Register your bike to help cut crime, say police

Did you get a new bicycle for Christmas? Or have you treated yourself to a new bicycle in the sales?

If so, North Wales Police are requesting that all bike owners register them to help reduce bicycle crime.

Over recent months many bicycles have been stolen from across North Wales, with many of these being specialist and expensive bikes.

North Wales Police and local Community Safety Partnerships are working in partnership with ‘BikeRegister’ - the UK’s leading online bicycle identification and registration initiative, to help reduce thefts and identify stolen cycles within North Wales.

 

Bicycles can be registered for free by providing the frame details.

 

However, options are available to purchase Bronze, Silver and Gold marking kits which offer different levels of protection.

Once registered owners can go onto theBikeRegister website with their unique password and communicate with others. A search facility for stolen bikes and so much more is also available.

If your bicycle is stolen, report it to the police on 101 and flag it as stolen on your account as soon as possible. Reporting your bike as lost or stolen helps the police match its description and return it to you.

It's not too late for a flu jab

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board is urging those most at risk of developing serious complications from seasonal flu, and who have not already done so, to get a free jab.

Dr Sian Owen, Immunisation Lead for the Health Board, said: ‘The annual seasonal flu immunisation campaign was launched in October and is one of the largest public health campaigns which the NHS runs to protect the population from flu infection."

 

Up to this week, 68.4 percent of people over 65 in North Wales have already had their jab but the target is for 75 percent to have the jab.

 

If you are due to have your 65^th birthday before the end of March 2013 you are eligible for a free flu jab. The GP practices still have flu vaccine available to give protection to their patients against flu virus.

Leigh Pusey, Nurse Immunisation Coordinator, said: “With the announcement that the flu season has now started in the UK, it’s particularly important for children and adults who have an ‘at risk’ condition such as diabetes, heart disease or any other long term condition such as lung, kidney or liver problems to have their seasonal flu jab. If you’re not sure if you’re eligible please contact your GP to check.

 

"It’s important to remember that the seasonal flu vaccine is safe and does not contain any live virus, so it cannot cause flu. Those who had a seasonal flu jab last year will need to get a new jab this winter. As the flu virus changes every year, the flu vaccine is updated to match the latest flu viruses circulating in the community.”

Practical tips to help avoid spreading germs to others and to help avoid infection yourself include always carrying tissues, covering your cough and sneeze with a tissue, disposing of the tissue after one use and cleaning your hands as soon as you can.

 

Talk to your local GP, nurse or pharmacist to find out more or visit the NHS Choices website at: http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Flu-jab/Pages/Introduction.aspx

Campaign aims to create foodie heaven in region

* A toast to the new Holy Grail Ale at Valle Crucis Abbey with Robert Price from Cadwyn Clwyd and 

Ynyr Jeffreys-Evans of Llangollen Brewery.

The Hamper Llangollen and Mold food festivals and a host of award-winning producers are to star in a campaign to transform North East Wales into a foodie heaven for visitors.

 

The aim is to give tourists a taste for the area so they have an appetite to come back again - and again.

 

It's all part of the drive by Tourism Partnership North Wales to make the region a top five UK destination for visitors.

 

The renown of Welsh lamb has already travelled far and wide with the likes of American President Barack Obama and the Pope tucking in.

 

But organisers say the Food North Wales campaign is about more than just lamb, beef and pork.

 

Apart from the award-winning butchers there are bakers and brewers, buffalo herders and bee-keepers, fudge, paté and cheesemakers, and even a purveyor of garlic products.

 

They will be showcased on the new Food North Wales website that's being hailed as a gateway to gastronomic delight.

 

The campaign will be officially launched at the Bodnant Welsh Food Centre in the Conwy Valley on January 16.

 

Carole Startin, Marketing and Events Executive with Tourism Partnership North Wales, explained: "Food North Wales is all about bringing together for the consumer under one umbrella.

 

"We have wonderful food and drink that’s produced locally. As well as our marvellous meat, there are our fantastic vegetables and heavenly bread, exquisite liqueurs and fine ales - they are part of the wonderful taste of North Wales.

 

"The website will also include information about where to eat and drink and the latest news stories about the fine food available in North Wales.

 

"We are what we eat and food is an integral part of our identity, it helps embed our unique sense of place.

 

"It therefore makes perfect sense for the food sector and the tourism industry to work more closely together than ever to make it easier for the tourist to find some quality food and drink while they’re here on holiday in Wales - and also help with their research before they come."

