Glamorgan
Glamorgan, or sometimes Glamorganshire, is one of the thirteen historic counties of Wales and a former administrative county of Wales. It was an early medieval petty kingdom of varying boundaries known as Glywysing until taken over by the Normans as a lordship. Glamorgan is latterly represented by the three preserved counties of Mid Glamorgan, South Glamorgan and West Glamorgan; the name survives in that of Vale of Glamorgan, a county borough. Although a rural and pastoral area of little value, the area that became known as Glamorgan was a conflict point between the Norman lords and the Welsh princes, with the area being defined by a large concentration of castles. After falling under English rule in the 16th century, Glamorgan became a more stable county, exploited its natural resources to become an important part of the Industrial Revolution. Glamorgan was the most populous and industrialised county in Wales, was once called the "crucible of the Industrial Revolution," as it contained the world centres of three metallurgical industries and its rich resources of coal.
The county of Glamorgan comprises several distinct regions: the industrial valleys, the agricultural Vale of Glamorgan, the scenic Gower Peninsula. The county is bounded to the north by Brecknockshire, east by Monmouthshire, south by the Bristol Channel, west by Carmarthenshire and Carmarthen Bay, its total area is 2,100 km2, the total population of the three preserved counties of Glamorgan in 1991 was 1,288,309. Glamorgan contains two cities, the county town and from 1955 the capital city of Wales, Swansea; the highest point in the county is Craig y Llyn, situated near the village of Rhigos in the Cynon Valley. Glamorgan's terrain has been inhabited by humankind for over 200,000 years. Climate fluctuation caused the formation and reformation of glaciers which, in turn, caused sea levels to rise and fall. At various times life has flourished, at others the area is to have been uninhabitable. Evidence of the presence of Neanderthals has been discovered on the Gower Peninsula. Whether they remained in the area during periods of extreme cold is unclear.
Sea levels have been 150 metres lower and 8 metres higher than at present, resulting in significant changes to the coastline during this period. Archaeological evidence shows; the oldest known human burial in Great Britain – the Red Lady of Paviland – was discovered in a coastal cave between Port Eynon and Rhossili, on the Gower Peninsula. The'lady' has been radiocarbon dated to c. 29,000 years before present – during the Late Pleistocene – at which time the cave overlooked an area of plain, some miles from the sea. From the end of the last ice age Mesolithic hunter-gatherers began to migrate to the British Peninsula – through Doggerland – from the European mainland. Archaeologist Stephen Aldhouse-Green notes that while Wales has a "multitude" of Mesolithic sites, their settlements were "focused on the coastal plains", the uplands were "exploited only by specialist hunting groups". Human lifestyles in North-West Europe changed around 6000 BP, they cleared the forests to establish pasture and to cultivate the land and developed new technologies such as ceramics and textile production.
A tradition of long barrow construction began in continental Europe during the 7th millennium BP – the free standing megalithic structures supporting a sloping capstone. Nineteen Neolithic chambered five possible henges have been identified in Glamorgan; these megalithic burial chambers, or cromlechi, were built between 6000 and 5000 BP, during the early Neolithic period, the first of them about 1500 years before either Stonehenge or the Egyptian Great Pyramid of Giza was completed. Two major groups of Neolithic architectural traditions are represented in the area: portal dolmens; such massive constructions would have needed a large labour force – up to 200 men – suggestive of large communities nearby. Archaeological evidence from some Neolithic sites has shown the continued use of cromlechi in the Bronze Age; the Bronze Age – defined by the use of metal – has made a lasting impression on the area. Over six hundred Bronze Age barrows and cairns, of various types, have been identified all over Glamorgan.
