Berwyn Station takes a trip into the past

* The waiting room restored to its Edwardian glory.

A small but dedicated bunch of railway volunteers have been hard at work restoring the iconic Berwyn station back to its Edwardian glory.

Built for the convenience of local landowners in 1865, the station soon became a popular stop for holidaymakers and tourists to the Dee Valley, due to its close proximity to the Horseshoe Falls, Chain Bridge and associated Hotel. 

However, in the 1950s the station building closed to the public and after the Ruabon to Barmouth railway line closed in the 1960s, the station gradually fell into disrepair.  Trains returned to Berwyn in 1985 thanks to the efforts of the Llangollen Railway and work has progressed in restoring the station back to its former glory.

Recently efforts have been focussing on the former ticket office, with a replica wooden counter having been commissioned and installed last winter.

Period fixtures and fittings have been painstakingly sourced from all over the UK, so that the room now resembles how it would have looked in the early 1900s. In the restored waiting room, traditional oil lamps are in the process of being installed, to compliment the surviving large original fireplace. 

The station will be open this weekend, with volunteers on-hand to recreate the workings of a traditional country station in the steam age. Enjoy cream teas in the station tea room, explore the riverside walks or take a nostalgic trip along the preserved Llangollen Railway. Steam hauled trains depart from Berwyn towards Corwen at 10.48, 13.08 and 15.18, and towards Llangollen at 12.10, 14.30 and 16.40.

In the underpass to the Chain Bridge at the eastern end of Berwyn station, there are poignant reminders of local sacrifice during the First World War. The white-glazed bricks that line the underpass seem to have taken pencil marks readily, with some of the still legible messages dating from 1914 - 1918.
 
One message is signed by R.Roberts in July 1913. Next to it and dated 25 December 1914, is written Lance Corporal R.Roberts - suggesting he had enlisted, been promoted and returned for Christmas leave. 

One message says "Berlin last stop", another is signed "Balls from Belgium". One is signed A. J. Candy – an Alfred James Candy is honoured on Llangollen’s War Memorial (unveiled by Capt. Best of Vivod on July 8th 1923) as having fallen in action. Four out of eleven soldiers' names that have been researched appear on the war memorial.

As a mark of respect, a commemorative poppy wreath will also be on display at Berwyn, along with an authentic GWR personnel stretcher.

Councillor's daughter wins top national award

The daughter of a Llangollen county councillor has taken one of the top honours in major national awards.

Sarah-Alice Davies (pictured), whose father is Stuart Davies, landed the title of Graduate of the Year in the 2016 Oil and Gas UK Awards the winners of which were announced in Aberdeen.

A former pupil of Ysgol Bryn Collen and Ysgol Dinas Bran in the town, 27-year-old Sarah-Alice graduated with a first class masters degree in Chemistry from Bath University in 2010.

She is currently an engineer working for the design department of Shell UK Ltd.

Awards judges heard how she became one of the first graduates to attain two international postings in difficult, remote locations.

Her competence has given her the opportunity to deliver the first shale oil to the Middle East from Jordan’s deserts and supervise rig and interventions operations in the jungles of Gabon.  

At the presentation evening, she described how while managing a team of local operatives in Gabon she identified the high level of competence shown by one man and helped secure his promotion after 20 years, adding: “It was pretty amazing to see his reaction.”

She also spoke of having to cope with elephants and gorillas along with leopards sleeping on pipelines while based in Gabon.

Sarah-Alice said: “As a young person finishing university you’re full of excitement and energy and you need to utilise every day.

“If you have the opportunity to go international I think you should definitely see the world.

“Experiencing different cultures, languages and religions is the way to win people over.”      

Twenty Club's Vicar of Dibley raises a litany of laughs

* The cast of The Vicar of Dibley.

Some truly inspired casting allowed Llangollen’s Twenty Club to present a divine piece of comedy with The Vicar of Dibley at the Town Hall last night.

This meant that each of the key characters in this ecclesiastical romp so familiar to fans of the smash-hit TV series was portrayed by actors of such competence – both experienced and new – that their parts fitted them like well-worn cassocks.

And this made for some truly hilarious results.

Revving up the laughs in the title role of Geraldine Granger, the lady vicar who arrives unexpectedly to take over the parish following the death of a long-serving incumbent, was the marvellous Louise Cielecki, a veteran of many local am dram performances and fresh out of drama school.

