Castle a popular tourist destination

A trip up to Castell Dinas Bran was a popular excursion for visitors to the town on this sunny Good Friday.

Here, one group enjoys a breather and the spectacular view after their climb to the summit.

Candidate meets mayor and other groups

Welsh Conservative candidate for Clwyd South, Simon Baynes (left), says he had a very good meeting recently at the Hand Hotel with the Mayor, Cllr Mike Adams, Fiona Maher of http://northwalesfaeryfestival.com/ and David Davies, Chairman of the Llangollen Chamber of Trade and Tourism http://www.new.llangollen.org.uk

Mr Baynes added: "This discussion produced many good ideas and points to raise at the postponed meeting with Welsh Minister Lord Bourne which will be held in Llangollen soon."

Redevelopment of old tip site gets underway

WORK to prepare for the redevelopment of the former council refuse tip on the road into Llangollen has started.

One of the area’s county councillors, Stuart Davies, said Denbighshire’s Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) team had received a Heritage Lottery grant to help create a countryside training area on the Wenffryd site off the A539.

And he says he would also like to see the inclusion of extra car parking for visitors to the town along with cycle and footpaths linking the area with the nearby Llangollen Canal towpath and the World Heritage site at Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and perhaps also a football pitch.

Cllr Davies (pictured) said: “The tip closed back in 2008 because of problems of safe access from the main A539, which is a very busy road.

“I’ve been trying for the past four years to get something done with the site and now, at last, things are happening.

“The main aim has been to create a safe access with good visibility and that is now being done as the job of clearing the area around the old tip get underway.

“The AONB people will then have a training facility for countryside maintenance, such as woodcraft, on the site.

“All this is very much a work in progress and I must stress that nothing has yet been agreed, but I’d also like to see extra car parking put in for visitors to the town and foot and cycle paths joining the area up with the nearby canal towpath and eventually the World Heritage site.

“My fellow Llangollen county councillor Rhys Hughes and I would also like to see a football pitch on the site and maybe also an area set aside for wild plants.”   

MP calls for tougher law on bank closures

Susan Elan Jones MP has urged the Government to toughen the law against 'insidious bank closures' in Parliament.

Speaking in a debate in the House of Commons on the budget yesterday (Tuesday), the MP said "It's time we looked very seriously at what happens when banks closes. This is a problem facing many communities and many people."

Ms Jones made her comments after HSBC announced they would close branches in Ruabon and Chirk.

In a separate debate on the Macur Review, the Clwyd South Labour MP, speaking in her role as Shadow Wales Office Minister, also urged judges "not to be soft in sentencing" in cases relating to historic child abuse in North Wales homes.

Local attractions join new gardens festival

* Blooming marvellous: Festival of Gardens organised by North Wales

Tourism at the Hidden Garden Plas Cadnant on Anglesey.

Pictured are Tony Russell, festival co-ordinator, Anthony Tavenor, owner of Plas Cadnant, and Shirley Foulkes, of North Wales Tourism.

Chirk Castle and Erddig are both taking part in a major new gardens festival being launched to attract green fingered tourists to North Wales and tap into a £5 billion market.

From Saturday May 28 until Sunday June 5, gardens which are the jewels in the crowns of Anglesey, Conwy, Gwynedd, Powys and Wrexham will throw open their gates to thousands of visitors during the first ever Festival of Gardens North Wales.

A packed programme of events, ranging from behind the scenes guided tours and gardening workshops to a visit by a vintage steam train will be staged at various gardens as the festival unfolds.

* Chirk Castle gardens are joining the festival.

With more than 20 million gardeners in Britain, the drive to bring the growing garden army to the region is being mounted by North Wales Tourism who believe the festival has huge potential.

The horticultural market is worth £5 billion annually – more than UK people spend on chocolate.

The festival will be officially opened at a ticket only event, with limited numbers, at the beautiful Plas Cadnant Hidden Gardens in Anglesey by celebrity gardener and broadcaster Roy Lancaster CBE VNH.

North Wales Tourism managing director Jim Jones said: “North Wales has some of the most stunning gardens in the UK and this event is all about bringing them together and showing them off to as many people as possible.”   

More than 100 unique events are planned over the nine days of the festival at gardens taking part include musical concerts, historical re-enactments, gardening lectures, photographic workshops, art and sculpture exhibitions, children’s trails, garden inspired poetry and prose, plant sales and prize competitions.

The festival dates have been arranged to coincide with late-spring flowering displays, which will include rhododendrons, azaleas, magnolias, tulips and flowering cherries, making this one of the best times of the year to visit the great gardens of North Wales.

Mr Jones added: “North Wales has some of the most stunning gardens in the whole of the UK, run by a diverse range of organisations including the National Trust and a variety of private owners, with whom we have been collaborating closely to organise this very special event.

“Our aim with the festival, which will be the largest and a most ambitious of its kind ever seen in the region, is to bring them all together under the banner of North Wales.

“The festival has been extensively marketed and we expect to attract thousands of visitors not just from around the gardens but also from a much wider area including other parts of Wales as well as the North West and Midlands of England.

“We have an exciting, fascinating and entertaining programme of events and activities lined up, which means that every morning, afternoon and evening there will be at least one special event happening in one or more of the gardens."

Co-ordinating the festival is North Wales based gardens expert Tony Russell, renowned as one of Britain’s leading experts on trees and shrubs who also makes regular appearances on the BBC’s Gardener’s Question Time and famously put the Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire on the international tourism map.

