Schools invited to design St David's Day flag

Schools across Denbighshire have been invited to join a creative competition to design a flag to commemorate St David's Day.

The competition, being arranged by Denbighshire County Council, invites infant school pupils to get creative and design an A4 sized design (painting, drawing, colouring etc) that would be transformed into a specially created flag to commemorate this special day.

The winning pupil will see his/her design being raised on a flagpole at County Hall, Ruthin, during a special ceremony on Friday 27th February 2015.  The flag will be flown for a few days and once lowered, will be given to the pupil as a memento of their winning design.

Junior school pupils are invited to write a poem about St David's Day.  The winning entry will be read out at the special ceremony at County Hall, and a framed copy presented to the winner at the ceremony.  

The Chairman of Denbighshire, Councillor Brian Blakeley, said: "We want to mark this very important day in the national calendar by engaging with schools and getting pupils to get creative with their thoughts and ideas.

"We have run similar competitions in the past and have been delighted with the response.  We have a lot of creative talent in our schools and we want to nurture that talent further.

"We look forward to receiving the designs and making our winning choices."

Legion branch changes its meeting place and time

* Llangollen's RBL members play a prominent role in the annual Remembrance ceremonies.

LLANGOLLEN’S Royal British Legion branch has changed the venue and time of its monthly meetings in a bid to reinforce its flagging membership.

Early last year, the 92-year-old branch of the national ex-service organisation faced closure due to a drop in support.

But the crisis was headed off when one of its members, John Lawton, agreed to take on the three key positions of chairman, secretary and treasurer.

Now the branch has opted for another major change of strategy to help boost membership.

John Lawton said: “Five members of the branch have been keeping it open for two years, meeting in The Hand Hotel at lunchtime on the first Tuesday of the month.

“One of the reasons given for non-attendance by members was that lunchtime is not convenient as people are working.

“Accordingly, from February 5, meetings will be held at Llangollen RAFA Club on the first Thursday of the month at 7.30pm.

“It remains to be seen if the promises of attendance are kept.”

The branch, which was founded in 1923 as a gathering point for men who had served in World War One, thrived for years but has recently suffered from falling attendances at meetings.

Crisis point came early last year when the man who had served as both chairman and secretary, Bob Davidson, had to stand down because of ill health.

 

Seeing that there was a real possibility that the branch might fold, treasurer Mr Lawson decided it was time to step into the breach by taking on the three top positions in the branch.

Mr Lawton has previously been secretary of the Historic Warships in Birkenhead, a Petty Officer in the Sea Cadet Corps and treasurer of Llangollen Royal Naval Association.

Air Ambulance picks up £1,200 from big-hearted Llan

The Wales Air Ambulance has benefitted from two cash donations from the big-hearted people of Llangollen amounting to over £1,200.

Members of the organising committee went along to the ambulance's headquarters at Welshpool Airport to hand over a cheque for £1,000, which was the result of funds raised at Llangollen Christmas Festival on November 29.

The second cheque presented was for £209.11 from a quiz evening staged at the Sarah Ponsonby just before Christmas organised by Austin Cheminais, Llangollen's resident town crier and part-time Santa.

*Members of the Christmas Festival committee hand over

the £1,000 cheque to the Wales Air Ambulance.

* Town crier Austin Cheminais, dressed as Santa, presents the £209.11 proceeds from the quiz.

Tidy Town Team has another busy year

* Members of the Tidy Town Team at work near the museum.

A band of dedicated volunteers from Llangollen  Tidy  Town  Team put in a total of 690 hours of unpaid work last year, ranging from litter picking to painting.

The facts about the team’s activities during a busy 2014 are revealed in the latest annual report of the organisation, which was formed in 2006 and currently has a membership of 20 plus a couple of would-be volunteers on a waiting list.

Co-ordinator David Davies says in the report: “Litter clearing activities continue with Dinas Bran Castle Hill, the roadside along by the `Hawthorn’ sculpture, along the Panorama, the sports fields, the wharf area and canalside being annual work locations.

 

“New tasks this year included repairing some and re-varnishing six benches in the grounds of Plas Newydd and cleaning and painting the entrance route to the rear of the Catholic Church.  

“We also applied our `gardening’ skills to the much-overgrown area in the town centre between the Tourist Information Centre and Town Hall and continued vegetation thinning in Riverside Gardens, our sixth year of so doing.  Here we also repaired a picnic table and supplied and installed another new table.

“In Riverside Park we painted railings and carried out some renovation and cleaning of the mini-golf area before releasing our energy on some more Himalayan Balsam.

“We continue to assist at the Rotary Fete and at Christmas erect the town Christmas tree and have a considerable presence on the town Christmas festival day.

