County agrees to support Conwy merger

At a meeting of Denbighshire's full council today (Tuesday), members agreed to support the idea of starting discussions with Conwy County Borough Council about exploring the possibility of a voluntary merger. 
Like all local councils in Wales, Denbighshire is currently planning for unprecedented cuts to jobs and services over the next three years, with the prospect of austerity until 2022.

At the same time, the Welsh Government's White Paper for Local Government Reform forces the council to choose between voluntary merger with another council by April 2018 - or the prospect of compulsory merger by April 2020. 

During the meeting, Denbighshire's Chief Executive, Mohammed Mehmet, told members the strategic decision facing the Council is whether, given the very challenging financial context, it is in its interest to pursue the option of voluntary merger, especially if that option could help to reduce the level of cuts the council is currently facing. 

He added: "Alternatively, the council could reject the voluntary merger option and concentrate its resources on managing the cuts and maintaining services without being distracted by a merger, at least for the next three years. The choice is a difficult one and should not be made without serious consideration." 

The White Paper consultation period closes on 1 October 2014 and members agreed that, subject to reaching agreement with Conwy County Council, both councils proceed to develop a joint expression of interest to voluntarily merge by April 2018 and to submit this expression of interest to Welsh Government by November 2014, provided the two councils can: 

 * Secure a substantial financial and support package from Welsh Government that is binding; and 

* That once the two authorities and Welsh Government agree the statement of intent in November 2015 that the agreement is binding on all three partners.

The ‘substantial financial and support package’ referred to will be negotiated with Welsh Government and put before both Denbighshire and Conwy members to consider before agreeing to proceed. 

If these conditions can be secured then that would allow both councils to reduce the level of cuts to services and avoid the possible failure of the project either because of local disagreements or change of position by Welsh Government. If they cannot be secured then the risks of voluntary merger are too high.

Sponsored walk in memory of Tesni Edwards

 

* Tesni's parents, Jason and Dwysan Evans, with Nadine Pilkington from Ifor Williams Trailers.

A trailer firm is organising a sponsored walk in memory of  Ysgol Dinas Bran pupil Tesni Edwards who died of an undetected enlarged heart.

 

The walkers, including Tesni's dad Jason, who works for Ifor Williams Trailers, will be raising money for the Wales Air Ambulance which was scrambled in a desperate bid to save the 14 year old after she collapsed.

 

Also taking part in the walk on Sunday, September 14, will be her mum, Dwysan, who is the Practice Manager, at the Pen-y-Bont doctors' surgery in St Asaph.

 

Tesni (pictured below) was taken ill a couple of weeks before her 15th birthday in April last year, despite never having shown any health problems before.

 

The Taith Tesni walk will follow the general direction taken every morning by Tesni to Ysgol Dinas Bran in Llangollen where she was a popular pupil.

 

Hundreds of people, including Tesni's classmates and many of her Dad's colleagues from the trailer company's factories in Cynwyd and Corwen, have already signed up to participate.

 

Ifor Williams Trailers has pledged to match the amount raised by the walk with a donation.

The people doing the walk will be congregating at the Llangollen Tower sports field  where there is plenty of space for people to park their cars.

 

There will in fact be five options, varying in distance between 14 miles and 1.5 miles to ensure that as many as possible can be involved. The length of the longest walk represents a mile for every year of Tesni's life.

 

Buses are being laid on to ferry everybody who has registered to their departure points, with the first set of walkers leaving Llangollen at 10am so they can start the longest of the walks 45 minutes later from the front of the factory in Cynwyd.

 

According to the company, anybody who wants to take part needs to register so they can make sure they can lay on enough transport.

 

Mum Dwysan said: "We’re really pleased that Ifor Williams Trailers are organising the walk in memory of Tes.

 

"Until what happened with Tes, we hadn’t realised that the Wales Air Ambulance rely enormously on donations and for that reason we’ve tried to support them since then.

 

"Nobody knows when they might need the Air Ambulance as we found ourselves and that quick response obviously saves lives and that’s why we feel passionate about supporting them.

 

"I’m sure that Tesni would be proud of what we're doing  because anything positive that we can make out of this situation is a good thing.

 

"The pain we still feel is indescribable, it’s an ongoing battle every day.  It was horrendous and it’s been very, very sad for us all. 

