Travelling troupe gets lost in music

* Travelling Troupe on the run. Picture by courtesy of Barrie Potter.

Llangollen Operatic Society Troupe will present their annual Showcase Lost in Music at Llangollen Town Hall on 14^th and 15^th September.

This is the mobile musical group’s third Showcase and they promise it will be even more spectacular than before with a myriad of medleys and numbers, ranging from sublime opera to rousing rock.

Tracey Rawlinson, one of the troupe’s managers said: “Lost in Music is our most challenging programme to date and we are hugely excited about it.

“The troupe has gone from strength to strength over the past year and we have been delighted with the amount we have raised for society funds, not to mention the fun we have had in the process.” 

Tracey added that the troupe’s endeavours were only possible because of the hard work and commitment from Musical Director Elen Mair Roberts and the tireless efforts of the members and all those who support them.

She said: “Some days it feels like a second full time job but the pleasure on the faces of our audiences and the adrenaline rush of performing to a packed venue more than makes up for it.”

The cabaret-style evening, which also features a live band of talented local musicians, is designed to give audiences a taster of what the troupe could add to a function or event.

Cheese platters and wine served at tables will help make for a really relaxing evening. Following the performance, there will be the chance to chat with troupe members and find out more about what the group has to offer.

The Showcase will follow hot on the heels of the troupe’s performance at The Barmouth Arts Festival, where the group has been invited to give an exclusive performance at the town’s Dragon Theatre on Friday 7^th September.

“These are busy times for us”, said Tracey, “but we wouldn’t have it any other way.”  

·         Tickets for Lost in Music are available from Llangollen Tourist Information Centre or Jades Hair & Beauty at £8 per person (£5 for 16 years and under). Alternatively, please e-mail Troupe@llangollen-operatic.co.uk.

Wild Pheasant sold, says report

* The Wild Pheasant Hotel. 

                                                                                   

Llangollen’s prestigious Wild Pheasant Hotel and Spa has been sold for around £2.2 million, the Leader is reporting today.

The complex, off the A5, was part of the hotel empire run by businesswoman Stephanie Booth until the group crashed in July last year.

The Wild Pheasant continued to trade during its period in administration and has just been sold by the Manchester office of real estate advisers  Colliers International to investor Asif Siddiqui, says the report.

Despite being in administration, the hotel generated a turnover of £1.4 million in 2011 and made a trading profit of £308,000.

The property combines an original 19^th century hotel with a modern luxury bedroom and spa wing.

It has 46 en suite rooms, a function room which can cater for up to 200 people, the 60-seat Yew Tree Restaurant and the courtyard bar.  

Its sale follows that of other hotels in the former Llangollen Hotels group, including the Bodidris Hall at Llandegla to a private buyer for an undisclosed sum in November last year and the Chain Bridge Hotel in Llan to Surrey businessman Seamus O’Keefe for £500,000 this June.

Elderly missing out on vital services, says WRVS

Report claims confusion

surrounds services

Older people in Wales are missing out on the essential services they need to recover after a stay in hospital because of confusion around what constitutes reablement services, according to a new report by older people’s charity WRVS.
The report, Getting back on your feet: reablement in Wales which examines reablement services available across Wales – those services that help people with poor health live as independently as possible in their own homes – found that there are huge inconsistencies in the services delivered by local authorities and health boards. This is despite the Welsh Government identifying reablement as a vital part of social services reform.
A key finding of the report was that there is a tendency for health boards and local authorities to concentrate on services that focus on improving physical well-being, to the detriment of those which address emotional and social well-being; services which can be just as important when nursing a patient back to full health.
The report calls on the Welsh Government to develop a reablement framework for Wales, outlining what exactly is meant by reablement and what features public bodies should provide. This includes services to tackle isolation and extreme loneliness, which can lead to a severe decline in well-being.
The serious consequences of loneliness and the importance of such services were highlighted by recent WRVS research, Loneliness rife among older men, which identified that Welsh men over the age of 75 who live alone are the loneliest in Britain and as a result of feeling extremely lonely are likely to suffer from depression.
The report also shows that because there is no standard definition of ‘reablement’, there is confusion surrounding which services fall into this category, resulting in the appearance that some local authorities spend ten times more per head of population than others.
Examples of good practice include the local Betsi Cadwaladr health board, which recognises the role of befriending services as part of reablement.
Previous research (Social Services Improvement Agency (2011) Better Support at Lower Cost, Cardiff: Social Services Improvement Agency) has suggested that reablement services such as those provided by WRVS which tackle loneliness and isolation play a vital role in reducing the need for home care and in decreasing hospital admissions. These services see volunteers paying visits to older people, accompanying them on shopping trips and making sure they pick up any prescriptions from the doctor.

