Llan prepares for Peter Pan panto fun

* The Davies family - known as Llangollen's Panto Von Trapps.

Ten-year-old twins Ella and Jake Davies, of Pengwern, are starring together in the town’s production of the pantomime Peter Pan.

This will be Ella's third show but the first time she is being joined by twin Jake.

The youngsters will also be accompanied by seven other members of their family  -earning them the title of Llangollen’s Pantomime Von Trapps.

Ella who plays one of the pirates, said: “It feels really good having my brother in the panto with me, everything makes him laugh."

 

She made her debut in Llangollen Panto alongside her Aunty, Ali Burke, who this year plays one of the shows idiots, Miss You.

 

Ella and Jake's cousin, 19-year-old Aaron Davies of Wrexham, is this year's bright new talent and plays Peter.

 

Aaron has previously starred in Nia Ben Aur at the National Eisteddfod, High School Musical at the Stiwt Theatre, Rhos and Llangolen Operatic Society's production of Scarlet Pimpernel.

 

Ella and Jake will also be joined on stage by their dad Rob who plays another pirate but cannot be named.

 

Aaron’s sister, Tesni, is performing in her second show and plays the wife of the Indian Chief.

 

Ella and Jake's mum, Chris, is doing hair and make-up and Debbie and Phil, Aaron and Tesni's mum and dad are helping backstage and with sewing.

 

This is the third consecutive year that the Llangollen Pantomime has been staged at the Pavilion, with the previous two years seeing nightly sell-out shows. 

 

Director and Dame Simon Orton-Jones said: “This year’s show is a musical pantomime with an even bigger cast than last year.

 

"We have a fantastic 50-strong cast and crew, live band and the excellent lighting and sound facilities that the Pavilion has to offer.

 

"Following from last year's show, Sarah Marshall, the resident choreographer, has once again come up with fantastic new dances."

Chairlady Sharon Jones, who has been associated with the pantomime for 13 years, said: “The show tells the story of Peter Pan but Nanna the dog has become this year's Dame!

 

"Music is predominant in the show with songs such as Wings' ‘Live and Let Die, Queen’s I Wnt to Beak Fee’ and Crocodile Rock by Sir Elton John.

 

"The 18 songs are played by our eight-member band, led by our wonderful musical director Paul Young.

 

"The show is another huge production which has been made real thanks to the help and experience of our stage manager Michael jones and his crew.

 

"We have once again diverted from panto tradition by having Peter played by the talented Aaron Davies, supported by our ever-amazing Jo Potts (Tinkerbell) and the fantastic newcomer Dani Chamberlain (Wendy).”
 

* The show runs from Wednesday, January 16 to Saturday, January 19 at Llangollen Pavilion.

 

Doors 7pm, show 7.30pm, Saturday matinee (doors open 2pm, show 2.30pm).

 

Wednesday £5/£3 concessions, Thursday – Saturday £7/£5 concessions.

 

Tickets are available from Jades Hair & Beauty, Llangollen, Gwyn Davies (Butchers), Llangollen, or by calling 01978 860297.

North Wales is possible site for new super-jail

The BBC is reporting this afternoon that UK ministers say north Wales is being considered as a possible location for a so-called super prison, housing more than 2,000 inmates.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-20971109

County facelifts almost 3,000 homes

Denbighshire County Council has refurbished 2,972 properties across the county as part of its efforts to ensure that its entire housing stock meets the Welsh Housing Quality Standard.

A further 477 properties are due to be refurbished in the next 12 months and by the end of 2013, the total number of properties refurbished will be 3,463.

The council has sought to use the contracts for the works to support local sub-contractors and supply chains within Denbighshire.

Examples include:using local apprentices; all sub contractors used by Adever and 69% of site personnel with Brammal came from the county; all kitchens supplied locally; 100% of heating contract works dealt with by local workforce.

Councillor Hugh Irving, Cabinet Lead Member for Community Development, said: "The original objective of Welsh Government was that all social housing stock would be brought up to the standard by the end of 2012.

"However, this has not proved to be a realistic target for many landlords. Here in Denbighshire, the programme has been smoothed to reduce an over-reliance on one contractor, some small delays in approving contracts and respecting the wishes of tenants not wanting work carried out around Christmas time have all added to the 2012 target being exceeded.

"The majority of residents say they are happy with the work undertaken, with satisfaction rates of over 90% being recorded on all completed contracts. The Welsh Government says it is also happy with progress being made by Denbighshire and the Council continues to make improvement to its housing stock a key priority over the coming years."

The Head of Housing and Community Development for Denbighshire, Peter McHugh has been appointed to a Ministerial Task Force to advise the Minister for Housing, Regeneration and Heritage on options to enable local authorities to achieve Welsh Housing Quality Standard.

Group seeks new singers

Llangollen-based all-women singing group, Melodic Mondays, have put out the following notice seeking new members:

One step closer to rail electrification

The Minister with responsibility for Transport, Carl Sargeant, has announced that the Welsh Government, working in collaboration with the regional transport consortium, Taith, is to develop a business case for the electrification of the North Wales line.

 

The Minister has confirmed that a robust business case will be developed that will capture the full social, economic and environmental benefits for north Wales.

The business plan for modernisation will build on previous work done to date, including the important North East Wales Area Based Transport Study.

Carl Sargeant said: “I want to see North Wales properly connected to the UK electric infrastructure, with effective cross-border links.

