continues. Plus, other questions on climate change, scams/cold calling and the Welsh Government “leaning” on lobbyists and the Third Sector.

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FMQs: Trump Ban, Cancer & Tidal Lagoons

For most of this afternoon's FMQs, you would think you were following a parliamentary session in an independent country: foreign policy, condemnation of foreign governments, state visits, discussion of immigration, how to win the battle against Islamic State – and Carwyn Jones was using the language of a Prime Minister, not a regional premier.

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FMQs : Breakfast, Food & Cadw Merger

Another Tuesday, another FMQs and, as usual, there was plenty up for discussion.

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Why was the Commonwealth Games bid ditched?

Not coming to a town or city near you....
(Pic : ITV Wales)

Towards the end of July, Economy & Infrastructure Secretary, Ken Skates (Lab, Clwyd South), announced that a speculative Welsh bid to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games would not go ahead following a feasibility study - a 12-page summary of which was released on July 26^th (pdf).

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Fourth Assembly Review : Key Achievements

Although the National Assembly doesn't officially dissolve until April 6^th, as this week is the last sitting week the election campaign will soon ratchet up a gear or two.

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Locals Know Best?

(Pic : cardiffcityhall.com)

Yesterday, the Welsh Conservatives held a debate on the issue of local accountability amidst proposals for local government reform, as well as the campaign to trigger a referendum to introduce a directly-elected mayor in Cardiff (A Mayor for Cardiff?).

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Network Rail - Taking the Welsh Government for a ride?

The project to redouble a section of track between Wrexham and Chester is an example
of Network Rail over-promising and under-delivering when it comes to Welsh railways.
(Pic : rmweb.co.uk)

Network Rail's relationship with devolved Wales has always been somewhat awkward. They now have a department responsible for rail infrastructure in Wales, but they're not directly answerable to either the Welsh Government or National Assembly.

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Westminster 2015 : The Results

(Pic : Reuters via The Guardian)

First thing's first - I can rip my crap predictions up. Predicting is a mug's game as the polling companies are finding out to their cost. As has been said elsewhere, it's the most surprising result in a UK election since 1992, even 1945.

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Making tracks in west Wales

There are growing calls to reopen a railway between Aberystwyth and Carmarthen.
(Pic : BBC Wales)

The railway between Carmarthen and Aberystwyth closed to passengers in 1964-65, with freight services - which still ran along part of the line - withdrawn in the early 1970s. As a result, any attempt to travel between Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion by rail now means a torturous journey via Shrewsbury, Hereford, Cardiff and Swansea.

At the moment, Carmarthen-Lampeter-Aberystwyth is served by the T1 TrawsCymru long-distance bus service, which has been criticised for excessively long journey times. Despite the existence of this service, there has been talk of reopening the line for several years (related 2009 post from Syniadau with a video showing one option for the route), but a formal campaign – Traws Link Cymru – was formed in the last year or so to lobby in favour of the project (website with project overview here).

The campaign is gathering pace, with a official statements of support from : Carmarthenshire Council, numerous community and town councils along the former route and a large number of AMs and MPs. Campaigners are also set to meet the Welsh Secretary, Stephen Crabb MP (Con, Preseli Pembs.), at some point. A (relatively) well-attended public meeting was held earlier this month, with plans for further activities in the near future.

Simon Thomas AM (Plaid, Mid & West Wales) held a short debate in the National Assembly on this issue back in March 2014 (below). Meanwhile, Carwyn Jones has expressed his tacit support for the principle of the project during First Minister's Questions (I remember him saying it at least once but can't remember precisely when, so don't hold me to that). He gave no firm commitment for reasons which will become obvious.

An Irish Case Study

Ireland's Western Rail Corridor is a similar project, but
is it an appropriate direct comparison?
(Pic : paulsalveson.org.uk)

Comparisons have been drawn to the Western Railway Corridor in the Republic of Ireland, which is a proposal to link Sligo and Limerick along Ireland's west coast. At the moment, all lines lead to Dublin in the same way Welsh railways go east-west. A section enabling trains to travel between Galway and Limerick opened in 2010 at a cost of around €107million (£84million at 2015 prices). The total cost of reopening the line to/from Sligo was, in 2004, estimated to be around €366million (£286million [2015]).

Since reopening, there's been criticism of low passenger numbers between Galway and Limerick (Galway alone is larger than Carmarthen, Lampeter and Aberystwyth combined, while Limerick is about twice the size of Llanelli). The service is subsidised by the Irish Government, with cheap online fares and tax incentives to encourage people to buy season tickets - but it's right to point out that service frequencies are very low indeed with maybe no more than 5 trains a day in each direction.

The crucial difference between Aber-Carms and the Western Corridor section is that, in Ireland's case, large sections of the track were already there and were used as a freight line. All the Irish Government needed to do was (re)build the infrastructure for passenger services (stations, improved track etc.). So the Western Corridor is more comparable to the reopening of the Vale of Glamorgan and Ebbw Vale lines.

Aber-Carms would be a major engineering project above and beyond that of the Borders Line in Scotland, and would arguably be the most extensive reopening of a railway on the island of Great Britain since the Beeching cuts. The old alignment is just over 90km long (56miles), and almost all of it has been pulled up apart from the Gwili railway on the outskirts of Carmarthen.

The Possible Route

Click to enlarge
(Pic : Adapted from Google Earth)

I would guess stations would/could be built at Glangwili Hospital, Bronwydd, Pencader, Llanybydder, Lampeter, Tregaron, Llanilar and Llanfairian. Some of the smaller stops would presumably be request stops like those on the Heart of Wales line.

