'Save our health services' campaign gets under way

* The KLHS leaflet to be distributed across Llangollen. 

The campaign to protect health services in Llangollen is under way.

And its hard-hitting main message is “We’ve got less than a month to stop Llangollen being closed”.

As exclusively revealed by llanblogger, at a public meeting in the Hand Hotel last Thursday an action group was formed to safeguard health services in the town.

* The new group's website. 

Named Keep Llangollen Health Services (KLHS), its aim is to halt controversial proposals by the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board which include closing the town's Cottage Hospital and replacing it with a new primary care health centre on another site in the town. 

Members of the new group are deeply worried the new facility will take years to complete and will not include the in-patient beds or minor injuries unit currently offered by the hospital on Abbey Road.

The community hospital, which the health board says is outdated and in need of replacement, also provides a range of vital health services, such blood testing, and campaigners are concerned about whether these will continue to be provided locally during an expected gap of two or three years between it closing and a new centre opening.

KLHS has just announced it has organised a follow-up public meeting, in the Hand Hotel on Monday, October 15, starting at 7pm, when it will set out its action plans for the public, invite speakers and orchestrate a letter-writing campaign seeking the support of local residents, opinion-formers, politicians and the media. 

The group has also set up its own dedicated website – see it at www.llangollenhospitalcampaign.wordpress.com – and email address, keepllanhealthservice@gmail.com 

It has printed hundreds of copies of a leaflet – with English and Welsh language versions – which it is to distribute across the town and surrounding areas.   

KLHS will  liaise with other groups opposing health service changes, such as the one in Flint which recently organised a march through the streets of the town by 1,500 people fighting the closure of their own community hospital. 

The group is also collecting personal accounts from local people about how important the Cottage Hospital has been in their lives over the years.  

A KLHS spokesperson said: “We’ve got less than a month to stop Llangollen Hospital being closed. 

“The health board wants to permanently close all the hospital beds in Llangollen, sell the hospital and only then apply for planning permission for a new health centre without any beds. 

“Nursing and GP-based hospital care in Llangollen for frail and terminally-ill people would cease to exist.”

llanblogger samples new Chirk Castle attraction

* The sumptuous Bow Drawing Room.

Llanblogger went just a few miles up the road to Chirk Castle on Sunday to get a taste of a forgotten period in Welsh history.

The grand opening of the ancient fortress’s East Wing to the public for the first time the previous day marked the culmination of a two-year, £200,000 project to mark the impact Lord Howard de Walden had on Chirk Castle and Wales between the wars, and included a medieval pageant complete with displays of falconry, archery, men at arms fighting with swords, pike drill and a roving court jester.

Recognised as the Last Great Patron of the Welsh Arts for his formidable support of Welsh cultural institutions like the National Eisteddfod, and a number of leading Welsh artists and writers, Lord Howard de Walden’s life and work has not been fully celebrated until now.

To reflect his pivotal role in Welsh history, Chirk Castle’s the East Wing has been painstakingly redisplayed to give visitors a taste of the eighth Lord Howard de Walden’s life in the medieval castle, which he rented from 1911-46.

Carolyn Latham, house and visitor services manager at Chirk Castle, said: “The sumptuous Bow Room has been redisplayed to match the picture Sir John Lavery painted of the Howard de Walden family relaxing in the room in 1929.

“We have also been able to get hold of many of the treasures the family had on show here during their time in the castle, including a rare suit of armour, Welsh military dagger and a painting by renowned Welsh painter Augustus John. Much of this private collection has never been seen by the public before.”

Walking into the drawing room is like stepping right back into the 1930s.

An enormous log fires roars in the ornate grate around which there are comfortable chairs where visitors can sit as they thumb through the castle’s visitors’ book bearing a host of famous names of the day, such as Rudyard Kipling and George Bernard Shaw.

* Family portraits on the piano.

In the corner of the room a period wireless pumps out 1930s dance music, while photographs of the family adorn the top of the grand piano.

In an adjoining room an old-fashioned projector whirrs away to show flickering black and white Howard de Walden home movies shot at Chirk Castle during their time living there.  

"During Tommy Howard de Walden’s time here, he not only put Chirk Castle at the centre of Welsh culture, but his lavish parties and theatrical connections put Chirk at the heart of British arts and culture for decades," added Carolyn.

