Changelog

Welsh Water publishes what water costs in one document and the help with paying for it on three others. This page puts them together: work out the year at this year's rates, then see the caps against it. The lowest caps a whole year's water and sewerage at £350.16 against an average bill of £683 — and PIP, DLA, Attendance Allowance, Carer's Allowance, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction do not count towards the income it tests, which is the part most people never get told.

Three things earlier passes had recorded wrongly are corrected, among them a Welsh Government block that was never a block. Also records the full recipe for the NHS Wales waiting-time figures, which are now reachable, and why the Ffos-y-fran dispute still cannot honestly be put on a page.

Merthyr has the highest average council tax bill in Wales, and a lot of what can come off a bill goes unclaimed because the council lists its discounts on one page and the people who are not counted on another. Answer three questions about who lives in your home and the page works out what you may be able to apply for, against this year's band charges. It also says plainly that the empty-home and second-home premiums on the council's site were determined for 2025/2026 and that no 2026/27 figures have been published.

A new page reads the Taff's current level straight from Natural Resources Wales's own gauge at the head of the valley, with the day in 2020 it rose highest and the official flood-warning channel alongside it.

Our research page listed Redhouse Cymru as an open arts centre; it's actually been closed since 2024, with the building only just back in council hands and no reopening date yet. Fixed.

The Iron Trail links five stops on foot — Cyfarthfa Castle & Museum, Ynysfach Engine House, the old Town Hall, the Trevithick memorial marking the world's first steam railway journey, and Joseph Parry's birthplace — with honest notes on which are currently open.

Anti-social behaviour is the thing residents and councillors here raise most often about the town centre, so there is now a page showing what has actually been reported to South Wales Police around it — every incident, month by month, straight from the police service's own open data. It is a record of reports, not a verdict on the town, and the page says so. It also says two things it would be easy to leave out: that anti-social behaviour is not the biggest number in that data — violent crime and shoplifting are each recorded more often — and that the police publish monthly and in arrears, so the newest month available is about two months old. It answers what has been reported here over months. It cannot answer whether it is safe out there tonight, and does not pretend to. The reporting routes are on the page because reporting is what puts an area on the police and the council's list: 999 while it is happening, 101 or the force's online form afterwards, the council where a tenancy is involved, and Crimestoppers if you would rather not give your name.

The town page now opens with a colored-pencil banner of the ironmasters' mansion on its wooded rise above the park lake, the Brecon Beacons behind at the head of the Taff valley.

Four tools to start. A council tax calculator — Merthyr has the highest average bill in Wales — showing the split between the county borough council and South Wales Police, with the extra Welsh band I. Who to Call, gathering the numbers people actually need, including the NHS dentist portal and Prince Charles Hospital. An air quality check with a dust reading for the dry, windy days people ask about. And Community Picks for the best Bike Park Wales trail, Taff Trail walk and Sunday lunch. Bin-day lookups and the Cardiff train line are on the list next.