Methodists enjoy lunch at the White Waters

* Methodist Church members concentrate on naming the flags at their New Year lunch at the White Waters Hotel.

More than 50 members of Llangollen Methodist Church gathered at the White Waters Hotel yesterday (Sunday) for their annual New Year lunch.

After enjoying a buffet meal, they took part in a general knowledge quiz organised by Gill Newbrook and then tackled the poser of putting names to a series of national flags from around Europe.

Public meetings will discuss HSBC branch closures

 

* Simon Baynes, left, with Shaun Roberts at the HSBC branch in Ruabon.  

 

Two public meetings are planned for later this week to discuss the closure of HSBC bank branches in in Chirk and Ruabon - both of which will affect people in Llangollen.  

 

The meetings have been organised by Simon Baynes, the Welsh Conservative Assembly Candidate for Clwyd South.

 

Last week, following the closure announcement, Mr Baynes and a team of local helpers distributed 1,500 copies of a residents’ survey on community banking in Chirk and Ruabon.

 

He says demand for the survey from shops, local businesses and residents was very strong and shows the depth of concern in the communities about the closures.

 

Helped by residents such as Lynne Hughes in Chirk, who has the shop M.G.Hughes Fruit & Veg on Church Street, Mr Baynes has arranged the public meetings, at the Parish Hall, Chirk on Thursday January 14 at 7pm, and at St Mary’s Church and Community Hall in Ruabon on Friday January 15 at 7pm. 

 

Mr Baynes said: "Our residents' survey in Chirk and Ruabon provides an opportunity for the com munity to show how important the banks are to their daily lives.

 

"There was huge demand for the surveys today and local residents, shops and businesses in both communities are very concerned about the banks’ closures.

 

"The surveys come with a Freepost envelope for their return to us and we will communicate the results to HSBC. The survey can also be filled in on my website - http://www.simonbaynes.co.uk/campaigns/hsbc-bank-closures

 

"We are pleased to be working with people locally in both communities in organising these public meetings which will give an opportunity to local residents and businesses to express their worries.

 

"We are inviting HSBC to both meetings and hope that representatives can be present next week or on a future occasion to hear their customers’ concerns, many of whom have been loyal and longstanding clients of the bank."

 

Museum stages art competition

Scrapyard survivor stars at Llan steam gala

* Loco No. 7820 Dinmore Manor will appear at

Llangollen Railway's Spring Steam Gala. 

A LOCO which powered its way back from the scrapyard will star in the Spring Steam gala at Llangollen Railway.

Manor class No. 7820 Dinmore Manor will be the second visiting engine at the event which runs from Friday-Sunday, April 8-10.

Built at Swindon in 1950, it was the first of 10 of these 4-6-0s built by British Railways following the original batch of 20 (numbered 7800 to 7819) for the GWR in 1938.

After being withdrawn from service in 1965, it languished in a South Wales scrapyard until being purchased for preservation in 1979.

The loco is currently based on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway and is visiting courtesy of Dinmore Manor Locomotive Ltd.

Subject to completion of its major overhaul, it is hoped that the heritage railway’s resident Manor class loco No. 7822 Foxcote Manor will also be in operation during the gala.

As well as the two black-liveried Manors, there will also be two ex-GWR Prairie class locomotives in operation.

Small Prairie loco No. 4566 will be visiting from the Severn Valley Railway, courtesy of the 4566 Fund, and will make an interesting comparison with Llangollen’s resident Large Prairie loco No. 5199.

* Full gala details will be announced in due course at: http://www.llangollen-railway.co.uk/event/spring-steam-gala-8th-april/

Town scenes feature in Llan panto

* Tessa Orton Jones, left, as the Ace of Spades and Jo Potts as the Mad Hatter.

SCENES from around Llangollen will feature in this year's town pantomime, as the local group stages Alice in Wonderland.

Final rehearsals are underway for the show which opens at Llangollen Pavilion on Thursday, January 14 for five performances.

