"We need help to take over Plas Madoc"

 

* The recent Plas Madoc protest.

 

Calls have been made for Wrexham Council to fund Plas Madoc Leisure Centre for five years while a community enterprise is set up to run the centre – otherwise it will be gone in 60 days, it is claimed.

 

Mabon ap Gwynfor, a regular user of the centre and speaking on behalf of Plaid Cymru in Clwyd South, said: “The proposal to set up a community enterprise to run Plas Madoc is an interesting one that needs further exploration. Anyone who attended the two demos at Plas Madoc and outside the Guildhall, as I have, will know the strength of feeling.

“But, as someone who was involved in setting up a community venture from scratch, I know from experience how much time it takes. Before the community and staff can make any meaningful decision on this, we need to have a full structural survey, a comprehensive repairs and maintenance schedule, details of employment rights and responsibilities and a fully costed business plan.

“There’s also the little matter of finding a way to bridge the current £500,000 annual deficit. Yes, there may be grants available but grants are dependent on business plans. They will not be available in 60 days.

 

“I note that the council leader says that Wrexham Council doesn’t have the capability to run the centre. With that in mind, I have to ask him how he thinks a community enterprise with no additional income stream would do so. I’m concerned that the council is setting the community to fail and would rather have guarantees that it will continue to fund the centre.

 

“If it won’t do that and the council genuinely wants Plas Madoc to stay open and succeed, it has to provide a parachute to enable the community to make this scheme work.

 

“When the council was withdrawing funding from The Venture and Caia Park Partnership, it did so over a number of years with a gradual taper. Why isn’t this being proposed for Plas Madoc? Why is Plas Madoc only being offered 60 days’ notice?”

 

Llyr Gruffydd, Plaid Cymru’s North Wales AM, said: “Like the rest of the local community, I want to see Plas Madoc stay open and with a clear funding structure to help it stay open. The strength of feeling from campaigners suggests there is the appetite for a community-run centre but that would clearly take some time to set up.

 

“The council must now show some support for the community, which feels badly let down by this hurried and frankly chaotic consultation. It makes sense to provide the guarantee of tapered funding while a community enterprise is established to run Plas Madoc. If they won’t provide that sort of funding, then it’s clear that talk of giving it to the community is just a bluff.”

Twenty Club wants you ... to see its new play

* The famous Kitchener recruiting poster which prompted

many men to volunteer for service in World War One.

Rehearsals are now well advanced for the Twenty Club’s forthcoming production of Peter Whelan's classic play The Accrington Pals.

The Llangollen-based group is staging the moving First World War drama from March 6-8 in Llangollen Town Hall to mark the 100^th anniversary of the start of the conflict in 1914. 

The Accrington Pals is based on the true story of how the smallest town in England raised a volunteer force to fight in the war, contrasting life at the front and in the 1916 Battle of the Somme with the women left behind.

For more details visit facebook.com/twentyclub.

Next moves for Cittaslow Llangollen

* The Mayor, Cllr Bob Lube, accepts official Cittaslow status last summer.

Town councillor Phil Thane outlines the next moves in the development of Cittaslow Llangollen:

Last year the working group set up by the Town Council to win Cittaslow status for Llangollen was successful in its aim, and more recently Cittaslow Llangollen was awarded £500 from Denbighshire County Council under the Participatory Budgeting scheme.

Now they need to make Cittaslow useful for the whole town.

Cittaslow status is awarded to the whole town, so even townsfolk who've never heard of it stand to benefit, and anyone who lives or works in town should be able to influence how Cittaslow Llangollen develops.

To make this a reality most of the old working group met with the Town Clerk on Tuesday 14th Jan to discuss how to proceed.

Communications between Cittaslow Llangollen and the wider Cittaslow organisation in the UK and worldwide will be through the Town Clerk, and the membership fee is paid by the council, so clearly they have an interest.

However, it is important that the whole town can have a say so it was decided to form a new community group, 'Cittaslow Llangollen', with an executive committee of 12 members. These will be: Four officers: Chair, vice-chair, treasurer and secretary; two councillors seconded by the council;
six others to represent and organise work on the six Cittaslow goals.

