Chelsea midfielder Josh McEachran has completed his loan move to Swansea City.

McEachran’s arrival in south Wales had been delayed after injuries to fellow Blues midfielders Florent Malouda, John Obi Mikel and Michael Essien.

But the 18-year-old has now been given the green light to move to Swansea for the rest of the season.

“He’s an incredible passer of the ball,” said Swans manager Brendan Rodgers.

“And I know the England set-up have very high hopes for him as well.

“He’s a kid who can create chances and has wonderful vision on the ball, he fits perfectly into our team.”

Rodgers, a former youth and reserve-team manager at Stamford Bridge, has been keen to bring in his former pupil to bolster his midfield options in their bid for Premier League survival.

McEachran is Swansea’s fourth signing of the January transfer window following the arrival of Northern Ireland under-21 striker Rory Donnelly, former French youth defender Darnell Situ and Iceland midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson on loan.

Rodgers revealed his interest in McEachran in October before the young midfielder suffered an ankle injury in Chelsea’s Carling Cup defeat to Liverpool on 29 November.

McEachran, who graduated through the academy ranks at Stamford Bridge, returned from a five-week lay-off as he played six minutes in their 2-1 win at Wolves on 2 January.

He joins England Under-21 colleagues Scott Sinclair and Steven Caulker at the Liberty Stadium and follows Frank Lampard in joining Swansea on loan as a teenager.

Steve Shingler’s club coach has called for common sense to prevail in the eligibility dispute over the London Irish centre.

The International Rugby Board has ruled the Swansea-born youngster is ineligible to take his place in Scotland’s Six Nations squad because of his  appearance for Wales U20s against France U20s last year.

But the Scots have asked for a full IRB review of the case and London Irish coach Toby Booth hopes that will result in Shingler being freed to play for the  country of his mother’s birth.

“I think there’s a few more chapters to be played out in this yet,” said  Booth.

“Why are we trying to stop people reaching their full potential.  This is not necessarily Steve choosing Scotland over Wales, this is about him trying to be an international rugby player.

“He doesn’t care. He just wants to play at the best level he can.

“It’s not a choice he’s come to easily. But one country has shown an interest and the other hasn’t.

“He’s very passionate about Wales, he’s very passionate about Scotland. He’s  less passionate about being English, which every Celt will tell you is a good  thing!”

By Simon Thomas, Western Mail. Jan 17 2012.

Organisers, who have attracted 80,000 to watch racing in Somerset, hope for similar numbers in March.

Thousands of tonnes of sand will be moved to create man-made dunes for motorcross and quad bike courses.

Swansea council’s cabinet agreed to a one year trial but there are concerns about the noise and the environment.

Council officers visited the Weston event in October and said it was well run.

The proposal involves closing a large area of Swansea’s beach during the build-up to allow the creation of a circular course about three miles long including up to 40 dunes, drops and jumps of various sizes.

Mr Thomas said the costs would be covered by the organisers and the beach restored as soon as the event was over.

“It is a sensible approach [to trial it for a year] but from the feedback
we’ve had from Weston hopefully it will become an annual event after it’s been
properly assessed.”

A report that went before the council’s cabinet
on Thursday warned there would be a number of logistical challenges,
environmental concerns and potential noise pollution.

Resident Sybil Crouch said: “It will prevent people from using the beach or
prom.

“We need environmentally friendly and sustainable use of the beach.

“What concerns me is the council’s own report about the noise is very clear -
it will have an unacceptable effect on residents.”

Carillion has reportedly won a contract to rebuild the Loughor viaduct between Swindon and Gowerton.

The contract, worth £16m, includes the design and construction of a new viaduct ‘that is strong enough to support two tracks’.

The contract is part of the Welsh Government and Network Rail’s plan to ‘significantly improve the rail infrastructure’ between Swindon and Gowerton.

As an additional track will be installed, trains will continue to run when the other line is shut or congested.

The project will also provide more capacity on the railway to potentially enable two more trains to run between Swansea and Llanelli and one more train to run between Swansea and Carmarthen per hour.

Mark Langman, route managing director for Network Rail Wales, said:

“The scheme promises to bring huge social economic benefits in south west Wales by improving capacity and connectivity to key employment centres such as Swansea, Llanelli, Carmarthen, Fishguard and Milford Haven.

“There will be an improved passenger experience with shorter journey times and better connections that will also encourage modal shift, potentially removing around 300,000 trips from road to rail and improving the green credentials of rail.”

It holds the title of Britain’s Best Beach and lies on a coastline which is heavily promoted by Swansea tourism chiefs.

Praised for its stunning scenery and fun family feel,  resonates among visitors from near and far.

But there a feeling among some quarters in the community that it has been neglected, and that the reality does not match the hype.

Port Eynon community councillors Robert Fisher and Steve Heard claimed the public toilets are dirty and get blocked in the summer, the car park floods regularly, a blue freight container needs removing, and the boardwalk, seafront signs and road to the youth hostel need   fixing.