"Older people are at their most vulnerable after a stay in hospital and need services that focus on not just their physical well-being, but their social and emotional well-being as well. The Welsh Government is right to identify reablement as a vital part of social care in Wales but they now need to clear up any confusion about what services should be offered by public bodies. Until there is a standard framework for public bodies, older people in Wales will be missing out on essential services which have a real effect on their health and can keep them out of hospital.

Dr Ed Bridges, WRVS Public Affairs Manager for Wales, said: "Through our work with older people, we know that services that focus on emotional and social well-being, such as those that encourage increased social interaction, are hugely beneficial in combating health problems. We’d like to see more services such as befriending, occupational therapy support and home adaptations which mean older people can stay happy, healthy and independent, and out of hospital for longer."

The report makes a number of recommendations, including:

• Setting up a mechanism to measure well-being which looks at not only medical health, but also emotional and social well-being, both crucial to a person’s quality of life.
• Creating a central source of funding for reablement services, whilst still allowing services to be delivered in a flexible way which respond to local need.
• Involving the voluntary sector to ensure a multi-sector approach to providing social support services.

Download a copy of Getting back on your feet: reablement in Wales

Doctors do not support hospital closure plan

* Closure threatened Llan Cottage Hospital

Doctors in Llangollen have declared their “disappointment” and lack of support for the controversial plan to close the local Cottage Hospital.

A representative from the practice was unable to take up the invitation to attend last Thursday’s public meeting about the issue called by the campaign group Llangollen Protest at the Hand Hotel.

At the meeting, on which the platform was occupied by North Wales Assembly Members Llyr Huws Gruffydd  (Plaid Cymru) and Mark Isherwood (Welsh Conservative), 51 of the 70-plus local people present voted in favour of a referendum being held on the closure proposal put forward by the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board last month.

Llangollen protest leader Martin Crumpton has now lodged an official request for the vote to be held.

He also requested a statement on the issue from the doctors.

This has now been sent to him in the name of Dr J R A Davies and partners and it says: “As a Practice, we are very disappointed that the Health Board has plans to close Llangollen Hospital.

“We do not support the closure, having fought for many years to keep the hospital open.

“Whilst being aware of the financial constraints, we would hope that all patient services can be maintained in Llangollen.”

Both AMs who were on the platform said they were against the closure plan.

However, Mr Crumpton said at the meeting Clwyd South Labour AM Ken Skates had not been invited because he was not amongst the opponents of the proposal.

"Wicked stage" talk enthralls church group

Theatre stalwart speaks in Llan 

Members of the “This and That” social group at Llangollen Methodist Church were treated to a talk by well-known stage entertainer Heather Game at their meeting in the Memorial Hall on Monday evening.

Mrs Game has been a stalwart of the amateur stage in North Wales and the Midlands for the past 50 years and her long career also included a venture into the professional world when she did stints on television and in films.

For many years she ran her own stage production company based in Shrewsbury and she is also the author of a book entitled “Life Upon the Wicked Stage” which chronicles her life and career.

Her hour-long talk was based on her book and included many interesting and amusing anecdotes which at times brought hearty laughter from the audience.

In one of her first appearances on stage, in a village hall production playing the title role in Snow White and Seven Dwarves, she told of how members of the WI were perched precariously on their knees to play the dwarves when an inadvertent shove in the ranks brought the last one in line sprawling against the scenery.

In another amusing tale Mrs Game recalled how while wearing hair braids built around wire inserts in a subsequent production, one of these sprung up as she was being lifted in a dance sequence and smacked her male partner in the face.

There were also stories from Mrs Game about the joys and tribulations of on-stage kissing sequences.

She told how on one occasion she ended up herself wearing the stick-on moustache of the man she was kissing and, on another, how her face turned bright yellow when it ended up smeared with the stage make-up  of the actor playing the King of Siam.

