Welcome to my May newsletter.

I hope you, your families, friends and neighbours are continuing to stay safe and well.

Thank you again to the overwhelming majority of Cardiff Central residents who have been following public health and government guidance and instructions closely. By playing our part, we help in the national effort to beat the spread of the virus and every week we are making progress.

As we all clapped for a final time on Thursday night, thank you to each and every key worker providing essential services, especially in our NHS, social care, council services and retail to mention just a few. Thank you also to everyone who has volunteered to help our community across Cardiff Central.

We now move to a new phase of tackling the virus, as First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford today announced changes to the rules in Wales.

First Minister Mark Drakeford has today announced changes to the lockdown rules in Wales, taking force from Monday.

• From Monday, you can meet family or friends from another household outside in the same local area.
• You’ll still need to stay local (within 5 miles), stay 2 metres apart and wash your hands regularly.
• Essential shops - prepare to potentially open in three weeks.

Full guidance about the new rules are available on the Welsh Government website here.

Earlier in the month, the Welsh Government also announced details of the traffic light system they will be using to lead Wales out of lockdown long term. You can read more about that here.

I’ve been inundated with emails and messages about Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnson’s handling of the crisis.

Like you, I am appalled by what he has done, but also with the Prime Minister, in describing Dominic Cummings’s actions as reasonable and legal.

The vast majority of us in Cardiff Central have made and are still making huge sacrifices in our collective national effort to prevent people from dying from COVID-19. Yet the Prime Minister’s Chief Adviser blatantly breaks the law putting others at risk of illness and potential death, the Prime Minister knows what he has done and they both hide that from the public for several weeks.

There are families across Cardiff Central, including mine, who have lost relatives and friends during this crisis. Families that obeyed the rules, unable to see their loved ones whilst they were ill and in their last moments, unable to attend funerals or provide comfort to grieving family members. It has been such a painful experience for people and that pain will be lifelong.

This scandal is now not about what Dominic Cummings did or didn’t do. It is about the lack of leadership of the Prime Minister, who has shown himself willing to undermine the entire COVID-19 public health advice campaign designed to minimise the spread of the virus, protect our NHS and keep us all safe as possible. The duty of any Prime Minister is to keep the country and its people safe and he has failed in that duty, instead choosing to protect his friend, an unelected, party political adviser who is at the heart of government making decisions that affect us all.

Labour leader Keir Starmer has, I believe, perfectly reflected the majority of the public mood when he said “The Prime Minister has treated the British people with contempt. One rule for Dominic Cummings, another for everybody else.”
Keir has been explicit that were he the Prime Minister, he would have sacked Dominic Cummings.

Boris Johnson should follow that advice.

Anyone in Wales suffering any of the three main symptoms of COVID-19 can now apply for testing, including home testing kits.

These symptoms are a new continuous cough, a fever, or loss of taste or smell.

The process of applying for a test is straightforward and free of charge.

You can find out more here.

In under an hour, you could save up to 3️ lives by giving blood in Roath – the Welsh Blood Service will be at Plasnewydd Community Centre each day between June 1^st and June 5^th.

COVID-19 has meant much reduced levels of blood donation, but we still face the same health challenges as we did before. A single donation from you could save lives.

During the pandemic the blood service cannot take walk-ins, so book here: https://wbs.wales/RoathDiff

If you are able to help it will make a huge difference, so thank you.

Cardiff Council have announced that one-off garden waste collections will continue into June and the first week of July, so that residents are able to dispose of their grass cuttings, small twigs and branches, leaves, and plant and flower cuttings.
The image above will show you when you can expect the collection in your area, based on your usual collection day.

• These are the only waste types which should be put in your green wheelie bin or reusable bags.
• Residents are being reminded that they should only put out garden waste for collection in their green wheelie bin or their reusable garden sacks.
• Any additional garden waste, which is put in any other container, including plastic bags, will not be collected.
• If incorrect items are placed in the green bin or the re-usable sacks, a pink sticker will be placed on the container to notify the resident that incorrect items have been put out for collection and the waste will not be collected.

GWR are helping to keep children occupied with a new short story competition.

Children’s TV presenter Naomi Wilkinson is to judge a short-story competition about your favourite journey with GWR. You could be heading to a secret destination, travelling in the company of Royalty or taking a journey back in time – in fact, anything you care to imagine.

All you’ve got to do is use the following sentence as the start to your story:

“It was as the GWR train was pulling out of the station that it first caught my eye. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing…”

Key Stage 1 children (5-7 year olds) should write no more than 250 words. Key Stage 2 children (7-11 year olds) should write no more than 500 words.

Naomi will pick three winners in each age category. They will each receive a #GWREnterTrainment pack including a jigsaw and set of GWR Top Trumps.

Ask an adult to send in your entry, including your age, category and contact details to [email protected]. The competition closes at midnight on Friday 5 June and GWR will contact the winners directly.

The Coronavirus pandemic is obviously having a huge impact on many of the fantastic, diverse local businesses here in Cardiff Central, but many are adapting to continue to operate through lockdown. Over recent weeks, I’ve been sharing the businesses on my social media with #DiffOnline to help get the message out about how they are still managing to keep running.

You can see the list so far by clicking here.

If you run a business, or know of businesses still working hard to run a service, please send me an email at [email protected] with the subject line ‘Diff Online’ and I’ll ensure they get a post over the coming weeks.

You can also see a list of businesses still operating across Cardiff, compiled by Cardiff Delivers by clicking here.

The National Lottery Community Fund is continuing to support communities across Wales in this tough time. Last month awarding over £5.1million to 164 charities and smaller voluntary led community projects across Wales the majority of which help people to support each other through the COVID-19 crisis.

Projects funded include those which will deliver emergency care packages for vulnerable people, those providing online and telephone support to isolated people such as carers, BAME groups and young people, as well as projects that will bring people together and give them hope for the future. Money will be prioritised for local groups helping people and communities through COVID-19.

You can find out more by clicking here.

My website has a dedicated section containing the most up-to-date information and advice from the UK Government, Welsh Government and Cardiff Council on a range of matters from employment, business, housing, volunteering and more.

We are continually updating it with the latest information as soon as it becomes available and I hope it has been helpful to you. If you need help with an issue that isn’t covered there, please call or email me (contact details are below).