While paying due homage to Dawn French who made the part famous on the box, she also managed to come up with her own nuanced interpretation of the role which at times brought the audience to the verge of tears of laughter.

Another rip-snorting cameo was provided by Chris Sims as Jim Trott. No, no, no, no, er, yes, yes, it was. He had the dithering parish council member off to a tee, gruff voice, stooped posture and all.

There can’t be many young amateur actresses out there who could have handled so competently the role of dotty parish verger Alice Tinker as 17-year-old Carys Stallard. Again, this uncannily accurate portrayal of TV original Emma Chambers can only have come as the result of many hours of keen observation.

Those old Vicar of Dibley recordings must truly be worn out by now as it was the same happy story with Eric Jones who brilliantly doubled for John Bluthal playing the bumbling, bow-tied parish clerk Frank Pickle.

In his first play with the Twenty Club Graham Smith also shone brightly as foul-mouthed farmer Owen Newitt. He looked, spoke and moved so much like the late great Roger Lloyd-Pack who took the role on the telly that he could hardly fail to wring out the same abundance of laughs from this script.

Another relative newcomer who went down a storm as Hugo  Horton, the scatter-brained son of the lord of the manor, was Dan Pedley who we’re clearly going to be seeing much more of in the future.

Helping bind everything together with consummate skill were old hands Barry Cook as David Horton and Chris Dukes as Letitia Cropley whose well-intentioned but eccentrically flavoured culinary creations must have poisoned more people than a shedload of Borgia women.

At the end of the evening our sides were aching from the ministrations of the Vicar of Dibley and her crazy flock who held services on Thursday, Friday and two on Saturday.

And apart from the enormously talented team who created this litany of laughter we must also say a big thank you to Lyn Aston who directed the piece and John Clifford who served as her assistant.  

Bikers raise cash for Wales Air Ambulance

* Alyson Wynn, left, accepts the £1,130 cheque from LlanBikeFest's Debbie Rogers.  

Generous bikers raised £1,130 in a raffle for Wales Air Ambulance at the Llangollen Motorcycle Festival - LlanBikeFest 2016 – in July.

And organisers have pledged that next year’s event, at the town’s Royal Pavilion on August 5 and 6, will be even bigger and better.

Wales Air Ambulance community co-ordinator Alyson Winn said: “We are totally dependent on donations from the public to keep our helicopters flying, so we greatly appreciate this contribution. We thoroughly enjoyed LlanBikeFest 2016 and we are looking forward to 2017.”

Debbie Rogers said: “We are delighted to have adopted Wales Air Ambulance as our official charity. The July event was only our second year but the feedback from everyone who attended has been fantastic.

"We are now working flat out to make LlanBikeFest 2017 an even greater success – and raise even more money to keep saving lives.

“Our special thanks to the volunteers who helped promote the raffle and raise additional money with our helmet creche, including members of the Llangollen and District Motorcycle Club (LLDMC).”

LlanBikeFest 2016 featured guest of honour Giacomo `Ago' Agostini, winner of an unbeaten 15 World Championships, who flew over specially from Italy to spend the weekend mixing with thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts.

On-site attractions included hundreds of bikes, displays, stunts, demonstrations, trade and club stands, plus beer, bands and evening entertainment in Llangollen town.

Exhibitors and traders have already started booking for 2017.

Follow the event on Facebook at Llangollen International Motorcycle Festival and Twitter at @llanbikefest.

County agrees on leisure development plan

Members of Denbighshire’s Cabinet have agreed to appoint Alliance Leisure Services as part of a four year framework agreement to develop new facilities and refurbish existing leisure facilities in the county.  

The council has already made a firm commitment to continue improving and enhancing its leisure offer across the county and says it is bucking the national trend by actually investing in its facilities during difficult financial times.

Alliance had been appointed to a previous framework and was recognised as bringing external expertise and innovation to the design and construction of facilities.

The council then advertised this latest framework on the open market and attracted significant interest from major construction companies.

The framework will be open to all UK local authorities, with Denbighshire as the lead authority.

Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill, Cabinet Lead Member for Assets, said: “Our aim is to work with our development partner to design, build and fund capital projects and ensure that we deliver the right projects, on time and within budget.

“We have an excellent track record of working with Alliance on the previous framework and delivered successful projects at Ruthin and Denbigh leisure centres, as well as the redevelopment of the Nova, Prestatyn.