Other technological innovations – including the wheel. Deforestation continued to the more remote areas as a warmer climate allowed the cultivation of upland areas. By 4000 BP people had begun to bury, or cremate their dead in individual cists, beneath a mound of earth known as a round barrow. From c. 3350 BP, a worsening climate began to make agriculture unsustainable in upland areas. The resulting population pressures appear to have led to co
Welsh Ambulance Service
The Welsh Ambulance Service, formally the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust, is the national ambulance service for Wales and one of the three NHS trusts in the country. It was established on 1 April 1998 and has 2,576 staff providing ambulance and related services to the 3.1 million residents of Wales. The Welsh Ambulance Service's headquarters is located at H. M. Stanley Hospital, St Asaph, Denbighshire; the service is divided into three regions: Central and West Region – based at Ty Maes Y Gruffudd, Cefn Coed Hospital, Swansea North Region – based at H. M. Stanley Hospital, St Asaph, Denbighshire South-East Region – based at Vantage Point House, Ty Coch Industrial Estate, CwmbranThe service is investing as part of a five-year modernisation plan, this will see the end of Regions and management will be via Heads of Services aligned to the Health Board areas along with a Head of Service for the Clinical Contact Centres and Head of Service for Production which oversees the resources available within the geographical areas.
The Welsh Ambulance Service provides: Emergency Medical Services - This service responds to emergency 999 calls and GP's urgent calls. A standard crew combination for this service would consist of a Paramedic and an Emergency Medical Technician; however double Paramedic / double Technician crews are not uncommon. As of 2013, the majority of the EMS fleet consists of Wilker Mercedes Benz 519 Sprinter Ambulances and Honda CRV / Ford Focus Rapid Response Vehicles. Non Emergency Patient Transport Service - This service deals with the planned care aspect of ambulance work. NEPTS staff provide transport between home and healthcare facilities or some inter-hospital transfers. Urgent Care Service - This service bridges the gap between NEPTS and EMS, allowing for patients to be transferred between home and hospital or hospital to hospital while meeting the advanced needs that some of these patients may have. UCS ambulance crews may be allocated to EMS calls at times of high demand and following clinical telephony triage by a nurse or face to face triage by Advanced Paramedic Practitioners or Paramedic Practitioners working from a Rapid Response Vehicle.
NHS Direct Wales / 111 Wales is a 24-hour telephone and internet health advice service provided by NHS Wales to enable people to obtain advice when use of the national emergency telephone number does not seem to be appropriate but there is some degree of urgency. NHS Direct Wales / 111 Wales supports EMS Operations by providing clinical triage for "Green 3" calls that are deemed suitable. More than 45% of 999 calls have a disposition of not requiring 999 conveyance. In addition during times of escalation other calls deemed suitable are triaged, it does not replace any of the existing emergency or non-emergency medical services but complements those existing and enables callers who might not be able to diagnose themselves to be directed to care of an appropriate level of urgency, including transport to hospital if the diagnosis merits that action. Community First Responders - CFRs are volunteers from the community trained in basic first aid, oxygen administration and the use of an Automated External Defibrillator.
They are used by the ambulance service in rural areas to provide basic care, such as Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation before an EMS crew arrives. As CFRs are only sent to local calls in specified communities, they arrive before an EMS ambulance crew without the use of blue lights and sirens. Whilst most CFR teams are the sole responsibility of WAST, a number of teams are made up of regular divisions from St John Ambulance in Wales although this does not give them any exemptions. There are developing numbers of Advanced Paramedic Practitioners in the service who through their extended scope of practice are working toward advancing the service their patients receive with "see and treat" and "see and refer" models of care; this removes the need for some patients to travel in an ambulance to A&E. In 2012 a strategic review of the service was commissioned by the Welsh Government and was conducted by Professor Siobhan McClelland and published in April 2013. National Health Service NHS Direct Wales Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Direct Wales
Gower (Assembly constituency)
Gower is a constituency of the National Assembly for Wales. It elects one Assembly Member by the first past the post method of election, it is one of seven constituencies in the South Wales West electoral region, which elects four additional members, in addition to seven constituency members, to produce a degree of proportional representation for the region as a whole. The constituency has elected a Labour AM since the assembly was created in 1999; however in 2007 and 2016 the party won narrow majorities. The AM from 1999 to 2016 Edwina Hart was Minister for Business, Enterprise and Science from 2011 to 2016; the constituency was created for the first election to the Assembly, in 1999, with the name and boundaries of the Gower Westminster constituency. It is within the preserved county of West Glamorgan; the other six constituencies of the region are Aberavon, Neath, Swansea East and Swansea West. In general elections for the National Assembly for Wales, each voter has two votes; the first vote may be used to vote for a candidate to become the Assembly Member for the voter's constituency, elected by the first past the post system.