The Benefits

Linking three (maybe eventually four) university towns along the western coast could boost economic,
social and research ties, helping to rebalance the Welsh economy away from the M4 corridor.
(Pic : The Telegraph)

The obvious one - it makes it a lot easier to get to Aberystwyth by public transport from the south and vice versa (Swansea, Cardiff and London) whilst reconnecting a large part of Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion to the rail network. Considering the relatively poor state of north-south road links in west Wales, journey times are likely to be competetive with road.

The catchment area, although rural, will be physically large with great opportunities to provide park and rides as well as linking with local bus services. Public transport provision is often poor in rural areas, so encouraging people out of their cars there is often ignored, as the emphasis is usually focused on urban areas. Reopening the line would have a knock-on positive impact on pollution and accident rates, with the A44 between Aberystwyth and Llangurig being the most dangerous road in the country and the A487 not faring much better.

Creating "commuter villages" in and around the three larger towns – Aberystwyth, Lampeter and Carmarthen – might spread out development and enable these villages to retain some of their local services like pubs and schools.

If this were combined with a Bangor-Porthmadog link and a re-engineering of Dovey Junction it would eventually connect four university towns. This would guarantee minimum passenger numbers, but also develop economic and academic links right along the west coast to compete with the "city universities".

In the long, long, long term, reopening this line could enable serious consideration being given to reconnecting Newcastle Emlyn, Aberaeron and Cardigan to the rail network.

The Challenges

Do not think for one second that this is going to be a simple case of lobbying
for funds. There are serious challenges facing this campaign that need to be overcome.
(Pic : Network Rail)

Reinstating the old route – Most of the former route is development-free but there are areas where the route has been built on, mainly for homes or cycle paths. The route can be engineered to avoid these areas, but the old route will have been the most logical path in the first place (short of radically new alignments). This is down to the shortsightedness of planning authorities. Though there's a bit more protection for former railways nowadays, it's too late for this project.

Farm access and (negative) environmental impact – The former route is littered with crossings to and from farms. Network Rail are supposed to be phasing out level crossings, as they're not popular with transport unions and are a safety hazard. I don't think they'll take kindly to including so many unmanned crossings. They might have to be replaced by bridges, which is an added expense.

Reopening a railway may not be associated with environmental damage, but obviously there would be as the route crosses or passes near environmentally-sensitive areas.

The Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) – My personal opinion is that regardless of fiscal tests, as many former railways should be reopened for its own sake where practical (before I'm accused of being a buzzkill).Unfortunately, this is the primary reason why it won't happen.

The political will is there, and I suspect if all of the trackbed were still in place Welsh Government backing for the project would be stronger (and the price tag would probably be no more than £100-150million).

A full CBA (or cost-benefit ratio) usually costs around £20,000-30,000. If the ratio on return of investment is below 2:1 (for every £1 spent, there's a £2 economic return), public authorities won't consider it "high value". That's very technocratic, but it's supposed to prevent the creation of white elephants and discourage "pork barrel spending" , even if at the same time it puts a set of concrete shoes on socially-important projects like this.

A potential price tag of £650million has been bandied about, so this would have to (theoretically) have a wider economic impact of at least ~£1billion to get the levels of return on investment necessary to be approved.

Taking into consideration the relatively small catchment area (population wise) and likely low passenger numbers, the Carms-Aber rail link will fail any CBA instantly (as would my idea of reopening the Mid Wales line). You can have as much heavyweight political support as you want, but these tests determine whether big projects go ahead or not.

AMs and other senior politicians should be well aware of this, but they're not in a position to quibble (because they're pathologically unable to tell the truth and say "no" during an election year) so I'll have to play "the bad guy" for them.

Service levels – It's too early to say what sort of service levels people could expect if it were reopened. You would presume the service would mainly run as a shuttle between Carmarthen and Aberystwyth (due to lack of space on the south Wales mainline) with a few direct trains each day further beyond – probably to Swansea and/or Cardiff (which would make reopening the Swansea District Line for Cardiff-bound trains a higher priority in itself).

The old track alignment between Llanybydder and Strata Florida is remarkably straight and could enable high running speeds. This is offset by some very difficult terrain between Carmarthen and Pencader – though a diversion via Alltwalis has been mentioned. If the line were designed with an average running speed of between 60-70mph then it's possible to get the journey time down to nearly an hour (making Aber-Swansea ~1hr50mins, Aber-Cardiff ~2hrs30mins), but that requires a high quality route that will be expensive to engineer.

Click to enlarge
(Pic : Adapted from Google Earth)

Getting in/out of Aberystwyth (above) – If the economic value for money is the biggest socio-political challenge, this is the single biggest engineering challenge - though there are others elsewhere in the form of reinstated bridges and tunnels. The approach from the south around Pen Dinas and through Llanfairian (above) has been completely built on. The cheapest/easiest option would be to stop the line short of Aberystwyth and build a park and ride, linked to the town centre/railway station by bus. That would defeat the purpose of the rail link though as it would be inconvenient to change modes of transport.

Another option would be to use the path of the Vale of Rheidol narrow gauge railway for a few miles, then create a link to the "main route" south to Carmarthen. This would be rather expensive due to the landscape it would have to cross which requires several deep cuttings and/or short tunnels. It would provide an opportunity to build a station serving the Glanyafon Industrial Estate and with a footpath/cycle path it could link directly to Coleg Ceredigion - but at the expense of stations in Llanfairian and Llanilar.

A further option would be to tunnel under Penparcau, which is certainly doable but depending on the construction method and underlying geology would likely cost £50-60million on its own. This would probably be the best option, but I'm no engineer.

One of the only other options left, therefore, is to CPO the former route, which will mean demolishing several buildings and possibly more than 100 homes (because several blocks of flats have been built on the former line). This means legal challenges, local opposition and a significant additional cost. An alternative would be to allow some limited street-running, but I'm presuming this will be a heavy rail project.

