KLS lashes out over hospital closure

Community group Keep Llangollen Special (KLS) has attacked health chiefs and politicians over the closure of the town’s community hospital. 

KLS chair Mike Edwards (pictured below) said: “As the Welsh Government released their much heralded framework Vibrant and Viable Places, we are totally dismayed at the double speak from politicians who say things like, ‘The Welsh Government’s vision is that everyone in Wales should live in well-connected vibrant, viable and sustainable communities with a strong local economy and good quality of life’.  

 

“They claim to place health and well-being high in their priorities together with stressing the importance of town centres being vibrant and viable places.  

“Exactly how will the closure of our community hospital, which was conveniently located for Llangollen residents, achieve these aims because it will clearly increase vehicle journeys for patients and their family and friends support network? 

“This proposal by BCUHB breaches the Welsh Government's policies in relation to sustainability which are enshrined in Planning Policy Wales and fails to take into consideration the views of residents and damages the environment of an AONB by increasing vehicle journeys out of the area to Mold, Wrexham and Chirk etc. 

“It is extremely sad that Llangollen Hospital has closed after 137 years, but to add insult to injury neither the health board nor the local GP Practice have had the decency to keep patients in the loop and communicate with them as to when changes would actually take effect.  

“If you turned up for a blood test at the hospital on Monday morning you would have found it closed! 

“BCUHB have proceeded with stealth leading to the view that they wished to push through their decisions before the Health or First Minister could intervene and stop the proposals.  

“However, lack of action from the Health Minister or the First Minister could also persuade people that WG are actually culpable in this plot to rob Llangollen of its Community Hospital. 

“Welsh Government and public bodies claim to want decisions to involve and be led by communities, but they actually push their plans forward regardless and totally disrespect those very local communities and their residents.”

llanblogger gets BBC TV mention

* Huw Edwards hosts BBC1s Wales Report in which llanblogger was mentioned. 

llanblogger has had a mention on nationwide TV in Wales.

Our news site figured in a studio discussion on the future of the media during last night’s edition of BBC1's Wales Report presented by Huw Edwards.

Main theme was how hyperlocal news sites such as llanblogger are now operating alongside more traditional Welsh newspapers,  many of which are experiencing an on-going decline in circulation.

In some places they have actually replaced newspapers, and the programme contained a short film on the Port Talbot Magnet, a news site being operated on a voluntary basis by professional journalists after the local paper closed.

One of two experts interviewed in the studio was Ken Skates, Labour Assembly Member for Clwyd South and himself a former newspaper journalist in Wrexham.  

Asked by Huw Edwards about the media situation in his constituency, he said there were a number of good hyperlocal news site, in Wrexham and “just down the road in Llangollen where we have llanblogger”.

While stressing the importance of such sites Mr Skates (pictured below, right) said he wished to see them regarded as part of the wider news provision rather than an alternative to established newspapers.

Huw Edwards posed the question whether the fall in newspaper circulations might be a quality issue.

But the other studio guest, Professor Ian Hargreaves, a former national newspaper editor and now professor of digital economy at Cardiff Business School, said this was not the case and that falling newspaper sales was down to advertising – any regional newspaper’s lifeblood – moving online.

He added that to combat this, news organisations must adapt to the way they do things in the digital age.

Ken Skates said there were “some excellent journalists” in Wales but many young people were moving out of the country because there were better  job prospects outside the country.

Part of the answer to this drain, he said, was for more resources to be invested in training opportunities for journalists such as apprenticeship schemes.

Both guests rejected the idea of extra money for training coming from the Welsh Government and Prof Hargreaves said more schemes for young journalists were needed like the one he was involved in at Cardiff Business School.

He also had a message for council officials on how to handle the new age of digital journalism.

“If they see someone coming along with a video camera to record a council meeting they shouldn’t kick them out but rather say thank goodness that someone is taking an interest in what they’re doing,” he said.

Police mount seat belt campaign from today

From today (Monday) officers from North Wales Police will team up with their counterparts from forces across the country to mount a seat belt campaign.

They aim is to be warn motorists and passengers they are risking their lives by not wearing belts and issuing fixed penalty notices to those flouting the law.

Law breakers risk a £60 Fixed Penalty Notice or being summonsed to court where they could face fines of up to £500.

Inspector Martin Best from the North Wales force’s Roads Policing Unit said: “Wearing a seatbelt can mean the difference between life and death – failing to wear a seatbelt is still apparent on the roads of North Wales and it is disappointing to see that people are still choosing to risk their lives and the lives of others.

“We have a robust strategy around enforcing the Fatal 5 offences which are failing to wear a seat belt, drink and drug driving, dangerous and careless driving including unnecessary risk taking, speeding and using a mobile phone while driving.

“We are committed to assisting in reducing casualties on the road through the use of targeted enforcement operations around high risk groups of people and locations while enforcing the Fatal 5 offences.

“The risk of being seriously injured or killed rises dramatically if a decision is taken to commit a Fatal 5 offence and I want people to be aware of the devastating affect it can have and make a conscious decision not to take any chances.”

He added: “Seatbelts are vital to the safety of you and your passengers and we will continue to take a pro-active approach all year round to educate motorists and enforce seatbelt laws.”

Supporting the campaign this year is Lesley Parry, who tragically lost her son Dewi following a road traffic collision on an unclassified road near Rhosgoch on Anglesey last summer.

The 17-year-old, who was from Llanbabo near Amlwch, was pronounced dead at the scene following the one-vehicle collision which happened on 9^th June 2012.

She said:“Dewi lost control of the car, his window was open and he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. Had he have been wearing a seatbelt he would probably still be with us today.