“I want to see rail operations across Wales developed to achieve enhanced services with efficiency savings leading to a fairer deal for passengers and taxpayers.

“Our prioritised National Transport Plan recognises that transport is an enabler for many aspects of the Welsh economy and we will continue to focus on improving the capacity and reliability of the main east-west road and rail corridors in Wales.

“Modernising the North Wales rail line is a key element of this ambition and has the potential of greatly improving the rail services and unlocking economic growth for the region, which will in turn help tackle poverty.”

In addition to the North Wales Coast Main Line (from Holyhead to Crewe), consideration will be given to the rail network in north-east Wales (including the Wrexham to Bidston line, the line from Wrexham to Chester, and the line from Chester to Warrington Bank Quay) in order to maximise the social, economic and environmental benefits to the region resulting from modernisation.

Work now begins on establishing the strategic case for investment, which will define the scope, objectives, benefits and long-list of options for the project. This in turn will lead on to a robust case for change, which will be complete this summer.

Politicians' fury over benefit changes

Local Labour politicians have reacted with fury to the numbers of people who have been told by HMRC that they could lose their child benefit.

Clwyd South MP Susan Elan Jones and AM Ken Skates have condemned the changes which have seen 440 households across their constituency receive letters from HMRC saying their benefit could be cut.

Families with one parent with a taxable income of more than £50,000 will lose some of the benefit, and it will be withdrawn entirely if one parent earns above £60,000.

Across the UK, HM Revenue and Customs said it had written to nearly 800,000 people but it estimates 1.1 million will be affected by the move.

Susan Elan Jones said: “The Government have made a complete mess of these child-benefit reforms. A family with two children could lose up to £1,752 a year in child benefit, an important and valuable top-up to the monthly household income.

“In particular these changes are unfair because they penalise single-income families, who will be put under additional financial strain at the same time that heating, household food and other living costs are set to soar even higher.

“There are many people in my constituency who have not had a pay rise for two or three years and the added costs of childcare and transport on top of all this is pinching working families very hard.” 

Ken Skates said: “Means-testing child benefit is simply mean spirited. The gradual withdrawal of benefit from people earning more than £50,000 a year will only increase the enormous financial pressures faced by families in Clwyd South.

“It is ridiculous that single earners on £50,000 will see their child benefit cut whilst couples earning £98,000 could end up keeping theirs.

“What a terrible new year gift for families in my constituency. A letter from the Chancellor saying that he is taking money away from them at exactly the time when they need it most. That’s not fair and it’s not right.”

The UK Government does not have precise information on how many households in Wales should lose child benefit, but it has written to 20,630.

The highest number were in Cardiff North (1,530), followed by Monmouth (1,300), the Vale of Glamorgan (1,110) and Cardiff West (1,090).

The fewest letters were sent to households in Rhondda (130), followed by Blaenau Gwent (140), Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney (190) and the Cynon Valley (210).

According to the Silk Commission launched by the Wales Office to examine devolution, in 2010-11 there were 89,000 higher rate taxpayers in Wales.

Campaigners hit back at health changes survey

Keep Llangollen Health Services campaigners have slammed Betsi Cadwaladr’s consultation process on closing Llangollen Hospital as “meaningless and designed to say what the Government and the board wants to hear”.

The consultation gathered thousands of responses from public meetings, petitions and questionnaires but it’s been criticised for favouring the findings of one group of questionnaires rather than another.

KHLS campaigners say open questionnaireresponses, which are far more hostile towards the planned closure of Llangollen Hospital, have been ignored.

Mabon ap Gwynfor, of KLHS said: “This consultation has been flawed from the start. We were given only one option – to close the existing community hospital and then wait for a new health centre to be built somewhere sometime in the future.

"People locally are rightly sceptical of these plans – a new health centre would cost more than £5 million and Betsi Cadwaladr health board admits it’s in financial trouble.

"The way the findings have been presented proves that the Government and their puppets at the health board have got what they wanted through this sham exercise to tick the boxes.

"Many of the questions were loaded and, where the opposing view is clear and concise, they choose to ignore it. This is very shoddy work.”

To support his claim, Mr ap Gwynfor noted that the survey states: “Significantly higher proportion of residents who live within 10 km of Llangollen Community Hospital disagree with proposal to move inpatient beds (74%).”

However, in its conclusions the report authors say: “Divided opinions on removing inpatient beds 35% for, 29% against (HS).”

Mr ap Gwynfor said: “They have based their conclusions on the household survey, of which there were no more than a dozen respondents, because the result suited their agenda.

 

"The Open Survey shows the polar opposite! So those dozen people carry more weight than the 1,200 people who signed our petition and the hundreds who sent representations in the post or on-line.

“The report cannot be trusted. They also say that there is an ‘Absolute majority support for primary care centre in Llangollen’ – of course there is!

 

"Who wouldn’t want to see local health services improved in Llangollen? That is why we formed our group because these proposals threaten to diminish health care in Llangollen.”

Mr ap Gwynfor said his group was also concerned about the way the report authors seemed to dismiss petitions out of hand.

The board will consider recommendations at a special meeting which will take place in the Optic Centre, St Asaph at 10am on Friday, January 18.

* The report can be found at http://www.wales.nhs.uk/sites3/docopen.cfm?orgid=836&id=204213.