New qualifications launched in Wales

From the start of this year's school term, students across Wales are able to take revised qualifications which the Welsh Government says are specifically tailored to the needs of Welsh learners and businesses.

For the full story, see ITV.com at: http://www.itv.com/news/wales/2015-09-07/new-qualifications-launched-for-welsh-pupils/

Police boss hunts unsung crime-fighting heroes

A POLICE boss is asking for the public’s help to honour unsung crime-fighting heroes of the community.

North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Winston Roddick CB QC (pictured) has just launched his latest round of Community Awards to recognise people and groups who help police to keep their neighbourhood a peaceful and safe place to live and work and who help in rehabilitating offenders.

And he is inviting members of the public to send him their own nominations for the main accolade on offer, the coveted People’s Award.

This aim of this award is to highlight and honour an individual or community group who have made a strong contribution towards community safety and crime prevention.

It is the only one of the awards which is nominated directly by members of the public using an online form. The closing date for nominations is September 25.

Mr Roddick,  who in his time has served as a police officer, a barrister and a judge, revealed that his inspiration for setting up the awards, which are now in their second year, came from last year’s People’s Award winner, Deana Fisher, who pioneered the successful Gwarched Bermo CCTV project which helps keep Barmouth safe.

The Commissioner said: “I went over to Barmouth with a group of police officers and others to see the system and I recall that a local councillor said to me when referring to Deana, `that woman deserves a medal’.

“That comment inspired me to say that the excellent work done by people like Deana must be acknowledged.”

Mr Roddick added:  “One of the awards I established last year is called the People’s Award. 
“This will go to an individual or group who have made an impact in helping to keep people safe and/or to reduce crime. 

“This contribution may impact the whole area, a local town, neighbourhood or even street, but it will have made a difference to the people living and working there.

“It could be someone who is working to bring communities together to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour, or is working with people to deter and reduce offending.

“While I will select most of the award recipients myself in consultation with my office, the People’s Award is special in that it is the only one which will be nominated directly by the public.

“I am therefore asking for the assistance of the people of North Wales to help me select a suitable candidate for this particular award.

“If you know someone in your community who has gone that extra mile to prevent or reduce crime, protect and support members of the community or generally helped to make North Wales a safer place to live and work, please nominate them for the People’s Award. 

“I believe I was the first Police and Crime Commissioner in England and Wales to institute such awards, so North Wales is very much leading the way with this initiative.

“Last year’s awards ceremony was a great success and allowed me to shine a light on the tremendous efforts of some very special people.

“That is why I again decided to host my community awards in 2015.”

The winners of the People’s Award and the other PCC Community Awards will receive their honours in front of police and civic leaders at a presentation on the evening of Thursday, October 22.

Last year’s inspirational People’s Award winner was Deana Fisher who was a key figure in establishing and running the Gwarchod Bermo CCTV project.

For a number of years she has been an active member in the community and spent several years as a town councillor.

She regularly volunteers her time to the project and willingly monitors/reviews the system to help keep Barmouth safe.

The CCTV service relies entirely on enthusiastic and driven volunteers like Deana to operate successfully.

There is clear evidence of a reduction in crime in the area due to her work on the CCTV project.

The member of the public who nominated Deana last year said of her: “She has almost single- handedly transformed our small town into probably the safest place to live in North Wales.”

* To nominate your choice for the People’s Award, go the North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner’s website at www.northwales-pcc.gov.uk to complete and return the online form.  Alternatively you can download the form, complete it and return it to The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, Glan-y-Don, Colwyn Bay, LL29 8AW, or by email to opcc@nthwales.pnn.police.uk and remember the closing date is September 25.

Llan now has its own WI Calendar Girls

* Posing with a 1935 Standard car loaned by Llangollen Motor Museum

at the Plas Newydd calendar launch are (front) photographer Kim Price

Evans (left) and Valley Girls WI president Gail Ellson (right).

Other calendar girls are behind them.

LLANGOLLEN now has its own version of the famous WI Calendar Girls.

But instead of posing nude like their counterparts in Yorkshire a few years ago, members of the area’s newest branch of the Women’s Institute donned a range of colourful period costumes to appear alongside some famous local landmarks in their 2016 calendar.

And Valley Girls WI are now selling copies with the aim of raising £1,000 to split between Nightingale House and Hope House hospices.

Llangollen-based professional photographer Kim Price Evans, who took the dozen atmospheric images for the calendar, revealed that although her fellow members kept fully clothed for her shoots, the project did stem from a saucy burlesque workshop she and friend Julie Thomas, who are both accomplished dancers, did for the Valley Girls earlier this year.

* An evocative 1940s type scene at Llangollen
Railway is on the calendar's front cover. 

She said: “We went along to a meeting to do the workshop and the idea of doing a calendar came from that.

