Police warning over jewellery thefts

Residents throughout North Wales are being urged to keep their jewellery secure as thieves target homes for high value gold and silver items.

In recent months burglars have targeted homes in search of valuables, sometimes targeting the same addresses more than once.

The thieves have posed as tradesman or scrap metal merchants and have knocked on doors to see if anyone is at home. 

They then return later in the day, usually when the homes are empty, break in and steal valuable jewellery.

Suspects have also been known to park near the home of a potential victim waiting for the residents to leave.

Their tactics often include forcing entry though windows and patio doors, making extremely untidy searches of all rooms and attic spaces, adding to the distress of victims.

Detectives are actively targeting those responsible and enquiries are on-going, but North Wales Police are urging all residents to be aware of the tactics used by criminals and to take steps to keep their valuables as safe as possible.

As part of the awareness campaign the force has produced an advice leaflet in English, Welsh, Bengali and Urdu.

Detective Chief Inspector Alun Oldfield said: “This has been identified as an issue in North Wales, particularly in the Wrexham, Flinthshire and Denbighshire areas and officers have been out and about giving advice to residents on how to best protect their property.

“The thieves responsible are well organised and some are travelling into the area from further afield to target residents.  It is vital, therefore, that we all work together to make life as difficult as possible for these criminals.

“There are a number of simple steps you can take to help protect your valuable jewellery:

• Ensure that your jewellery is insured.
• Keep good records – make a list and include photographs. 
• Keep jewellery in a safe and secure place when it is not being worn – thieves have been known to look everywhere in the home for valuable items.
• Consider installing a safe if your jewellery is particularly valuable – ensure it is securely fitted to a permanent structure such as a solid wall or floor.
• Consider removing your valuables from the home and keeping them in a safety deposit box.
• Make sure all windows and doors and kept locked – especially when you are out.
• Ensure your home looks ‘lived in’ – even if you are out.  Consider using timer switches for lights to give the impression that someone is at home.
• Try not to advertise when you will not be at home and always use lights on timers to give the impression you are home at night, even if you are not
• Other security measures such as a home security alarm or security marking system can deter thieves from targeting a property.
• Be wary when answering the door to unexpected or uninvited visitors and always ask to see identification.  If you are unsure of the validity of the caller then contact the organisation they are claiming to be from.  Genuine callers will not mind you doing this. If you have concerns about any cold callers, contact the police
• Report suspicious behavior.”

* Anyone with any information about this type of crime should call North Wales Police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Traffic study appeal hits target ... just in time

* Castle Street.

The deadline to raise £1,000 through a public appeal to pay for a survey into traffic conditions in the centre of Llangollen has been hit with just hours to spare.

The local Cittaslow group is backing a plan to take on traffic management specialists Hamilton Baillie Associates to carry out a study into how best to the handle conflicting traffic needs in the town – parkers, shopkeepers and pedestrians.

While a full blown survey by the firm which created a ground-breaking scheme for Poynton in Cheshire would be £10,000, Cittaslow has opted for a brief one-day appraisal costing just £1,000.

Town councillor Phil Thane fronted a public appeal to raise the cash and he revealed today (Tuesday) that the cash target had been hit just in time.
 

He said: “Today is deadline day for Cittaslow Llangollen's Crowdfunder appeal to raise £1,000 to pay for a review of all the issues affecting Castle Street.

“It's been a struggle at times explaining the issues and dispelling the idea that this was just another parking survey, but we got the message out and the town responded. The appeal reached the target with several hours to spare.

“Cittaslow Llangollen are meeting this evening, and one item for discussion is finding a date to get Ben Hamilton-Baillie to town to see what the issue are, and to present us with some possible solutions to consider.

“No-one pretends £1,000 is going to solve the problem, but getting an independent expert in might just kick-start some new thinking about an old problem.”

He added: “Everyone grumbles about Castle Street.

“Drivers in a hurry to get through would like all parking banned, pedestrians would like safe crossings, shopkeepers need to load and unload and want more parking for their customers, tourists want a pleasant place to stroll.

“At the moment we have the worst of all possible solutions, some legal parking, some illegal parking, double yellows down one side giving motorists the illusion of a clear road - until they meet a large vehicle coming the other way, and pedestrians running the gauntlet.

“The only good thing is that it's so chaotic the traffic is usually slow and there haven't been any serious accidents.

“We think it could be better, but it needs a new vision not just the county council putting down some more paint and harrassing shopkeepers.

“Poynton's problems were much worse than ours in Llangollen, and they've been fixed."

Llan shearer beats Kiwis at their own game

The Daily Post has a story about how a young Llangollen has beaten New Zealanders at their own game of sheep shearing.

