Reader captures a mystical mountain scene

An arty llanblogger reader has sent in this atmospheric photograph he took from his home on a hillside just outside town looking over towards Castell Dinas Bran.

The image was captured as an early morning mist hung over the valley.

It's a delightful shot, and if anyone can beat it for beauty please email in your picture to llanblogger@gmail.com

Historic coach gets back on track

* Coach E43012 back in service at Llangollen Railway.

Last weekend’s Classic Transport event at Llangollen Railway saw the reintroduction to service of a suburban compartment coach after a major restoration effort by volunteers.

The coach, No. E43012, is one of three such suburban coaches which originally provided train services at Llangollen when the heritage railway started operations back in the early 80s but which have been out of use for several years.

Unlike the other two which have separate compartments, the restored vehicle has the compartments connected by a corridor and includes the option for 1st class or 2nd second seating and centrally located toilets.

It was built at Doncaster in 1955 and used in the Eastern Region on services out of London.

Restoration of the coach has been carried out over the past 12 months at the Railway's Pentrefelin Carriage works by members of the Llangollen Suburban Restoration Group and has seen internal work carried out on each of the compartments, refurbishment of the external body work and overhaul of the running gear.

The coach has been repainted in a cheery livery described as 'Outer London Suburban Red’.

George Jones for Llangollen Railway said: "The restored coach made a grand impression with visitors to the weekend event when passengers were keen to pay a supplement to sample the luxury of first class travel.

“The work involved in returning this vehicle to traffic is a great credit to the volunteers who put in many hours of effort to complete the project.

"The coach will again be in use during the forthcoming autumn steam gala on August 31 and September 1 and 2.”

Council chief minds his language

* Dr Mohammed Mehmet.

Speaks Welsh at every opportunity

 As thousands of students across the county celebrate their exam success over the last couple of weeks, Denbighshire’s chief executive Mohammed Mehmet was celebrating passing his entry level certificate in Welsh Second Language with flying colours.Dr Mehmet says he has been studying hard and practicing his Welsh at every opportunity and actively invites people to speak Welsh with him whenever possible. Dr Mehmet said: “I am delighted to have passed this first stage but I will not rest on my laurels and look forward to continuing my studies in the coming years to improve my Welsh language skills. “I also hope that my achievements will inspire all non Welsh speaking staff to improve their Welsh Language skills. “

Wake up and smell the coffee!

The Memorial Hall in Market Street resounded to the clink of tea cups on Tuesday morning as the English Methodist Church held the latest of its highly successful coffee mornings in aid of its own funds.

Weekend visitors go on the buses

 

 

* A Crosville type L of 1951.

 

 

 

* A Lancaster No.2 01 Leyland open topper.

 

 

 

                                                 *The classic line-up at Glyndyfrdwy.

 

Visitors to the Dee Valley over the weekend went on the buses in a big way.

A cavalcade of more than 50 gleaming buses, cars and motorbikes from the vintage era assembled in a field behind Glyndyfrdwy station for Llangollen’s Railway’s Classic Transport Weekend last Saturday and Sunday.

Buses from the former fleets of Crosville, Chester, Barrow in Furness, North Western, Southport, Midland Red, Bournemouth and Greater Manchester joined a contingent from the North West Museum of Road Transport in St Helens to put on a show of rich variety.

Their proud owners travelled to the event from across North Wales, Lancashire, Cheshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Manchester, Merseyside and Birmingham.

Many drove through the streets of Llangollen – packed with bank holiday tourists - to get to and from the venue.

Entrants from the North West Museum of Road Transport offered a half-hourly free bus service between Glyndyfrdwy and Corwen to provide a road run along the A5 with a superb view of Llangollen Railway's line extension beyond Carrog towards Corwen.

Most popular bus was the open-top Leyland PD2 type, formerly No. 201 of Lancaster Corporation, and the weather proved suitable for the open air journey on both days.

Other popular journeys were those offered by a Leyland National single decker No. 1 from Widnes, a Chester No. 99, a newly restored Dennis Dominator and double deckers of the former Crosville fleet.

Two privately owned Crosville single deckers from the 1950s also proved popular with visitors to the event.

Classic cars lining for inspection included many famous British marques such as Triumph, Austin, Morris, Rover, Vauxhall and Jaguar.