You could create a new route following a ridge around Pen Dinas and going through a caravan park instead (perhaps on a viaduct), but that would be a significant engineering outlay like the tunnel.

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Why are Welsh ambulance response times so poor?

The Wales Ambulance Service Trust (WAST) has failed to hit and maintain its response time targets (65% of the most serious [Category A] 999 calls responded to within 8 minutes) for around 24 months in a row.

The latest figures, from August 2014 (pdf), show that 56.9% of Category A calls were responded to within 8 minutes; that rises to 66.8% within 10 minutes and 83% at 15 minutes. That means for 17% (almost 1 in 5) of life-threatening calls in Wales, an ambulance takes near double the target time to reach the patient. Summer is traditionally quiet in terms of demand for ambulance services, so these figures are particularly bad.

Although this is one of those issues which Assembly Members get very hot under the collar about, nobody's ever considered the precise reasons why the ambulance service is missing its targets so consistently. Opposition AMs huff and puff over the figures and turn it into a political football, while ministers almost never give straight answers.

Most of this is going to be guesswork and inductive reasoning with very little hard evidence to back it up. But I do believe that – concerns from the McClelland Review about management aside - some of the reasons might not be sexy enough for politicians to score points off each other in the Senedd chamber or press, but do make sense.

Where are the problems?

Before considering why response times are poor, it's worth looking at performances at a local level to see if there are any patterns we can draw conclusions from. As you can see from the map below, response times vary wildly across Wales.

Ambulance response times by local authority - August 2014
(Pic : StatsWales/Welsh Government)

Four local authorities actually hit or exceeded the target – Swansea (65.1%), Conwy (65.9%), Bridgend (69.3%) and Wrexham (70.3%). Neath Port Talbot (62.8%) and Denbighshire (63%) came close. So despite criticism elsewhere, it looks like ambulance response times in the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg local health board are significantly better than the rest of Wales.

In terms of poor responses, there are two distinct clusters.

The first cluster are rural local authorities, with Monmouthshire (50%), Anglesey (51.5%) Powys (53.3%), Vale of Glamorgan (53.5%) and Carmarthenshire (54.7%) standing out, with the likes of Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Gwynedd not doing much better.

The second cluster consists of Cardiff (58.1%) and the south Wales valleys. Response times in Caerphilly (44.8%), Rhondda Cynon Taf (46.4%), Torfaen (47.6%), Merthyr Tydfil (51.3%) and Blaenau Gwent (52.8%) are much, much worse than the rest of Wales. The difference between bordering local authorities like Bridgend and RCT is stark, though – as I'll come to – there may be unorthodox explanations as to why this is the case.

What might the problems be?

These aren't exactly ambulance friendly street layouts.
(Pic : Wales Online)

The quality of the road network - The poorest response times are in the south Wales valleys where there are a lot of very narrow side streets consisting of tightly-packed terraced houses, usually on steep inclines. There's often very little room to park if you live on these roads, let alone enough room to attempt to get an ambulance up them at high speed.

Local authorities which have the better response times, like Swansea, Bridgend and Wrexham, are quite car-friendly. Swansea city itself, for example, has been designed with road traffic in mind since the Luftwaffe flattened it, while Bridgend and Wrexham have large housing estates served by high-quality spine roads and dual carriageways.

So as much as AMs might want to pin the blame on the government or the WAST's management team, it could be equally down to dodgy junctions, potholes, poor car parking, ill-considered one-way systems or unnecessary sets of traffic lights and speed humps.

Perhaps consideration should be given to the creation of designated "ambulance-friendly routes" in the valleys that are cleared of any and all obstructions where practical.

Rurality and the distance travelled to 999 calls – This is something you can easily infer from the map, and it's so blindingly obvious even the harshest critic of the Welsh NHS will have to accept it as an unavoidable hazard.

The further you are from a hospital or ambulance station, the longer the ambulance will take to reach you – simple. The problem will be more acute in north west, mid and west Wales (as well as some south Walian local authorities like Monmouthshire and Vale of Glamorgan). The catchment areas for Ysbyty Gwynedd and Bronglais Hospital, for example, are huge, and often cover difficult terrain.

Farming and fishing are probably the most dangerous jobs around. Workers in these sectors are at higher risk of suffering serious accidents, and these jobs are also more densely concentrated in these areas.

Also, people who move to idyllic-looking farmhouses to retire don't factor in that – as they get older and inevitably get sicker too - ambulances might struggle to reach them at the end of gravel tracks off a picturesque winding B-road in the Welsh Desert. And air ambulances might be tied up elsewhere.

Ambulances are too heavy and too slow - In 2013, around £9.5million was spent upgrading the Welsh ambulance fleet. Although they now carry very high-tech (and heavy) equipment – before factoring in the weight of paramedics themselves and patients – the ambulances are still glorified transit vans that can't negotiate corners particularly well and accelerate slowly. Over longer distances this will add up.

If you want an analogy, it's a bit like refurbishing the interior of a train or bus to business class standards, but the bus/train itself remaining a clapped out diesel from the 1970s.

There's little the Welsh Government and Ambulance Trust can do here, and the onus is on ambulance manufacturers to create faster, lighter vehicles. Perhaps there should be more use of motorbikes and cars for first responders, while using larger ambulances solely to transport patients to hospital and stabilise complicated conditions.

There's at least 8 ambulances I can see that can't go on another urgent 999 call.
(Pic : Morriston Hospital via cardifflocalguide.co.uk)

Delayed transfers at Accident & Emergency departments – Now this is something you really can criticise the Welsh Government for. It's their job to ensure there are enough medical staff, and that hospitals are well-resourced enough, to see whoever comes through the door.