This plan was approved by the council meeting (Jan 21st) and it is hoped that we can organise the first election for Cittaslow Llangollen at the annual Town Meeting on Thursday, March 27 at 7pm in the Town Hall.

Following the election and selection of members, the group will meet to elect its officers and allocate the other roles. A constitution for the new group is being prepared by the original team and the town clerk for the next Cittaslow meeting (12th Feb), but of course once properly set up the new Cittaslow Llangollen group may wish to modify it.

* Format this year for the Annual Town Meeting this year will be that after the Town Mayor’s Report there will be the opportunity to ask questions and raise any issues of concern.

However in order to ensure full answers can be given it would be useful to have questions submitted in advance so that there will be sufficient time to obtain any information required.

Anyone wishing to ask a question or raise any issue should contact the Town Clerk, on 01978 861345 or email llangollentc@btconnect.com   

Chamber discusses town map issue

At their meeting in the Hand Hotel on Monday evening members of Llangollen Chamber of Trade and Tourism discussed the issue of a new town map.

At one of its meetings late last year the chamber expressed its interest in a street map – modelled on the one handed out at last autumn’s Llangollen Food Festival – featuring adverts from local businesses around the edges.

Chairman David Davies said that this had been looked into and a private company had said it could produce one similar for the chamber based on 50 advertisers being charged £50 each for inclusion on the map.

However, he pointed out that Denbighshire County Council featured a Llangollen town map on its website which local businesses might be able to download for free to hand out to customers.

He said that the chamber had also been given a few hundred copies of last year’s food festival map which were available to members.    

Chamber secretary Ian Parry said the county’s countryside services team had produced a local map for Corwen, adding: “If that seems to go down well there they would probably also do one for Llangollen.”

Member Simon Collinge said he would still like to see the chamber having its own map and Mr Davies replied: “That’s maybe something we could do as a joint project.”

Call goes out to support next Plas Madoc demo

The campaign fighting Wrexham Council's plan to close Plas Madoc Leisure Centre has expressed its disappointment at the announcement that the centre will close within 60 days unless the community take it on.

Alison Roberts, speaking on behalf of the Save Plas Madoc Leisure Centre campaign, said: "This proposal only came to light in November. It went out to consultation in December and January and now they're talking of closing it in March. This is based on a flawed consultants' report that has underestimated usage, overestimated maintenance and repair costs and only has a superficial understanding of the importance of this facility for the wellbeing of the entire south of the county and beyond.

"We have attempted, as a campaign, to engage with the council by requesting meetings but been rejected. We have tried to get an independent surveyor into Plas Madoc to assess the true costs of the centre - again that has not been forthcoming.

"The idea of the community running the centre would have more merit if the council had involved the community in this consultation. Instead it has disregarded the community's views completely and appears willing to ride roughshod over our wishes. 

"Let's be clear. We do not believe that the council is serious is wanting the community to successfully run Plas Madoc - the timescale makes it all but impossible to organise an orderly and effective transfer. There are huge issues to discuss in terms of organising financing, employment rights, a business plan and other major matters that would take many months to organise for a large company let alone a community that would need to set up a social enterprise from scratch.

"The community has made it clear that what it favours is for the council to find the £96,000 annual savings it expects to see from closing Plas Madoc from another source. That could be from reserves, it could be by cutting non-frontline services or it could be through community councils stepping up to the plate. This is what's happened with other council services, such as libraries, community centres and lollipop ladies. All these were offered to community councils - why didn't they offer Plas Madoc to local community councils to bridge the gap?

"Cllr David Griffiths described leisure as a discretionary service but it has huge uncosted benefits for the community in terms of health and well-being. We could name some other council costs that are also discretionary that this council is not cutting - why? It appears we have council leaders who know the price of everything but the value of nothing."

Ms Roberts added: "The council leaders and officers' attitude throughout has been to railroad this closure plan through with the minimum of time to assess the options. The legacy of such a blinkered approach, if we allow them to succeed, will be hugely damaging for the surrounding area. 

"We do not accept that Plas Madoc has to close. We believe there are plenty of good people who want to see Plas Madoc survive and thrive. We believe that many councillors across the political spectrum feel the same way. It is now time for those councillors to have their say and ensure that the Executive Board on Tuesday votes down this proposal.