The second vote may be used to vote for a regional closed party list of candidates. Additional member seats are allocated from the lists by the d'Hondt method, with constituency results being taken into account in the allocation
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an area of countryside in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of their national importance, by the relevant public body: Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, or the Northern Ireland Environment Agency. In place of AONB, Scotland uses the similar national scenic area designation. Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty enjoy levels of protection from development similar to those of UK national parks, but unlike with national parks the responsible bodies do not have their own planning powers, they differ from national parks in their more limited opportunities for extensive outdoor recreation. The idea for what would become the AONB designation was first put forward by John Dower in his 1945 Report to the Government on National Parks in England and Wales. Dower suggested there was need for protection of certain beautiful landscapes which were unsuitable as national parks owing to their small size and lack of wildness.
Dower's recommendation for the designation of these "other amenity areas" was embodied in the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 as the AONB designation. The purpose of an AONB designation is to conserve and enhance the natural beauty of the designated landscape by placing it under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. There two secondary aims: meeting the need for quiet enjoyment of the countryside and having regard for the interests of those who live and work there. To achieve these aims, AONBs rely on practical countryside management; as they have the same landscape quality, AONBs may be compared to the national parks of England and Wales. National parks are well known to many inhabitants of the UK. However, the National Association of AONBs is working to increase awareness of AONBs in local communities, in 2014 negotiated to have the boundaries of AONBs in England shown on Google Maps. There are 46 AONBs in Britain; the first AONB was designated in 1956 in South Wales.
The most confirmed is the Tamar Valley AONB in 1995, although the existing Clwydian Range AONB was extended in 2012 to form the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB, the Strangford Lough and Lecale Coast AONBs were merged and redesignated as a single AONB in 2010. AONBs vary in terms of size and use of land, whether they are or wholly open to the public; the smallest AONB is the Isles of Scilly, 16 km2, the largest is the Cotswolds, 2,038 km2. The AONBs of England and Wales together cover around 18% of the countryside in the two countries; the AONBs of Northern Ireland together cover about 70% of Northern Ireland's coastline. AONBs in England and Wales were created under the same legislation as the national parks, the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. Unlike AONBs, national parks have special legal powers to prevent unsympathetic development. AONBs in general remain the responsibility of their local authorities by means of special committees which include members appointed by the minister and by parishes, only limited statutory duties were imposed on local authorities within an AONB by the original 1949 Act.