Every minute an ambulance spends outside A&E departments waiting to discharge patients is a minute that ambulance is out of action. There are acute problems in Cardiff in particular, and it occasionally happens at other hospitals, such as Morriston Hospital in Swansea and Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend.

With the forthcoming centralisation of specialist services in south Wales, I'll actually expect this problem to get worse, as treating capacity hasn't been dealt with. They might stand a chance of being seen by staff quicker, but as far as I can tell there'll be the same number of beds to treat them.

This is the main reason why, in my opinion, you end up hearing of extreme cases of people waiting hours for an ambulance to show up. It's simply because all the ambulances are tied up outside A&E departments waiting to offload patients.

Compassion fatigue & "false alarms" - "Compassion fatigue" is a mild form of post traumatic stress disorder that affects people who deal with harrowing things every single day (like paramedics and A&E doctors), and it even affects the general public when we're bombarded with bad news or sob stories. We eventually get used to it to such an extent we don't care anymore. How many times have we been told the Wales Ambulance Trust are over-worked, under-staffed and poorly-managed?

For medical staff this becomes cynicism and a lack of genuine compassion for patients. This in turn may lead to complacency in care and poor morale. I doubt you would ever get paramedics to admit it because the trade unions will go ballistic and on the defensive. But I'm willing to bet on some calls they'll let standards slip because they've had enough crap for one day.

Then there are people calling for an ambulance when they don't really need one, tying up more resources. It's easy to criticise people who do this as time-wasters or hypochondriacs, but it's often better to be safe than sorry. Welsh Government public information campaigns on this have clearly failed.

The McClelland review recommended that the 8 minute target be ditched.
- something AMs have conveniently forgotten.
(Pic : Telegraph and Argus)

The targets are too ambitious – Not all Category A 999 calls need to be responded to within 8 minutes. With improved medicines and treatments, things that would've once killed people – like heart attacks and strokes – are now increasingly survivable, even if a patient doesn't reach hospital in the "golden hour" (which some academics and medics have called a "myth").

That's no reason to be complacent, and there is evidence that suggests the sooner an ambulance reaches a patient who's suffering a heart attack, the greater the chance of survival (Pell, Sirel, Marsden et. al 2001).

However, just to point out how silly the 8 minute target is (as pointed out in the McClelland review), if an ambulance reaches a patient within 8 minutes and they die, they've met the target. If they reach them in 8 minutes 30 seconds and save the patient's life, they've missed the target. That's ridiculous, and no wonder paramedics must hate their job (Price, 2006) when those are the twisted standards they're held to by managers and politicians.

Echoing what was said in the McClelland review, the target should be based around the patient's outcome (for argument's sake, all Category A patients should be admitted to hospital within 40 minutes of the 999 call with a chance of survival), not a stopwatch.

What are the Welsh Government doing about it?
                                  

You've got to say that if these are the sorts of problems facing the ambulance service, then there's very little the Welsh Government can do other than implementing some of the recommendations from the McClelland report and keeping their fingers crossed.

Ditching the 8 minute target – however rational it would be - would be an absolute god-send to opposition AMs. It would probably send the Tories in particular into screams of ecstasy on the Senedd benches, as it'll be on every election leaflet in 2016, accompanied by a photo of an elderly actor/actress having a "chest-clutcher" on the stairs. So it's unlikely to happen due to politics, even if shifting the goal posts is in vogue at Cathays Park.

However, in the last fortnight or so, the new Deputy Minister for Health, Vaughan Gething (Lab, Cardiff S. & Penarth), made a major announcement on this.

The Welsh Government have earmarked around £5million towards the creation of an Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer System (EMTRS) service. In English, that means an expansion (you could even say a part-nationalisation) of the Wales Air Ambulance - dubbed "Flying Doctors" after the cheesy 1980s Australian drama, though it's probably more comparable to M.A.S.H. It'll operate for 12 hours a day, and will be based in Swansea and Welshpool.

The idea's that trained doctors and consultants will be airlifted to serious incidents with equipment so patients can be treated at the scene instead of waiting for an ambulance to take them to hospital to be treated. If it works, it's said 95% of the population will now be within 30 minutes of doctor-led emergency care.

The EMTRS is probably an act of desperation, but as an idea it's incredibly sensible, practical and I'm surprised it hasn't been attempted a lot sooner.

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NHS Wales : Who watches the watchers?

Welsh Labour might've been concerned about Ann Clwyd MP giving
evidence to an Assembly committee, but the inquiry produced
productive and sensible proposals for the NHS complaints system.
(Pic : BBC Wales)

While there's a lull in Assembly activity until AMs return from recess, it's worth returning to the committees and what has become one of the more high-profile and contentious inquiries of the Fourth Assembly due to the dirty laundry it aired and embarrassment caused to the Welsh Government.

The Assembly's Health & Social Care Committee undertook a short inquiry on the last day of the Assembly year (16^th July) into the NHS Wales complaints system. As a result, Committee chair David Rees AM (Lab, Aberavon) sent a 17-page letter (pdf) to Health Minister Mark Drakeford (Lab, Cardiff West) on August 5th outlining the key issues raised during their investigation.

The inquiry made headlines for more than one reason, the most notable headline being that Labour MP for Cynon Valley, Ann Clwyd, accepted an invitation to give oral evidence following well-publicised personal experiences of patient care at Cardiff's University Hospital.

It was doubly pertinent as the complaints system was one of the main grievances arising from the Andrews Report into care standards at the Princess of Wales Hospital and Neath Port Talbot Hospital in Abertawe Bro Morgannwg Local Health Board (Abertawe Bro Morgannwg : Trusted to care?).