“I wholeheartedly support this campaign and I urge everybody out there to always wear their seatbelt. The effect of Dewi’s death on us as a family and on many of his friends has been devastating. This can happen to anyone, please make sure you belt up.”

Inspector Best added: “Our aim is to save lives and prevent another family such as the Parrys having to deal with the aftermath of a collision in which someone is not wearing a seatbelt.”

Hospital closure fury makes the headlines

The ongoing row over the imminent closure of Llangollen Hospital features on the front page of today's Dail Post under the headlines "Hang your heads in shame" and "Health chiefs blasted for 'scandalous' closure."

See the story at: http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/

 

Latest roadworks in the area

Latest roadworks in the area notified by Denbighshire County Council are: 

Berwyn Street, Llangollen, from March 12-13, temporary traffic lights to allow tree cutting.   

Regent Street, Llangollen, until March 11, temporary traffic lights to allow water works by Dee Valley Water. 

A5, Glyndyfrdwy to telephone exchange, until March 19, temporary traffic lights to allow resurfacing work.

A piece of acting brilliance from Twenty Club

There are only four people on stage in the Twenty Club’s current production of the Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams at Llangollen Town Hall.  

But between them they produce enough raw acting talent for at least ten times that number. 

The title aptly sums up the glass-like fragility of three of the characters, who inhabit a claustrophobic apartment in an American town during the Depression of the 1930s. 

First, there’s the mother Amanda Wingfield, an ageing, out-of-tune southern belle who has been striving desperately to keep together her family following the sudden departure of her telephone engineer husband – who we never see apart from his a faded portrait on the wall – 16 years earlier. 

But given her controlling, meddling approach to life, who could blame the guy for doing a runner to the other side of the continent? 

Amanda is played with nothing short of brilliance by Rachel Morris using, like the rest of the cast, a faultless southern American accent. 

When she talks about all those “gen’lman cawlers” she used to receive in her gentile youth you really believe that she once lived in a “f-i-i-i-i-n-e” mansion set in the rolling acres of a plantation. 

Every nuance of the character is deftly conveyed, every movement of her body perfectly executed. 

In the apartment Amanda holds sway over her two children. 

One of them is son Tom, a man in his early twenties who is clearly too intelligent for his humble position on the bottom rung of the ladder at the local warehouse and squanders the days until he can escape to a new life of adventure in the merchant marine going to the movies, drinking bourbon and smoking endless cigarettes.

He fights against the smothering of his mother but never wins. 

Bringing Tom, who also steps aside to be the play’s sardonic narrator, vividly to life is one of the Twenty Club’s youngest members, Morgan Thomas.

Watching the consummate way he handles this mega-part – his character is on stage for most of the piece – it’s hard to believe he is still just 17 years old.  This is definitely an actor who is going places, and not necessarily only with an amateur group.  

Third member of the terrific trio is Anna Turner who plays Tom’s slightly older sister Laura, a painfully shy girl who lives in a world of her own which revolves round playing old gramophone records left behind by her absent father and gazing on her display case menagerie of small glass animals. 

Although she has far less dialogue than the other two other family members, Anna shines in the role, shuffling convincingly around the stage, wringing her hands and hardly daring to look anyone in the eye.

 

Her mother’s main aim is life is to get poor Laura married off – ideally to a man of substance so that she can continue to be financially supported by him when Tom makes his inevitable break for freedom just like his father did. 

She pleads with Tom to bring home any nice young man he might know from the warehouse for Laura to meet. 

He does just that – and this is when those fragile pieces of glass in the apartment start to get broken, in more ways than one. 

As this marvellously absorbing play has another two nights to run – tonight (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday) – it would be unfair to say just what impact the fourth character, Jim O’Connor, has on the complicated Wingfield clan. 

But it is fair to say the man playing this outgoing young man of Irish descent who has the gift of the blarney, Aaron Davies, does so every bit as brilliantly as his three fellow cast members.  

With the Glass Menagerie, which is a credit to its director Natalie Evans, the Twenty Club has a smash hit on its hands. 

See it if you can.

Support our Buy Local Day today!

* Carolyn Hutchinson at Vintage Rose is one of the businesses supporting today's Buy Local Day.

Today is an important day for all those Llan people who believe it’s vital to support local businesses – especially in face of the threat from the big stores.

Community group Keep Llangollen Special (KLS) is running the latest in a series of Buy Local days and calling on as many people as possible to do just that rather than spending their money outside the town.

There will be discounts and special offers at all participating shops, pubs and cafes.

Just look out for the Buy Local poster displayed in their windows.

KLS chair Mike Edwards, who has been working hard along with volunteers from his small team to put today’s event together, said: “The aim is to highlight the three main benefits of buying locally – personal service from knowledgeable staff, top quality goods and good value for money.

“Why go to an impersonal supermarket when you can stroll round town, do your shopping and meet friends for a drink?”

One of the businesses supporting Buy Local today and all the year round is the Vintage Rose tearoom in Oak Street.

It was opened by Carolyn Hutchinson three months ago to provide tea, coffee and a mouth-watering range of home-made cakes.

Also available are wedding and occasional cakes – all with the emphasis on being home made by Carolyn who has an associated business called Libby’s Cupcakes which she also runs from the Vintage Rose premises. She named that company after her young daughter, Libby.

Carolyn said: “Since we opened the tearoom it has been going very well and local people have really been coming out to support me.

“I am backing Buy Local Days like the one today because I think it is so important to support our businesses in the town.

“I try to buy everything I need for my businesses from suppliers in Llangollen and I also operate my own loyalty card scheme for local people.

“For Buy Local Day today I am offering a free cup of tea or coffee with every cake bought by my customers.”  

For more details of KLS, see its website at www.keepllangollenspecial.org.uk and for Carolyn's website, see http://www.libbyscupcakes.co.uk/