Chirk man gets CBE in New Year's Honours

A scientist from Chirk has been made a CBE in the New Year's Honours List.

For the full story see: http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/new-years-honours-katherine-jenkins-6455539

Body found under bridge near Chirk bypass, says ITV

... Traffic Wales said at 4pm that the A483 is now open in both directions from Ruabon to Halton following the earlier closure due to the accident ... 


The ITV news website is reporting this afternoon (Monday) that the body of a woman has been found beneath a bridge over the A483 Chirk bypass.

According to the story, North Wales Police say the body was discovered at around 1.30pm just north of the Halton roundabout.

The woman has not yet been identified, but her death is being treated as unexplained.

A stretch of the A483 - between the A5 Halton roundabout and the A539 J1 Ruabon - will be closed while investigations are carried out. Diversions are in place, adds the story.

Senior church figure retires

* The Venerable Shirley Griffiths with pupils from Ysgol Dyffryn Iâl in Llandegla.

The most senior woman in the Diocese of St Asaph – the Venerable Shirley Griffiths, Archdeacon of Wrexham – will retire at the end of December.

As Archdeacon, Shirley has carried out work on behalf of the Bishop of St Asaph in Wrexham and in parts of Flintshire, Denbighshire and Gwynedd.  She was the first female Archdeacon in the Diocese of St Asaph.

Shirley has served in the Diocese as a Reader (lay leader), a Deacon and a Priest before becoming Archdeacon in 2010.  Her ministry has spanned 40 years.  She was one of the first three women to become Readers in the Diocese of St Asaph before being made Deacon here in 1982 and then being ordained as a Priest in the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds in 1995.

Reflecting on her time with the Church, Shirley said: “Having started at a time when women couldn’t even take a service in the Church I’m retiring at a time when the Church in Wales has just agreed that women can be Bishops – not that I would ever want to do that, there’s enough hassle as an Archdeacon!

“I’ve got mixed feelings about retirement because I enjoy my work very much and I shall miss visiting parishes, working with clergy and being part of the Bishop’s staff team – although there are some problems I shall be happy to stop dealing with – fortunately the good parts have outweighed the difficult parts.”

Shirley has served as Rector of Llandegla and Vicar of Bryneglwys during her time as Archdeacon of Wrexham and helped to see a new school building for pupils at Ysgol Dyffryn Iâl come to fruition.  She has helped the children to produce a banner for their new facilities and will carry on being creative in her retirement.

She added: “I’m looking forward to taking up needlework again.  I used to teach it many years ago and I have very little time for doing it these days so I look forward to improving my needlework skills.”

The new Archdeacon of Wrexham will be the Revd Prebendary Bob Griffiths who will begin work on New Year’s Day.

Fatal collision near Llandegla

Police are appealing for information following a fatal road traffic collision near Llandegla earlier today, Sunday December 29.

Emergency services were called just after 12.30pm to reports of a collision between a Ford Fiesta and a Mercedes van on the roundabout at the junction of the A5104 and the A542.

 

The female driver of the car was pronounced dead at the scene and a female passenger was airlifted to hospital in Stoke with serious injuries.

 

The van driver sustained minor injuries and was taken to Wrexham Maelor Hospital.

 

Anyone who witnessed the collision is asked to call North Wales Police on 101.

Former surveyor speaks out over Plas Madoc closure

* Plas Madoc Leisure Centre which is proposed for closure.

A FORMER senior surveyor has slammed Wrexham Council for spending almost £52,000 on consultants to advise on the shape of its future leisure provision.

 

Mike Edwards, who served as valuer and estate surveyor to the former Wrexham Maelor Council, recently submitted a Freedom of Information (FoI) request to the current Wrexham Council asking how much the authority had spent on commissioning a review of its leisure facilities by the Sports Consultancy.

 

Against a background of budget cuts of nearly £14 million for 2014-15, the review led to a proposal by council chiefs just before Christmas to build a new leisure centre to replace Waterworld in Wrexham town centre by borrowing an estimated £11.9m and closing Plas Madoc Leisure Centre, which is regularly used by many people from the Llangollen area.

The consultants have stated an estimated £857,000 will be saved by closing Plas Madoc as well as closing gyms at Ysgol Clywedog and Queensway leisure centre, and handing back dual use facilities to schools, with the exception of Ysgol Clywedog’s swimming pool.