Tommy, The Eighth Lord Howard de Walden

§  Competed in the 1908 Olympics

§  Established the Welsh National Theatre

§  Housed Dylan Thomas

§  Learned to speak Welsh fluently

§  Supported and promoted Eisteddfodau

§  Edited Burke’s Peerage

§  Wrote libretti for operas

§  Took the name Elis o’r Waun on being received by the Gorsedd of Bards at the National Eisteddfod. 

AM calls for Wales-only TV licence

Clwyd South Assembly Member Ken Skates has called on the Culture Secretary Maria Millar to develop a separate Channel 3 Licence for Wales.

The new Culture Secretary is currently considering options for the renewal of ITV’s public service licence after 2014 and the Labour AM, who recently chaired an Assembly Enquiry into the Media, has called for a distinct Wales-only licence.

The AM said the future health of ITV was vital to a healthy media in Wales and warned of the impact further staff cutbacks could have on coverage of news and politics.

He said: “The future of ITV in Wales is vital if we are serious about developing a strong media landscape. The current Channel three licence expires in 2014 and the renewal options currently being examined by the Secretary of State are hugely important to the future of public service broadcasting in Wales.

“I believe ITV should have its renewal but as we suggested in our report, maintaining the current licence terms and conditions must be the absolutely bare minimum. As a Bridgend-born Secretary of State, Maria Millar will know the importance of a strong and distinct ITV presence in Wales.

“I would certainly urge the Minister and ITV to be seriously examining the possibility of a separate, Wales-only licence that is commercially sustainable and meets the needs of the community. The importance of this would be that it would make it much easier in future years to encourage other players into the market to develop an alternative Channel three offering for Wales.

“We’ve already seen ITV’s public service broadcasting commitments scaled back quite drastically over the last few years. It’s had a big impact in Wales where ITV now only broadcasts four and a half hours of news and 90 minutes of non-news every week.”

This week ITV announced a wave of redundancies to staff across its regional news with cutbacks affecting technical and support staff including directors, craft editors and camera operators ITV introduces a new centralised graphics unit based in Birmingham.

The move is believed to be the first phase of a two-part redundancy plan, coming after just a handful of staff opted for voluntary redundancy in a scheme announced on September 7.

Mr Skates warned: “If renewal does go ahead I would seriously urge ITV to think long and hard about how the planned regional cutbacks will impact on output here in Wales.

“We have historically had a very weak media in Wales and it is vital both to the plurality of output and to the future of our devolved democracy that we ensure the health and vibrancy of our most important commercial station.

“Cutbacks at ITV Wales in terms of staff and jobs would seriously impact on their ability to be a rigorous and authoritative public service broadcaster for the nation.”

Railway exhibition gets off to steaming good start

* Llangollen Railway Trust chairman Jim Ritchie and Martin Christie from

Carrog station lift the Welsh flag to open the exhibition.

 

An exhibition promoting interest in the Corwen’s railway past and Llangollen Railway’s plans for the railway extension project opened at the Oriel Gallery, London Road, Corwen last Friday.

Entitled “Corwen – a Railway Town”, the exhibition features railway photographs and documents, together with items of former railway artefacts from the local lines around Corwen.

Another feature is a display about the new build Patriot class locomotive “The Unknown Warrior”, as currently being erected at the Llangollen Railway’s engineering base.

The exhibition is organised by local author Paul Lawton and Martin Christie from Carrog station.

At the opening ceremony, Llangollen Railway Trust chairman Jim Ritchie was joined by Martin Christie from Carrog station in lifting the Welsh flag from the entrance photographic display.

Initial attendance was mainly by those who had played a role in setting up the displays, but by lunchtime other visitors began arriving to take in the exhibits and favourable comments were left by all of them about the quality and content of the exhibition.

Of particular appeal is the digital slide show comprising some 200 assorted views of Corwen and its railway over the past many decades which comes with steam age sound track accompaniment.

It is a notable collection of images shown to advantage through the modern medium of a large screen.

The display containing details of the Llangollen Railway's track extension project was well received and many questions were asked about progress and delivery of the trains back to the Corwen East station, pending provision of the ultimate terminal station.

Chris Magner, from Bridgnorth, Shropshire, also attended to launch his new book, “Ruabon to Barmouth - A Tribute to a Welsh West Highland Line".

Opening dates for the exhibition are September 28– 30 and October 4 – 7, between 10am and 4pm. Admission is free.

Mike Edwards speaks out on health shake-up plans

Mike Edwards, chair of Keep Llangollen Special, (pictured below) has made the following statement about the briefing meeting he attended last Wednesday by the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board at Llan Town Hall about its proposals to shake up health services across region.

