Early bird Fringe tickets now on sale

One of the biggest UK ska bands from its heyday in the late seventies and early eighties, The Selecter,  launches this year’s Llangollen Fringe music programme on Thursday July 14.

The band were regularly at the top of the charts with songs such as Too Much Pressure, On My Radio and Three Minute Hero.

Organisers reckon they are certain to get the Fringe off to a great start for this year’s  12-day festival. 

Jah Wobble is also confirmed to play on Saturday July 16. In his early days he joined forces with John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols.

Early Bird Fringe tickets are now on sale from the beginning of March until Easter and will allow entry into all evening concerts during the festival.

The ticket also includes a journey on the Orange Blossom Special, a chartered train on the Llangollen Steam Railway with a country and western theme and entry to the Fringe’s own acoustic festival, Fringe Acoustica. 

More details of this year’s programme will appear on the website, www.llangollenfringe.co.uk.

A limited number of Early Bird tickets are being sold online at £70 from today until the end of March.

This is a big saving on the full ticket price for each individual event.

Attending just four of the 14 events will already see you making savings on the entry price, according to festival organisers. 

County to increase parking charges from April 1

Denbighshire County Council is informing residents of an increase in parking charges in its pay and display car parks – the first to be  introduced in over seven years.

The new charges are being introduced from April 1, and the details are:

Short stay car parks

	Current		New
Up to 30 mins	10p	Up to 30 mins	30p
Up to 1 hr	50p	Up to 1 hr	£1
Up to 4 hrs	£1	Up to 3 hrs	£2
Over 4 hrs	£7	Over 3 hrs	£7

Long Stay car parks

	Current		New
Up to 30 mins	10p	Up to 30 mins	30p
Up to 1 hr	50p	Up to 1 hr	£1
Up to 4 hrs	£1	Up to 3 hrs	£1.50
Over 4 hrs	£3.50	Over 3 hrs	£3.50

The cost of daily parking and parking permits will remain the same.

Further details of the new pricing system and any local variations will be posted on pay and display machines over the coming days and will also appear on the council’s website: www.denbighshire.gov.uk from April 1.

Councillor David Smith, Cabinet Lead Member for Environment, said: “In Denbighshire, we have been proud of the fact that we have not increased car parking charges for over seven years. However, the economic climate has changed and we have needed to look at car parking charges like every other area of the council’s work.

“We still believe the slight increases provides good value for money, with our charging regime similar to those in other counties in North Wales and actually remains cheaper than others.

“The charges will create a greater price difference between short stay and long stay car parks, which should result in a greater turnover of spaces in short stay car parks. This, in turn, should assist local businesses in our town centres and continue to encourage local shoppers and visitors to park in our car parks."

Tory leader opens facelifted tea rooms

* From left to right: Cihan Oguz, Maria Florin, Paul Davies,

Ahmet Guven, Andrew RT Davies, Mehmet Ilik,

Simon Baynes and Meliksah Logoglu.

Andrew RT Davies AM, Leader of the Welsh Conservatives, opened the newly refurbished Cottage Tea Rooms in Castle Street, Llangollen on Saturday morning.

He was accompanied by Simon Baynes, Welsh Conservative Assembly Candidate for Clwyd South, and met Ahmet Guven and Mehmet Ilik, who run the business which is also a bistro, and their team.

Simon Baynes said: “I know the team at the Cottage Tea Rooms very well and have watched them build up and invest in their business, culminating in this extensive refurbishment. You always get a very warm welcome from Ahmet and Mehmet and their team who work very hard, opening the Cottage Tea Rooms seven days a week. They are very popular with local residents and visitors alike.”  

Andrew RT Davies, who was in town for the Welsh Conservative conference at the Pavilion, said:

"It was a great pleasure for me to open the newly refurbished Cottage Tea Rooms in the centre of Llangollen. I was really impressed by the high quality of the refurbishment - and by the delicious Welsh cakes! It was very good to chat with Ahmet and Mehmet and all their team and hear more about their ambitious plans for expanding the business further in the future. I wish them every success.

"Small businesses are the lifeblood of the Welsh economy. Welsh Conservatives would lead the most small business friendly government ever - supporting ventures like the Cottage Tea Rooms, which clearly play a key role in attracting visitors to the beautiful town of Llangollen and the constituency of Clwyd South.

"By abolishing business rates for all small businesses, and ensuring all Government policies are small-business proofed, we can lease new life into local economies, create more jobs and back more businesses like the Cottage Tea Rooms." 

Welsh Office Minister at tourism seminar

Simon Baynes, Welsh Conservative Assembly Candidate for Clwyd South, is inviting people to join a roundtable meeting on tourism, food and drink with the Welsh Office Minister Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on Thursday March 17 at 12 noon in the Denbigh Suite at the Hand Hotel, Bridge Street, Llangollen.

Mr Baynes says the meeting will last for just over an hour.

Lord Nick Bourne is the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales where his responsibilities include tourism, heritage and culture, environment and rural affairs.

He was previously the Leader of the Opposition and of the Welsh Conservatives in the Welsh Assembly.

Mr Baynes said: "He knows Llangollen and our part of Wales very well and you can see more about him via this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/people/lord-bourne-of-aberystwyth

"If you would like to attend, please contact me on baynes@bodfach.com, or 07880 786573 and I will reserve you a place at the meeting."

MP says yōkoso to Japanese visitors

Susan Elan Jones MP welcomed a group of young Japanese business people to her Clwyd South constituency as they stopped off to visit Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.

The group were on a familiarisation trip to Britain to visit different destinations and meet with around 300 businesses at a flagship business event.