“Our efforts have been acknowledged by a Llangollen Civic Society Award this year for `considerable contribution to the appearance of the Town.’

Mr Davies adds: “A big thank you to all our supporters during the year including Llangollen Town Council, Denbighshire County Council, Keep Wales Tidy, Vale of Llangollen Golf Club, Horse Drawn Boats, the Spar Supermarket (Blakemore Foundation) and Kenrick Motors.

“Finally thank you to the members of the team for their 690 hours of voluntary work during the year.”

Llangollen county councillor Stuart Davies said: “I’d like to pass on to the team my congratulations for a job well done. I applaud them.”

Over 4,000 sign up for garden waste service

A deluge of orders at the start of 2015 means that over 4,000 Denbighshire households have chosen to chosen to continue with garden waste collection service when charges are introduced in April, says the county council.

By Thursday 8^th January some 4,092 households had registered for collections, more than 10% of the households offered the garden waste service.

Some residents even took a break from festivities to arrange their garden waste collection with seven orders being taken on the council’s website on Christmas Day itself.

Denbighshire County Council’s Waste Officer, Alan Roberts, said: “Reaching this point so early suggests we are likely to reach the expected take-up of around 35%, which really helps us plan.

“The council reduced the price of a year’s service by £2 to £22 for those that arrange it by 31^st January to encourage early take-up so we would like to thank every resident who has opted-in, or who is thinking of opting-in, by the end of the month.”

The council is currently processing all the orders received for the garden waste service since 1^st December.

Participating households will be sent a garden waste collection calendar and a uniquely bar-coded sticker to attach to their garden waste containers. The council will start delivering these to households towards the end of January.

Around two-thirds of all orders for the garden waste service have been made using the secure payment system on the Denbighshire County Council website

Alan Roberts added: “I would recommend using the online payment facility if possible. It is available 24/7 so you can place your order whenever it suits you. The number of calls to the Council’s Customer Service team is expected to increase over the coming weeks.”

The online payment facility is available at denbighshire.gov.uk/gardenwaste or, alternatively householders can make payment by telephone on 01824 706101 (or 01824 706100 for Welsh speakers) or by calling in at any of the council’s One Stop Shops.

Re-open cottage hospital to relieve A&E pressure says campaigner

* The closed down cottage hospital.

A LLANGOLLEN campaigner has sent out a plea to health chiefs to re-open the town’s cottage hospital to help relieve growing pressure on A&E services in Wrexham.

Martin Crumpton, who led local opposition to the axing of the 137-year-old community hospital in Abbey Road almost two years ago, has written to Dr Peter Higson, Chair of the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health board, calling for the facility which now lies boarded up and derelict, to be allowed to open its doors again.

 

In his letter, Mr Crumpton says: “Please announce that you’re going to reopen the cottage hospitals whose closures, albeit not the sole cause of the pressure on beds and directly on A&E, precipitated this crisis.

 

“Everyone in Wales is angry and none more so than in towns like Llangollen whose cottage hospital with its precious beds was so foolishly closed and with a demonstration of extreme incompetence in our case.

 

“Eleven ambulances queued at Wrexham Maelor A&E is not a record – I’ve previously counted 16 on my way from a routine appointment – but now this is happening consistently and regularly.

 

“Increasing throughput by discharging patients prematurely and are borderline unsafe discharges in many instances will not be tolerated any longer.”

 

Mr Crumpton adds: “We are particularly hard-hit by your board’s decision to move our GPs to a vehicle-only, out-of-town location and now our access to the Maelor admissions is almost impossible. 

“Please respond with a statement I can give to the people of Llangollen to explain why there is little or no primary health care in North East Wales and exactly how, and within what timescale, you intend to restore it.”

 

A planning application was submitted last year for the Cymdeithas Tai Clwyd housing association to build six new homes on the site of the cottage hospital plus a further six on the car park opposite. This is believed to be still pending.

Local woman obtains her doctorate

Llangollen county councillor Stuart Davies and his wife Laura say they are proud to announce that their youngest daughter is now known as Dr Charlotte Eve Davies, having gained a PhD in Biology.

She attended Ysgol Bryn Collen and Ysgol Dinas Bran and obtained a BSc (Hons) in Biology at Swansea University before gaining her PhD in Biological Sciences there.

She has had six papers published and has travelled extensively around the world giving speeches on her speciality.

Cllr Davies says he is especially proud that she attended the local schools in the county and that they have served her well.

An example of Dr Davies’ work can be seen at: http://theconversation.com/competitive-lobsters-are-fighting-it-out-in-uks-first-marine-park-35830