Operatic looking for show sponsors

Llangollen Operatic is looking for sponsors for their forthcoming production of Anything Goes by Cole Porter, which will be staged from April 16-20 in Llangollen Town Hall.

Society spokesperson Louisa Jones said: For just £100, we are offering local companies and individuals the opportunity to sponsor one of our five performances.

"In return for this, sponsors will receive tickets for front row balcony seats for four people, a drink each from the bar, programmes, prominent display of your/your company's name and the chance to display and distribute your marketing material during the evening.

"We believe this is a very good deal and in addition to getting an evening of great entertainment you will be making a valued contribution towards the cost of putting on what is guaranteed to be a fantastic show.

"If you consider a full price ticket is £9 this year, it's particularly good value for money."

* For more information, contact: louisa.jones@live.com, or tel: 07989 985644.

Twenty Club aims for smash hit with Glass Menagerie

* Anna Turner, who plays Laura Wingfield.

Llangollen’s Twenty Club’s will present the American classic, The Glass Menagerie, on three nights next week (Thursday, Friday and Saturday, March 7, 8 and 9) in the Town Hall.

This play is seen as the most touching, tender and painful of Tennessee Williams’ works and is the gripping portrayal of a post-depression family in crisis.

Buy Local Day in store for next Friday

Local shops can supply you with smaller, useable quantities of food at the right price – unlike the large packs supermarkets try to persuade you to buy.

That is one of the key messages from community group Keep Llangollen Special (KLS) as it organises its next Buy Local Day.

Timed for next Friday, March 8– usefully just a couple of days before Mothering Sunday – this will see a number of businesses in Llangollen offering special deals to savvy local shoppers.

KLS chair Mike Edwards (pictured left) said: “We are distributing printed colour flyers to residents in the next few days - Maesmawr is already done - and also getting a version of the new Buy Local poster to the shops around town.

“We are encouraging shopkeepers to make a special offer to local residents on the day and KLS are co-operating with the Slow Food initiative supported by the Town Council.”

Mike added: “We would strongly recommend residents to buy fresh quality local food and not travel outside Llangollen and support the local economy and supply chain.

“KLS has found from a survey carried out that local produce is actually very competitively priced and its possible to buy quantities you actually need not large packages which supermarkets encourage you to buy with resultant high levels of wasted food.

“So our strong message to Llangollen people is Buy Local next Friday.”

New breast cancer scan could save lives says AM

The Welsh Government is being urged to adopt a new breast cancer scan that could save dozens of lives according to health experts.

Llyr Gruffydd, Plaid Cymru’s regional AM for North Wales (pictured right being shown the screening process) made his plea during a debate he had organised on tackling breast cancer among women under 50 years of age.

He told the Assembly: “Breast Test Wales do a great job of screening women over 50 years of age, when the risk of cancer rises. There are also mammograms available for under 50s but it is not an effective form of screening.

“However, cancer specialists and the National Institute of Clinical Excellence have established that there is a group of younger women with genetic or family history that make them more pre-disposed to breast cancer.

“The best way, it is felt by experts, to deal with this small but specific group is to offer MRI screening. This has been NICE’s case for the past seven years and it’s about time the Welsh Government adopted this guideline.

“A thorough pilot has taken place in the North to establish that this kind of programme can work and it’s estimated that it would only cost about £500,000 a year to screen hundreds of identified at-risk women. These are hard economic times but it’s impossible to put a price on anyone’s life when it’s possible to deal with this so promptly.”

The campaign is being supported by MacMillan charity, Treasure Chest, a breast cancer support group based in Llandudno and senior clinicians including Dr Alexandra Murray, lead consultant Cancer Genetics Service Wales, Dr Kate Gower Thomas and Dr Andy Gash, of Ysbyty Gwynedd.

Dr Murray said: “I believe that MRI screening should be available for young women at high risk of developing breast cancer, as one of a range of options for managing their risk.

“At the moment these women have to choose between mammography, which is less effective in young women with a genetic risk, and bilateral risk-reducing mastectomies. MRI screening has been shown to be effective in this group and it offers them a realistic alternative to surgery.

