Town Council looks to fill vacancy

Art club puts its work on show at museum

* Above and below, guests at the preview of the art exhibition in the upper gallery of the museum.

Llangollen Art Club previewed its annual exhibition at the museum in Parade Street yesterday evening.

The colourful display, which continues until September 2, features a wide variety of members' pictures in various media.

The club meets every Tuesday evening, from 7.30-9.30pm, in the Memorial Hall in Market Street and welcomes artists of all abilities.

Some of the pictures on display ...

The museum has just launched its latest annual art competition, details of which are below:

MP gives full marks to cut-price school uniform scheme

* At the Llangollen launch of the scheme are, from left, Deputy Mayor Cllr Issy Richards, Susan Elan Jones MP, Emma Davies from the Pengwern Community and Graham Kendall of Citizens Advice Denbighshire/South Denbighshire Community Partnership.

A successful school uniform recycling scheme has been spread to Llangollen.

The scheme, run by a partnership between Citizens Advice Denbighshire and the county council, was launched in Denbigh, Prestatyn and Rhyl late last month.

And so far 460 children there have received items of clean, pressed school uniform, donated by families across the county.

From this Monday the scheme, which is also supported by Community Foundation Wales, is now also operating from Pengwern Community Centre in Llangollen.  

Lesley Powell, chief officer of Citizens Advice Denbighshire, said: “We are so pleased to be able to extend the scheme across all the county this year, we could not have done this without the support of the staff, volunteers, community, schools, town councils and Denbighshire County Council. 

“All the families attending the scheme will be offered a follow-up advice session to make sure everyone is claiming all their benefits, credits and grants.  

"We would encourage all families to check if they are eligible for the School Uniform Grant, free school meals and to come to our pop-up shops.”

Susan Elan Jones MP, who attended the Llangollen launch, said: "I am delighted to be here as this is a fantastic project." 

* For more information on the location and opening times of the pop-up shops, visit www.denbighshire.gov.uk/school-uniform-recycle-scheme

Art club previews latest exhibition tonight

Eisteddfod stars perform at Berwyn Prison

* Real Folk International Academy appeared at Berwyn Pirson. 

As part of the Llangollen Musical Eisteddfod, international performers were invited to entertain audiences at a number of outreach events including the HM Prison Berwyn.

The prison event, details of which have just been revealed, was a culmination of workshops and competitions organised by the collaborative efforts between the eisteddfod, Coleg Berwyn, Berywn residents, Reducing Re-offending and Welsh Lead for Equalities.

Throughout the months of May and June residents were encouraged to engage their imagination with creative writing and performance. 

Themes for the Berwyn Eisteddfod included Welsh culture and Hope & Friendship where residents produced art, short stories, poetry and song.

The final took place on July 4 when each performance category was judged by a panel of judges including the HR Manager at Berwyn Jason Kelsall, Rachel James, Head of Business Assurance at Berwyn, and eisteddfod representative John Gambles.

The event concluded in a colourful display by special guests Real Folk International Academy from the Panjab performing in the prison. 

They received a standing ovation from the audience as they performed a vibrant and traditional dance. 

The Real Folk International Academy then shared a multicultural buffet with the residents.

Other outreach events took place throughout North Wales during the week of the festival. 

These included special appearances by international performers from Columbia and Malaysia at the Pendine Park and Abby Dingle care homes.

John Gambles, who is the eisteddfod's Town and Outreach Coordinator: “The mini eisteddfod has been a huge success at Berwyn Prison and I am honoured to have been on the judging panel.

“The key message of Llangollen Musical Eisteddfod is to promote peace and harmony within communities. These outreach schemes offer people who do not have the opportunity to attend the festival a chance to enjoy performances from international guests.”

Police boss welcomes MPs’ call to decriminalise cannabis

* North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones.

The North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner has welcomed a report from a group of cross-party MPs who predict the UK will fully legalise cannabis within five to 10 years.

