麻豆约拍

John O鈥橠onnell from Criccieth has been developing a plot and building his dream home for about 20 years. The house is almost finished, but he wanted a garden to match.

He thought he鈥檇 found the perfect solution when he visited the nearby Bryncir Garden Centre in 2016, and owner James Rainer agreed to take on the job. He came out and started planning the work.

John told us, 鈥淭he agreement was that he would design something that would meet all our requirements鈥�The other thing was that because I鈥檓 not a gardener. I don鈥檛 want to have to do anything to it or as little as I can.鈥�

They agreed a price of 拢15,000, which John paid up front.

Work was carried out over a couple of weeks in November 2016. The garden consisted of three sections; a living wall, an oriental section, and a cottage garden. All of which had a lot of problems.

John said, 鈥淭he health of some of the plants is questionable...It is far from a low maintenance garden.鈥�

He complained and complained but only got a few dead plants replaced, and it took a whole year to get a detailed invoice.

Since then James Rainer has made various promises to finish the work. He even offered to get a competent contractor in, but it hasn鈥檛 happened. And 18 months in, John feels he hasn鈥檛 got the garden he paid for.

We brought in Simon Richards, a Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute, for his expert opinion.

He said, 鈥淭hey haven鈥檛 put plants in the right place. And they have often planted too many plants then they didn鈥檛 need to鈥�The plants have been put in at different levels but also without the proper use of topsoil and compost it seems. At the other side of the house the trees are dying back because of the lack of nutrition in the soil and the ground conditions they have been put in.鈥�

It鈥檚 terrible news for John, who now faces a big bill to put the garden right.

We contacted James Rainer more than once to see what he had to say about the state he left John鈥檚 garden in, but he never got back to us.

Tattoos are all the rage at the moment, and as many as one in five of us now have one. But before going under the needle, there are a few things you need to consider.

A few months ago Vicky Jenkins from Hirwaun decided she wanted a new tattoo and set her heart on a certain design 鈥� a dreamcatcher on her back.

She found a new tattoo parlour and decided to give it a try.

She told us, 鈥淗e had a lot of good reviews off clients he鈥檇 had in the past, so I thought if they鈥檝e given him good review, no problems.鈥�

The artist agreed to do the job for 拢120, but it was far more painful than Vicky expected.

She said, 鈥淗aving a tattoo on your back, it really really hurts. The pain is unbearable.鈥�

Vicky decided to stop the tattooing half way through because the pain had got too bad. She arranged another appointment a few weeks later to have it finished, but that never happened because the tattoo parlour had closed down.

She called her local council and was shocked to discover they had shut down the parlour, which wasn鈥檛 registered and had never been inspected. She was left out of pocket and with only half a tattoo.

She's had to go to another, fully-licensed tattoo parlour to fix her fairly major tattoo fail.

There are around 350 licensed tattoo parlours across Wales, but there are also a number of illegal tattooists, known as scratchers. There are also unlicensed premises; parlours and equipment, which haven鈥檛 been officially inspected, meaning they could fail hygiene standards and spread diseases.

If you鈥檙e planning on having a tattoo, make sure both the studio and the artist are registered with the local council. Their certificates should also be on display in the studio.

And new changes to tattoo registration in Wales mean mandatory hygiene training and a public register of licensed artists and studios should be in place by 2020.