 

"As a perfect complement to our fine produce and truly exceptional restaurants, we have some fantastic food festivals across North Wales such as Conwy Feast, Mold Food and Drink Festival, Hamper Llangollen and the 700-year-old Conwy Honey Fair.

 

"We also have the newly established Clwydian Range Food Trail and we'd like to see more trails like this developed."

 

It was a sentiment echoed by Tansy Rogerson, the Marketing Manager of the £6.5 million Bodnant Welsh Food Centre that was officially opened by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall last summer.

 

Ms Rogerson said: "We’ve got so many fantastic artisan producers on our doorstep as well as nationally in Wales that we need to shout about them.

 

"The purpose of this campaign is to tell people outside Wales about the fantastic food on offer and to signpost them to where they can find it.

 

"Increasingly people want to know where their food comes from and we have 100 per cent traceability with our meat.

 

"By supporting local producers, we are keeping the economy going as well as keeping and creating jobs in rural North Wales."

 

Dewi Davies, the Regional Strategy Director of Tourism Partnership North Wales, is a passionate advocate of the economic benefits of promoting the food sector.

 

He said: "Our vision is to make North Wales a top five UK visitor destination and our strategy is geared up to achieve this goal.

 

"To be successful we have to provide brilliant visitor experiences and food is a central part of these experiences.

 

"There were already a number of good food initiatives in different corners of North Wales but we felt it was important to have an all-encompassing campaign highlighting all the great food stories that we have across the whole of the region.

 

"We have some fantastic producers - like Llaeth y Llan Village Dairy, Snowdonia Cheese, Patchwork Paté and Halen Môn - and we need to make information about them available in an interesting way to our visitors.

 

"As part of the campaign, we will identify those places where you can actually buy all this wonderful food - whether it is the Blas ar Fwyd delicatessen in Llanrwst, Edwards the butcher in Conwy, the Bison Grill at the Rhug estate, Hawarden Farm Shop or indeed Bodnant Welsh Food where the launch is taking place.

 

"All this fantastic food gives people another reason to come to North Wales, another reason to dwell - and another reason to make a return visit."

 

For more information go to www.foodnorthwales.co.uk

Tributes to 17 year old who died after collision

On New Year's Day we reported the sad news that a 17-year-old youth had died from his injuries after being involved in a road traffic collision in Gwersyllt.

 

North Wales Police has just posted on its website this official tribute to him from his family: 

 

"The family of 17 year old Ian Gallagher have paid tribute to the selfless, loving student who died on New Year's Day following a road traffic collision.

 

* Ian Gallagher was training to become a soldier.

Ian's parents, Alan and Andrea, his brother Phillip, sister, Beth, his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins have been overwhelmed by the immense support from the student's friends and the local community.

Alan said: "The messages and the outpouring of support from the communities of Denbigh, Caerwys and Wrexham have been incredible, we have been so touched by the warmth of feeling from his many friends."

A former pupil of Denbigh High School, Ian was also well known in Caerwys, where his grandparents live.

Ian was well on his way to achieving his lifelong ambition of becoming a soldier. For the past six months Ian had been a student at the Motivational Preparation College for Training (MPCT) in Wrexham and had started his application to join the Army.

Alan said: "In our eyes he was already a soldier, we are extremely proud of him and all that he achieved. Ian was never afraid to raise his head above the parapet and stand up for the right things. He cared deeply for his family and friends and always put others before himself."

Ian had a special place in his heart for the newest member of the Gallagher family, his nephew, nine month old Riley Jay.

Riley Jay's father, Phillip (Ian's brother) said: "Ian looked out for everyone. He loved Riley, the teddy bear he gave him for Christmas is a special present which we'll keep for him until he's older."

Alan and Andrea also paid tribute to all those who helped Ian following the collision which happened on the A541 Mold Road, Wrexham, during the early hours of New Year's Day.

Alan said: "The emergency services, the medical staff, those who were with him, we are deeply grateful for everything that they did for Ian, we cannot thank them enough."

KLS chair slams "march" of out-of-town developments

The chair of a group dedicated to preserving Llangollen’s small shops has hit out at what he calls the “continuing march of out-of-town developments”.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has just called on MPs to prioritise listening to local businesses and to help halt the decline of high streets.

It has recommended that taking action against the rising cost of doing business in the UK is the number one thing that MPs should do to help high streets.