For the full story see: http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/local-news/young-llangollen-shearer-beats-kiwis-8751198

Free service for businesses announced

The I Shop in Wales promotional organisation has asked llanblogger to publish the poster below:

Chorister harmonises her pregnancy with eisteddfod date

* Vicky Wilson who sings with The Chanterelles choir

with daughter Daisy, 2, and fellow choir members

Bethany de Vries, left, and Suzanne Bottrill.

A SINGER from Market Harborough organised the timing of her pregnancy to make sure she could compete with her choir at this summer’s Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod.

Alto Vicky Wilson was so determined not to miss out on competing with Leicestershire-based The Chanterelles in the female choirs section of the iconic cultural festival that she and her husband carefully worked out when they should conceive the baby.

And although 34-year-old Vicky will be have a sizeable eight-month bump at the time she takes to the Eisteddfod stage on Saturday, July 11, she says that shouldn’t affect her performance – because this will be the second time she’s done it!

Vicky, whose day job is working for Leicestershire County Council teaching Braille to blind children across the county, lives with her 36-year-old husband Jon at a farm just outside Market Harborough, and she began singing when she was just seven years old with a local youth choir.

Amongst its performance highlights was winning a number of trophies at Llangollen Eisteddfod back in the 1990s.

The all-girls choir, founded through Leicestershire Arts in Education, made their final appearance in 2001 after a decade of performing but a number of members came together again later to form The Chanterelles.

After a number of successful years The Chanterelles eventually disbanded but then reformed in 2009 as the result of a message that went out over social media, once again under their highly respected musical director, Dr Shirley Court, who had originally led the youth choir.

With an enthusiastic group of around 30 members The Chanterelles perform in a range of concerts and competitions and aim to set the highest professional standards.

The choir’s Llangollen Eisteddfod debut was in 2010 when it sang its way to first place in the female choirs section and in 2012 it returned to take second place in the same competition.

Vicky was part of the Leicestershire youth choir for one of its successful Llangollen appearances while she was still at school and returned to compete with The Chanterelles in 2012.

She said: “I happened to be expecting my first child, Daisy, at the time of that appearance three years ago and, coincidentally, was also eight months pregnant - just as I will be again when the choir comes back to Llangollen this July.

“I knew The Chanterelles were due to compete at the eisteddfod this summer and I desperately wanted to be with them as I love coming to Llangollen.

“My husband Jon and I had been planning a second baby and we worked things out for when it would be best for me to become pregnant, if I can put it that way!

“The choir has got two important dates coming up this summer – the Cork International Choral Festival in May and then Llangollen in July.

“We thought it was best for me not to give birth between the two appearances as far as looking after a new baby is concerned, so we arranged for my nine months to finish sometime after the eisteddfod.

“We got lucky first time with our planning. I found out I was pregnant just before Christmas and I’m due to give birth in August, which should be comfortably after the Llangollen appearance.”

Gethin Davies, Chairman of the Eisteddfod, said: “Singing at Llangollen clearly means a lot to Vicky and we’re delighted she enjoys it so much.

“It will be wonderful to see her and The Chanterelles here again this summer as they are a top class choir and I’m sure the singing will be proving good for her in her pregnancy.”

Vicky added: “I don’t think it will be too much of a problem being heavily pregnant at the eisteddfod as singing is good exercise and I’ve done it once before with my daughter Daisy, who is now two and a half.

“She really loves music and I’m not surprised as she was coming with me to rehearsals and performances, like the 2012 appearance, even before she was born.

“Daisy responds to any choral music she hears on TV but also likes more popular styles. She seems particularly fond at the moment of All About the Bass by the American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor and Happy by Pharrel Williams.   

“The Chanterelles tries to compete quite regularly as it helps keep up our standards.

“Coming to Llangollen is a lovely experience because the level of competition is so high and this will be the third time I’ve been there – twice heavily pregnant.”

AM calls for fuel poverty to be given priority

In the week of Fuel Poverty Awareness Day, North Wales Assembly Member and Chair of the Cross Party Group on Fuel Poverty, Mark Isherwood, has called on the Welsh Government to give fuel poverty priority.

 

On Thursday Mr Isherwood co-sponsored and attended an Assembly event to mark Fuel Poverty Awareness Day.

 

Challenging the Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty, Lesley Griffiths AM, in the Assembly Chamber  the day before the event, Mr Isherwood described fuel poverty in Wales as endemic and questioned the omission of fuel poverty from the Welsh Government’s Tackling Poverty Action Plan.   

