Award-winning travel agent Helen still calls Cynon home
Surgery could use portable cabins for another year
FROM Spain to Greece and Barbados to the US – this travel agent from Aberdare saw it all over 22 years.
Now Helen Furlong’s settled back home in Aberdare and has been crowned Homeworker of the Year in the Travel Trade Gazette’s industry awards – and comedian John Bishop presented her with the accolade at a recent ceremony.
Helen was born and bred in the Cynon Valley and now works from home dealing mainly in ski holidays with Midcounties Cooperative Travel – but sandwiched in between were years of adventures abroad working in the travel industry.
She started as a holiday rep in Spain in 1983 before working through countless other overseas jobs – from Greece to Barbados – for another 20 years, and in 1997 she switched to a Cardiff agency specialising in ski, active and luxury holidays, with opportunities to move between the US and Canada.
Two years later she settled back in Aberdare to work in education, teaching about travel and tourism, and by 2005, following the birth of her daughter, she set up her home agency.
Speaking about the award, Helen said: “Travel has changed a lot in recent years with advances in technology and social media.
“One of the reasons given to me for winning the award was, apart from high sales and service, was my ability to keep up-to-date with new ways of communicating with our customers.” A CRAMPED Cynon Valley doctor’s surgery could soon gain permission to operate out of ‘temporary’ portable cabins for a second year.
The Cynon Vale Medical Practice in Cardiff Road, Mountain Ash, was forced into the measure in October 2015 when it gained planning permission for 12 new portable cabins because it was in “urgent need” of more room.
The problem came when the nearby Cardiff Road Surgery merged with Miskin Surgery in 2014, resulting in a combined list of 4,500 patients at Cynon Vale Medical Practice.
The surgery’s initial bid for three-year permission last year was rejected before Rhondda Cynon Taf council’s development control committee granted 12-month permission.
With that set to expire on October 23, 2016, and no solution yet found, the medical practice is about to get its temporary measure extended by another year.
In August this year the council announced it would demolish a piece of land in Mountain Ash town centre to inspect its suitability for a new £5m health centre to cope with a shortage of GP services, with Cwm Taf Health Board labelling it “a vital project” in a statement.
But, in the short term, the Cynon Vale Medical Practice has returned to the planning committee to seek an extension to its temporary measure of finding more room.
The application by Robert Baron has been recommended for approval by the council’s service director for planning.
In a statement before Thursday’s meeting, the director said: “The application is supported by Cwm Taf University Health Board who in support of the application have indicated they are currently in discussions in respect of progressing a scheme for a new facility for the provision primary health care facilities in Mountain Ash.
“In view of the work being undertaken in respect of that proposal they request that the council look favourably on the application made by Cynon Valley Medical Practice to retain for the temporary accommodation for a further 12-month period.”
The report adds: “The site lies within a mixed use area of Mountain Ash with both residential and commercial uses in proximity of the application site.
“It is not considered that the retention of the block of portable cabin type modular structures for an extended period of 12 months beyond the period currently permitted will [be] so detrimental to the site, neighbouring occupiers and surrounding locality as to justify not granting the application.”
If granted the planning permission would then expire on October 23, 2017. facebook.com/ cynononline