“We wanted to create something a bit different, so we decided on a calendar showing famous spots in Llangollen including the heritage railway, the Motor Museum, the Chain Bridge, Plas Newydd, Valle Crucis Abbey, the canal and wharf and the International Pavilion.

“We had members posing in each scene and we reckon we have them wearing costumes depicting most of the decades of the 20^th century, which is appropriate as the WI is celebrating its centenary this year.

“The whole thing began in the spring and has taken quite a few months to complete but it was a lot of fun to do.”         

Valley Girls WI was founded in 2013 by a small group of local thirty-somethings who shared a passion for baking, crafting and socialising.

Its president, Gail Ellson, said: “We have a target of raising at least £1,000 from sales of the calendar which will be split equally between our two local hospices.

“But, apart from supporting these great charities, we also want the calendar to be used as a tool to help market Llangollen.

“We’d like to see businesses buying a stock to distribute to their customers and people using them as Christmas or birthday presents for their friends and family.

“We’ve had an initial print-run of 1,000 copies and they’re already selling well, with orders coming in from as far apart as Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Bagshot in Surrey.”

On hand at the official launch of the calendar at Plas Newydd, historic home of the Ladies of Llangollen, was Chris Andrews of the Nightingale House fundraising team.

He said: “It costs £2.8 million a year to run the hospice and most of that must come from local fundraising, so we are incredibly grateful to the Valley Girls for pledging half the proceeds of their calendar sales to us.”

John Matthews, ambassador for Hope House Hospice, who was also at the launch, said: “We need £4 million a year to keep running and what the Valley Girls are doing for us is much appreciated.”

Copies of the calendar are available via Valley Girls’ website at www.valleygirlswi.co.uk, or by emailing: valleygirlswi@outlook.com  

MP calls on councils to accept refugee families

Susan Elan Jones MP has written to the leaders of Wrexham and Denbighshire councils calling on them to accept 10 refugee families in the light of the current refugee crisis.

The Clwyd South Labour MP has asked Wrexham Council leader Councillor Mark Pritchard and Denbighshire Council leader Councillor Hugh Evans if they would agree to accepting 10 refugee families with Government support.

 

She said: "I certainly don't support open access immigration and I think it is vital that there are strong controls in place before we allow refugees to enter our country legally.

 

"However, what we talking about here is a decent humanitarian response to a tragedy of epic proportions. 

"Germany has already taken 35,000 vulnerable Syrians, Canada has accepted 10,000 and Switzerland has agreed to 3,500. It is shameful that David Cameron's Government here in the UK has only accepted 216 people. 

 

"I know that there is strong support for action in our local area. I really hope that David Cameron's Government acts before more innocent victims die. I also hope that Wrexham and Denbighshire Councils will show their support locally."

Update from the doctors' surgery

 

* New health centre ... opening on September 14.

 

llanblogger has been asked to publish the following update information from Llangollen doctors' surgery ...

 

We are pleased to report that, after a week of frustration, the majority of the problems with our telephones have now been fixed and patients can use our main number – 01978 860625 – again.   

 

We apologise for any inconvenience caused to our patients and would like to thank Ken Skates and his assistant David Goodban for their help in resolving this issue with BT. 

 

We are extremely annoyed and disappointed that we have had to resort to getting our Assembly Member involved in this in order to get a satisfactory response from BT.

 

However, our recorded messages are still not working and we are unable to play our usual “out of hours” message for when we are closed. 

 

Can we please make patients aware, therefore, that should you require urgent medical assistant when we are closed (we are open 8.00am – 6.30pm Monday to Friday), please ring the Out of Hours service on 0300 123 55 66.

 

 

We would also like to make patients aware that the date for the opening of the new Health Centre on Bishops Walk has now been confirmed and the Practice will be up and running there from Monday 14^th September. 

 

Further information is contained in the newsletter below and on our website:  www.llangollenhealth.com.  Copies are also available from reception.

 

 

DR A D EVANS & PARTNERS

 

INFORMATION ABOUT OUR MOVE TO THE NEW HEALTH CENTRE

 

General Information

 

We will open in our new premises on Monday 14^th September.  Our new address is Canolfan Iechyd Llangollen Health Centre, Bishops Walk, Llangollen, LL20 8RZ.  Our telephone number and opening hours will stay the same.

 

Arrangements with Rowlands Pharmacy

 

The intention is that Rowlands Pharmacy will relocate to the new Health Centre.  At the moment, we don’t know when this will be happening and we have therefore agreed some interim arrangements with Rowlands to minimise the impact on patients. 

 

·       As well as dropping off repeat medication requests at the new Health Centre, patients will also be able to do this at Rowlands Pharmacy on Regent St.