It's the first time Llangollen Pantomime Group has performed Alice in Wonderland, which last year celebrated 150 years since the book was first published in 1865.

 

* The Mac Cat played by
Neil Barrett. 

This production is billed as the traditional story with a modern twist, featuring well-known buildings, locations and references from around Llangollen as well as bush-tucker trials.

Hits from across the decades will provide the sound-track, opening with Do You Love Me from the 1960s, and will be accompanied by a live band.

Alice in Wonderland's co-director, Nico Decourt from Abbey Road, Llangollen, said: “The show features well-known songs and music from every decade since the 1960s including last year's hit Uptown Funk.

“For a 90s theme we're looking to the Manchester band Oasis for inspiration and have renamed the Cheshire Cat in the story of Alice in Wonderland, the Manc cat, as a tribute to the band. The cast and crew are rehearsing very hard to ensure this pantomime is the best ever.”

Alice in Wonderland is the 33rd production by the Llangollen Pantomime Group, which was started by St Collen's Church in 1983.

Entire families regularly participate in the production with parents and grandparents performing or working backstage alongside their children and grandchildren.

The show runs from Thursday, January 14 to Sunday, January 17 at Llangollen Pavilion.

Doors 7pm, show 7.30pm, Saturday and Sunday matinee (doors open 2pm, show 2.30pm).

Tickets: Thursday, £6 and £4, other times, £8 and £6.

For the first time, tickets are available online at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/llangollenpanto and from Jades Hair & Beauty, Llangollen or Gwyn Davies (Butchers), Llangollen. You can also reserve tickets by calling 01978 860297.

Plaid candidate raises bank closure concerns

The failure of HSBC’s online banking system has raised fresh concerns about the bank’s decision to close local branches at Ruabon and Chirk.

Mabon ap Gwynfor, Plaid Cymru, the Party Of Wales' candidate for Clwyd South, (pictured) said the bank’s on-going programme of local branch closures had been justified by executives on the grounds that online banking was available.

 

He said: “The communities served by both Chirk and Ruabon banks will be reeling from the news that HSBC are planning to close their branches there.

 

"This decision will undoubtedly have a detrimental effect on those communities, especially local businesses, the elderly and those on low income.

 

"What's worse is that the bank cites increased online banking as one of their reasons for closing. However, only this week John Hackett, Chief Operating Officer of HSBC in the UK, had to issue an apology because of internet failures in their banking system."

Last year research carried put by Mabon ap Gwynfor revealed that one in six people in Wrexham area had never been online.

 

According to the ONS report, Internet Users 2015, age is a factor as to whether an adult has used the internet.

 

Mabon added: “There is a clear digital divide in our society, with the elderly and disabled most likely to be excluded from the digital revolution and consequently losing out on basic information and eventually key services.

 

"We have seen many banks close in our communities over the last few years, and in each case we are told that it is because more and more people go online.

 

“The fact however is that many of those that rely on local bank branches are elderly and vulnerable people, and they are the least likely to be online."

Mabon ap Gwynfor has set up a petition to keep the last two HSBC banks in the whole of the constituency, http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/keep-ruabon-hsbc-bank/signatures.html

Market Street to get 15 extra parking spaces

* Market Street car park is to get 15 extra spaces.

Llangollen county councillor Stuart Davies has welcomed news that 15 extra spaces are to be created at the town’s Market Street car park.

He has been told to by county officers that nine will be added by marking out in the area where the recycling bins were previously stored, on the easterly end of the longest double bank of spaces and the removal of the redundant kerbed island near the back or southerly end of the car park.

Another six spaces will be created in the area occupied by the garages which have now been demolished.

The officers said that the council is awaiting an exact date from the contractor but was hopeful the work should take place within the next few weeks.

Cllr Davies said: ““I have been pushing for these car park spaces for the last three years and am pleased to see that the works at Market St car park are finally coming to a satisfactory conclusion.

“This will give, in total, an extra 15 much needed spaces in the middle of town.”