The news from last week that you might have missed

The news from last week that you might have missed - 16/08/21

16/08/21

13/08/21 - Just pop in to your local library and hub

Libraries and Community Hubs across the city are preparing to welcome customers back through the doors on a pop-in basis, without the need for an appointment.

From Monday, August 16, there will no longer be the need to book an appointment to visit libraries and hubs to browse the book shelves, use the public access PCs or to use study space in the building and customers can drop by at their convenience.

Social distancing measures will still be in place inside the buildings and customers will be required to wear a mask, unless they are exempt. The numbers of people inside the building at any one time will be carefully monitored and some customers may occasionally need to wait outside for a short while to allow customers already inside to leave.

Money advice drop-in sessions, without customers needing an appointment, also return to libraries and hubs next week and the Council's Money Advice Team are geared up to assist residents with a range of support including advice on budgeting, income maximisation, claiming benefits, grants or discounts, debt advice, financial support to save a tenancy, help with fuel poverty and much more.

12/08/21 - Cardiff's garden waste moves to monthly collections from Saturday, August 14

Garden waste collections in Cardiff will move from fortnightly collections to monthly collections from Saturday, August 14th, as the Council works to clear a backlog of garden waste on the city's streets caused by a UK-wide shortage of HGV drivers and fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Council will use the rest of August to collect any outstanding garden waste that remains on the street and residents are asked to leave their garden waste out for collection until it is picked up. We will collect it as soon as we can and we thank you for your patience.

The next garden waste collection will take place after the August Bank Holiday weekend, with a further collection each month through the autumn. This on-going service will be dependent on drivers being available. More information will be provided on collection days towards the end of August.

Moving to monthly garden collections earlier will, we believe, give us the best chance of maintaining statutory waste collections - that is general waste, food, hygiene and recyclables. Ensuring the collection of these waste streams has to be our priority as we deal with the effects driver shortages and fallout from the pandemic is having on our workforce.

And for our FAQs about the changes, visit https://www.cardiffnewsroom.co.uk/releases/c25/27269.html

12/08/21 -Cardiff schools celebrate GCSE results

Year 11 pupils are celebrating GCSE results with over a third of grades (34.5%) awarded at A*-A.

After another challenging year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many pupils received their results virtually.

In Wales's capital there has been a 2.8 percentage point increase in A*-A grades in 2021. 77.7% of grades are A*-C and 98.3% are A*-G. These are for WJEC GCSE results.

11/08/21 -Cardiff's Child Friendly Festival Leaves A Legacy Of Smiles

Thousands of Cardiff's children and young people have been left smiling, as Cardiff's Summer of Smiles city-centre festival has drawn to a close, paving the way for even more Child Friendly family fun this summer.

Attracting more than 8,500 visitors, the three-week family fiesta located at Cardiff's City Hall lawn, was an integral part of the capital's city-wide Child Friendly summer event programme, providing Cardiff's children and young people with activities based on a range of themes including science and tech, creative arts, sport and adventure, play and family fun.

Around 22 formal partners joined together to deliver a wide range of activities from trying a new sport in Olympic year to viewing exhibits on the lawn courtesy of the National Museum of Wales. The site also hosted circus skills, table football tournaments, BMX displays, arts and craft activities, theatre performances and live music and much more!

Joint funded by Cardiff Council and Welsh Government, Summer of Smiles is not over yet and will continue to deliver a jam-packed programme of activities in communities across the city for the remainder of the six-week school holidays. The free community-based activities can be booked by visiting www.childfriendlycardiff.co.uk

9/08/21 - Consultation on the draft Active Travel Map begins

Cardiff wants to increase the number of people walking or cycling to work from 31% to 43% by 2030.

To achieve this, Cardiff council's cabinet discussed and approved for the draft Active Travel Network Map to go out to public consultation at its meeting on July 15^thand a 12-week public engagement process will begin today (August 9^th) and will end on October 31^st.

The consultation will use the Welsh Government's commonplace platform to consult with the public -https://cardiffatnm.commonplace.is- so residents can view the proposals and give their views through an online questionnaire.

9/08/21 - #PositiveFuturesCDF - Teenager walks for well-being and changes direction of her future

Cardiff Youth Service, part of our Education department, works with young people aged 11-25 to develop their personal, social and educational development through a variety of opportunities.

During the pandemic, they have continued to offer some of their services at a time when some young people needed them the most.

Nikita, 13, was suffering from anxiety and had trouble connecting with school, so a Youth Mentor from Cardiff Youth Service began well-being walks and delivered a food parcel each week. Gradually they built up a strong rapport.

Nikita developed enough confidence to volunteer at Cardiff Dogs Home, motivated by her love of animals.

Throughout lockdown, they worked together via online cooking challenges and socially distanced well-being walks. Once rules were relaxed, the young people using the service decided they wanted a well-being youth group as they had been talking online but never met in person.

The group started meeting on a Wednesday, going on nature walks, cooking and working around a professional development (AQA) course at Gabalfa centre. The centre runs a group that Nikita was interested in attending and - we're pleased to report - she was offered place and is achieving a 100% attendance record.