 

"But we keep going and between us we’ve got two sons, Morgan and Findlay, so we’re here for them and we just try every day but it’s been heart-breaking."

 

Dad Jason, who's works in the stores department at Ifor Williams Trailers, revealed that many of the carriers and lorry drivers he deals with had already donated because they had been touched by what happened.

 

He said: "We’re hoping to raise a lot of money because this is such a fantastic cause.

 

"I always wanted to do something in memory of Tes and I think this is a great thing and I’d like to thank Ifor Williams Trailers.

 

"We’ve had a really good response and a lot of people including colleagues are going to do the walk."

 

According to Carole Williams, from Ifor Williams Trailers, everybody at the company had been deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Tesni.

 

She said: "The feeling of uselessness, in being unable to help alleviate the pain for Tesni’s family was overwhelming for us all.

 

"Tesni was a beautiful person, in the midst of embracing the adventures of life and on the cusp of making decisions that would have defined her future path. A huge hole has been left in the lives of all those who knew and loved her.

 

"Despite the best efforts of the Wales Air Ambulance crew to reach Tesni and take her to hospital, sadly Tesni’s condition meant those involved medically, could not help her.

 

"We liaised with Jason and Dwysan to discuss a fitting way of honouring Tesni’s memory.  We have also worked closely with Ysgol Dinas Bran, particularly the Deputy headteacher, Mr Dafydd Morris, and the Headteacher, Mr Martyn Froggett.

 

"We jointly decided that when the time was right, we would organise a sponsored walk with Tesni’s family and friends, work colleagues of Jason and Dwysan and all those wishing to walk in remembrance of Tesni’s life and show their support to her family."

 

For more information on how to register to take part in Taith Tesni or to make a donation email taithtesni@iwt.co.uk or go to the Twitter account @TaithTesni, the Facebook page, Taith Tesni or the Just Giving page, www.justgiving.com/Taith-Tesni

Open Doors event at Ysgol Dinas Bran

Ysgol Dinas Bran is holding an Open Doors event this Saturday, September 13.

People can go along and take a tour of the school and witness how it's changed since their school days.

Bookings are essential and to make the arrangements contact Jamie Roberts at the school on 01978 860669.Road, Llangollen

Church's wheely special night to mark Etape Challenge

A tapas and prosecco fundraising evening will be held in St Collen's Church Hall in Regent Street, Llangollen on Saturday, September 13, which is the eve of the Etapes Cymru Cycling Challenge.

The event, which starts at 7pm, is in aid of the provision of modern facilities in St John's Church in Abbey Road with the aim of making it a more adaptable venue.

Suggested donation is £10, and tickets are available from the Rev Andrew Sully on 01978 860231.





* Andrew Sully (pictured right) is himself a keen cyclist.

Billy Liar heads for Llan - honestly!

ICONIC comedy play Billy Liar comes to Llangollen Town Hall this month produced by award winning Limelight Productions. 

Directed by professional local poet, author and actor Peter Read, the theatre company are building up a good following and a strong reputation for their high quality productions in the Llangollen area. 

So far they have wowed local audiences with their staging of Godspell,  Musicals In The LimeLight, Festive Follies, Dixie or Me (written and directed by Peter Read), and Dylan’s Final Journey (also written and performed by Peter).

They have staged a powerful version of Victorian melodrama Jekyll & Hyde.

The company has two musicals planned for 2015.


One of them is the ever-popular Fiddler on the Roof, which will be shown at The Town Hall and also The Stiwt Theatre in Rhos. 

LimeLight will also be holding an open evening  at their headquarters in the new Acton Community Resource Centre, Wrexham on September 23 for anyone  interested in being part of these, plus Limelight's other plays and concerts planned for 2015 which will be announced on the evening. 

All newcomers will have a warm welcome and an enjoyable evening, says a company spokesman.

The part of Billy is to be played by professional actor Joseph John Scatley, who has appeared on TV as Will Cardle in Doctors, CBBC show Living It,  Midsomer Murders and a few Shakespeare productions at The Globe Theatre London.

Billy Liar was written originally by Keith as a novel.  A year later he collaborated with Willis Hall to adapt it for the stage. After its premiere in 1960 it has become one of those plays everyone has heard of, but not everyone has seen. 

Waterhouse’s play is both gritty and humorous.

