Stuart Davies hits back at budget debate critics

Llangollen county councillor Stuart Davies has sent out the following open letter on the subject of council cuts:

"I find it reprehensible that as a responsible Denbighshire county councillor I am having to vote for the council cuts so that we can set a legal budget!

"It is reprehensible that the Labour party members in DCC are refusing to vote for anything knowing full well that us responsible ones will set a legal budget.

"Having made the difficult and responsible choice I then find an anonymous Labour spokesperson sniping at me in the Press!

"Let me tell you how it is, the Welsh Government is the one who has foisted these cuts on us!

"The WG is the one who is in charge of the NHS which in North Wales alone is projected to overspend by £78 million! (This overspend to be addressed by chopping our budgets).

"The WG is the one who has spent £63 million on a failing airport in Cardiff with heavens knows how much more subsidy.

"The red herring about it being Central Government's fault is put forward, however they conveniently forget that it was their Liam Byrne who said, "we have spent all the money."

"I remind them that it is their people in WG who are forcing us to do this (Ann Jones is on the Finance Committee that did this).

"It was Chris Ruane who was in the previous administration which said, "we have spent all the money."

"The Labour councillors on DCC need to man up, they have been given every opportunity to engage in the budget setting process, it is time for them to take their responsibilities seriously and vote for the inevitable cuts."

County says it's ready for an icy winter

* True Grit: The county council says it's ready for the winter.

With forecasters are predicting an icy winter ahead, Denbighshire County Council says it is fully prepared to deal with freezing conditions.

The authority has given a rundown of how it prioritises its gritting schedule, mainly through carrying out precautionary salting on certain roads so that peak traffic times are avoided. 

Priorities are:
 
■ Main classified routes (A & B roads)  
■ Principal bus routes  
■ Access routes to hospitals, schools and cemeteries  
■ Access to police, fire, ambulance and rescue services  
■ Primary routes serving substantial villages/communities  
■ Main industrial routes that are important to the local economy  
■ Main access routes to shopping areas  
■ Areas where known problems exist, such as exposed areas, steep gradients and other roads liable to icing.

The salt has to be crushed by traffic to make it effective.

There are some occasions where the council cannot salt before the onset of icy conditions, such as:

■ When rain is followed by rapidly clearing skies, salting is normally deferred until the rain stops to prevent it being washed off.  
■ Dawn frost on dry roads. When early morning dew falls on a cold road and freezes on impact. It is impossible to forecast with any accuracy when this will occur.  
■ Rush hour snowfall. When rain turns to snow coinciding with rush hour traffic, early salting cannot take place as it would wash off, and gritters cannot make progress because of traffic congestion.

Salt bins

You can get gritting salt from the yellow grit bins located around the county. You can spread grit on pavements and other public footways, but not on driveways. Use a spade or shovel to spread the grit thinly and evenly across the pavement.
All of the council's salt has now been delivered and it is in the process of sheeting it to protect it.

A spokesperson said: "We are storing about 1000 tonnes less this year (down from the 10,000 last year) down to the fact that we don't want to be holding salt for too long so we'll use the older stock first. We can call up any additional supplies at very short notice."

Councillor discusses speeding problems

Llangollen county councillor Stuart Davies recently met with officers and residents to discuss concerns about speeding on Abbey Road and around Pentrefelin.

He said that the residents would like to see the speed limit reduced to 30mph up to the end of the existing 40mph limit by the turn-off to the Chain Bridge.

Cllr Davies said: "I explained that it had been hard enough to get the existing 40mph limit put in a few years ago, with officers and police at the time arguing that the area was very close to the margins of the criteria which apply when speed limits are put in.

"The officers explained that the criteria wouldn't be met for a 30mph limit in this area and that grant funding to pay for such a scheme would not given by the Welsh Government because of this.

"However, traffic calming measures such as signs and road markings could be applied relatively quickly."

Cllr Davies said he had also spoken to some residents who were not in agreement with a 30mph limit along the whole length of Abbey Road and Pentrefelin.

It was agreed at the meeting to carry out a traffic survey to get a true picture of the speeds in the area and to apply traffic calming measures.

On a separate but related issue it was agreed to have the dry stone wall and pavement at the end of Abbey Road brought up to scratch.

A county speed gun was used to do a rough check and speeds were generally found to be around the mid-20s on the brow of the hill by Pentrefelin, with one vehicle being clocked at 34mph.

Santa Specials get underway

 

* The Black Five No. 45337 bringing the 11am departure from Llangollen past Berwyn.