The BRC is asking them to support calls for the government to freeze business rates, which are set to rise by 2.6% in 2013.

Mike Edwards, (pictured left) chair of Keep Llangollen Special which has strongly opposed the new Sainsbury’s store planned for the town, said: “This article is clearly aimed at Westminster MPs, but applies equally to Welsh Assembly politicians.

“However, the issue of high business rates raised by the BRC whilst being a real factor for independent businesses trading in the high street, masks the real problem of the continuing march of out-of-town retail developments.

“Despite having planning policies in place to protect town centres and sustainability to discourage increased vehicle journeys these are blatantly ignored when a corporate business comes along and waves its financial muscle at LPAs and WG.” 

He added: “The First Minister in his New Year message strongly states his aim to encourage new economic developments, but this is clearly to the detriment of local independent businesses and economies.  

“Government states that they wish to involve local communities in decision making, but in practice they and local authorities treat residents of communities with total disrespect and treat anyone who makes their views known as some sort of activist and politicians tell local communities what is good for them.  

“What is the point in allowing out-of-town super stores if that decimates a vibrant town centre and leads to businesses closing down and a loss of employment in those businesses? 

“In a separate article the BRC makes reference to an improved situation in vacant shop premises in town centres, but when you look at the figures the improvement is marginal and on average 14% of retail space is still vacant in town centres up and down the UK.”

Workers will benefit from tax changes says AM

New figures show that 224,124 workers in North Wales will benefit from the Conservative-led UK Government’s changes to income tax in April 2013 and 11,720 people in the region will be taken out of tax altogether.

 

That is the claim of North Wales Assembly Member and Shadow Minister for North Wales, Communities and Housing, Mark Isherwood, who said: “These figures demonstrate how Conservatives in Government are taking tough decisions to ensure work pays.

 

"They are ensuring a fairer tax system by providing support to individuals on low and middle incomes, and by increasing the rewards to work.

“Out of the 1.42 million tax payers in Wales, almost 1.1million workers in Wales will benefit from the Conservative-led UK Government’s changes to income tax in April 2013, with 57,007 people in Wales taken out of tax altogether.

“We now look to the Welsh Government to bring forward substantive plans to invest its £227million windfall from the Conservative-led UK Government in major infrastructure projects, which will help create conditions for economic growth in Wales.

“Under Labour the UK borrowed itself into trouble, now we have to earn our way out.”

AM brands rail fare rises as "unfair"

Clwyd South Assembly Member Ken Skates has branded the latest rise in rail fare prices as ‘unfair’ to passengers in North Wales.

For the 10th year in a row ticket prices in Wales have risen above inflation, with average rail fares having gone up by 3.9% across England, Wales and Scotland.

The rises are designed in part to fund major infrastructure improvements over the next few years, but Mr Skates said it was “unfair” commuters in the region were being asked to pay higher fares without a major commitment to electrify the North Wales mainline.

He said: “This is the tenth year in a row that rail fares have been hiked up above inflation. In North Wales commuters are faced with a rail fare increase as real wages are stagnating and the cost of living is rising.

“In part the justification for this latest rise is to pay for the major infrastructure upgrades that are going to be happening over the next few years. My issue with this is that rail passengers in the region have not been given any sort of commitment about when an upgrade of the mainline in North Wales might take place.

“Electrification is now being timetabled on the Great Western Line between London and Swansea, the South Wales valleys lines will be electrified too and a major High Speed Rail (HS2) route is being planned through central Englandtowards Scotland.

“However, we in North Wales have not been given any indication that the extra money we will pay in rail fare increases over the coming years will go toward funding an electrification programme of the North Wales mainline. It is only fair that major increases in rail fares being paid for by passengers and local businesses are linked to infrastructure upgrades."

 

He added: “We need to see the business case for North Wales electrification progressed urgently and then a coherent plan, backed by both the UK and Welsh Governments, to get the North Wales mainline electrified as soon as possible.

“Research by the Campaign for Better Transport has highlighted that rail fare increases have run 20% higher than real wage rises over the last ten years and I believe that any future increases in rail prices in North Wales over the next few years should be linked to a major plan to provide quicker routes for passengers in the region.”

The Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) and independent campaign group Railfuture have both calculated that some rail fares have increased by 50% or more in the past 10 years.

The UK Government have said further fare rises are planned for January 2013 and January 2014 of RPI plus 1%.