School uniform pop-up shop for Pengwern

Friends of Pengwern has teamed up with the South Denbighshire Community Partnership and Citizens Advice Denbighshire deliver a pop-up school uniform recycling shop later this summer.

The shop will be located at Pengwern Community Centre every day, from 1-3pm, from Monday-Friday, August 5-9.

In preparation for the pop-up shops volunteers will be washing, ironing and, where necessary, repairing uniforms before bagging them into individual school designs and sizes.

Volunteers are vital to help the venture to be successful and organisers say they would be very grateful to hear from anyone willing to help.

Those interested should contact Emma Davies at Friends of Pengwern by Facebook message.

Denbighshire Housing has arranged for community activities to take place at the opening of the shop at Pengwern.

County launches Tourism Ambassador scheme

* Ambassadors: Fiona Sayle of Corwen Holidays, right, with 

Caroline Ellison of Corwen Old Police Station and Court House.

A new Tourism Ambassador Scheme has been launched in Denbighshire.

This free scheme is designed to improve the visitor experience for people who work in tourism, work with visitors, live or study in the area.

A series of interactive online training modules with quizzes have been produced on various themes such as Denbighshire towns and city, walking, cycling, history, and welsh language and culture. 

Each module takes 30-60 minutes to complete with text to read, images and films to watch as people learn in different ways.

There are three levels of awards – bronze, silver and gold, depending on the amount of modules completed. 

Each person will receive a certificate, pin badge and window stickers on completion of the awards. There is also online resources for people to download related documents, branding and links to relevant websites.

Councillor Hugh Evans, Leader of Denbighshire County Council, said: “The scheme aims is to create a baseline knowledge level and sense of place to ensure consistent messages are being communicated about the area. 

"The online training offers a flexible approach and enables everyone to learn at their own speed, convenience and location. We are hoping many businesses will embed the scheme into their existing staff induction programmes to increase their understanding of the local tourism offer and take pride in being part of a shared interest community. We are very excited to launch the scheme in Denbighshire as it is the first of its kind in Wales.”

A series of learning journeys will also be offered to Ambassadors, to enhance and compliment the online learning. 

People will have the opportunity to visit a variety of tourism highlights including the11-mile World Heritage Site, the Clwydian Range & Dee Valley AONB, and the Vale of Clwyd. Workshops to share best practice and encourage partnership working will also be organised.

A number of businesses who participated in the user testing have completed the modules and initial feedback has been very positive –

Fiona Sayle, from Corwen Holidays said: "I’m so pleased to have achieved my Denbighshire Ambassador Silver Award. Many thanks to Denbighshire Tourism for providing such an informative and interesting course. I would recommend all who are passionate about Tourism and Denbighshire to take up the challenge.”

The project has received funding through the Welsh Government Rural Communities - Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government.

Ian Lebbon, Chair of Denbighshire Destination Management Partnership said: “I would encourage businesses, individuals and students to become Tourism Ambassadors to deepen their knowledge of the county and help boost our local economy. The longer-term aim is to create Ambassador high streets, communities and even towns and get our younger generation involved by establishing Young Tourism Ambassadors.”

* For more information on the scheme and to complete the modules visit: www.denbighshireambassador.wales / www.llysgennadsirddinbych.cymru

Appeal follows fatal bypass collision

A motorcyclist has sadly died following a collision near Johnstown, Wrexham yesterday evening (Wednesday, July 10th).

Shortly before 5pm North Wales Police were notified of a one-vehicle collision involving a motorcycle on the A483 off slip onto the B5426 Johnstown.

Officers attended however sadly the motorcyclist – a man, aged in his 50’s, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Sergeant Darren Newby of the Roads Policing Unit is appealing for witnesses. He said: “I would like to thank those who have already been in touch, however we continue to appeal to anybody who have been travelling northbound on the A483 at the time and who may have witnessed the collision to contact us. Equally anybody who may have dash cam is also asked to make contact with us.

“Our thoughts remain with the man’s family, who are being supported by a trained Family Liaison Officer.”

Anybody who may be able to assist with the investigation is asked to contact officers at the Roads Policing Unit in Llay on 101 or via the live web chat quoting reference number X096824.

Suzuki with Attitude aims for new customers

Suzuki Swift Attitude launch report by Steve Rogers

HERE'S a puzzler. How can the most exciting part of a car launch happen on water?

The clue is Suzuki whose outboard marine engines are number one in the world and we had a 350hp V6 on the back, or should I say stern, of a six man inflatable dinghy for 40 mad but marvellous minutes on the Solent.

It was all part of a little treat for travelling 230 miles to the south coast to drive the Swift Attitude.

I will get to the car shortly but at the time of writing the adrenalin is still pumping after scooting to the Needles at 45 knots, bouncing across the wake of the other two Rib craft in our party and banking at what felt like insane angles for some tight circling. The last time I had this much fun was being driven in a Citroen rally car.

