Hensol Castle Distillery TripAdvisor Awards

In their first year of business, Hensol Castle Distillery have been awarded the 2022 TripAdvisor Traveler’s Choice Award and is being listed in the top 10% of tourist attractions worldwide. They have received over 100 5* reviews from visitors, which were shared on TripAdvisor in the last 12 months. Congratulations to Hensol Castle Distillery!

Business Success at Vale of Glamorgan Business Awards

The first ever Vale of Glamorgan Business Awards were held earlier in October and businesses from all over the Vale saw some success with six winners! Jamjar (Creative Digital), Bevan Buckland LLP (Financial and Professional Service), Thornbush Hill (Retail Business), Lauren Evans of Fablas Ice Cream (Young Business Person of the Year), Wales Interactive (Technology & Innovation Business), South Wales Aviation Museum (Tourism & Leisure Business) and our very own John Davies of Penarth View (Entrepreneur of the Year). Congratulations all!

British Restaurant Awards 2022

The fourth annual British Restaurant Awards have announced their nominations for this year, and seven of them are in Cardiff: Bully’s, Thomas, Milkwood, Purple Poppadom, Zero Degrees, Park House Restaurant & Wine Bar, and Heaney’s. Congratulations!

Friends in Knead New Renovated Site

Earlier this year, bakeries Pettigrew and Friends in Knead merged, and since then have opened a newly-renovated site in Castle Arcade, Cardiff. They have also transformed a garage in Roath into a lovely indie bakery where customers can sit down and enjoy their coffee and pastries.

The Carbon Benefit of Trees

A brand new column from Tree Law’s Sarah Dodd, a fresh new legal service that has the environment at its heart.

The climate crisis is a result of increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Trees play a dual role in removing carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere.

As trees use carbon dioxide in their vital processes for life, not only do they remove carbon dioxide but they turn it into oxygen, which we then use to breathe. Trees also sequester carbon in their physical structure as they grow, looking it away out of the atmosphere.

So if trees play this dual role, what should we be focusing on? First we should be preserving the trees we already have, to support them to maturity. Second we should be planting more trees. We need to focus on ensuring that development no longer happens at the expense of trees and that areas of land are replanted to replenish woodland and forest.

Timber production should also be a focus, growing trees which can be harvested in the UK for timber rather than needed to import timber from abroad at a significant energy (carbon) cost.

Finally, we need to focus on recycling. If trees are cut down then keeping the carbon sequestered in the wood is vital. Repurposing a fallen tree into some furniture for local use would be a perfect example. We will also see an increase in wood being turner into biochar to be dug back into the soil, with it keeping the carbon locked in and also able to nourish the soil to support the life cycle of future trees from sapling to maturity.