However, further regulation and protection of AONBs in England and Wales was added by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, under which new designations are now made, the Government has in the National Planning Policy Framework stated that AONBs and national parks have equal status when it comes to planning decisions on landscape issues. Two of the AONBs, which extend into a large number of local authority areas, have their own statutory bodies, known as conservation boards. All English and Welsh AONBs have other staff; as required by the CRoW Act, each AONB has a management plan that sets out the characteristics and special qualities of the landscape and how they will be conserved and enhanced. The AONBs are collectively represented by the National Association for AONBs, an independent organization acting on behalf of AONBs and their partners. AONBs in Northern Ireland was designated under the Amenity Lands Act 1965. There are growing concerns among environmental and countryside groups that AONB status is under threat from development.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England said in July 2006 that many AONBs were under greater threat than before. Three particular sites were cited: the Dorset AONB threatened by a road plan, the threat of a football stadium in the Sussex Downs AONB, larger than any other, a £1 billion plan by Imperial College London to build thousands of houses and offices on hundreds of acres of AONB land on the Kent Downs at Wye. In September 2007 government approval was given for the development of a new football ground for Brighton and Hove Albion within the boundaries of the Sussex Downs AONB, after a fierce fight by conservationists; the subsequent development, known as Falmer Stadium, was opened in July 2011. The Weymouth Relief Road in Dorset was constructed between 2008 and 2011, after environmental groups lost a High Court challenge to prevent its construction. Writing in 2006, Professor Adrian Phillips listed threats facing AONBs, he wrote that the apparent big threats were uncertainty over future support for lan
National Assembly for Wales
The National Assembly for Wales is the devolved parliament of Wales, with power to make legislation, vary taxes and scrutinise the Welsh Government. The Assembly comprises AMs. Since 2011, Members are elected for five-year terms under an additional members system, in which 40 AMs represent geographical constituencies elected by the plurality system, 20 AMs represent five electoral regions using the d'Hondt method of proportional representation; the largest party in the Assembly forms the Welsh Government. The Assembly was created by the Government of Wales Act 1998, which followed a referendum in 1997; the Assembly had no powers to initiate primary legislation until limited law-making powers were gained through the Government of Wales Act 2006. Its primary law-making powers were enhanced following a Yes vote in the referendum on 3 March 2011, making it possible for it to legislate without having to consult the UK parliament or the Secretary of State for Wales in the 20 areas that are devolved.
Legislation has been introduced by the Assembly Commission which will change the name of the institution from National Assembly for Wales to the Senedd, which may be known as the Welsh Parliament. An appointed Council for Wales and Monmouthshire was established in 1949 to "ensure the government is adequately informed of the impact of government activities on the general life of the people of Wales"; the council had 27 members nominated by local authorities in Wales, the University of Wales, National Eisteddfod Council and the Welsh Tourist Board. A post of Minister of Welsh Affairs was created in 1951 and the post of Secretary of State for Wales and the Welsh Office were established in 1964 leading to the abolition of the Council for Wales; the establishment of the Welsh Office created the basis for the territorial governance of Wales. The Royal Commission on the Constitution was set up in 1969 by Harold Wilson's Labour Government to investigate the possibility of devolution for Scotland and Wales.
Its recommendations formed the basis of the 1974 White Paper Democracy and Devolution: proposals for Scotland and Wales, which proposed the creation of a Welsh Assembly. However, Welsh voters rejected the proposals by a majority of four to one in a referendum held in 1979. After the 1997 general election, the new Labour Government argued that an Assembly would be more democratically accountable than the Welsh Office. For eleven years prior to 1997 Wales had been represented in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom by a Secretary of State who did not represent a Welsh constituency at Westminster. A second referendum was held in Wales on 18 September 1997 in which voters approved the creation of the National Assembly for Wales with a total of 559,419 votes, or 50.3% of the vote. The following year the Government of Wales Act was passed by the United Kingdom parliament, establishing the Assembly. In July 2002, the Welsh Government established an independent commission, with Lord Richard as chair, to review the powers and electoral arrangements of the National Assembly to ensure that it is able to operate in the best interests of the people of Wales.
The Richard Commission reported in March 2004. It recommended that the National Assembly should have powers to legislate in certain areas, whilst others would remain the preserve of Westminster, it recommended changing the electoral system to the single transferable vote which would produce greater proportionality. In response, the British government, in its Better Governance for Wales White Paper, published on 15 June 2005, proposed a more permissive law-making system for the Welsh Assembly based on the use of Parliamentary Orders in Council. In so doing, the Government rejected many of the cross party Richard Commission's recommendations; this has attracted criticism from opposition others. The Government of Wales Act 2006 received Royal Assent on 25 July 2006, it conferred on the Assembly legislative powers similar to other devolved legislatures through the ability to pass Assembly Measures concerning matters that are devolved. Requests for further legislative powers made through legislative competence requests were subject to the veto of the Secretary of State for Wales, House of Commons or House of Lords.