Enough, let's get back to business and the Attitude. Not so much a new model, just a special edition to keep the Swift kettle boiling. Swift is Suzuki's hero model and deserves all the credit going.

I liked it from the day it was launched in sunny Monaco in 2004 and it has got better and better. The only surprise is that the message has not got through to more people although Swift is off to a good start this year with more retail sales than Renault Clio, Citroen C3 and Mazda2 and is currently sitting behind the Honda Jazz in the supermini league table.

Attitude is based on the SZ-T, one above base, and has been spiced up with a mesh front grille, rear roof spoiler and front, side and rear carbon effect skirts along with polished alloys.

You get this for an extra 100 quid over the SZ-Ts £14,499 price tag. What you don't get is that model's 1-litre Boosterjet engine. Attitude has to make do with the lesser powered 1.4 litre Dualjet, not a bad motor but not as feisty as the brilliant Boosterjet which is arguably the best three-cylinder one-litre engine on the market.

I would be tempted to forego the Attitude's extra body armour in favour of the Boosterjet engine yet Suzuki is confident Attitude will have a broad appeal predicting it will take 40 per cent of Swift sales.

In a head to head it fares better on price than Ford Fiesta, Seat Ibiza, Nissan Micra and Hyunai i20 according to Suzuki research and does not do badly on specification either.

All Swifts get air conditioning, six airbags, privacy glass, DAB radio with Bluetooth but Attitude moves up a rung and apart from the body styling upgrades has rear view camera, Smartphone link display audio among the highlights of its spec list.

As has always been the case Swift is a great little car to drive darting though twists and turns without so much as a bye or leave and although I prefer the Boosterjet performance the 1.4 is no slouch and is good for 50mpg.

This is not going to be a great year for car sales but Suzuki is enjoying the highest market share in its history. Fleet growth is strong with Vitara and Swift popular choices so it is confident of hitting 38,000 sales just 500 down on last year. It could do more but it can't get enough supply for some of its models.

Key facts

Swift Attitude

£14,599

1,2 Dualjet; 90bhp

0-62mph 11.9secs; 111mph

51.4mpg combined

108g/km. 1st year road tax £150

Insurance group 25 

Arty Dinas Bran students back Nature for Health

* Ysgol Dinas Bran Year 10 students with the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct mural.

  ... and with the mural of Castell Dinas Bran.

Artistic students from Ysgol Dinas Bran have been working to help people appreciate the benefits of the countryside around them.

A group from Year 10 spent a morning at Pengwern Community Centre creating two murals as part of the Nature for Health project.

Funded through Natural Resources Wales, it is being delivered locally by Denbighshire’s housing and countryside service and the aim is to help people appreciate the benefits to their health and well-being of the natural environment on their doorstep.

The murals - one depicting the world-famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and the other Castell Dinas Bran - will adorn the walls of the community centre.

Both pictures feature bees as a key part of the project is encouraging bees and other pollinators to enhance the countryside.

The work of the young artists will be inspected by Clwyd South Assembly Member Ken Skates in the near future.

Other Nature for Health projects planned are:

July

August

Major collision closes bypass

Wrexham.com is reporting this afternoon that part of the A483 is closed off this rush hour due to an incident, believed to be a traffic collision.

The incident has occurred close to Junction 2 of the A483, the turning for Johnstown, with several reports that emergency services are focused on the area immediately by the sliproad.

The air ambulance attended the incident at 5:09pm that is believed to have involved a motorcyclist, with the incident taking place just before 5pm.

Thanks to Georgina for the top image from near the incident who added: “A483 closed northbound and long delays southbound” with Traffic Wales later stating the road was closed in both directions.

* For the full story and updates, see: http://www.wrexham.com/news/air-ambulance-attends-incident-that-has-closed-a483-northbound-by-johnstown-170888.html

2020 chair gives latest update

* Castle Street is at the heart of the 2020 proposals.

The county councillor heading the group looking at streamlining traffic flow and parking in Llangollen has given a fresh update on its progress.

The 2020 Project aims to develop options for a safer and more pedestrian-friendly town centre and produce options to ease the chronic parking situation.

Many of the proposals worked up with the help of consultants to achieve these goals were published in a feasibility study document last February.

However, Llangollen county councillor Graham Timms, who chairs 2020, says the plan still requires one major aspect to be covered before being finalised.

He said: “Details of parking proposals still need to be looked at and we will be getting further information about where, when and why people park in the town.

“We have to look at the needs of all the different groups involved and strike the correct balance between residents, tourists and people who work in town.

“We might also have to look at changing the current parking regulations in a number of areas.

“Around the autumn there will be further consultation of the parking issue before the plan is finalised.

“We hope to have a working plan on parking by the end of the year and for the whole project by next April.”

Accroding to Cllr Timms, the latest estimate of the overall cost of 2020 is between £2-3 million and he said various avenues of funding the finished project were still being explored, including the Welsh Givernment, Denbighshire County Council and Visit Wales.