The proposals, which are due to before the council's executive board for approval early in the new year, have led to a storm of protest from users of Plas Madoc who have started their own Facebook page to oppose the closure which currently has over 2,500 members.

 

Mr Edwards submitted his FoI request for details of consultancy fees and has received a reply from the council’s Assets & Economic Development department, which says: “The amount paid to consultants as part of the Leisure Review was in two stages. £26,760 was paid in stage 1 of the review and £25,000 in stage 2 giving a total of £51,760.”

 

Mr Edwards said: “As Valuer and Estate Surveyor to the former Wrexham Maelor Council it is depressing to see the County Borough Council considering closing and disposing of facilities and assets.

“The former Groves School and old offices on Grosvenor Road have now stood empty, boarded up and derelict for numerous years as example evidence of the poor asset management practices now pervading. 

“The previous authorities, Wrexham RDC and Maelor, worked very hard to provide all these around the area for the benefit of the residents of the whole area not just the town of Wrexham, so I was even more perplexed to hear that the council had employed external consultants to advise them on the future of leisure services.

 

“Clearly the authority has little, if any, confidence in their qualified, officers who they pay to advise them and manage these facilities.

 

“Or is it just that when unacceptable recommendations are put on the table, it is the consultants who are placed in the firing line not the paid officials or elected representatives?”

 

He added: “Just to make the situation even more depressing for the council tax payers of the county borough I have discovered that the council have spent £52,000 to date on employing these consultants.

“Surely this is a total waste of public money which could have been spent on those very assets or services which the local authority are considering closing and centralising to the detriment of the residents in the villages and peripheral parts of the borough.” 

A golden moment for track extension project

* Representatives of the Corwen community on site during their visit

to the railhead near Bonwm.

Representatives of the Cowen community joined volunteers from Llangollen Railway Trust for a landmark occasion in the track extension project yesterday (Friday).

Two separate lengths of track were joined together near the Bonwm Bends on the adjacent A5 road to complete two miles of track west of Carrog station.

A golden fishplate was ceremonially fixed to the final rail joint to mark the volunteer effort which has seen over a thousand yards of track laid eastwards from the restored overbridge, near Plas Derwen, towards the existing railhead at Bonwm.

A volunteer workforce has achieved this milestone working two days a week throughout the autumn to assemble panels of track on a prepared base.

Denbighshire county councillor Huw L Jones, who assisted with fixing the fishplate, said: “A most impressive length of straight track has been assembled in recent weeks by the volunteers.

"Their achievement is clearly visible to users of the A5 road and has raised hopes for the early completion of the project.

"Today’s link up represents 80% of the track work necessary to bring the railway to Corwen in 2014.”

Speaking for Llangollen Railway Trust, the Corwen Extension Project Co-ordinator, Richard Dixon-Gough, from Llangollen, said: “The work has been undertaken by a volunteer workforce varying from 6 - 20 workers on site, comprised mainly of members over 60 years old age. In the course of 16 volunteer working days they have laid 52 panel of track.

“We have to thank many people and organisations for their help with this project. The extension has needed administrative, financial, verbal and physical help which has been forthcoming from Denbighshire County Council, Welsh Assembly, councillors and community leaders, members of the community and the Railway’s members.

“We still have some way to go yet, but with continued support from everyone we will be at our temporary station site in the near future. The next challenge is to lay 46 panels of track, plus installation of our buffer stop. This further stage requires purchase of a thousand concrete sleepers and all their fittings, plus ballast, and will present a financial challenge for the Trust.”

A Corwen Sleeper appeal has been launched on behalf of the Llangollen Trust by member Paul Bailey, aiming to raise £20,000 to finance the acquisition of the material.

A generous response from supporters has so far raised half that sum.

Well wishers may contribute donations to the appeal c/o Mr P Bailey, Dolwen, Bryneglwys, Corwen LL21 9LY, cheques payable to the Llangollen Railway Trust Ltd.

Season's greetings from llanblogger

llanblogger would like to wish all our readers a Merry Christmas - and thank them for their continued support during our second year online.

During 2013 our total pageviews has soared past the 125,000 mark - and is still rising.

We hope you stay with us for lots more news and views from in and around our town of Llangollen as we head into 2014.