Here is your Friday update, covering:

• Fareshare Cymru - trial production of ‘ready meals' from surplus food
• Walking and cycling improvements - Sanatorium Road, Broad Street, Lansdowne Road & Grosvenor Street, Canton
• Repairs Academy - helping to grow Cardiff Council's skilled workforce

Fareshare Cymru trial production of ‘ready meals' from surplus food

Fareshare Cymru will begin a six-month production trial of healthy, sustainable ready meals made from surplus food after successfully moving into the next phase of a Sustainable Food Challenge.

The charity, which isthe biggest redistributor of surplus food from the food industry in Wales, can't currently use all the food they have access to. Now, having proven the idea is feasible, during phase one of the Challenge, they are partnering with Cardiff and Vale College (CAVC) to scale up production during a 12 month ‘demonstrator' phase.

Katie Padfield, Head of Development at FareShare Cymru, said: "The Food Challenge is not like anything we've done before. We are very excited to be able to demonstrate what we can achieve".

Production in the ‘Redistribution Wales Kitchen' will start one day per week, in the kitchens and additional facilities at CAVC, with the aim of scaling up to three days a week at a later stage. The meals produced will all contain two of your ‘five a day' fruit and vegetables and be fully vegetarian. 10 food projects will be supplied with food initially, with the aim of increasing this to 30 as production scales up.

Three different forms of sustainable packaging are also being trialled as part of this Challenge phase, with reusable metal, reusable plastics and compostable packaging all being tried out.

Cabinet Member for Public Health & Equality, Cllr Julie Sangani, said: "These healthy, nutritious meals have the potential to reduce food waste and meet a gap in the provision of food to community organisations and charities who are supporting some of the most vulnerable in society. It's a really exciting and innovative project and I'm looking forward to seeing production scale up over the next six months."

Read more here

Walking and cycling improvements: Sanatorium Road, Broad Street, Lansdowne Road & Grosvenor Street, Canton

The scheme is part of an active travel project for Canton which is being funded by a grant from the Welsh Government. It aims to make improvements for people travelling on foot, scooter, and bicycle to local schools and elsewhere. It will make permanent and extend some of the changes that have taken place on this corridor in the last two or three years. A  public consultation  on the scheme took place between 08/08/2021 and 15/09/2021.

Changes are being made to footways and junctions to improve walking and cycling journeys. See the map for details. Changes include:

• Footways will be resurfaced.
• The widened footway on the west side of Sanatorium Road will be kept for shared use by pedestrians and cyclists.
• The muddy path by Park Vets following the ‘desire line' for pedestrians will be tarmacked to create a footway.
• The signalised junctions of Sanatorium Road with Lansdowne Road and Broad Street will be reconfigured and have diagonal, signal-controlled crossings for pedestrians so that crossings are easier and safer.
• Changes will be made to the junctions of side roads (Lansdowne Road East & West and Brunswick Street) to make it easier for pedestrians to cross.
• There will be planting of ‘rain gardens' to improve the appearance and help with surface water drainage.
• Grosvenor Street will be permanently one-way northbound for traffic with only bicycles permitted southbound.

Read more here

Repairs Academy helps to grow Council's skilled workforce

One of Cardiff Council's key employment initiatives is proving its worth in helping those who are eager to learn develop their skills in new trades and take great strides along their career paths.

The Responsive Repairs Academy was established last year with the aim of ‘growing' the Council's own maintenance workforce. It has taken on a number of trainees and apprentices who, after a grounding in different trades and working with qualified mentors, have chosen to specialise in areas like carpentry, plumbing, painting and decorating, and plastering.

The Council currently has six apprentices, along with five people also on a two-year traineeship which can lead to a sponsored four-year part-time course at Cardiff and Vale College to gain a professional qualification. Managers at the Council hope to take on more new recruits next year at a starting salary of around £19,100. Follow this link for further information/vacancies.

The Responsive Repairs service maintains the council housing stock (around 14,000 homes), including repairing doors and windows, fitting kitchens and electrical maintenance. Last year, the service carried out around 50,000 jobs, plus a further 5,700 out of hours.

Cllr Lynda Thorne, Cardiff Council's Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities, said she was delighted that the Responsive Repairs Academy was proving to be such a success. "We are committed to ‘growing our own' workforce," she said. "The Academy supports trainees, apprentices and maintenance persons to become qualified tradespeople - it's a great way to bring opportunities to people across our communities."

Read more here