New loco spruced up for its weekend visitors

Members of the LMS Patriot group were on hand in the shed at Llangollen Railway this week to give the frames of The Unknown Warrior a coat of black paint ready for when it is shown to visitors this weekend.

The locomotive is being faithfully built from scratch by volunteers from the group to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the First World War Armistice in 2018.

The smokebox now features the door with smoke deflectors attached.

Escorted parties of visitors will be given guided tours of the building project tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday to coincide with the railway's Remembrance weekend.

Council approves plan to breath new life into county

Councillors in Denbighshire have formally approved a blueprint aimed at breathing new life into the county's economy.

At a meeting in Ruthin earlier this week members unanimously agreed that the council should  implement its draft Economic & Community Ambition Strategy, 'Developing Opportunities, Creating Confidence' .

One of its headlines is the need to work together to make Denbighshire a place where businesses existing and new, grow and flourish, towns and communities are vibrant and prosper and all residents enjoy a good quality of life and can participate in the local economy.

The council has based its strategy around six key themes:

• Having the right infrastructure for growth
• Businesses that are supported and connected
• Maximised economic strengths/opportunities
• A high quality skilled workforce
• Vibrant towns and communities
• A well promoted Denbighshire

The council hopes that by taking action to tackle the issues set out in the strategy, results will be seen in reduced unemployment, higher household incomes, more successful and sustainable businesses, less deprivation, more people able to participate in the local economy and a higher profile for Denbighshire.

Councillor Hugh Evans OBE, Leader of Denbighshire and Lead Member for Economic Development, said: "Economic development has been highlighted as one of Denbighshire's top priorities in our corporate plan for the term of this council. There has been both extensive and intensive work carried out over the last 12 months to develop the strategy and I am confident that the emerging priorities are the right ones for Denbighshire.

"We want Denbighshire to be a county with high levels of employment and good levels of income in all of its towns and communities and the council has a significant role to play in enabling growth and opportunities for development.

"As we all know the economy, both nationally and internationally, is in difficulty and the strategy highlights our intentions to play our part locally with clarity and conviction, where I firmly believe we have a significant role of enabling growth and developing opportunities.

"In order to achieve this we recognise the work that is happening at a regional and national level and will embrace this agenda as part of our strategy. While we have worked hard to identify what we think are the right things to focus on, we have also listened to the views of residents, community groups and organisations from the relevant sectors.  

"It has been important to us that there is a buy-in from these individuals and groups, so that we can move forward this important priority for Denbighshire. Now the hard work of delivering on this plan really starts."

Shop window competition announced

Businesses in Llangollen are being encouraged to take part in a window dressing competition to coincide with the town’s annual Christmas Festival.

Judging will take place the week before the festival, which is on Saturday, November 30, and there will be two categories, retail/commercial and charity/not for profit.

Winners will be announced on festival day.

Businesses wanting further information are asked to contact the Town Clerk on 01978 861345.

Llan set to go with the FLO

* White water rafting is one of the sports featured in FLO.

THE UK’s first outdoor multi-sport festival gets under way in Llangollen later this month.

Chester-based registered charity River Legacy, which provides funding, facilities and support for paddle sports in England and Wales, will host the event called FLO – Festival Llangollen Outdoor Sports – in the town from November 15-17.

Centred on Llangollen International Pavilion, the event aims to bring together what River Legacy describes as “the highest concentration of talented, outdoor specialists from across North Wales, providing a range of activities in order to provide a fun and exciting weekend festival”.

The charity says it will feature activities from running to climbing, swimming to boating, zip-wiring to cooking and have “something for everyone”.

According to the FLO website – www.flo-llangollen.com – on the Friday afternoon, from 2-4.30pm, the pavilion and its programme of activities will only be open to local schoolchildren.

On the Saturday, the pavilion will become the hub of the event and will host a range of ‘come and try’ activities, including kayaking, climbing, biking on a pump track, segways, abseiling from the balconies, paintballing, bushcraft skills and mountain yoga.

The nearby River Dee will be the setting for an extreme slalom event, starting at noon.

The Sunday will see a programme of lectures on a range of outdoor themes from 4pm.

These will include Rob Moffat on his kayaking expedition to Borneo and Lawrence Crossman Emms on mountain biking photography.

A charity raft race will see competition starting at 10am, and an hour later will be the start of a fell race.

