Skates welcomes funding boost for disadvantaged areas

Clwyd South AM Ken Skates has welcomed Welsh Government funding of more than £30m to help people in some of the country’s most disadvantaged areas.

The £31.7m boost was announced recently as part of the Communities First programme and will benefit areas close to Llangollen.

Labour Assembly Member Mr Skates, a member of the Welsh Government, said: “This investment will benefit 52 areas, known as ‘clusters’, and support some of the most vulnerable people in Wales by combating poverty and promoting education, health and economic prosperity.

“These areas will benefit from the funding between April 2015 and March 2016. The announcement includes £1.25m being split between two clusters in the Wrexham County Borough Council area.

“As well as the Caia Park/Hightown patch in my colleague Lesley Griffiths AM’s constituency, the Urban Villages Wrexham cluster in – which includes Pant, Penycae, Plas Madoc, Gwenfro and areas of Brymbo and Cefn Mawr – will also benefit from further Welsh Government support.

“The funding is another boost from the Welsh Government for its work to support Wales’ most vulnerable communities and narrow the economic, education and health gaps between our most deprived and affluent areas.”

Welsh health service gets £40m boost

The Welsh Government is allocating an extra £40m to the Welsh NHS in 2014-15 to help it deal with winter pressures, Finance Minister Jane Hutt announced today.

 

The extra investment, which comes from the Welsh Government’s reserves, follows the announcement that an additional £200m is being allocated to the Welsh NHS in 2014-15.

 

The £40m investment is the equivalent amount for Wales to the additional £700m the UK Government has given to NHS England to help it deal with winter pressures.

The Welsh NHS – like health services across the UK – has experienced sustained pressure over the Christmas and New Year period as a result of increased demand from an influx of sick patients.

Pressures on the NHS in Wales have included:

• GP out-of-hour services experienced their busiest festive period since they were established
• The Welsh Ambulance Service saw a significant rise in the most critically-ill patients using its services, with unprecedented levels of demand over recent weeks
• Hospital emergency departments across Wales have reported an increase in admissions of patients with acute conditions, complex needs and dependency.

Finance Minister Jane Hutt said: “The additional £40m I’m announcing today means that in 2014-15, the Welsh NHS will have received nearly a quarter of a billion pounds in extra investment to deliver high-quality, sustainable health services.

“With an additional £295m being invested in 2015-16, which includes the £70m revenue funding as a result of the Autumn Statement, it means increased investment in our Welsh NHS of more than half a billion pounds over two years.

“This demonstrates our clear commitment to a sustainable NHS in Wales based on the reforms outlined in the Nuffield report.”

Welcoming the additional investment, Health and Social Services Minister Mark Drakeford said: “This additional investment in our health service will help our NHS deal with the significant pressures the service is facing – pressures that are being experienced across the UK as a result of increased demand from an influx of sick patients.

“Winter is a very busy period for our health, social care and social services – but our urgent and emergency care services, in particular, are seeing significant extra demand on their services.

“I want to thank staff who are working tirelessly, often in difficult situations, to ensure that those people who have needed urgent and emergency care have received high-quality treatment and services and have been treated with care and compassion.”

Entrants sought for Llan sponsored walk

* Walk the hills around Llangollen in aid of Cancer Research UK.

ENTRANTS are being sought for second Llangollen Round Challenge to be staged this summer in aid of Cancer Research UK.

When the sponsored walk was last held three years ago almost £36,000 was collected for the charity and organisers say they are hoping to beat that amount this time round.

The idea is to walk 35 miles in the hills surrounding the town in either one or two days on Saturday and Sunday, May 30 and 31.

The route will be fully waymarked and marshalled, with checkpoints offering refreshments, and certificates and medals will be awarded to those completing the course.

For more details, call 07905 330788, or visit www.llangollenround.info for further information and an entry form.

Llan's MP slams PM over oil prices

Clwyd South MP Susan Elan Jones has criticised David Cameron's Government for failing to regulate energy prices for oil. 

Speaking today (Wednesday) in a debate on energy prices in the House of Commons, she said: "The Government has totally betrayed people living in rural communities on this issue.

"It hasn't even brought oil prices under the scope of the regulator Ofgem.