The Clwyd South Labour MP, who worked in Japan after leaving university, said: "I once worked in Japan so I was particularly delighted to meet with a group of young business visitors from that country.

"I am so pleased that the group got to see our wonderful World Heritage Site, Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.

"The visitors asked many different questions, but one that seemed to be of great interest was our membership of the EU. I suppose that isn't surprising when you think of how many jobs and how much business investment in our country is dependent on our being in the EU." 

Timothy Jenkins, Senior Tourism Affairs Executive of Visit Britain, who organised the visit said: "I am delighted that Susan Elan Jones MP was able to meet with the group of Japanese travel traders who came to North Wales. The group were very impressed and grateful that Susan welcomed them to Wales in Japanese." 

* Susan Elan Jones MP with young Japanese business visitors near Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.

Twenty Club present 1930s drama with true grit

It really was grim up north in the 1930s.

Especially so if you lived in the deprivation ghetto of Hankey Park in Salford, had next to no money and few prospects of getting any because you didn’t have a job.

It was an even grimmer prospect being in love against all these odds.

* Chris Sims and Louise Bosanquet in Love on the Dole.

And that is exactly the message of Love on the Dole, the latest and very gritty drama production from Llangollen Twenty Club at the Town Hall.

Penned by Ronald Gow and Walter Greenwood, it reflects the desperation and frustration of trying to live some semblance of a normal life against the background of an economic depression that was so awful that it makes our own recent recession look like, well, a walk in Hankey Park.

The 16-strong Twenty Club cast tackle this thought-provoking piece with sensitivity and, when called for, displays of real power.

For almost half of them it was their first time on stage but all of the debutantes make a good impression, particularly Louise Bosanquet who does an excellent job with the leading female role, Sally, the real driving force behind the suffering Hardcastle family who provides the cash and the inspiration for them all to keep battling on against unemployment and despair.

Louise looks and acts the part of a stalwart Lancashire lass with a real conviction that belies her lack of stage experience.

There was plenty of support for her in the shape of old hand Chris Sims as her love interest, the somewhat hapless Larry Meath who is ultimately just too good for his own good.

Another Twenty Club favourite Arwel Tanant Jarvis takes the role of the oafish Mr Hardcastle, who can’t quite grasp the fact that economic doom has robbed him of his traditional role as head of the household, doing so with aplomb.

The part of his long-suffering wife is taken by Helen Belton, showing exactly the same flair for hard stuff like this as she did when producing the comedic tour de force of Cybil in the group’s last production of Fawlty Towers.

The interplay between these two actors in one of the final angry scenes is one of the highpoints of the night.

Further accomplished performances come from young Aron Roberts, another stage first-timer who turns in a neat portrayal of the teenage Harry Hardcastle whose formative years are marred by grinding hopelessness, and David Edgar as the flash bookie Sam Grundy whose slimy chicanery makes him odds-on favourite to be a great baddie.

All the supporting cast members are strong and completely believable, as are, thankfully, the Lancashire accents.

Sets are little short of brilliant and the attention given to creating the Hardcastles’ grim kitchen is admirable.

Love on the Dole, directed superbly by Barry Cook assisted by Mike Law who also makes a cameo stage appearance as a drunk, is another very neat piece of drama from the Twenty Club.

It’s been on since Thursday and has its final performance this evening (Saturday) at 7.30pm.   

New youth choir set for launch

TALENTED youngsters are tuning up for the launch of a new youth choir for Llangollen.

It’s been jointly orchestrated by Amanda Morgan Thomas and Elen Mair Roberts of the famous Flintshire County Junior Choir to start the group which is due to have its first vocal workshop at the town’s International Pavilion on Tuesday April 5.  

Amanda said: “I’m delighted to be working with Elen in getting Llangollen Youth Choir off the ground.

“We have some pretty talented young singers locally who regularly perform with Llangollen Operatic Society’s junior section, the Young ‘Uns, and annually with Llangollen Panto Group.

“We hope that this new choir, meeting regularly throughout the year, will only further enhance their already

“I’ve seen Elen in action with Flintshire Youth Choir.  She works the choristers hard but rehearsals are great fun too. 

“They all sing off-copy and are expected to work in between rehearsals too in order to make good progress. outstanding quality and give our kids an amazing platform to sing their socks off.

“There is a Denbighshire Youth Choir but it is based in Rhyl which is a fair distance for families based in the south of the county.

“Many small local primary schools feed into local high schools and it’s a great opportunity to get stuck into a new venture, make some outstanding sounds and most importantly make new friends along the way as they move towards their chosen secondary school.

“We’re also keen to give the kids some self-selection opportunities too. Every year, although there will be set pieces to produce a balanced programme, we’ll have a shortlist of fun stuff that the choristers can select.

“We’ll also be recruiting amongst them for some extra roles like section reps and social media officers to set up and run our Facebook Page.”

Amanda added: “We’re holding our first workshop on April 5 during the Easter break at the Llangollen International Pavilion. It’s from 10am-2pm and full details are on-line at www.llangollenyouthchoir.com.

“After that, for those that are interested in joining up, rehearsals will be monthly with breaks every August and January.

“In time we’ll probably be looking for sponsorship but for now we’re just excited to be working together voluntarily to get this off the ground. 

“This is a mixed choir so we’re looking for musical boys and girls in current school years of 5, 6, 7 and 8. Numbers will be limited so please check online for registration details and costs.

“My daughter Manon is a great singer, getting to the National Urdd finals last year in Cardiff and winning at regionals again this year, and she’ll be the first - and officially the youngest - chorister we get to sign up.

“She even designed the logo for us she’s so keen to help us get going on the project.”