 

"With that in mind, we're urging everyone who wants Plas Madoc to survive to get down to the Guildhall for 1pm on Tuesday, 11th February, to make sure this proposal doesn't go through. We will be entitled to watch the Executive Board make their decision and will be carefully monitoring who votes for and against."

Llan police and college team up for success

A partnership scheme set up between an Oswestry college and the Llangollen policing team is providing learning opportunities for all involved. 

 

For the past 12 months, Llangollen based officers have been helping to provide students at Derwen College with a greater understanding of the role and the work of the police.

 

The college is a specialist residential college for young people aged between 16 and 25 year olds who have a wide range of learning difficulties and other disabilities.  Its aim is to nurture, develop and challenge the students to equip them with the skills they need for employment and to live as independently as possible.

 

While the students have been visiting police and learning more about their day to day work in the community and responsibilities,  the officers have also been gaining a greater understanding of issues facing young people with learning disabilities and difficulties.

 

Recently, four officers including District Inspector Siobhan Edwards and Sergeant Paul Hughes made a reciprocal visit to the college where they met up with the students – some of whom have Cerebral Palsy, Autism, Downs Syndrome - and their tutors where they had a further insight into the work on-going at the college.

 

“The partnership has broadened our knowledge immensely,” said Sgt Paul Hughes. “Many months ago, I was approached by Sarah Laszlo who is a teacher and Lead Learner Voice Co-ordinator at the college and organised for a number of groups of students to visit us and learn about policing – and it all stemmed from there.”

 

Many student visits have taken place. A number of presentations have been delivered by Sarah to staff in Llangollen. This in itself has given officers a valuable insight into the difficulties that people with learning disabilities may experience, especially when dealing with police.

 

Sgt Hughes added: “Through these presentations, we’ve been able to put ourselves in the position of the young adults, and try to see things from their perspective. This has allowed us to fully appreciate the difficulties they may face when communication is often difficult for them. In addition, we have also learnt more around how to recognise certain disabilities and the characteristics that may be displayed.”

 

He added: “We are committed to encouraging college students to approach the police should they find themselves in difficulty whilst living independently in the community.  It is vital that the message given to the students is that the police are not only there to deal with criminals, but are there to support and assist people who need our help in the community. I am delighted that this partnership has evolved.”

 

Speaking on behalf of the college, Sarah Laszlo said: “We are delighted here at Derwen that the reciprocal partnership between the College and the officers based in Llangollen has been, and continues to be so successful.  The opportunity to carry out mutually beneficial awareness building exercises has been invaluable and has gone a long way towards addressing any perceived barriers between the two groups.  Students at Derwen now have a far greater understanding of the police force's role in the community and officers can feel more confident when it comes to dealing with young people with learning difficulties and disabilities.  We look forward to further collaboration in 2014.”

No entertainment planned yet for St David's Day

Llangollen seems to have has nothing planned in the way of public entertainment for St David’s Day next month.

This was revealed at the latest meeting of the town’s chamber of trade and tourism held at the Hand Hotel on Monday evening.

A representative of Llangollen Tourist Information Centre told members that, as far as she knew, nothing was yet planned to entertain visitors on Saturday, March 1, with neither the Silver Band nor a school choir scheduled to make an appearance.

However, she said she was still awaiting information from “a few” other organisations on whether they had anything organised for the day.

Chamber chairman David Davies said: “I think this is an opportunity we shouldn’t miss to provide some kind of entertainment so that people stay around and spend money in the town.”

Looking ahead to other events, Mr Davies said a major bluegrass music festival would be coming to Llangollen for the first time this summer, which presented a good business opportunity and would hopefully become an annual local event.

* The Coastline Bluegrass Music Event is due to be held at Llangollen Pavilion from June 6-8.

The line-up features The Sons of Navarone (Belgium), The Bluegrass Playboys (Norway),  The New Essex Bluegrass Band and The Feet First Appalachian Clog Dancers.

 

There will also be concerts, Appalachian dance, workshops, open mic and Young Bluegrassers.

Weekend tickets are from £40.

For more information, see: http://hairyphotographer.co.uk/ai1ec_event/coastline-bluegrass-festival/?instance_id=