It tells the story of Billy, who tries to escape from the predictability of his own life by living in a make believe world.

Part of his fantasy involves stating that his best friend’s mother is expecting a child, his father has lost a leg, and that a shopkeeper, who is very much alive and is seen by Billy’s mother every Tuesday, is dead.

The mayhem spreads to his personal life and at one stage he has two girl friends on the go at the same time, both of whom think they are engaged to Billy. Only possessing one ring, the deception is a great challenge to him and timing becomes all important.

Billy Liar can be seen at Llangollen Town Hall from Thursday 18th to Saturday 20th September,  at 7.30pm.

Tickets £8 & £6.50 concessions and are available at Llangollen Tourist Information Centre Tel: 01978 860828 or tel: 01978 351315/07504031029,
email: limelightwrexham@googlemail.com.

New free bus service connects Llan and Garth

Assembly Member Ken Skates has welcomed a new free bus service connecting a rural community to Wrexham and Llangollen.

Mr Skates, the Labour AM for Clwyd South, wrote to Wrexham County Borough Council earlier this year to ask the authority to consider opening up the school bus in Garth to members of the public.

 

Mr Skates and local councillor Pat Jeffares had been investigating possible solutions to the withdrawal of the community bus service as part of enforced savings being made by the council in light of UK Government cuts to Wales.

The new twice-daily Garth Shuttle service started on Wednesday, September 3.

Mr Skates said: “The withdrawal of the bus service was another extremely tough decision forced upon the council by huge cuts from Westminster after public spending in Wales being slashed by 10% by the UK Government.

“I know the move caused a lot of concern for local residents, but Pat and I were hopeful of a positive outcome after holding constructive talks with council officers who visited the village with us to experience first-hand the difficulty many residents face.

“I wrote to the council in May to put forward the proposal that the school bus service could be used free of charge by members of the public, which is now in operation and provides a service for residents to access buses to Wrexham, Llangollen and other destinations.”

The service runs Monday-Friday during term-time and pick-up points are Garth School (9am), opposite the old Post Office in Trevor (9.03am) and opposite Eagles in Acrefair (9.05am). On the way back it is Acrefair at 2.55pm, Trevor at 2.57pm and Garth School at 3pm.

Mr Skates added: “I am pleased our efforts have yielded a positive result for the community and would like to thank Pat for his help. I will continue to work hard for residents in Garth and my constituents throughout Clwyd South.”

County set to consider £4.6 budget cuts

Councillors in Denbighshire are set to discuss budget cuts that could save the authority £4.6 million over the next two financial years - in response to the Welsh Government announcement that  the financial settlement for the county was going to be worse than expected.
Over recent months, the council has scrutinised all aspects of its work, with all services putting forward proposals for cuts.  

Discussions have been taking place over recent weeks and the first set of proposals will be discussed by councillors at a full cuncil meeting in County Hall, Ruthin on Tuesday, September 9, at 10am.

The implication of  Welsh Government's announcement is that Denbighshire County Council will need to find £18m over the next two years.

All proposals are subject to debate by council and  further proposals will need to be worked-up over the coming months in order to achieve the savings target.

Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill, Lead Member for Finance and Assets, said: "Over recent years, the Council has found its savings with little or no impact on frontline services.  

"We made a commitment to protect these services and jobs wherever possible and we believe we have been successful in doing this to date. However, with the significant financial savings we need to make over the coming years, inevitably there will be an impact on services, as we look to reduce or stop services altogether.  

"We have been working very pro actively as a council on developing our budget strategy for 2015/6 and beyond,  to ensure that we are not having to take knee jerk reactions late in the year. We have developed a new system for providing our councillors with choices over where we make our reductions in budget and we have worked our way through detailed discussions on each and every one of our service areas."

Leader of Denbighshire, Councillor Hugh Evans OBE, said: "We have done as much as we can through careful financial planning. The time has now come for very difficult decisions. 

"The financial settlement we are expecting from the Welsh Government later this year is expected to be worse than predicted, with the Minister announcing in June that we would need to find an additional £3 million on top of the £6 million cuts we were already planning to find.  

"That does mean that there are tough decisions ahead and a lot of our proposals will need to be worked up in terms of the finer detail.  Communication with our communities and residents is key and we are making a firm commitment to sharing the finer details when we are in a position to do so."