麻豆社

Sending emails, updating your social media profile or downloading the latest chart hits.

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These days we all expect to be able to do these things at the touch of a button.

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That is unless you live in one of Wales鈥檚 broadband 鈥渘ot-spots鈥�; that鈥檚 an area where you can鈥檛 get the broadband speeds needed to do even the simplest things online.

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Andy Ryan from the village of Rhydcymerau in Carmarthenshire may live in a stunning location but getting broadband to his home has been a big problem.

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In 2012 Andy finally thought he'd found the answer to his problem - the Welsh Government's Broadband Support Scheme.

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He could apply for a grant of 拢1,000 for new equipment which would allow him to connect to a fast broadband service.

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He never saw any of the money personally. Instead it went straight to the company offering the service in his area - ResQNet in Cross Hands.

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For 拢24 a month Andy was finally getting the broadband speeds he and his wife Jenny needed to keep in touch with their loved ones.

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But this summer things suddenly started to slow down, before eventually coming to a standstill.

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Andy said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 been extremely frustrating. The internet won鈥檛 work, so you go away and dig the garden or whatever and then come back two or three hours later and it still doesn't work.鈥�

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Andy says ResQNet had told him he would get a refund of his monthly service charges, but weeks later he鈥檚 still waiting.

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Andy isn鈥檛 the only ResQNet customer who has been dragged back into a not-spot.

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Things got so bad the Welsh Government started to act, suspending any further grants to the company until they could show they were sorting things out.

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But some customers feel the Welsh Government鈥檚 involvement have been the opposite of helpful.

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While many customers are still having problems, others - who'd like to join the scheme - are stuck in limbo.

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Karen Ardouin from Llanwrda, also in Carmarthenshire, is trying to run an online tutoring business, and desperately needs faster broadband. She applied to join the scheme back in August.

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In October Karen finally heard she'd been approved. There was just one MAJOR catch - the Welsh Government had suspended all funding to ResQNet.

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More than 拢4m of public money has been spent on the Broadband Support Scheme, with almost 拢900,000 alone being handed out to ResQNet.

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But the Welsh Government has done absolutely nothing to make sure these firms who've received the cash are actually up to the job.

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They鈥檝e told us it's up to the customer to make sure the company they choose can deliver the service. And so far that approach has left dozens of people, including Karen and Andy, off the grid and out of pocket.

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We asked the Welsh Government to come and explain why ResQNet has received so much of our money, but they declined to speak to us.听They say they are now working with the company, which听won't be getting any more funding until the problems are sorted.听

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Karen said: 鈥淚鈥檓 just amazed at how听the Welsh Government have听dealt with this. During that time I鈥檝e been trying to run the business with one hand tied behind my back."

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And ResQNet? Well, they did agree to talk to X-Ray but then changed their mind.

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They told the programme it was the rise in demand for fast broadband from their customers that led to the problems Andy and his wife experienced. But they will now be giving them a refund.

House builder Redrow has been criticised after leaving a deep gully unfenced on a new housing estate 鈥� and then selling homes nearby to families with young children.

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Residents on the Parc Heol Gerrig estate in Merthyr Tydfil say they complained to the developer 鈥� but nothing was done.

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Paul and Lucie Jones bought their new home next to the stream just over a year ago. They thought it would be an ideal place to bring up their three-year-old daughter, Millie.

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Lucie told X-Ray: 鈥淚t鈥檚 what we always wanted, somewhere safe, nice big garden, quiet area... and we just fell in love with the place.鈥�

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鈥淭hey sort of emphasised that it (the stream) would be a nice green area and that it would be safe and that it would be fenced off 鈥� Millie could go out and play and feel safe in the area really."

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But when the family moved in, they discovered there was only a low knee-rail one side of the stream and no fence at all on the other.

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Paul, who is a fireman, said: 鈥淎nybody, even an adult, could fall in 鈥� and it would be pretty difficult to get out. We couldn鈥檛 allow Millie to go out on her own without going with her.鈥�

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Paul told X-Ray the water in the culvert reached a depth of five feet when it rained heavily 鈥� and he had seen children leaning over the gully to look into it.

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鈥淚f they fell in there, the weight of the water would trap them against the bars at the end of the gully and they could be killed."

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Dai Samuel lives opposite the stream with his wife and young child. He told the programme: 鈥淚t鈥檚 probably a drop of eight to ten feet and it鈥檚 not just a drop onto soft land. There are lots of rocks and weeds down there so if you did fall you would likely not get back out."

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鈥淚鈥檓 a doctor, Paul is a fireman, and we see the outcomes of these accidents every day in work, so you would think for that anyone who was building these houses would also see that as a genuine concern, but that obviously wasn鈥檛 the case.鈥�

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Both Dai and Paul wrote to Redrow asking for a fence to be built round the culvert. But the developer replied that the gully met all planning, highway safety and flood prevention regulations.

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The residents then contacted X-Ray, who spoke by email and phone to managing director of Redrow Homes South Wales, Stuart Rowlands. The next day a fence was installed.

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Mr Rowlands told X-Ray he would have preferred to pipe the stream underground throughout the estate but that national and local government policy meant sections had to be kept open.

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But he said: 鈥淒uring the recent rainfall what was a stream has become a torrent. We should have taken a more pragmatic approach and fenced off the offending section.鈥�

Have you noticed how little space there is to park nowadays?

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One person who did just that is Gwenda Raybould from Bridgend, who contacted X-Ray.

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Gwenda told us: "I have sat in my car sometimes watching other people getting in and out of their cars, and they do have difficulty the same as I do. Basically wherever you stop the size of a car parking space is very very small."

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But why has parking become such a palaver?

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Motoring expert Tim Shallcross says modern cars are some 18 inches wider than those of 60 years ago - a tricky proposition when trying to squeeze into a parking space that may well have been designed for cars of that era.

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So we decided to carry out a little experiment - with the help of a racetrack, some traffic cones and a willing presenter.

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Lucy tried to park three different sized cars and struggled each time to miss the cones.

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So what are Tim's tips for problem free parking? "Reversing into the parking space is certainly by far the best way because the bit with the steering wheels at the front is the bit which moves sideways when you're negotiating your way into the space. (It) takes a bit of practise but once you do it it's a much easier way of parking."

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And he explained how reversing could save you money too: "A cold engine, particularly a petrol engine, gulps fuel whereas a hot engine sips it... so if you do all that manoeuvring with the engine hot, by reversing into the parking bay you will use hardly any fuel and if you do that every day... that'll amount to something like a litre a week of petrol whkch you could save, and at today's prices you're talking 拢60 or 拢70 over a year."