 

The first trains of the Santa Season got underway on Llangollen Railway last Saturday.

 

Due to damp railhead conditions the train had difficulty getting away from Llangollen on the climb up through the tunnel, but the second train with the large tank engine was better able to cope.

The heritage railway expects to operate 36 Santa trains on weekends through to December 21 then daily up to Christmas Eve and reports a sell out of all available seats.

 

Trains run through to "Lapland" at Carrog where Santa can be seen on his sleigh.

 

For those who may be disappointed, a festive run on the train is provided from Boxing Day until January 1 during the season of Mince Pie special trains will operate on the new track extension through to Corwen East.

 

 

Skates lands award for helping youngsters find work

* Ken Skates receives the award from  Gareth Pennant,

Assembly Correspondent for Golwg magazine.

Picture courtesy of ITV Cymru Wales.

Clwyd South AM Ken Skates has won a top award for helping thousands of unemployed young people into work.

The Labour Assembly Member was declared the nation’s rising star at the Politician of the Year awards last night (Tuesday) at a ceremony hosted by ITV Wales and the Wales Yearbook Online in Cardiff.

 

Mr Skates won the 'Member to Watch' award after steering the Welsh Labour Government's flagship youth employment scheme Jobs Growth Wales to "unparalleled" success and overseeing Europe’s most ambitious broadband scheme, Superfast Cymru.

Wrexham-born Mr Skates, who has his constituency office in Llangollen, paid tribute to the people of Clwyd South during his acceptance speech, and to the 13,000-plus 16- to 24-year-olds that Jobs Growth Wales has helped – which include almost 1,000 in Wrexham and Denbighshire.

 

He said: “It's a humbling honour to receive this award for the work I did in my previous role as Deputy Minister for Skills and Technology.

 

“I’m exceptionally grateful for the opportunity to serve as the AM for the people of Clwyd South as well as in the Welsh Government, and I will continue to work as hard as I possibly can for the people who elected me.”

 

The judges were unanimous in their decision to award Mr Skates the award, stating: “The panel were particularly impressed by the impact you had on the Jobs Growth Wales programme in your first deputy ministerial portfolio, a scheme so vital to our young people that required a champion both to motivate youngsters and engage employers.”

Cllr Davies congratulated Deputy Minister Ken Skates on his recent award "Member to Watch" at the Politician of the Year Awards.

He said: "Whilst being on opposite ends of the political spectrum, we work well together to do what is best for Llangollen and the Dee Valley."

Cllr Davies went on to say: "We worked well together to deliver the job saving and job providing Sainsbury/Cilmedw project and I am looking forward to working with him and the site owners of Mile End Mill to deliver an iconic tourism and job creating site."

Warning over roadworks for new health centre

 

* An artist's impression of how the new health centre will look.

 

Building work on the new health centre on Mill Street in Llangollen is now quite advanced and the next stages of the project will include the work needed to provide electrical and water supplies to the building, divert water mains, construct a pavement alongside the new building, provide drainage to the road, install bus stops, relocate the 30 mph zone and provide additional street lighting. 

 

According to the county council, this work is planned to start on the January 5 and continue for five to six months.  

 

While it takes place the road past the site will at times be restricted to a single lane, with traffic lights in place to control vehicles coming into and going out of Llangollen on the A539 (Mill Street) road to Ruabon. Bishop’s Walk will also be affected.

 

The main contractors, Read Construction, and the Health Board are currently working with Llangollen Railway to co-ordinate the movements of locomotives along Mill Street during the period that these lane restrictions are in place. 

 

No lane closures will take place during the following holiday periods: April 3-13, May 1-5, May 22 and June 1.

 

A statement from the contractors says: "We would like to apologise in advance for any inconvenience caused by these temporary traffic control arrangements and ask for patience and understanding from road users whilst we undertake these essential works."

 

Read Construction will coordinate the lane restrictions with the utility companies and sub-contractors and will provide up to date information on their website (www.readconstruction.co.uk) and on the noticeboard at the Bishops Walk end of the construction site. 

 

They will also contact the residents of Bishop’s Walk directly. The individual utility companies will put up signs providing their contact numbers before they start work.

 

Once complete in mid 2015 the health centre will bring together the town’s GP practice and community health services run by the local Health Board with services provided by Denbighshire County Council and the voluntary sector. 

