Council's weather warning

Denbighshire County Council is urging people to take extra care on the roads this morning, as icy weather continues to affect the North Wales region.

Gritting teams have been out and about overnight, but the road temperatures have been slow to rise this morning. All roads are open, but the Council urges extreme caution.

Wetter, milder weather is forecast for the rest of the day.

Winter bug closes three Maelor wards

The Leader is reporting this morning (Friday) that three wards at Wrexham Maelor Hospital have been closed to new admissions following the outbreak of a vomiting bug.

Eight patients are displaying symptoms of diarrhoea and vomiting, adds the story.

For the full report see: http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/118382/hospital-wards-close-after-bug-outbreak.aspx

Reminder to check food hygiene ratings

Denbighshire County Council is reminding consumers of the national food hygiene rating schemes as they prepare to eat out over the festive period.

The National Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, knwon as Scores on the Doors, is a UK-wide scheme being developed between the Food Standards Agency (FSA), food businesses, local authorities and other related organisations.

The chief purpose of the scheme is to allow consumers to make informed choices about the places in which they eat out and from which they purchase food, and through this, to encourage businesses to improve hygiene standards.

Restaurants, takeaways, cafés, sandwich shops, pubs, hotels, supermarkets and other retail food outlets, as well as other businesses where consumers can eat or buy food, are given a hygiene rating as part of the scheme.

There are six different hygiene ratings - the top one represents a very good level of compliance with legal requirements and businesses across the country will be rated consistently by participating Local Authorities, so ensuring that they are compared fairly. All local authorities in Wales are intending to take part in the scheme.

All ratings are published on a national website where consumers can see them, and businesses will also be encouraged to display them at their premises.

Councillor David Smith, Cabinet Lead Member for Environment, said: "We want people to eat safely this Christmas and people considering eating out in local restaurants can check the score achieved by the establishment prior to dining there. The majority of local businesses do comply with the stringent health and safety rules, but occasionally, some may fall below the standard required and we will ask the business to take steps to rectify the problem."

Ten pages of ratings related to the LL20 postcode covering Llangollen and district can be seen at: 
 
http://ratings.food.gov.uk/search/en-GB?ba=ll20&sm=1&st=1&pi=0&sc=%2fsearch%2fen-GB 

Llan band youngsters delight Glyndyfrdwy audience

Llangollen Silver Band youth section goes from strength to strength.

Last Friday the people of Glyndyfrdwy were delighted to welcome the youngsters to their annual Christmas get-together to play a mixture of carols and Christmas music interspersed with items of songs and music by local children.

Their next major engagement is at Llangollen Town Hall on Friday, December 21 at 7pm  for a Grand Gala with the Training Band and Senior Band.

Tickets at £5 are available on the door or via the website at www. Llangollensilverband.org

Llan in the bleak mid-winter

With temperatures not moving much away from zero all day today, most of the local landscape ended up under a thick carpet of frost.

You don't see it happen often but even part of the canal basin was frozen over.

The eisteddfod field also looked pretty bleak, in stark contrast the hive of activity it was back in July.

Send in your chilly pics to llanglogger@gmail.com

* Part of the canal basin was frozen over. 

* A wintry eisteddfod field.

Let us see your frost pictures

Town councillor Phil Thane has sent in this atmospheric series of frost pictures taken in the garden of his Llangollen home earlier today.

We're still looking for pictures which reflect the "winter wonderland" experience we're having at the moment, so if you'd like to share yours with our readers please email them to: llanglogger@gmail.com

Stan's £250 boost for Tidy Town Team

* From left, Tidy Towns Team member Alan Williams and

co-ordinator David Davies receive the £250 cheque from

Stan’s store owner Andrew Faulks. 

 

A GROUP of dedicated volunteers who help keep Llangollen running smoothly has received a welcome boost to its funds.

The Tidy Town Team, which has this year worked hundreds of unpaid hours on projects as diverse as picking up litter to controlling traffic for a major funeral, has been given a donation of £250 from the Stan’s superstore chain.

The team was formed in 2006 by local residents with the aim of providing a volunteer resource to supplement official activity in the town.

Now around 20 strong, it meets on the first Friday of every month and in 2012 has done an incredible 800 hours of work including collecting 83 sacks of litter and picking up 152 discarded vodka bottles.

Other tasks undertaken by the team during the past year have included the supply and installation of seating for the band stand and the installation of three extra picnic tables in Riverside park, planting trees, clearing overgrown vegetation and tidying dilapidated property.

Team members, a number of whom are retired professional people, have also assisted with events such as marshalling vehicles taking part in a car rally at Plas Newydd, the Food Festival at Llangollen Pavilion and the town’s Christmas festival.

In the summer they also hoped control traffic to allow the funeral cortege of Llangollen Silver band stalwart Albert Hammonds to pass through the main street.

The £250 contribution from Stan’s was handed over to the team by owner Andrew Faulks.

He explained that the money came from Nisa, the trade organisation to which the store belongs, as part of its national Making a Difference Locally Fund, which has so far enabled Stan’s to donate a total of over £11,500 to various good causes within 20 miles of its branches in Llangollen and St Martin’s, Oswestry in the past few years.

He said: “We believe in supporting good causes in our communities and the Tidy Town Team is one of them.”

Tidy Town co-ordinator David Davies said: “We are very grateful to Stan’s for this contribution which will help us to continue our work throughout 2013.

“As a group of local residents our aim is to provide a volunteer resource to supplement official activity in maintain Llangollen as a Tidy Town to the pride of residents and visitors alike.”