Pontypridd, United Kingdom News

In our latest column to mark World Book Day on March 1, visual artist Mary Lloyd Jones recommends must reads every established or budding creative should have on their shelves The importance of the three volumes written and researched by the scholar and artist Peter Lord cannot be overstated.

PENRHIWCEIBER There's a film shown every Saturday at the Penrhiwceiber Institute Hall from 4.30pm. Doors open at 4pm.

A NEW service helping the Cynon Valley community apply for housing benefit, report potholes and seek planning advice has been launched in Mountain Ash.

THE Plaid Cymru leadership contest has become personal after Lord Elis-Thomas accused Elin Jones of "a cynical ploy" by running with Simon Thomas as her deputy.

A RAID by police and council staff on a Pontypridd pub recovered booze and cash - six months after it lost an appeal to keep its licence to sell alcohol.

A series of Freedom of Information requests by RCT-based Welsh Liberal Democrats have uncovered that the council doesn't know how many businesses have set up in the area in the past 12 months.

He was released by the Wales management for Blues' Anglo-Welsh LV Cup victory over Aviva Premiership leaders Harlequins last weekend.

UNION leaders have launched a defence of Wales' education vision and the policies introduced since devolution, despite mounting evidence of a slide in school standards.

TRAIN passengers in South East Wales are being given the opportunity to have their say on how the network is policed.

A peeping tom who used a camera to spy on dancers at the Muni Arts Centre in Pontypridd has had his sentence halved by top judges.

A PLASTERER is facing a 6,800 bill to repair his garden wall after claiming the council caused the damage resurfacing his road.

IMPOVERISHED and vulnerable families with no money for food are being given a helping hand thanks to the launch of Pontypridd's first food bank.

SOME of Wales' hungriest rugby players swapped the scrum for the scrumptious when they helped themselves to arguably the country's largest ever order of meat.

Alison Williams, who runs the kitchen at Maindee Primary School, will go head to head with two other chefs from schools in Pembrokeshire and Rhondda Cynon Taff in the competition final today.

Born with a rare kidney condition Zowiann Flood needed constant medical attention and nightly dialysis but was well enough to attend school and dote on her many pets.

LLANARTHNE Squirrel is on the menu at the Food Fair at the National Botanic Garden of Wales today and tomorrow.

The outside-half, who was in the Wales training squad before last year's World Cup, is viewed as an exciting successor to Dan Parks.

THE FUTURE of valleys employees continued to hang in the balance this week as they wait to hear the fate of fashion stores Peacocks and Bonmarche.

The Welsh national anthem hits just the right notes in an academic study which looks to measure "sing-ability" of patriotic songs.

The staff at the Peacocks store in Pontypridd were attempting to be as cheerful as always, laughing and joking as they clambered up a ladder to tape a new sale sign to the window.