£50,000 raised in memory of tragic Tesni

 

* Tesni's parents Jason Edwards, who works for Ifor Williams Trailers, and her mum, Dwysan, who works at the Penybont surgery in St Asaph, present the £50,000 cheque to air ambulance crew paramedics Neil Lewis and Karen Davies, pilot James Benson and John Williams, managing director of Ifor Williams Trailers.

 

The heartbroken parents of a teenage girl who died tragically have met the helicopter paramedic who tried desperately to save her after she collapsed.

 

Neil Lewis was aboard the Wales Air Ambulance helicopter when it flew into the village of Cynwyd, near Corwen, as a thank you for the £50,000 that was raised by a sponsored walk in memory of 14-year-old Tesni Edwards (pictured right).

 

The distinctive red helicopter that's based in Welshpool landed in a field across the road from the headquarters of Ifor Williams Trailers where Tesni's dad, Jason, works.

 

There too were mum Dwysan and Jason's colleagues from the trailer firm who organised the Taith Tesni walk from Cynwyd to Llangollen.

Ifor Williams Trailers added to the amount raised to more than double the pot of money donated to the charity which has three helicopters based in Caernarfon, Welshpool and Swansea.

 

It's highly unusual for the Wales Air Ambulance to make visits like this but they made an exception because of the "phenomenal amount" raised by the walk.

 

The emotional meeting was the first opportunity that Jason and Dwysan have had to say a personal thank you to the Wales Air Ambulance crew who did their very best for their beloved daughter.

 

Sadly, they were unable to save the popular pupil of Ysgol Dinas Bran, in Llangollen, who died of an undetected enlarged heart a couple of weeks before her 15th birthday in April last year.

 

Neil, who was on duty the day Tesni collapsed along with fellow paramedic Mark Timmins, said meeting Jason and Dwysan was a humbling experience.

 

Dwysan, who is the Practice Manager at the Pen-y-Bont doctors' surgery in St Asaph, said: "We were amazed and overwhelmed by the effort that went into organising and the huge amount of money that’s been raised.  It’s beyond words really.

 

"It’s nice that something so amazing has been done in Tesni’s name and it’s helped us massively that something good has come out of it.

 

"It was great meeting the crew today. We were quite nervous about it before coming because obviously it was quite emotional seeing them again but it was really nice to meet them under different circumstances.

 

"We managed to talk to them about Tesni and tell them about her before that day. We showed them her photo and we were able to talk about her and how she did at school and what her plans were and they said that they really like meeting the families.

 

"They do an amazing job. They’re very brave and that’s why we wanted to raise money for them, to continue that amazing service that they provide."

 

Jason, who works in the stores department at Ifor Williams Trailers, said: "In the beginning I was hoping we would raise about £15,000 so when we found out it was £50,000 I just couldn’t believe it. It was absolutely unbelievable."

 

According to paramedic Neil Lewis, they very rarely had the opportunity to meet the relatives of the patients they treated.

 

He said: "It’s a very humbling experience first and foremost. To get the chance to meet Jason and Dwysan and to talk to them is a kind of healing process for us and the family.

 

"It certainly means a lot to me and I hope I can help with their grieving process as well.

 

"We can reach anywhere in Wales within 20 minutes and it costs more than £6 million to keep our three helicopters flying.

 

"The amount of money raised by local communities is staggering and it means we can serve the population and hopefully get them to the right hospital within the right time, which is a major thing in serious illness or accident."

 

John Williams, the managing director of Ifor Williams, Trailers, was among those with Jason and Dwysan when the helicopter arrived.

 

He said: "We were honoured that the Wales Air Ambulance decided to fly to Cynwyd to receive the proceeds of the Taith Tesni sponsored walk.

 

"It is impossible to imagine what Jason and Dwysan and Tesni's brothers, Morgan and Findlay, have endured having her wrenched from their lives so cruelly.

 

"We organised the sponsored walk in line with the family's wishes and we are pleased that we have been able to play some part in keeping the helicopters flying."

 

Wales Air Ambulance corporate manager Anna Evans was extremely grateful to Tesni's parents and Ifor Williams Trailers for organising the walk.

 

She said: "Fund-raising events like Taith Tesni are how we keep our helicopters flying. 

 

"We don’t get any Government funding or National Lottery funding even and every penny that we raise goes into the helicopter.

 

"The £50,000 raised in Tesni's memory is a fitting tribute to her. Obviously, Tesni will never be forgotten by her parents and her friends and her extended family but what they’ve done is make sure that she will never be forgotten by the people who rely on the Wales Air Ambulance."