Joining all this activity, the railway ran an intensive train service with two steam and one diesel locomotives plus the heritage Wickham railcar.

 

 

 

 

Supermarket campaigner demands answer from Minister

Campaigner Martin Crumpton has written to Wales’ Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development asking why he has not yet replied to a letter sent to him in June this year in connection with the proposed Sainbury’s supermarket in Llan.

Mr Crumpton, who has spearheaded the fight against the new store planned for the Dobson & Crowther printworks site off the A5, is asking John Griffiths AM why he has not responded to the question whether or not  the Co-op store in Regent Street is to be considered as part of the Llangollen’s retail offering  when it comes to considering the need for the new Sainsbury’s.

This point, claims Mr Crumpton, is of critical importance to the determination of the store application next month.

Here is Mr Crumpton’s letter to Mr Griffiths  in full: 

 “ Dear Minister,

On the 20^th of June this year, I wrote to you requesting a determination on whether or not the Co-operative Food store in Llangollen should be considered part of the Town Centre or not. You’re aware that the developer has claimed it is only a top-up shop, out of the “defined town centre” and therefore excluded from their calculation of retail sales area. They also excluded Stans Superstores, a smaller supermarket which opened in February this year, though it is adjacent to the High Street. On the basis of these exclusions, the developer has claimed a need for additional retail space in Llangollen.

I have already provided incontrovertible proof that the Co-op is the town’s closest and largest store for the majority of residents. Better than hundreds of dry words, I provided a link to the video I produced. In case you’ve been unable to watch it, it’s here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dvd5QNBMgbU (it only takes six minutes).

The Co-operative Group has been reluctant to reveal commercially-sensitive information, but they’ve been persuaded to by Cadnant Planning, acting on their behalf. WYG, for the developer, and Roger Tym and Partners acting for Denbighshire County Council, has grossly understated the impact upon the store (at least 43%) and that is it a main shopping food store, unlike both WYG’s and RTP’s dismissive claims otherwise. Being the shopper for my family, I’ve always known this, but now there’s proof – it’s attached in the report by Cadnant Planning (attached).

Neither WGY nor RTP have ever taken into account the impact on the community, most especially vulnerable groups such as the elderly, the disabled, and those without private transport. It is an established fact that the proposed new supermarket is a vehicle-only destination to all but a very few, contradicting national planning policy.

Minister, I wrote to you on the 20^th of June but I’ve never received a reply. Mark Isherwood expressed an interest in your response, and you wrote to him, but he only received mention of my earlier call-in request.

Neither he nor I have received correspondence concerning the matter I raised with you on 20^th June, being, essentially, whether or not the Co-op should be included in the Retail Impact Assessment.

Minister, your adjudication on whether the Co-op store is to be considered part of the Llangollen’s retail offering is of critical importance. Even without it, Denbighshire County Council is without a robust, credible and acceptable Retail Impact Assessment. Were the Planning Committee to meet on the 18^th of September, just weeks away, without being properly advised of the importance of this store and the impact upon the residents were it to be so detrimental, an approval for the new development must be considered unsound.

I urge you to watch the video and read Cadnant Planning’s comments, and come to a decision.

With kind regards,

Martin Crumpton “

 

Air ambulance lands near Glyndyfrdwy

 

* The helicopter pictured by our reader.

 

A keen-eyed llanblogger reader took this dramatic picture of what appears to be an air ambulance after it landed in a field alongside the A5 west of Glyndyfrdwy at around 1.30am on Sunday.

The photographer was travelling through the area at the time on one of the classic double decker buses which taking part in a special transport weekend at nearby Llangollen Railway.

He told llanblogger: "We were between Glyndyfrdwy and Corwen on a demonstration run when I saw the Wales Air Ambulance Service helicopter in the field alongside the road.

"The helicopter type is a Bolkow Bo.105.

"I think this one covers North Wales and is based at Caernarfon airport.

"It was attending a traffic accident on the west-bound carriageway near to the Berwyn Arms but I understand it did not take any injured away when it left.

"I cannot say for certain what vehicles were involved in the accident but the police were in attendance later."

As of 8am on Monday the North Wales Police news website gives no details of any accident at that point but we will keep checking and post an update if and when we receive one.

Meanwhile, if anyone has any further details of the incident we would welcome a note emailed to llanblogger@gmail.com

We would also like to thank the photographer who sent in this great picture.