 

·        If you usually collect your medication from Rowlands, you will still be able to do this.  Rowlands will be running a daily collection service from the Health Centre, so that they can collect the signed prescriptions from the GP surgery and have your medication ready for you at the pharmacy on Regent St. Please note – you will need to allow at least 72 hours between requesting your repeat medication and collecting it from the pharmacy.

 

·         Rowlands will provide a home delivery service for house-bound patients. Please contact the pharmacy if you are interested in this service. Their telephone number is 01978 860657.

 

When the pharmacy has moved to the new centre, there are plans in place to implement a drop off facility for repeat prescription requests in Y Capel, Castle St, Llangollen.

 

Online Services

 

We already offer online ordering of repeat medication.  We are now also offering online booking of routine GP appointments.  If you are already registered for online ordering of medication, you will automatically have access to online booking of appointments.  If you wish to register for either of these online services, please ask at Reception or give us a call 01978 860625.

 

Travel to the New Health Centre

We are working with the Community Transport Association Wales and other organizations to ensure patients, families and carers have up to date information on the transport options available. Further information on CTA Wales is available from reception.

 

GHA Coaches operates the number 5 bus service which can take patients from Parade St, Llangollen to the new Health Centre. Currently, this runs from Parade St every twenty minutes - on the hour, twenty past the hour and twenty to the hour.

 

A pedestrian crossing has been installed on the A539 (along the Bishops Walk stretch).

 

New incident of criminal damage to cars

Police are appealing for information about criminal damage to two vehicles parked in Vicarage Road, Llangollen.

A warning message to local Neighbourhood Watch members says this happened sometime between 8pm on Saturday August 29 and 11am on Sunday August 30, with the offenders  causing extensive damage to the vehicles.

This comes after a similar incident in which criminal damage was caused to a blue Renault Clio in the car park of Llangollen Youth Club in nearby Willow Street the previous weekend.

A warning from Neighbourhood Watch, highlighted by llanblogger last Saturday, said this incident is thought to have taken place between 5.30 and 11.23pm on Sunday August 23 with what is believed to have been a sharp implement being used to smash all the windows of the vehicle.

If you noticed anything suspicious, or have any information relating to the Vicarage Road incident, contact North Wales Police by dialling 101 quoting reference RC15132481.

Alternatively, you can provide information anonymously by calling Crimestoppers Wales on 0800 555 111. North Wales Police would like to urge residents to always report suspicious activity to them at the earliest opportunity.

 

WI play takes Town Hall audience by storm

THERE’S much more to the Women’s Institute than jam and Jerusalem.

While the preserves and rousing singing have indeed been its mainstays, the organisation has spent the past 100 years having a major influence on a range of social issues from improvements in public health to questioning the easy availability of pornographic literature to children.

The vital part the WI has played in the national way of life was brilliantly portrayed by members of the Mikron Theatre group at Llangollen Town Hall last night (Thursday) as they staged their play, Raising Agents, with which they are touring the country to mark the institute’s centenary.

Although it came to Britain in 1915 just in the nick of time to help out in the First World War, the WI was actually founded in Canada in 1897 by a woman named Adelaide Hoodless who was desperately looking for a way out of isolation following the death of her child.

To commemorate the centenary playwright Maeve Larkin has come up with a masterful piece of drama which seamlessly intersperses seminal scenes from the organisation’s past with the story of a mythical present-day WI in a make-believe town called Bunnington which is struggling to keep going in the face of dwindling membership.  

It was extremely thoughtful at the same time as being hilariously funny.

A hugely talented four-strong Mikron cast nip in and out of a host of characters, starting with the iconic Mrs Hoodless as she battles male prejudice against the fledgling institute in Victorian Canada.   

Next, we were transported back across the Atlantic to First World War Britain where a manic guest speaker shows queasy members how to help combat the Hun by doing in their pet rabbits to make a nice pie.

Later, we’re on a smoke-filled British station as Mikron uses a backcloth of the famous 1940s film Brief Encounter to portray another important WI moment – when the Ministry of Food allocated sugar to the institute so that branches across the country could produce gallons of jam to help keep up national morale.

Then it was on to the Fifties when the institute faced a new challenge to its survival – rock ‘n’ roll and the disinterest in all things seen as old-fashioned by the emerging beat generation.

Each step of the way along the WI’s long journey we were guided by the incredible versatility of the Mikron foursome who not only acted with a touch a magic but also played instruments from an accordion to a flute to accompany themselves in the specially-written songs which illuminated this wonderful production.

The fact that Mikron, who tour on a narrow boat during the summer and by road in the winter, were invited to Llangollen to perform the piece was down to the area’s own Valley Girls WI whose members were on duty during the evening along with ladies from Llangollen WI who, of course, provided tea and some scrumptious cakes.

Gratifyingly, the Town Hall was packed to capacity with WI groups from across North Wales and even the nearer bits of England.   

And, naturally, at the end we all joined in a chorus of the hymn which has become the WI's anthem - Jerusalem.