The Key Issues

Fear of reprisals against whistle-blowers and inadequate resources to deal
with complaints were just a few of the concerns thrown up by the inquiry.
(Pic : Daily Mail)

Insufficient independent regulation of complaints – The police, for example, have the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), but there's no similar body for NHS complaints. The need for such a body was highlighted for those cases where complaints handled by local health boards (LHBs) don't result in any concrete actions. LHBs accept the need for an independent regulator, while the Welsh Government have launched a review of the functions of Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) as a result of a previous committee inquiry. The Committee recommended that independent complaints regulation be considered by the Health Minister if LHB governance arrangements are "inadequate".

The role of Community Health Councils (CHCs) – This was another area picked out for criticism in the Andrews Report and I've often said myself that I consider CHCs to be largely useless; both as a mechanism of accountability for LHBs and as a result the paralysis caused by a Welsh obsession with setting up committees instead of coming up with new policies. The performance of CHCs was "variable", and there were calls for improved training, improved leadership and greater public awareness of what CHCs are supposed to do (represent patient's views).

Accountability & Leadership – There were two parts to this. The first part dealt with local health boards and trusts. It's said there've been insufficient resources made available to improve management, and a "gap" had developed between the complaints process and boardrooms. Ann Clwyd agreed that the responsibility ultimately lay with LHBs, calling for more openness in how they operate and use of easy to understand language. LHBs have taken steps to improve matters down the years, such as : "ward walks", proactively encouraging patient and staff feedback, meeting with complainants etc. This was welcomed, but the Committee recommended that LHBs take complaints more seriously.

The second part looked at the Welsh Government's role. It was agreed that complaints handling should be considered alongside financial and clinical targets when evaluating the performance of individual LHBs.

Sharing best practice – Due to the variation in performance between individual LHBs, the importance of sharing examples of good complaints handling was flagged up. LHBs said they were keen to learn from each other, but there were concerns that the structure of NHS Wales prevented quick sharing of new ideas.

Staff concerns – UNISON warned that complaints handlers were "under-resourced" and subsequently "under immense pressure". Staff need to be highly trained due to the complex situations they deal with, ranging from dealing with bereaved relatives to co-ordinating complicated clinical information. Cardiff and Vale LHB were, therefore, open to the idea of a national complaints team to deal with the most complex cases. Poor communication from front-line staff was also flagged up as a reason for complaints relating to poor customer service.

Primary care complaints – The current complaints system didn't adequately cover GPs and dentists. LHBs and the British Medical Association (BMA) said that the focus was often on secondary (hospital) care and was therefore not useful enough for primary care. The Committee asked for reassurances from the Health Minister that recommendations from various reviews will apply to all levels of the NHS.

Recording of incidents and complaints – Ann Clwyd said many minor complaints could be "resolved by the bedside". It was also said that lots of minor complaints could be a symptom of bigger issues that could lead to "catastrophic disasters" down the line. The BMA, however, added that logging every minor complaint would be "burdensome". The Committee recommended comment books as a way to log smaller complaints.

Staff support – It's said a "blame culture" in the NHS makes staff afraid to speak out when things are going wrong, with nurses said to be reluctant to fill out incident reports or give their names. Abertawe Bro Morgannwg LHB have subsequently instituted a "See it, say it" campaign to encourage staff, patients and relatives to report issues. Ann Clwyd added that honesty was important so everyone feels they're empowered enough to speak out if something is wrong. Staff should also be able to raise issues openly, but it's said 44% of staff would think twice before whistle-blowing for fear of reprisals.

Complaints data – There's little analysis of complaints data at an all-Wales level and such data is rarely made public. There was support for making complaints data available to the public via the My Local Health Service website – as long as individuals can't be identified.

Response times to complaints – LHBs recognise their response times (there's a 30 day target to issue a final response to a complaint) simply aren't good enough. However, they say quality of response is as important – if not more so – than speed. Face-to-face contact with complainants was said to be important too, as well as maintaining communication with complainants throughout the process. In Powys LHB they've tried to do this by contacting complainants as soon as a complaint has been received to tell them it's being dealt with.

Time for an Independent NHS complaints regulator?

After the committee's recommendations, has the time now come for a national
NHS complaints system to help prevent sad scenes like this being repeated?
(Pic : Wales Online)

The Health Minister hasn't responded to the letter yet, and I presume he'll respond to the committee once the Assembly returns from recess. Most of the recommendations and suggestions from the inquiry are common sense and it's depressing and frustrating that a lot of this hasn't already been done. It could've saved the Welsh Government, AMs, LHBs and families a lot of trouble.

The Public Services Ombudsman is supposed to act as an independent regulator (of sorts), but I suppose we should consider whether all but the most minor NHS complaints need to be dealt with independently at an all-Wales level - perhaps as part of Healthcare Inspectorate Wales' remit. I don't think LHBs and CHCs can be trusted to deal with complaints anymore as too many people have been let down by the current system and there's too much variation between health boards. It's also putting too much pressure on front line staff.

All that was hinted at in the inquiry, and having a team of fully-professional complaints handlers and analysts might take the heat off front-line staff and make it easier to notice trends and patterns which indicate deeper problems at specific hospitals. Making senior charge nurses (aka. matrons) the single point of contact for minor complaints on each ward might make things easier too.

Hopefully it would all feed in to a single transparent complaints system that people know won't be bogged down and shuffled around on bits of paper in board meetings, will be independent of LHBs and won't victimise either staff or complainants.

If the Welsh NHS can start to deal with complaints with candour - and, more importantly, actually deal with problems no matter how small - maybe it'll begin to rebuild the trust that's been lost over the last few years.

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National Assembly stands up for safe standing

They took their bloody time getting to it – this was originally raised as far back as February 2013 (Could safe standing be coming to Wales?) - but last Wednesday, the National Assembly debated a  cross-party motion on "safe standing" at football stadiums.