"It just shows how out of touch the Government is when they think what matters to people living in rural areas is bringing back fox hunting, not everyday issues like the cost of oil."

Today's debate was tabled by the Labour Party who called on the Government to bring forward new laws to ensure energy suppliers pass on price cuts to consumers.
 

Call goes out for Pavarotti memories

* Luciano Pavarotti’s triumphant return to Llangollen in 1995.

An appeal has been launched to commemorate the double anniversaries of the late great opera singer Luciano Pavarotti’s visits to Wales’s top international cultural festival.

 

This year’s Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in July will stage an exhibition to commemorate both the 60^th anniversary of Pavarotti’s first visit to the event and also the 20^th anniversary of his triumphant appearance in 1995.

 

The world’s best known tenor burst onto the world stage at the 1955 International Eisteddfod as a slim 19-year-old trainee teacher, part of the Chorus Rossini from Modena in northern Italy which that year won the male choral competition.

 

That is now the coveted Choir of the World competition for the Pavarotti Trophy, one of the most glittering prizes in the choral world.

* Pavarotti’s first appearance at Llangollen, as part
of Chorus Rossini from Modena in 1955. 

This year it will be decided on Saturday, July 11, the centrepiece of the 69^th Eisteddfod which runs from Tuesday, July 7, to Sunday, July 12, and which this year will feature a special exhibition dedicated to Pavarotti’s two visits to Llangollen.

 

He returned in 1995, 40 years after his first visit and Eisteddfod Musical Director Eilir Owen Griffiths said: “He has been one of the towering giants of music in our time and it all began here at Llangollen.

 

“We have a special link with Pavarotti who graciously agreed to give his name to the Choir of the World Trophy and who never forgot his first visit here and attributed his decision to make music his life to that 1955 success.”

 

Pavarotti, who died in 2007, had joined his local choir because his father, Fernando, a baker, was a stalwart member and the moment the Modena choir won the competition and the visit to Llangollen left an indelible impression on him and he often spoke of it.

 

The experience also helped shape his destiny and he once famously said that if he could win the first prize with a small choir from Modena, he could do anything.

 

He and his father stayed at the home of Alice and William Griffiths, at Beech House, Froncysyllte, for the week of the Eisteddfod and 40 years later Pavarotti would still enquire earnestly about the lady in whose home he had been a guest.

 

He once said of his time boarding with the Griffiths family in Fron: “I remember well the house I stayed in. All the way from Italy, I was exercising my English. But when we are brought to the house in Llangollen and meet the family, I understand not a word.

 

“I did not know there was such a language as Welsh. Even now I think how lucky they don’t write operas in such a language for me to sing. I would be out of work. It is impossible for us Italians to learn.”

 

Pavarotti said many times that he wanted to go back to Llangollen one day and that desire was fulfilled in 1995 when he made a triumphant return to headline at that year’s eisteddfod, marking the 40^th anniversary of his first visit to north Wales.

 

He accepted an invitation to be President of the Day, on condition that his father could share the Day Presidency with him, so for the first and only time, the Eisteddfod had two joint Presidents of the Day.

 

Eisteddfod Chairman Gethin Davies was an usher back in 1955 and admits he doesn’t recall the young Pavarotti. He said: “I kept a diary in those days and was looking through it recently and it just said, ‘Male Voice Choir today and a choir from Italy won’. I think I was more interested in my current girlfriend.

* Llangollen Eisteddfod
Chairman Gethin Davies.

“But being an usher was wonderful for a teenager and I used to volunteer to be there all day and I saw people like violinist Yehudi Menuhin and the great Bulgarian bass Boris Christoff.

 

“I was chairman by the time Pavarotti came back in 1995 and I remember he came on waving his handkerchief and he was great and sang some marvellous stuff, including one of his own composition.

 

“I watched it recently as they still show the performance on Sky Arts occasionally and he was quite magnificent.

 

“He was a very genial man but just like all the greats there was an inner steel to him as well.

 

“I do recall that the day he was Day President on the Friday it was the only time I have seen the marquee packed for the Day President’s speech as people usually use the opportunity to slip out.”