Visitors to FLO are expected to use local hotels and a campsite run by River Legacy will be open from 4-9pm on Friday for registration.

Entry to the event is £5 for which you can try a wide range of activities.

Organisers say their target is to bring 1,000 people into the town over the weekend and for FLO to become an annual event.

Chamber's idea for extra parking

Visitors to the town may be able to park in the grounds of Ysgol Dinas Bran if an idea by Llangollen Chamber of Trade and Tourism is accepted.

The chamber is currently conducting its own in-depth probe into car parking facilities in the town.

At its monthly meeting on Monday night chairman David Davies told members details were still coming in about exactly what parking is available.

He then revealed he had been having talks with the school about using its car park.

He said: “I’ve been in consultations with the school about using its premises during holidays and at weekend.

“The whole idea of us looking at parking is to be in the best fighting position when Sainsbury’s come in and offer free parking.”  

Local MP slams Cameron over bankers' bonuses

Clwyd South Labour MP Susan Elan Jones has branded Prime Minister David Cameron as "useless" for failing to act on bankers' bonuses.

At today's session of Prime Minister's Questions (Wednesday), she asked Mr Cameron why he hadn't acted to stop bankers' bonuses "growing 91% more than ordinary wages in the last year".

Speaking after her questioning of the PM, Ms Jones said: "David Cameron's assured us time and time again that we would not see a re-run of bankers being able to take home obscenely high bonuses while ordinary, hard-working families are feeling the pinch.

"Either the Prime Minister couldn't care less about the situation or he is absolutely useless at his job. As the gap between those on City bonuses and everyone else gets wider and wider, I don't think most people in Britain will believe his claim that we are all in this together."

Response from Mark Isherwood AM: 

 

When local Labour MP Susan Elan Jones used Llanblogger to attack the Prime Minister after she questioned him over bankers' bonuses on 6th November, she omitted to share his response:

 

“The point the hon. Lady should bear in mind is that bonuses were 85% higher when the shadow Chancellor was sitting in the Treasury. In fact, we inherited a situation where cleaners were paying higher tax rates than the hedge fund managers they were working for”.

 

When Gordon Brown opened Lehman Brothers’ London headquarters in 2004, he told Lehman bankers,  'I would like to pay tribute to the contribution you and your company make to the prosperity of Britain.’

 

The Financial Services Authority’s report, 'The failure of the Royal Bank of Scotland’, refers by name to Messrs Blair and Brown and the current Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls and details the “sustained political emphasis on the need for the Financial Services Authority to be ‘light touch’ in its approach”.

 

The National Audit Office reported that the Mr Brown’s Treasury was warned three years before Northern Rock nearly went bust that it needed to set up emergency plans to handle a banking crisis, but did nothing about it.

 

The former Labour UK Government also ignored a warning on the 12th July 2006 by the Bank of England about the ‘devastating consequences’ and potential damage a credit crunch and a collapse in asset prices could cause to the economy and financial system and which expressed its concern about the complex and risky financial instruments devised by banks and hedge funds.

 

We are still living with the consequences to-day.

November 5 sparks busy night for fire service

North Wales Fire & Rescue has slammed troublemakers who it says put its own staff and public at risk on Bonfire Night yesterday.

The service has revealed that it received 74 calls into the control room between 6pm on November 5 and 7.30am on November 6, and attended 28 incidents.

However, no-one was injured in the region.

Calls included a number of bonfires left unattended and a large gorse fire caused by a firework in Holyhead.

Senior Fire Safety Manager Gary Brandrick said: "The number of calls received meant a busy night for our control operators and firefighters.

"These incidents, repeat calls and calls for advice received highlight why we are encouraging residents to attend organised displays and avoid letting off fireworks themselves.

"Many included unattended bonfires and some deliberate fires, which put unnecessary pressure on our resources – these incidents put the perpetrators, our firefighters and the community as a whole at risk."

Despite the problems, the service says communities across North Wales came together last night at  firework and bonfire displays across the region.

Gary Brandrick added: "We thank the public for heeding our safety messages.

"I was extremely pleased to hear that no one was seriously injured during last night’s celebrations in North Wales, and that the majority of residents took advantage of the organised firework displays across North Wales.

"They are the safest type of displays, have the best facilities and offer the best value for money.

"Bonfire celebrations see an increase in anxiety for senior citizens and pet owners, so attending community events helps reduce this distress."