The motion :

• Noted the "overwhelming appetite" amongst supporters to re-introduce terracing.
• Called upon the Welsh Government to work with sports bodies to promote safe standing areas at football grounds.
• Called upon the UK Government to consider a safe standing pilot in Wales.

The debate followed a visit of the Football Supporters Federation (FSF) Safe Standing Roadshow to the Senedd back in June, where AMs were able to see a demonstration model in order to properly inform their views.

What is "safe standing"?

AMs were recently able to see close-up how "safe standing" works.
(Pic : Football Supporters Federation)

I went over this last time around, but it's worth briefly covering again.

Terracing was phased out within top-flight EnglishandWelsh football grounds following the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster and subsequent Taylor Report. Most terraced areas were either rebuilt or, as many clubs have done, entire grounds were replaced with all-seater stadiums – the Liberty Stadium replacing The Vetch, for example.

Because standing is popular, yet forbidden, "safe standing" is seen as a way to address common concerns relating to terracing like overcrowding and crushing, allowing a reintroduction within modern stadiums. It usually takes the form of "rail seats", where rows of seats are connected to waist-high rails then folded away during games to create two rows of terracing (as shown in the photo above).

It would make surges impossible because every standing supporter would be near a rail and every two rows of spectators would be divided. This would also enable the authorities to better control numbers coming and going, and whenever the stadium needs to be converted to an all-seater format (i.e. for European competitions or concerts), the seats are simply unlocked.

The Debate (link)

The all-seater Liberty Stadium hosts both football and rugby, but it's argued that
there's a contradiction in that top flight football is explicity banned from using terracing.
(Pic : Daily Mirror)

Ann Jones AM (Lab, Vale of Clwyd), started by highlighting how stadiums have changed down the years.  Ann said it was contradictory that terracing is banned at top-flight football grounds, yet remains at grounds that host other sports - like St Helen's new stadium, Langtree Park (image), which has terracing for 8,000 fans; or closer to home, Cardiff Arms Park and Parc y Scarlets. She said, "football fans want, and deserve, a choice when it comes to sitting or standing", with 92% of fans surveyed (not explained further) supporting the reintroduction of terracing, with stewards at football games facing, "a thankless task....of trying to persuade their club’s most passionate supporters to sit down". Ann believed the Football Association of Wales (FAW) had an opportunity, "to show the fans....that there is a real chance to pioneer a trial period of safe standing within the Welsh Premier League."

Suzy Davies AM (Con, South Wales West) said she was sceptical due to the impact of the Hillsborough disaster and didn't want to "support anything that would jeopardise football grounds becoming welcoming places for children, women, people with particular vulnerabilities or disabilities." Suzy's also – in the proper Wenglish – "only a dwt", raising an overlooked issue in this debate of indirect discrimination against short adults.

After seeing the roadshow demonstration, Suzy changed her mind, as it was "completely different from the death-trap terraces that I remember", while measures can be put in place for disabled supporters. She didn't support a "rush to safe standing", but concluded by saying that it should be allowed as part of planned stadium refurbishments.

Clubs like Cardiff City have had serious problems with hooliganism, and both Mike Hedges AM
and Suzy Davies AM argued that all-seater stadiums have diversified football crowds.
(Pic : news.yahoo.com)

Mike Hedges AM (Lab, Swansea East) played devil's advocate and was the only AM who spoke out against safe standing. He acknowledged that standing at football games was popular, saying it would "increase the capacity of football grounds without the need for any additional building work". However, he said safe standing was an "oxymoron", citing "the surge; the crush; overcrowding; hooliganism; and the charge" and going into detail as to the causes of these, reminising about crowd problems at an FA Cup tie between Swansea Town and Arsenal in 1968.

Leader of the Opposition, Andrew Davies AM (Con, South Wales Central) – one of the more vocal supporters of safe standing - pointed out that if Mike had been to the FSF demonstration he would realise his views were 30 years out of date.

Mike countered by saying that all-seater stands had provided a more mixed set of spectators and improved crowd management, concluding that reintroducing terracing would be "a serious and retrograde step".

Big German clubs like Borussia Dortmund make routine use of safe standing,
wheeling out seats when they compete in European competitions.
(Pic : schwatzgelb.de)

Plaid Cymru's sport spokesperson, Bethan Jenkins AM (Plaid, South Wales West), cited safe standing's widespread use in the German Bundesliga, using the example of (it's pronounced "Bor-oo-see-ya", Bethan) Borussia Dortmund's Signal Iduna Park, which has a terraced capacity of ~27,000. She noted that these standing areas can be quickly converted to seated areas to meet UEFA competition requirements too.

Bethan said clubs like Dortmund use CCTV and ticketing information to control crowds and pick out trouble-makers, and even if terracing has a "perceived correlation with hooliganism....improvement in technology, policing tactics and crowd behaviour need to be taken into account."

Bethan also raised the long-held belief amongst supporters that safe standing could lead to cheaper tickets as standing areas accommodate more fans. She said another possible benefit would be allowing, "those people who know that they will become more passionate than other people....to be in that area together" (aka "singing sections" and Ultras). She called for a "fact-based public debate" and "a realisation that time has moved on".

Aled Roberts AM (Lib Dem, North Wales) made the grave mistake of bringing up Mickey Thomas's 1992 fluke. That's unparliamentary behaviour if ever I saw it. Despite his own experiences of terrace troubles during a match between Wrexham and Crystal Palace in the 1970s, he said safe standing "is shown to work" and is being introduced to the Polish Ekstraklasa despite serious hooliganism problems there. Aled said (I don't know if it's true or not) the UK Government had blocked legislation on this - and it's a difference within the Coalition - calling on Welsh Conservatives to lobby Whitehall Tories to change their mind.