 

That Friday Pavarotti fought his way to the stage through adoring crowds to tell a packed house: "Forty years ago, my God it seems to be just yesterday for me. I have done so many things. 

 

“I always say that to the journalists when they ask me what is a day more memorable in my life, and I always say that it is when I won this competition because it was with all my friends. With me at that time there was a person that I would like to have the privilege to introduce: my Father.”

 

To tumultuous applause, Fernando Pavarotti walked on stage to join his son, and Pavarotti Jnr declared: "He is stronger than me he has a voice more brilliant than mine - at least that’s what he thinks.”

 

His father, who spoke no English, then came on stage and charmed the audience by putting his hands together and bowing to them with a beaming smile on his face.

 

Eilir Owen Griffiths said: “We would very much like to stage an exhibition to commemorate the link with Pavarotti and we have been in touch with the Pavarotti Foundation in Italy to see if they can play some part.

 

“We would also like to hear from people who may have memorabilia or their memories of Pavarotti’s visits to the Eisteddfod and who would be happy to loan them to us for the exhibition.”

 

For more information on this year’s Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod go to the website at www.international-eisteddfod.co.uk or go to the Facebook page www.facebook.com/Llangollen

 

If you have memorabilia or memories of Pavarotti at the Eisteddfod please contact Alistair Syme at Ceidiog Communication on 01824 703073 or at alistair@ceidiog.com

Tourism forum invite goes out

Tourism businesses in Llangollen are being invited to send representatives to a meeting of the Denbighshire Tourism Forum in February when the priorities for the second year of the county's Destination Management Plan will be discussed.

Organisers say there will also be an opportunity for businesses to network, share ideas and receive an update on tourism-related activity in Denbighshire.

The  forum will take place at the Oriel House Hotel, St Asaph on Wednesday, February 25 at 11am, with registration starting at 10.30am.

People interested in attending should register by e-mailing: dcc_tourism@denbighshire.gov.uk or by telephone: 01824 706223. 

Expert backs county's dog fouling campaign

A campaign by Denbighshire County Council to tackle dog fouling in the county has been backed by a prominent vet and specialist in parasitology.

Ian Wright from Lancashire has specialist qualifications in parasitology and has published a number of research papers. He is head of the European Scientific Council for Companion Animal Parasites, UK and Ireland.

Toxocara is a parasite found in a number of animals, including dogs and it can be passed to humans through infected dog mess.

People could potentially suffer a number of effects. The most well-known and recognisable effect is retinal scarring which can lead to damaged vision, but it can also lead to a variety of health issues such as abdominal pain, lethargy and dermatisis.  Infection has also been associated with an increased risk of epilepsy and asthma.

Ian said: "It is vitally important that we drive home the messages about Toxocariasis and the impact it can have on people's health and well-being.

"Whilst the number of cases is low, with only two people per million in the UK diagnosed with health problems, around 2% of the UK population have been exposed to infection, so this is likely to be a significantly under-estimated problem.

"Toxocariasis is easily preventable through regular de-worming of dogs (at least four times a year), picking up dog mess and good hand hygiene before eating and after playing in park and gardens and stroking dogs. The more dogs (and cats) that are unwormed, the greater the risk posed to the public.

"Also picking up dog mess and leaving it lying around in a bag does not help the situation, it needs bagging and binning properly. So I would urge Denbighshire residents to clean up after their dogs and help reduce the risk of health problems.

Emlyn Jones, Public Protection Manager in Denbighshire, said: "The Council is delighted that Ian Wright is lending his support to the campaign.  We have done a lot of work around educating the public about cleaning up after their animals, but some people continue to allow their dogs to foul in public without thinking of the health consequences.

"The health risks are clear, but also the anti-social element is unacceptable.  Denbighshire residents tell us that dog fouling is one of their greatest concerns. We have listened to their concerns and we are trying to change behaviours and encourage people to clean up after their animals".

The Council already had promoted awareness of the problems that dog fouling can create for local sports clubs, with support from former Wales rugby player Rupert Moon, as well as a number of rugby and football clubs around the county.

People can report dog fouling by visiting the website: www.denbighshire.gov.uk/dogfouling or by contacting the Council, on 01824 706101.