These include the closure of Llan Cottage Hospital and its replacement with a new primary health care centre.

He said: "I attended the consultation meeting yesterday at the Town Hall along with our Vice Chair, Phil Jones and our Secretary Jude Williams. Martin Crumpton and Councillor Phil Thane attended a later meetings and will report separately.

The meeting was very well controlled and time limited by BCUHB who as one would expect had many bodies present! There were many clever words and phrases used by the officials who used a great deal of techno health speak and gave very little specific information about their proposals. However what is crystal clear as far as Llangollen is concerned is that the existing Community Hospital will close and a proposed Multi function Health Centre will be provided in 2015 SUBJECT to the Health Board securing funding and Welsh Government approving a business case for the acquisition of the former River Lodge(Woodlands Hotel) site. In the intervening period services will be transferred to the existing GP Health Centre, but these proposals are under discussion with the GP Practice because of limited space at the Regent Street premises.

There is grave concern among residents that the Hospital will close in early 2013 which has been confirmed by a letter from Mary Burrows Chief Executive of the Health Board to our AM and that the proposed new Health Facility will never actually appear. It is clear that BCUHB intend to sell the existing Hospital along with Oakleigh higher up Abbey Road to produce much needed funds.

What is not clear is whether these monies will be retained in Llangollen for future health service investment. Arthur Hardy Chair of the Hospital League of Friends expressed concern that money his organisation at invested in the hospital would also be lost.

In the meantime patients and their family support network will have to travel to Chirk and Wrexham to receive treatment since in future their will be no in-patient beds in Llangollen.

Residents can make their views known to the Health Board in forms which were handed out at the meeting or they can write to Mary Burrows Ysbyty Gwynedd, Penrhosgarnedd, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2PW or email Mary.burrows@wales.nhs.uk"

Top children's author at Llan Library

Popular children’s authors are visiting libraries in Denbighshire to meet their young readers, as part of the annual Children’s Book Week celebrations.

This year the visiting authors are Helena Pielichaty, Nicola Davies, Guy Bass, and Tracey Corderoy.

Bethan Hughes of Denbighshire Libraries said: “Giving children the opportunity to meet an author is a very effective way of encouraging children to read more books and to visit the library regularly. The experience stays with them for a long time. They get a chance to ask the author questions about their books and about what it’s like to be a professional author.

“Children’s Book Week is a focal point of our work with schools to promote reading for pleasure and develop children’s literacy skills, and we are delighted that we have been able to attract such fantastic authors to Denbighshire.”

The week is organised by Denbighshire Libraries and supported by Literature Wales.

Helena Pielichaty will will be at Llangollen Library on Tuesday, October 2.

From 9-10.15am she will meet Ysgol Bryn Collen Year 4-5 (including the Chatterbooks groups) and from 10.45-11.45 it will be Ysgol Gwernant Year 5-6.

www.helena-pielichaty.com

Open doors event was a hit with visitors

* The Old Lock Up was one of the buildings open in Llangollen. 

Around 1,300 people took advantage of special weekends of events aimed at opening the doors of historic properties in Denbighshire during September.

A total of 43 properties opened their doors to the public in Llangollen, Denbigh, Ruthin, St Asaph, Bodelwyddan and Rhuddlan as part of Open Doors Denbighshire– with people taking part in 45 guided tours and events.

Properties opeb in Llangollen included the Chain Bridge, Valle Crucis Abbey, Plas Newydd, Y Capel, Castell Dinas Bran and local churches.

Helen Calder, Event Co-ordinator for Denbighshire, said: “We would like to thank everyone involved in this year’s Open Doors events that took place throughout September. We would particularly like to thank the leaders of the guided walks and tours and the owners of private homes that opened their doors to the public.

“All of the guided tours were fully booked and all events were well populated. We have received some very positive feedback from members of the public and the feedback forms are still pouring in.

“We are very proud that the event is seen as one of the best in Wales and one that the Civic Trust for Wales would like to see repeated throughout Wales”.

The committee includes members and volunteers from:Llangollen Civic Society, Denbigh and District Civic Society, Ruthin and District Civic Association, with funding and support from Denbighshire County Council, Cadwyn Clwyd, Ruthin, Denbigh and Llangollen Town Councils.

Open Doors Denbighshire also received funding through the Rural Development Plan for Wales 2007-2013 which is funded by the Welsh Government and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.