After overseeing – and appearing in - many successful productions at the old Music Hall theatre in Shrewsbury, Mrs Game ceased leading her production company a couple of years ago.

However, she still sings regularly with a number of local companies and tours the region to give her highly entertaining talks.  

Views sought on new natural resources body

Environment Minister, John Griffiths is keen to hear views on how the new body that will manage Wales’ natural resources should operate and exactly what powers and duties it should have.

Monday 13 August 2012

The Minister has launched an eight week consultation which invites further views on specific aspects of the powers and functions of the new body that is due to become fully operational on 1 April 2013.
The new body will replace the Environment Agency Wales, The Countryside Council for Wales and the Forestry Commission for Wales. Its aim is to ensure the most sustainable and effective management of Wales’ natural resources, to deliver a more streamlined way of working and to cut unnecessary duplication to a minimum.
It is estimated that over ten years the body will deliver up to £158 million in benefits before costs, freeing up resources for front line delivery.
The Minister said:

“This new body has a vital part to play in ensuring the health of Wales’ environment and its economy, so it is vital that we get the detail right.
“The new body must maintain the crucial work of three existing bodies in protecting Wales’ natural environment, maintaining its cultural and historic landscape and ensuring access to its countryside and coast. Importantly, it also needs to develop to meet the challenges of the future.
“I want to ensure that the new body has clear duties and powers necessary to deliver for Wales. This additional consultation will provide us with further views to shape the new body and I would urge those parties with an interest to feed into the process."

The consultation is split into two parts. The first looks at the overarching duties of the new body and specifically those relating to natural beauty, conservation, access, protection of historic landscape and forestry. These are areas where a number of duties have to be brought together and reconciled, rather than simply transferred.
The second part of the consultation will consider the legal and working arrangements of the body. These include: cross-border issues; regulation and enforcement, monitoring and sampling of cross-border sites and impacts; emergency response including the transfer of powers under the Control of Major Accidents and Hazards Regulations (COMAH); and transitional arrangements e.g. measures to transfer ongoing prosecutions, existing decisions and permits to the body.
The consultation builds on previous consultative work which looked at arrangements for establishing the new body and considered how it should best be directed. It will run until 5 October 2012 and its results will help to shape the Second Order, which will come into effect on 1 April 2013, when the body becomes fully operational.

Plan to close Llan Hospital slammed as "creeping privatisation" by AM

* The audience at last Thursday's meeting in the Hand Hotel. 

"Downgrading local service"

Plaid Cymru’s North Wales Assembly Member Llyr Gruffydd has described plans to close a community hospital and put patients in private care homes as “creeping privatisation” in the NHS.

Mr Gruffydd, who was speaking after a well-attended public meeting in the Hand Hotel last Thursday to discuss plans to close Llan Cottage Hospital, said: “The local health board’s proposal is to close the existing community hospital and use private care homes to take patients who can’t be treated at home.

"To me, that sounds like a creeping privatisation in our NHS by the Welsh Government as well as downgrading local services.

“We all want to see a better NHS and I’m happy to accept that some of the proposals to centralise care are for the better. But the proposal for Llangollen and its surrounding communities will mean the loss of beds and could cause greater problems at district general hospitals like Wrexham Maelor, which will face bedblocking.

"Dr Eamonn Jessup, chairman of the North Wales Local Medical Committee representing 200 GPs, has said: ‘This loss (of hospital beds) will bring a service that is currently frequently gridlocked, with no beds for the patients that it needs to serve, further to its knees.’"

Mr Gruffydd added: “Of course it’s not just the town of Llangollen affected by this planned closure. People from Corwen and other parts of the Vale will have to travel that much further, especially as Ruthin hospital is also being downgraded.

"Transport poverty is as big a problem as fuel poverty for this part of Denbighshire and affects those most likely to face ill-health and need to access medical services.

“Clinical issues are said to be driving this – but there are also financial issues and political pressure from the Labour Government in Cardiff.

"What isn’t being included is the impact of patients being more remote from loved ones – friends and family – while recovering. Medical experts say this is an important part of recuperation but I see no mention of this factor in the consultation document.

“Supporters of this closure are trying to spin the change as ‘enhancing the service’. I would suggest to local residents that they don’t buy that – we want to improve the NHS, we want a fitter, healthier population but the reality is that we have an ageing population living longer.

"Until those long-term strategies are in place we will need community beds at a local level.”