“The company itself has a wealth of experience in design, project management and an innovative approach to developments.  The appointment of Alliance as our development partner on the previous framework was recognised as sector-leading and provided facilities that are fit for the 21^st Century and improved participation opportunities and PE standards in our dual-use sites. This, in turn, helped improve the health and well-being of residents.

“We are delighted to be awarding the latest framework to Alliance after a stringent and open tendering process – this will help us to continue investing in facilities and develop our vision for improved leisure facilities to benefit all."

Paul Cluett, Managing Director of Alliance, said: “Alliance Leisure are delighted to have been appointed as the partner to the Council to deliver the Framework for the provision of leisure developments and related services over the next four years. 

“Alliance has a track record of delivering sustainable, ambitious and innovative enhancements to local authority leisure services throughout the UK.  Indeed, locally schemes such as the Nova redevelopment have already shown what can be achieved, and now we will be able to bring this experience to Councils across Wales, England, Scotland and N Ireland. 

"This ground breaking Framework model being delivered by DCC will also ensure that the Authority receives the public awareness it is rightly due for helping other Councils deliver services as successfully it has done."

MP calls for tougher sentences for police assaults

* Susan Elan Jones MP with representatives of the Police Federation in Parliament.

Susan Elan Jones MP is backing the Police Federation's campaign for tougher sentences for people who assault police officers.

The campaign was launched in response to the news that 22,394 officers in England and Wales were assaulted in the last year.

The Clwyd South Labour MP said: "We are now seeing a police officer assaulted every 22 minutes, with a fifth of all police having been assaulted. That is a national disgrace.

"Some of the sentences awarded are unbelievably lenient. They include someone who threw acid at an officer's face getting only 20 months in jail even though they were out on licence, someone who stabbed an officer getting a community sentence and 15 people jumping on a single police woman on Boxing Day leaving internal spinal injuries that class her as disabled receiving no custodial sentence.

"Police men and women work tirelessly to serve our communities and keep our streets safe. They should not have to endure assaults as part of their job. I am fully behind the Police Federation's campaign to support police safety and bring in harsher sentences where they are needed."

Business owners advised to check rateable values

Denbighshire County Council is urging business owners to check the new rateable value of their businesses.

Traders have been contacted about the new draft rateable value on which their business rates will be based and are being advised to contact the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) by its deadline of November 30 if they have any concerns.

It has been seven years since all non-domestic properties in England and Wales were revalued and the 2017 revaluation will be based upon rental levels on April 1, 2015.

The revaluation, which will come into effect on April 1 next year, will form the basis of business rate liability for the next five years.

The draft rating list, which was issued on September 30, is part of the normal process to get feedback from businesses.

Although Denbighshire County Council collects business rates, the council does not set the rates.

The rateable value is assessed by the VOA , through HM Revenue and Customs.

Rebecca Maxwell, corporate director at Denbighshire County Council, said: “Businesses will have already received a letter about their new draft rateable value and it is important they read this information.

“We are urging all businesses in Denbighshire to check their new draft rateable value online. This revaluation will have an impact on businesses for the next five years, so it is vitally important they are paying the correct rates.

“If you think your new rateable value is incorrect, contact the Valuation Office Agency as soon as possible.

“Once the new rateable values come into effect on April 1, 2017, businesses will be able to make an appeal, but we would first urge businesses to contact the VOA before November 30 with any concerns.”

Leader of Denbighshire, councillor Hugh Evans, said: “Concerns have been raised with us by a number of businesses over gaps in information around how the process of rate revaluation has been undertaken in Denbighshire.

“I am seeking clarification on the extent to which calculations are based on individual business circumstances and how these are evaluated without direct engagement with all businesses in the county.

“As a proactive, business friendly council we are committed to making sure there is a level playing field for all our businesses.

“We understand periodic revaluations are necessary but we are looking for reassurance about how the process has been carried out and that there isn’t a disproportionate impact on Denbighshire businesses.

“A clear understanding of the process of arriving at final rateable values would help us do this.”

The Welsh Government is consulting on proposals for a Transitional Relief Scheme aimed at helping businesses currently receiving Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) and whose rateable value has increased.

The aim is to assist ratepayers no longer entitled to the same amount of SBRR as a result of the revaluation by gradually phasing in any increases in over a three-year period.

For more information on the revaluation or to check your draft rateable value online visit http://www.denbighshire.gov.uk/en/business/business-rates/business-rates.aspx