 

He said: “Interestingly, at UK level, as you know, the definition of fuel poverty was changed to move towards needs and resources. Of course, Wales has stuck to an income-based definition. But we heard from the Bevan Foundation and Joseph Rowntree Foundation about the omission of fuel poverty, which I understand is not in your brief now, from the Tackling Poverty Action Plan, which is within your brief, which they believed should be central to your Tackling Poverty Action Plan. What consideration are you giving to that, given that fuel poverty is endemic, and often a major contributory factor to wider deprivation and vulnerability?”

 

The Minister confirmed that fuel poverty isn’t in her portfolio, but in the Minister for Natural Resources.

 

Mr Isherwood  added: “Friday is Fuel Poverty Awareness Day—thanks to the campaign run by National Energy Action and National Energy Action Cymru. As they pointed out, Arbed and Nest are very welcome schemes. They partly fall in your portfolio, partly in your colleague’s portfolio, as they cross housing, poverty and fuel poverty.

 

“Over 98% of people living in fuel poverty fall outside that, but there is great work going on, across Wales, in many areas, to address that. What consideration, working with your colleagues, but within the Tackling Poverty Action Plan - which is the only plan we currently have - have you given to revising and updating the Fuel Poverty Strategy, to meet and reach the needs of those 98% of people?”

 

The Minister replied: “Both Arbed and Nest are actually in the Minister for Natural Resources’ portfolio, but tackling poverty is absolutely cross-Government.”

 

Mr Isherwood added: “The Minister has written to me to state that the Tackling Poverty Action Plan sets out actions and targets to help prevent and reduce poverty in Wales. Given that the Welsh Government has scrapped the Ministerial Fuel Poverty Advisory Group and failed to incorporate fuel poverty into its Tackling Poverty Action Plan, this should not be in another Minister’s portfolio and must be given priority.” 

Corwen railway extension officially opened

* Steam locomotive 3802 prepares to drive through a

symbolic banner stretched across the newly-extended track.

SCORES of invited guests braved a wintry St David’s Day to attend the official opening of the newly extended railway line between Llangollen and Corwen this afternoon (Sunday).

The special event, staged in a field just outside Corwen, marked the completion of the ambitious five-year scheme to run trains a further 2.5 miles west of the line’s previous terminus at Carrog.

It also came as the fulfilment of a dream going right back to 1975 when a team of dedicated railway enthusiasts began bringing part of the Dee Valley route back to life as a heritage railway after it was axed under the Beeching service cuts of the early 1960s.  

* Guests head towards the marquee for the ceremony.

As a regular passenger service now begins between Llangollen and Corwen for the first time in 50 years, it was revealed that plans are already taking shape for phase two of the plan to run trains from the new terminus near the car park in Corwen a further 500 yards right into the heart of the town and replace a temporary station and platform which has been built with permanent facilities.

And Llangollen county councillor Stuart Davies, who has given his full backing to the extension project, said that although he estimated this development would cost in the region of half a million pounds, he would be doing all he could to see the trust which operates the railway is able to obtain secure financial assistance with the scheme.

A large party of invited guests, including local politicians and civic leaders, boarded a train hauled by a steam engine for the journey from Llangollen to the new temporary station designated Dwyrain Corwen East.

The opening ceremony began with the symbolic driving of the locomotive through a banner stretched across the track and continued with a rendition of the Welsh national anthem by the Glyndwr Male Voice Choir (pictured left) and Llangollen Silver Band.

As driving rain turned to sleet and then snow, railway vice-presidents Gordon Heddon and Bill Shakespeare unveiled a bilingual plaque bearing the name of the new station.

Railway chairman Peter Lund cut a ribbon to declare the new station officially open and members of the Corwen Community handed out complimentary daffodils to guests as they gathered in a marquee to hear further selections from the band and the choir.

Railway spokesman George Jones said: “With the opening of the extension to Corwen East the intention of all members of the railway is to look towards the development of the final section of the extension.

* Llangollen Silver Band plays at the ceremony.

“We of course need financial assistance to enable all this happen but, for what is a relatively modest outlay, the area will gain so much.

“If you consider the footbridge erected at Chirk Station, this cost over a million pounds.

“For somewhat less than that Corwen will receive a permanent platform, signal box, all the track, signalling and much more, plus access to the town’s main car park via a subway from the platform.”

Llangollen county councillor Stuart Davies, who was amongst guests at the ceremony, said: “The band of dedicated volunteers who run the railway have done a fantastic job over the past 40 years is driving the line forward as far as Corwen, overcoming every obstacle in their way.

“The second phase of the extension project, which will bring many benefits to both Llangollen and Corwen, must definitely now go ahead.

“I personally estimate that it will take about £500,000 to complete this and I am determined to see the railway trust is given every assistance in securing the necessary finance to complement its own fundraising efforts.”