“Not every young woman with a high genetic risk will want MRI screening but it should be available for those that do.”

Anybody wishing to join Llyr Gruffydd’s campaign can contact him onllyr.gruffydd@wales.gov.uk or sign the petitionhttp://bit.ly/UQQCiF

Watchdog given more time to consider health changes

The BBC North East Wales website is reporting this afternoon that the patient watchdog for north Wales has been given more time to discuss NHS reshuffle plans with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which include the closure of Llangollen Cottage Hospital.

See the full story at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-21617162

County council sets 2% budget

* County Hall in Ruthin where the budget was agreed. Denbighshire County Council has set its 2013/14 budget at 2%. The authority says it has agreed the budget against a backdrop of a poorer than expected financial settlement from Welsh Government.  Capital funding from Cardiff has been cut by 15% to £4.9 million, which came on top of the 27% already cut over the past two years.  The council has also identified over £3 million in further savings over the next year while investing in education and social services.  A further £1m of extra funding will go into the Corporate Plan priorities over the next year - modernising education, highways, the economy, social care and the council itself. Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill, Cabinet Lead Member for Finance and Assets, said: "We have created a budget that protects education and social care and we have increased funding to these areas to the tune of £2.1m.  "We have already cut around £14 million from budgets over the years and we are proud of the fact that we have been able to protect frontline services.  "While the outlook for public finances is poor, it is extremely important that we provide residents with below inflation tax rises in these difficult times and we have consistently worked to keep council tax as low as possible as that is what residents have told us they want to see happening." Mohammed Mehmet, Chief Executive of Denbighshire, said: "As a council we want to protect those services that are important to people and this budget achieves this while keeping the council tax increase as low as possible and making £3m efficiencies. "The council has a strong track record of delivering savings by finding better ways of doing things. We are reducing the amount of days loss to sickness; we are scrutinising our contracts to ensure better value for money and we are being more competitive in the way in which we buy in services."

Further information on the budget will be included in Your Money, the definitive guide to council tax which will be delivered with council tax bills to properties in March.

Good progress being made on Slow Food plan

Enquiries are coming in fast from businesses interested in finding out more about starting a Slow Food group in Llangollen.

In the past few weeks over 50 shops, restaurants, pubs and other firms have been invited to help with the initiative, which is being planned as part of the town’s bid to achieve Cittaslow status.

Slow Food is an international organisation that links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment by promoting local, seasonal produce and reconnecting people with where their food comes from.

It is a not-for-profit movement in which local groups, run by volunteers, organise a variety of events alongside local food and drink producers and chefs.

Members of the Cittaslow bid team have been distributing leaflets and putting up posters across the area giving people more details about Slow Food and giving them the opportunity to make an enquiry about helping set up a local group.

At the latest monthly Cittaslow group meeting at the Town Hall on Tuesday evening, members were brought up to date on how the scheme is progressing by Sal Jefford who is spearheading it.

She said that as a result of the publicity drive, a number of enquiries had come in.

A minimum of 10 are needed to start a group, so she encouraged more businesses to get involved.

• If you are interested in learning more about how you can help, or would like to be kept informed of our progress, e-mail slowfoodllangollen@gmail.com, or phone or text Sal on 07786 623802.

Organisers also want to hear from anyone in Llangollen who is already a member of Slow Food UK.

Gill Thomas then updated members on the good progress she is making in compiling a local crafts and products directory.

This, she explained, aimed to include people with traditional crafts and product businesses within a 20-mile radius of the centre of Lllangollen.

So far, she had added 33 such businesses to the list, including ones as diverse as a coracle maker and a Welsh flannel weaver.

She is seeking many more to add to the growing list and invited anyone interested in being included to contact her via this website.

Gill, who already successfully runs the weekly country markets in Llangollen Town Hall, then put forward a suggestion for the revival of regular local farmers’ markets.

Members discussed this and came up with a number of possible locations in the town centre, which would now be investigated.