In his response, Culture Minister John Griffiths (Lab, Newport East) said that as a Newport County supporter he often stands himself, but "we have seen major improvements to spectator safety and comfort as a consequence of....legislation (Football Supporters Act 1989) being introduced" emphasising the lack of clarity on the issue despite safe standing being popular with supporters.

He said it isn't a "straightforward matter to resolve" but "safety is paramount". All in all John remained neutral, believing the "matter of a pilot of safe standing in Wales is for clubs, owners and supporters to consider."

If safe standing were permitted, would a redeveloped White Hart Lane
be the first ground equipped with it?
(Pic : premierleague.com)

Andrew Davies spoke well and at length on all the issues covered. He paid tribute to his researcher Vincent Bailey, who lives in hope that - as Spurs look on jealously from under the shadow cast by the Emirates Stadium - a redeveloped White Hart Lane could have safe standing areas.

It's very rare to hear The Arsenal mentioned in the Senedd chamber (three times during the debate in fact), and I can say that all Arsenal supporters have fond memories of White Hart Lane too. 71, 2004.

Mike Hedges then raised a valid question; whether any police forces, safety officers or licencing authorities support safe standing? Andrew said he hadn't "heard of any that have objected to it". He added that there was a strong case to hold a trial specifically in Wales because the Liberty Stadium and Cardiff City Stadium have medium-sized capacities, and it would therefore be easier to trial it here than a larger ground like Old Trafford.

Andrew wound up the debate by saying, "We see it (terracing) at rugby, we see it at horse racing tracks where fans are allowed to stand and enjoy their sport, and I fail to see why football fans should be treated differently."

The motion was approved by 26 votes to 1 with 20 abstentions (including, bizarrely, Mike Hedges).

The Issues Raised

Even the most well-supported Welsh Premier League clubs - like Rhyl and Bangor City - don't
attract the sorts of crowds necessary to determine if safe standing really would be safe.
(Pic : lilywhites.northwalesblogs.co.uk)

• Trialling safe standing in the Welsh Premier League – No offense to Ann Jones and her beloved Rhyl FC, but crowds in the Welsh Premier League are often measured in the hundreds, not tens of thousands. The only crush threat is the queue to the burger van. It wouldn't be a fair test. This would have to be trialled at a professional club in the higher tiers of the English pyramid – ultimately that means Cardiff or Swansea.
• Short adults and disabilities - Being only 5ft7 myself I know all too well what it's like to get stuck behind a human barn door at a football match, and it's not as if they make stilettos in my size. The logical solution to this would be to make terraces steeper so everyone – even the vertically disadvantaged – can see over the row in front. But that might be too expensive and cause safety concerns. It shouldn't affect disabled people as most clubs have designated disabled areas or wheelchair spaces which offer a clear view of the pitch. Supporters would still have a choice to remain in a seated area too.
• Policing & Crowd Control – I don't think Mike Hedges' arguments on this hold much water, except his question on whether police would back a return of terracing. I'd bet they wouldn't, and if terracing were reintroduced, police forces might consider charging clubs more to police games, deploying extra resources which would be better used elsewhere.
• Safety Certificates & Licensing - Some grounds - especially in built-up areas, like Arsenal's Emirates Stadium - have strict controls on the number of spectators allowed in due to the geography around the stadium or issues like transport. Even if a safe standing area held more spectators, the total number of supporters in the stadium could still be capped by safety certificates, making it a wasted effort if the goal of safe standing is to increase crowds. At the very least clubs that install large banks of safe standing would have to reapply for safety certificates.
• Ticket Prices & Costs – As I said last time, I don't think it's a given that ticket prices would automatically come down. Maybe smaller clubs would charge less to get people through the gates, but top-tier clubs might see it as an "experience" to sell to fans and the laws of supply and demand come into effect. Low ticket prices at German clubs are as much a result of how those clubs are owned (many are supporter-owned, and ownership by a single individual is banned) not just through the use of safe standing areas.

So, in the end, the National Assembly formally backed the promotion of safe standing and a pilot in Wales - though neither Welsh or British governments are bound by it. Whether a pilot goes ahead or not will likely come down to lobbying by the Culture Minister (who seems to want to wait for a cue from clubs) or a similar call in Westminster. I'm sure the campaign to bring back safe standing will see this support as useful too.

All of the speakers made valid and interesting points – for and against – demonstrating an ability to disagree with each other without resorting to the hyperbole and answer dodging that plagues other Assembly sessions. I'm a fan of these topical member's debates and, in my opinion, they should be held more often and are of more use than the usual Wednesday afternoon opposition debates.

Neither the Welsh Government or National Assembly have had the best of times over the last fortnight. This debate showed - even if the legislative session draws to a close with a dark cloud hanging over it – that maybe, just maybe, there's hope yet.

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How local is "Local TV"?

Bids have been submittted for all of Wales' "Local TV" stations.
Schwing.
(Pic : dvdactive.com)

The first city-based local TV stations were launched on Freeview in the UK towards the end of 2013. One of the first was Hull and Grimsby-based  Estuary TV, and local TV is coming to Wales this year.

As I mentioned last September (Broadcasting Wales IV – Wales on Television), the idea is that local TV would provide a commercial means by which local programming and news could establish itself. That's in the light of cutbacks to such programming on existing commercial broadcasters like ITV. It'll be part-backed by £25million in licence fee funds, in addition to advertisements.

I quite like the idea, though I have concerns about the long-term viability of local TV stations. Many previous "restricted service licence" stations in the UK - including the likes of Capital TV in Cardiff, or Channel M in Manchester - have closed down having not made much of an impact.

Wales was divided into four (AFAIK) local TV areas through which Ofcom would issue licences. Made in Cardiff won the licence for the Cardiff area and is due to launch services soon. BBC Wales reported last week that bids have been submitted to Ofcom for the other three Welsh licences, after initially attracting little interest.