The Act reformed the assembly to a parliamentary-type structure, establishing the Welsh Government as an entity separate from, but accountable to the National Assembly. It enables the Assembly to legislate within its devolved fields; the Act reforms the Assembly's electoral system. It prevents individuals from standing as candidates in regional seats; this aspect of the act was subject to a great deal of criticism, most notably from the Electoral Commission. The Act was criticised. Plaid Cymru, the Official Opposition in the National Assembly from 1999–2007, attacked it for not delivering a fully-fledged parliament. Many commentators have criticised the Labour Party's partisan attempt to alter the electoral system. By preventing regional Assembly Members from standing in constituency seats the party has been accused of changing the rules to protect constituency representatives. Labour had 29 members in the Assembly at the time; the changes to the Assembly's powers were commenced on 4 May 2007, after the election.
Following a referendum on 3 March 2011, the Welsh Assembly gained direct law making powers, without the need to consult Westminster. The Conservative-Liberal coalition government created the Commission on Devolution in Wales
Headlands and bays
Both headland and bay are two coastal features that are related and found on the same coastline. A bay is a body of water—usually seawater and sometimes fresh water— surrounded by land, whereas a headland is surrounded by water on three sides. Headlands are characterized by rocky shores, intense erosion and steep sea cliffs. Bays have less wave activity and have sandy beaches. Headlands and bays form on discordant coastlines, where the land consists of bands of rock of alternating resistance that run perpendicular to the coast. Bays form where less resistant rocks, such as sands and clays, are eroded, leaving bands of stronger, or more resistant rocks, which form a headland or peninsula. Refraction of waves occurs on headlands concentrating wave energy on them, so many other landforms, such as caves, natural arches, stacks, form on headlands. Wave energy is directed at right angles to the wave crest, lines drawn at right angles to the wave crest represent the direction of energy expenditure. Orthogonals converge on headlands and diverge in bays, which concentrates wave energy on the headlands and dissipates wave energy in the bays.
In the formation of sea cliffs, wave erosion undercuts the slopes at the shoreline, which retreat landward. This accelerates mass movement; the debris from these landslides collects at the base of the cliff and is removed by the waves during storms, when wave energy is greatest. This debris provides sediment, transported through longshore current for the nearby bay. Joints in the headlands are eroded back to form caves; these gaps collapse and leave tall stacks at the ends of the headlands. These too are eroded by the waves. Wave refraction disperses wave energy through the bay, along with the sheltering effect of the headlands, this protects bays from storms; this effect means that the waves reaching the shore in a bay are weaker than the waves reaching the headland, the bay is thus a safer place for water activities like surfing or swimming. Through the deposition of sediment within the bay and the erosion of the headlands, coastlines straighten out, but the same process starts all over again.
A beach is a dynamic geologic feature that can fluctuate between advancement and retreat of sediment. The natural agents of fluctuation include waves, tides and winds. Man-made elements such as the interruption of sediment supply, such as a dam, withdrawal of fluid can affect beach stabilization. Static equilibrium refers to a beach, stable and experiences neither littoral drift nor sediment deposition nor erosion. Waves diffract around the headland and near the beach when the beach is in a state of static equilibrium. Dynamic equilibrium occurs when the beach sediments are deposited and eroded at equal rates. Beaches that have dynamic equilibrium are near a river that supplies sediment and would otherwise erode away without the river supply. Unstable beaches are a result of human interaction, such as a breakwater or dammed river. Unstable beaches are reshaped by continual erosion or deposition and will continue to erode or deposit until a state of equilibrium is reached in the bay. GeoResources - diagrams of headland and bay formation
Walking
Walking is one of the main gaits of locomotion among legged animals. Walking is slower than running and other gaits. Walking is defined by an'inverted pendulum' gait in which the body vaults over the stiff limb or limbs with each step; this applies regardless of the unusable number of limbs—even arthropods, with six, eight or more limbs, walk. The word walk is descended from the Old English wealcan "to roll". In humans and other bipeds, walking is distinguished from running in that only one foot at a time leaves contact with the ground and there is a period of double-support. In contrast, running begins; this distinction has the status of a formal requirement in competitive walking events. For quadrupedal species, there are numerous gaits which may be termed walking or running, distinctions based upon the presence or absence of a suspended phase or the number of feet in contact any time do not yield mechanically correct classification; the most effective method to distinguish walking from running is to measure the height of a person's centre of mass using motion capture or a force plate at midstance.
