Don't make unnecessary 999 calls say police

Emergency services are pooling their resources in a bid to reduce the amount of unnecessary and inappropriate calls made to the Joint Communication Centre in St Asaph over Christmas.

In addition to the police and fire officers, a paramedic and a mental health worker will be based in the control room over the busiest days to be tactical advisers to the Force Incident Manager.

Supt Alex Goss said: “Traditionally Christmas and New Year are among the busiest times of year for the police, fire and ambulance and we are asking everyone to be mindful before dialling 999.

“This year we will have a multi-agency desk. The additional assistance from the mental health workers will mean we have professional advisors available to us if anyone is threatening harm or at risk they can provide the appropriate advice, thus taking the pressures off police officers.

“78% of the calls into the control room are not crime related. This is a massive drain on resources, so anything that can help to reduce the extra demand is beneficial to the public and the service provided.

"People are always encouraged to use 999 in a genuine emergency and never put themselves at risk.
For those people who do not have an emergency please use the single non-emergency 101 number.

“We don’t want to deter anyone from calling 999, but we want them to think twice before they do.We are asking people to use the system wisely to help ensure a genuine emergency is not missed over the holidays.”

Live web chat is catching on as more and more people use it to talk to North Wales Police.

Since the service was introduced at the beginning of July, over 400 people have used the live web chat facility to report various things to the force.

Live web chat is also now a 24 hour service that allows visitors to the North Wales Police website to communicate with control room staff in real time, via on-screen messages.

Call Centre Manager, Paul Shea said: “With over 400 people using the service since it was introduced in July people are obviously becoming aware that online reporting is a good alternative way of contacting North Wales Police.

“One of its big benefits is that it’s good for the deaf or hard of hearing community, as well as non-English/Welsh speakers who may not feel comfortable speaking to someone.”

The live web chat runs alongside the facility to ‘Report an incident online’, which are different methods of trying to cope with demands, but in an emergency people should always call 999, which runs on a separate system.

The service is intended for non-emergency enquiries, providing quick and positive feedback.

Operatic sings carols around the town

* Members of Llangollen Operatic Society helped people to get into the seasonal spirit by singing carols around pubs in the town last night (Tuesday). Here, they give voice to another stirring number at the Wynnstay Arms.

Sunday club donates to Llan foodbank

* Sunday club members hand over their donation to Llangollen Foodbank.

Members of Bethel Chapel, Cynwyd's Sunday Club, have donated a large box full of food to Matt's Foodbank, Llangollen, in readiness for Christmas and to finish off their Sunday Club project.

The Sunday Club has been collecting donations for the foodbank at the Cynwyd Shop and Post Office as part of a learning project.

Matt's Foodbank provides emergency food and support for people and families in crisis,and covers communities from Corwen through to Chirk.

It is based at the City Church in Brook Street, Llangollen and is open Mondays and Fridays between 11am and 1pm.

Mabon ap Gwynfor, one of the Sunday Club coordinators, said: "The children have been learning stories from the Bible for some time, and enjoying playing with each other on Sunday mornings in a safe environment.

"But they felt that they should put what they have learnt into practice.

"One Sunday we were learning about Jesus feeding the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish, and starting discussing the relevance of this to us today, and how we could share more and help others.

"That's when they settled on this project to collect donations for Matt's Foodbank, which also helps our small community.

"The Village Shop and Post Office in Cynwyd also helped out a lot by letting us have our box there for donations."

Recent figures show that dependency on foodbanks is on the rise in Wales.
The charity Trussell Trust, which co-ordinates foodbanks across the UK, say that between April and September 2015 the number of people in Wales to whom they supplied three days' emergency food stood at 39,245.

That's a rise on the previous figure between the same dates last year, when 39,168 people received three days' emergency food.

Matt's Foodbank in Llangollen is built on simple Christian principles of compassion, honesty, kindness and care of all people.

Others wishing to donate food to Matt's Foodbank can do so at the church itself on Brook Street, Llangollen, or at Canolfan Ni, Corwen.

It would welcome breakfast cereals, biscuits, dried pasta, dried rice, Smash, sugar, tinned fish, tinned meat, tinned vegetables, and tins of soup,beans, spaghetti, fruit, rice pudding, evaporated milk, custard, small jars of coffee, tea and long-life milk.

Winter's Tales at Methodist Church

United carol service this Sunday

* Llangollen Town Hall: venue for the carol service this Sunday evening.

A united carol service involving churches of different denominations in Llangollen will be held at the Town hall this Sunday evening.

Refreshments will be served from 5pm and the service begins at 6pm.

Musical accompaniment will be provided by Llangollen Silver band.

Organisers say everyone is welcome.

Christmas play with a difference comes to St Collen’s

* St Collen's Church. 

A maverick vicar who approaches large companies to sponsor the nativity play at the church school, gets more than he bargained for. 

A leading children’s clothing store asks him to create two Jesuses, a baby and a toddler variety, so that they can show case their whole range.

A large car salesroom also responds positively on condition that he gives the Holy Family a car.

These are just two of the problems faced by Vicar Joe in Peter Read’s fictitious comedy, The No No Nativity, which will be performed at St Collens Church Llangollen tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday. The play is a double hander between Vicar Joe (Dave Edgar) and the school governor Marjorie Pritchard (Paula Sutton).

It was first performed at the Grand Theatre Swansea in 2010 and has been reprised by The Grown In Wales Theatre Company in a mini tour throughout North Wales.

The two final performances will be at St Collen’s this weekend.

In the play, a school choir sings two Christmas songs and they will be performed by Gwernant Primary School on Friday and Ysgol Bryn Collen on Saturday.

Peter Read is a Wrexham-born playwright who has won awards for his work, including five-star reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe for his plays about Dylan Thomas.

He also wrote and directed the play about the Ladies of Llangollen performed at Plas Newydd this summer after being previewed at the Eisteddfod.

Grown in Wales present The No No Nativity is at St Collen’s Church Llangollen on Friday December 18 and Saturday 19 at 7pm. Tickets are £6 and £5 concessions. For advance tickets, call 01978 861768 or pay on the door.

Councillor's concern over Llan buses

One of the area’s county councillors has asked that issues related to the operation of some buses in Llangollen should be referred to a watchdog body.

Cllr Stuart Davies (pictured) said: “I am really concerned about the issues that are arising from GHA buses.

“I arranged for the operator to come to Llangollen last week to meet with passengers to discuss their issues and the attendance was very high.

“We were assured that the issues were being addressed but they seem to be on-going.

“Denbighshire County Council unfortunately no longer has control of bus companies and routes but can only point people to the Traffic Commissioners.

“I am asking our officers to put these concerns to the Traffic Commissioners and to ask that they be dealt with in a strong and forthright way.”

Llanblogger has asked GHA for a comment.