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Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Yahoo
Your Voice, Your BBC News: Do you have a story to share with a local BBC journalist?
What stories would you like BBC News to cover in the Highlands and Islands? We want to hear about the big issues affecting your community, the local people doing remarkable things, as well as quirky tales that will intrigue and entertain. Use the form below to upload photographs and documents, and to get in touch with your local BBC journalists.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Villagers win race to save UK pub, as thousands close
A nearly 200-year-old pub, the Radnor Arms in rural Wales stood abandoned a few years ago. Water ran down the walls, ivy crept around broken windows and rats' skeletons littered the floor. Fast forward to 2025 and laughter rings out of the newly reopened watering hole after locals clubbed together to save it. The pub, which first opened in the 1830s, is one of tens of thousands across the UK forced to call last orders over recent years. Once the heart of the village, the Radnor Arms -- which had become uneconomic due to rising costs -- was shut by the landlord in 2016 and quickly fell into ruin. For locals in the picturesque south Wales village of New Radnor, population 438, the demise of their only remaining hostelry was devastating. Over the years, there were around six or more pubs or ale houses in the village. By 2012, all except the Radnor Arms had shut down. "It was the heart of the village," said David Pyle, a 57-year-old retired psychiatrist who has lived next door to the pub for the past 18 years. "Sometimes you could hear a bit of hubbub, sometimes you'd hear a roar go up when Wales scored, or a male voice choir singing in the back bar," he told AFP. "It was just lovely," he said. "And then it closed." - British tradition - UK pubs, a quintessential cornerstone of community life, are increasingly under threat. Faced with changing drinking habits and spiralling bills, more than a quarter of the 60,800 in existence in 2000 have closed their doors in the past 25 years. Of the 45,000 still operating at the end of last year, 378 -- at least one a day -- are expected to close this year, according to the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA). The loss of Radnor Arms in 2016 left the village without a focal point, hitting everyone from hobby groups to local hill farmers who would meet there after work for a pint of beer and a chat. "It was the heart of the community. It was a place where anybody could come in," said Sue Norton, one of a team of locals who banded together to save it. "We celebrated births, deaths and marriages here. So for us, it was very emotional when it closed," she said. Vowing to rescue it, Norton and other villagers applied to a government scheme aimed at giving people the financial firepower to take ownership of pubs or shops at risk of being lost. A major fundraising effort last year drummed up £200,000 ($271,000), which was matched by the community ownership fund and boosted by an additional £40,000 government grant. With £440,000 in the kitty, the villagers were able to buy, refurbish and re-open the pub, relying on a rota of volunteers to work behind the bar rather than paid staff. Ukrainian refugee Eugene Marchenko, a 44-year-old lawyer who is one of the volunteers, says the pub helped him meet practically everyone within days of arriving. Marchenko, from the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, is being hosted by a villager along with his wife and teenage son. He said he quickly came to understand the importance of having a place in the village for "drinking and having fun together". "I read in books that the pub was a famous British tradition, but I can feel it myself... It's not just about the drinking alcohol, it's about the sharing and everybody knows each other," he said. - Lifeline axed - The previous Conservative government launched the community ownership fund in 2021. Under the scheme locals have successfully saved around 55 pubs, according to the community ownership charity Plunkett UK. The pubs are run democratically on a one-member, one-vote basis by those who contributed to the fundraiser. But the new Labour government, which took power a year ago, dropped the scheme in December as they sought to meet competing funding demands. Villagers in New Radnor are relieved to have got their application in under the wire but saddened that other communities will not benefit. For now they are planning to make the most of their new community hub. There are plans to host a range of activities -- from mother-and-baby mornings to a dementia group that aims to trigger memories through familiar sights and sounds. Sufferers and their carers could come and have a "drink or a bag of crisps -- or a pickled onion, if people like those," Norton said. har/jkb/js/tc
CBS News
a day ago
- CBS News
A family hired a contractor to repair the driveway for their special needs child. They say the repairs quickly faltered.
A local family says they're out thousands of dollars after hiring a contractor to repair their driveway and build a wheelchair-accessible ramp for their special needs son. A new path meant to include Devin Roberts now leaves him behind, stuck watching from above. "The whole project is disappointing," said Casey Roberts, Devin's mother. "Obviously, with limited mobility, you have limited options where you can go, and we wanted to even go to family gatherings we were going to have in the backyard," Devin's father, Shawn Roberts, said. Devin has special needs. He's in a wheelchair and can't get around without help from his parents or brother, Nick, but that doesn't stop them from making sure he's always part of the world around him. "We started to plan for this 11 years ago after we had the patio and a front walk done," said Shawn. Finally, this year, the Roberts came up with enough money to get it done. It cost an estimated $37,000 to repair the driveway and build a wheelchair ramp to the backyard. They hired AB Concrete and Excavating to get the job done. Work began June 2, with the Roberts paying half of the total cost up front. "So, a significant investment, but we wanted to do it for our family," said Shawn. Bah: How does it feel knowing this is what you've been left with? Casey: It's disheartening. The Roberts say the project quickly went downhill. "This is way steeper than it's supposed to be. It's also too narrow, and there's also no ramp," Shawn explained. "Really, from the beginning, it didn't start off well, and it didn't end well." An industry expert met with KDKA-TV at the Roberts household to explain what, if anything, is wrong with the work that was done. "This part here you can tell was poured hot," said Brian Tomasits, as he described the errors he saw at the house. Tomasits owns Tomasits Landscaping, working in the field for over 30 years, and he even built the walkway to the Roberts' home and patio 11 years ago. "It's obviously a bad job, bad installation by the contractor," he said. Tomasits said the driveway and backyard walkway are already falling apart. "This is just two concrete trucks poured up against each other," Tomasits explained. Tomasits agrees that the path to the backyard is not wide enough for a wheelchair and is also way too steep. All told, the Roberts wrote three different checks to AB Concrete and Excavating during the project's construction, which was only expected to last three days. Those checks totaled $34,250, short $2,750 of the balance owed. Shawn said he was going to pay the rest until he saw the quality of the work and asked them to stop. "I just wish, if we would have known when he started it was going to end up this way, we wouldn't have had him start," explained Casey. "It was supposed to be a two-to-three-day job that turned into a month," Shawn added. On July 7, Shawn sent an email to the owner of AB Concrete and Excavating asking them to address the issues. On July 15, the owner responded, admitting there were inconsistencies in the finish, but said it was only because he wasn't allowed to complete the job. "We've tried over and over to get a resolution, and each time, his proposed solution is not what he delivers as a solution," Shawn said. "Absolutely, I think that would be the fair thing to do," said Shawn when asked if the family wanted their money back. KDKA-TV reached out to the owner of AB Concrete and Excavating. After multiple attempts to contact the owner, when asked if he was willing to meet and discuss the issues presented by the Roberts family or issue a refund, the owner claimed that he was still owed money for the job. "I believe [the question of a refund] is for Shawn Roberts and I to discuss or our attorneys to discuss," the owner said when contacted by KDKA-TV. When asked how much it would take to make more repairs to the home following the job, Tomasits said it would be between $50,000 and $60,000. With the nearly $40,000 the Roberts have already spent, that would leave them at nearly $100,000 all in. "Any money we have to pay additional out of pocket, that's less time or money that we have to save for Nicholas' education or Devin's future." A high price to pay, both literally and figuratively, for quality time as a family.