During walking, the centre of mass reaches a maximum height at midstance, while during running, it is at a minimum. This distinction, only holds true for locomotion over level or level ground. For walking up grades above 10%, this distinction no longer holds for some individuals. Definitions based on the percentage of the stride during which a foot is in contact with the ground of greater than 50% contact corresponds well with identification of'inverted pendulum' mechanics and are indicative of walking for animals with any number of limbs, although this definition is incomplete. Running humans and animals may have contact periods greater than 50% of a gait cycle when rounding corners, running uphill or carrying loads. Speed is another factor. Although walking speeds can vary depending on many factors such as height, age, surface, culture and fitness, the average human walking speed at crosswalks is about 5.0 kilometres per hour, or about 1.4 meters per second, or about 3.1 miles per hour. Specific studies have found pedestrian walking speeds at crosswalks ranging from 4.51 kilometres per hour to 4.75 kilometres per hour for older individuals and from 5.32 kilometres per hour to 5.43 kilometres per hour for younger individuals.
Champion racewalkers can average more than 14 kilometres per hour over a distance of 20 kilometres. An average human child achieves independent walking ability at around 11 months old. Regular, brisk exercise of any kind can improve confidence, energy, weight control and life expectancy and reduce stress, it can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, bowel cancer and osteoporosis. Scientific studies have shown that walking, besides its physical benefits, is beneficial for the mind, improving memory skills, learning ability and abstract reasoning, as well as ameliorating spirits. Sustained walking sessions for a minimum period of thirty to sixty minutes a day, five days a week, with the correct walking posture, reduce health risks and have various overall health benefits, such as reducing the chances of cancer, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, anxiety disorder and depression. Life expectancy is increased for individuals suffering from obesity or high blood pressure.
Walking improves bone health strengthening the hip bone, lowering the harmful low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, raising the useful high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Studies have found that walking may help prevent dementia and Alzheimer's; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's fact sheet on the "Relationship of Walking to Mortality Among U. S. Adults with Diabetes" states that those with diabetes who walked for 2 or more hours a week lowered their mortality rate from all causes by 39 per cent. "Walking lengthened the life of people with diabetes regardless of age, race, body mass index, length of time since diagnosis, presence of complications or functional limitations." It has been suggested that there is a relationship between the speed of walking and health, that the best results are obtained with a speed of more than 2.5 mph. Governments now recognize the benefits of walking for mental and physical health and are encouraging it; this growing emphasis on walking has arisen.
In the UK, a Department of Transport report found that between 1995/97 and 2005 the average number of walk trips per person fell by 16%, from 292 to 245 per year. Many professionals in local authorities and the NHS are employed to halt this decline by ensuring that the built environment allows people to walk and that there are walking opportunities available to them. Professionals working to encourage walking come from six sectors: health, environment, schools and recreation, urban design. One programme to encourage walking is "The Walking the Way to Health Initiative", organized by the British walkers association The Ramblers, the largest volunteer led walking scheme in the United Kingdom. Volunteers are trained to lead free Health Walks from community venues such as libraries and doctors' surgeries; the scheme has trained over 35,000 volunteers and have over 500 schemes operating across the UK, with thousands of people walking every week. A new organization called "Walk England" launched
.jpg)
.jpg)