Party Time! Excellent!

1. Cardiff Bid

Made in Cardiff was the first successful local TV bid in Wales.
(recombu.com)

• Made in Cardiff (licence awarded Sept. 2012)
• Indicative schedule (pdf)

Made in Cardiff will broadcast from the Wenvoe transmitter, covering Cardiff, Vale of Glamorgan, Newport, Bridgend and will probably be picked up in parts of the south Wales Valleys. Locally-produced news is said to be at the heart of programming, but they also intend to cover sports in the area other than football and rugby.

There'll be programming dedicated to the Cardiff cultural scene; including nightlife, events and music. A weekly arts programme called "Cool Cymru" will be in Welsh with English subtitles. "Cardiff Talks" will focus on civic life and local politics, with a panel discussion. There'll be two 30 minute news programmes each weekday night and hourly programmes at the weekend.

The original launch date was March 1^st 2013, but it's been pushed back to this year, though the exact date remains unclear.

2. Swansea Bids

The Swansea station would broadcast from the Kilvey Hill transmitter, covering Swansea, parts of Neath Port Talbot and Llanelli.

• Bay TV Swansea
• No indicative schedule provided.

The station would only broadcast during weekdays, at least initially. Their programming would include shows about local history and local sport (the latter they say will "feature heavily"), culmanating in a one hour sports show on Friday nights. A live debate show would launch in the second year, and in the third year they would move to week-long schedules.

By the third year they intend to broadcast up to 25 hours of local programming a week. News would be a rolling 15-minute bulletin, with additional 15 minute bulletins at lunchtime and a hour-long local news programme in the evening. They also plan to introduce programming specifically aimed at Welsh learners, while some news and features would be in Welsh (unspecified). The target date for launch is 1^st September 2014.

• Love Swansea
• Indicative schedule (pdf)

Love Swansea will be a sub-department of the Engage4Life company, and the station head will be former Welsh rugby international and broadcaster, Robert Jones.

News would consist mainly of a rolling RSS feed, with more formal 30 minute and 15 minute bulletins in the evening. This RSS feed makes up most of the daily schedule, with "live" programmes shown during evenings only. They intend to host a 90-minute sports phone-in on Sunday mornings. "A Week Ahead" and "A Week in Swansea" will be their flagship current affairs programmes.

Love Swansea say they want a specific science and business feature show, perhaps in association with Swansea University, and a show called "Hymns and Arias" will feature local church services. Citizen journalists will be provided with training and equipment to bring them stories. Again, the target launch date is 1^st September 2014.

Mold Bids

Bay TV Liverpool are bidding for both north Wales licences.
(Pic : digitalspy.co.uk)

• Bay TV Clwyd (subsidiary of Bay TV Liverpool)
• Indicative schedule (pdf)

This service would run from 7am-10:30pm on weekdays and 10am-10pm at weekends, broadcast via the Moel-y-Parc transmitter, but with the station itself based in Liverpool.

They say it'll "not be viable to create enough programmes locally to fill content", so most of the schedule is identical to Bay TV Liverpool, with a few half-hourly opt-outs per day, mainly local arts and cultural programming. They say their sports focus will be on the Liverpool and Manchester football clubs, because "in general, football supporters in North Wales are more interested in the success and failures" of those clubs, though they'll include coverage of local sports teams, like Wrexham.

Current affairs will feature during the news programmes. There's also a commitment to running 30 minutes of Welsh language programming a week, and a commitment to providing Welsh-language subtitles and a bilingual website. The prospective launch date would be 1^st October 2014.

• Serch TV Mold
• Indicative schedule (pdf)

Serch TV would run from 7am-11pm seven days a week. Most of the programming consists of local news updates, with opt outs for local cultural shows. There are two political shows, "One Voice" - which I presume is a panel show - and "Local Views Debate". It'll also include some non-local programming bought from the rest of the UK.

The studios will be based in Flintshire, but the station will use facilities at Glyndwr University and in Chester. They say they'll consider programming in other languages, with English subtitles, "according to market demand". The prospective launch date would be 1^st December 2014.

Bangor Bid

• Bay TV Gwynedd (subsidiary of Bay TV Liverpool)
• Indicative schedule (pdf)

The service is identical to Bay TV Clwyd, listed above, except broadcasting (presumably) from the Llanddona transmitter on Ynys Môn.

How local will your local TV station be?

Both Swansea bids are based in Swansea. With the exception of Serch TV, the north Wales bids are franchises of the Liverpool-based Bay TV, which won the bid for the Liverpool local TV service in February 2013.

It looks like the south of Wales will have genuinely local TV stations, but the north is going to get short-changed. If Bay TV win both bids, the North Walian stations will be colonial acquisitions of the Scouse Empire. "We're not worthy", indeed.
It's highly likely Bay TV Liverpool submitted bids for the the Mold and Bangor licences to make their Liverpool offer look more attractive to advertisers due to the larger catchment area. Saying it wouldn't be viable to create enough local content for north Wales kind of undermines the whole point of local TV.

You can understand why these licences are being hoovered up by a handful of bigger companies, with local stations acting as franchises. I imagine it would be nigh on impossible for a stand-alone local TV station to be commercially viable, while centralising certain aspects – like advertising and programme purchasing – would create an economy of scale. Made in Cardiff is a subsidiary of London-based Made TV, for example.

Love Swansea and Serch TV sound more like social enterprises than commercial stations. The prospect of several hours of RSS feed (in the case of Love Swansea) doesn't sound promising, but it's practical.

At least they're based locally and headed up by locals, providing local job and training opportunities – though it seems across Wales only 50-60 full-time jobs would be created.

That's a shame, because I believed the UK Government and Ofcom were on to something here, especially if it developed into a US-style "public access" service.

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