“They (Swansea Council) don’t plough any money back in,” said Mr Fisher.

Last week the council announced the slipway would be extended and new signs installed with European money designed to ensure the resort maintained its Blue Flag status.

“The boat slipway is the council’s asset,” said Mr Heard.

“It’s a complete ‘freebie’ for the council,” added Mr Fisher.

The duo felt the money would be better spent on the toilets and other seafront upgrades, and said the community council’s £4,000 budget was insufficient for this.

Funding

Council bosses said the toilets were cleaned twice daily in the summer and that alternative storage facilities to the blue container — designed to store lifeguard equipment — were being looked into.

They added that officers had not received complaints about car park flooding, but would see if improvements could be made.

Councillor Graham Thomas, cabinet member for tourism, said generations of visitors returned to the village year after year, and that the European funding would “hopefully be matched with contributions from Swansea Council and community groups”.

He added that Port Eynon would feature as a sampling point in the 2012 visitor survey and provide essential feedback.

Gower Society chairman Malcolm Ridge said toilets and car parks, generally speaking, needed improving on the peninsula.

“Visitors nowadays expect high standards,” he said.

richard.youle@swwmedia.co.uk

An energy company has revealed it wants to apply for planning permission and a permit to drill for coal and extract the gas from under Swansea Bay.

Clean Coal Ltd has five licences around the coast of Britain and is trying to locate reserves which are off shore and too deep to be mined traditionally.

It is thought up to 1bn tonnes of coal could lie beneath the surface.

But environmental group WWF Cymru says the focus should be on renewable energy not fossil fuels.

During the past two years the Coal Authority, on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change, have – without much publicity – issued 18 underground coal gasification (UCG) licences.

Most are off the east coast of England and Scotland. The 77 sq km Swansea Bay licence is the only one in Welsh waters.

Shaun Lavis, Clean Coal Ltd’s senior geoscientist, said: “We’re expecting to find up to around a billion tonnes of coal actually in place under the whole of Swansea Bay in our licence area.

“What we hope to do is undertake an exploration programme to identify an area of around 30 to 50m tonnes or so of that coal that’s suited for underground coal gasification.”

He said UCG was more controlled than burning and did not produce as much heat and carbon dioxide.

He added: “Furthermore, what happens when you gasify the coal in the subsurface, is that a lot of the ash, or most of the ash and sulphur compounds will actually stay underground as well, so you don’t have the issues with ash disposal and so forth that you might do with a conventional coal-fired power station.”

The basic idea of UCG is that you find coal seams which are up to 500m (1,641 ft) underground – far too deep to mine, and probably too expensive and dangerous as well.

WWF Cymru believes there could be better alternatives.

After drilling to find coal, a newer technology of horizontal drilling modified from the oil industry would then allow air and oxygen to be injected down to ignite the coal.

Oxygen combusts with the coal-producing synthesis gas – a combination of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane and hydrogen. The gas, or syngas, could then be piped to the surface via another borehole.

Swansea councillor Darren Price said members of the public would welcome potential job creation.

However, he added: “From a personal point of view, I want to see a lot more research and analysis in terms of the process and any potential negative impact
environmentally.”

He said it was still an “unknown process” and that the safety of local residents would be “paramount” when it came to the issue of storing gas.

‘Climate change concerns’

Any potential new sources of gas obviously interest the UK government, especially like the controversial shale gas, if it is plentiful underground in Britain.

There are UCG plants producing gas in Australia and Central Asia but none in Europe as yet.

As with any drilling, especially for fossil fuels, there would be concerns if such operations were allowed, for several environmental reasons.

Alun James, policy officer with WWF Cymru, said: “Our concerns to do with any new use of fossil fuels would be that if these were used before carbon collection and storage was perfected.”

He said there could be alternatives to burning coal in power stations, adding: “We still think that the focus should be on renewable energy and using energy more efficiently because there are still concerns about climate change.”

It is early days, but Clean Coal Ltd, whose conditional licence to survey for coal for gasification may have to be extended at the end of the year, says it wants to ask for planning approval for exploratory drilling and permits to conduct seismic surveys on the eastern side of Swansea Bay later this year.

Environment Agency Wales said any company wanting to carry out such an activity would have to apply to it for an environmental permit.

A spokesman said: “We would carry out an in-depth assessment of the application and a permit would only be issued if we were satisfied that the environment and local communities were fully protected.

“If the activity meets the high EU and UK standards required for an environmental permit to be issued, our officers would make sure that the operators comply with the strict conditions we set.”

The agency said it would also issue the site with an EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EUETS) permit, which would require the company to measure and report its emissions of carbon dioxide.

“If the site uses carbon capture and storage technology our environmental permit would ensure that the best available techniques are used and the amount
of carbon dioxide stored would be reported to us under the EUETS permit,” said the agency.

16 January 2012 Last updated at 12:44

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-16567883