He said: “I do lots of work encouraging people to visit gardens across the UK and find that although lots of people are familiar with those in places like Cornwall or Kent, they don’t know too much about the ones in North Wales.

“They know about the region’s other attractions such as castles, steam railways, mountains and coastlines but not our gardens, which are some of the finest in the UK.

“With the festival our aim is to wave the flag for North Wales’s fantastic gardens.

“The thing about the gardens we are featuring is that they are all set in such a great landscape and because of the conditions we enjoy they contain varieties plants that can’t be found in lots of other areas of the UK.

“We’re blessed with the three things that make the difference – plenty of moisture due to the closeness of the coast, mild winters and acid soil.

“That means plants such as agapanthus, magnolias and camellias, which usually grow up in more exotic parts of the world like South Africa, flourish in North Wales.

“Gardens are also big business now, with 30 million day visits being made to gardens across the UK every year. And of the 30 million overseas visitors coming to Britain annually 11 million visit a garden.”

Delighted to be taking part in the festival is Anthony Tavernor, owner of Plas Cadnant in Menai Bridge, Angeley.

His famous walled garden took a severe battering from floods which hit the area last December, washing away a 200-year-old wall and rare plants.

But Mr Tavernor, who has been restoring the gardens for 20 years, said repair work was currently well in hand.

“Things are going full steam ahead and there are lots of things going on to get the gardens restored,” he explained.

“We’re giving our full support to the festival and are delighted to have the launch here on May 28.

“The aim is to establish North Wales are a place to visit a range of beautiful gardens and to show people that we have some of the best in the UK because of our good growing conditions.” 

Gardening legend Roy Lancaster, who will open the festival, said: “I’ve been visiting the gardens of North Wales for the past 60 years and they are definitely some of the most attractive in Britain.

“The festival is all about showing them off to a wider audience and I’m looking forward very much to the official opening, particularly as it’s at Plas Cadnant, which has had a phoenix-like resurrection after being damaged so badly by the terrible floods.

“From what I hear they’ve really worked wonders there and I can’t wait to see it.

“The festival is unique in North Wales and should therefore do very well, especially as it features so many wonderful gardens and will be offering a very wide range of attractions.

“Garden festivals generally are becoming extremely popular these days and I’m sure this one will help put North Wales even more firmly on the UK’s tourist map.”   

Taking part in the festival from the county of Wrexham are Chirk Castle and National Trust Erddig.

Gardens from the county of Gwynedd include Plas Brondanw at Penrhyndeudraeth, Crug Farm Plants near Caernarfon, Plas yn Rhiw in Pwllheli, Plan Tan y Blwch in Blaenau Ffestiniog, Caerau Uchaf Gardens in Bala, Portmeirion in Penrhyndeudraeth, Aber Arto Hall in Llanbedr, Penrhyn Castle in Llandegai and, via its website only, Nanharon in Pwllheli.

In the county of Anglesey are Plas Newydd in Llanfairpwll and Plas Cadnant in Menai Bridge.

Gardens from the county of Conwy involved are Bodnant at Tal y Cafn, Gwydir Castle at Llanrwst, the Welsh Mountain Zoo's gardens in Colwyn Bay and the Conwy Valley Maze at Dolgarog.

In the county of Powys there’s Gregynog at Newtown, the Centre for Alternative Technology at Machynlleth, Powis Castle and The Dingle Garden near Welshpool.

* For more information go to www.gardensnorthwales.co.uk/events

Railway volunteers work through the winter

* Volunteers at work on a section of lineside.

Over the winter Llangollen Railway has put in a large amount of work to manage the vegetation growing along the lineside.

"This is a regular but often 'behind the scenes' part of railway operations and enables the travelling public to see the superb countryside through which the railway runs instead of a green corridor," said railway spokesman Peter Dickinson.

"A dedicated group of volunteers have cleared the shrubs, trees and overhanging branches from both ends of Berwyn Tunnel, making the approaches to it much lighter and drier.

"The immediate benefit for photographers is that the view from the dedicated Lineside Viewing Area, opened last year, at the eastern end of the tunnel has been much improved.

"Between March 10 and 13 a shredder was hired in to tackle the lineside between Berwyn station and the tunnel, making light work of the vegetation growing on the embankments.

"This has dramatically improved the view from the train of the Horseshoe Falls and the Llantysilio mountains, whilst restoring the lineside back to its original Great Western Railway and British Railways condition."

AM demands action on mobile signal problems

An AM has called on regulators and phone companies to act urgently to address loss of services in Wrexham and the Dee Valley.

Ken Skates said mobile customers in his Clwyd South constituency are reporting regular and repeated losses of reception throughout the area.

BT customers have also bemoaned a slowdown in broadband speeds, he added.

The Labour Assembly Member, who is based in Llangollen, said: “I've been inundated with complaints about mobile networks not operating properly across the area, especially in the Dee Valley.

“Mobile signals are crucial for many people and for businesses, so I have demanded urgent action to restore networks immediately.

"I've also written to the UK Government, demanding that we benefit from the service obligation for networks to provide 4G to 95% of customers by the end of next year.”

Mr Skates added: “I also have concerns with the loss of speed for many broadband customers, along with the inability of others to be able to connect to the internet, so I have also asked BT to take swift action to rectify the situation.”

Mr Skates said he has gathered a huge number of concerns throughout the Dee Valley and Wrexham area, including via Facebook page Llangollen Noticeboard.

He added: “The lack of coverage is threatening businesses and essential services and affecting people throughout the valley. It needs resolving now.”