Arfon Jones, a former police inspector, is a long-time advocate of drugs reform and says the conclusions of the MPs’ fact-finding trip to Canada are a step in the right direction.

Last year Canada became the first G7 country to allow recreational use of cannabis which is designated as a Class B drug in the UK and anyone caught with it could face up to five years in prison.

There has already been some change in the UK with a shift in approach towards medicinal cannabis products, which can now be legally prescribed to some patients.

According to the MPs, they would like to see cannabis being decriminalised and regulated so that it cuts out the drugs gangs.

Mr Jones said: “I very much welcome this report and an important contribution to the debate about our antiquated drugs legislation which is not fit for purpose.

“We lost the war against drugs a long time ago and it is time we recognised this and tried a new approach.

“I also sense the tide of public opinion is turning in favour of doing things differently.

“It’s clear the current method of tackling organised crime through the Criminal Justice System is not effective.

“Once one group has been removed, another replaces it within days, which inevitably leads to further violence and exploitation.

Trying to arrest our way out of the distribution and cultivation of drugs is not working and quite frankly hasn’t been working for a long, long time - so we clearly need to look at other ways we can remove organised crime from our communities.

“It is a nonsense to criminalise people who take cannabis for recreational use and cause no harm to anybody else.

Cannabis should be regulated just like alcohol and tobacco – which actually cause more harm to individuals and to society in general.

“We should introduce a licencing system so that cannabis can be sold through pharmacies and in shops as happens in Canada, Uruguay and certain states in America.

“The best way to reduce the role of organised crime in the supply of drugs is to put it in commercial hands and to price it appropriately so people don't need to go to the illegal market.

“Commercial organisations have taken over the medicinal cannabis market and are selling prescriptions at a vast cost even though it is cheap to grow.  That’s just exploitation in my book.

“My view is that people should be allowed to grow a limited number of cannabis plants for their own use.

“Let’s face it there are probably hundreds of thousands of people in this country who grow cannabis in their own homes now.

“They're not harming anybody else and there is no reason why they should be punished through the criminal justice system.

“It would be sensible to follow the example of Spanish cannabis clubs where people are allowed to grow seven or eight cannabis plants in the club.

“If you were starting from scratch, I think cannabis would be more lightly regulated than alcohol is now because I think everybody agrees that alcohol is far more harmful to individuals than cannabis is.

“Just like alcohol, you should have age restrictions on the purchase and consumption of cannabis is a regulated market.

“In the autumn I will be launching a new scheme called Checkpoint in North Wales – after it was developed by Cambridge University and successfully trialled in Durham - which is designed to divert low level offenders away from criminality.

“We need to recognise that 90 per cent of drug consumption including cannabis is recreational use and non-problematic.

"In those cases, people should be given some educational information and that would be the end of the matter.

"Meanwhile, the legal position in relation to medicinal cannabis has been well and truly fudged as a matter of political expediency to avoid a PR disaster caused by the heart-rending cases of several children like the chronically ill Billy Caldwell who needs cannabis oil to ward off life-threatening fits.

“It is also unjust and cruel that people living with conditions like multiple sclerosis who use cannabis are putting themselves at risk of being prosecuted.”

Colourful parade remembers the town's patron saint

* The statue of St Collen is carried aloft.

* Father Richard Peers performs the blessing of the statue at St John's.

* Parishioners leave St John's on the parade.

* The parade passes over the bridge into Castle Street.

* Father Lee Taylor walks across the bridge, singing all the way.

* The parade arrives back at St Collen's.

Members of St Collen's along with civic leaders and representatives of various local organisations paraded through the centre of Llangollen this morning to celebrate the town's patron saint, St Collen.

Following a short service of blessing performed by Father Richard Peers of the Liverpool Diocese at St John's Church on Abbey Road, the parade, headed by town crier Chem Cheminais and with music provided by Llangollen Silver Band, walked through the temporarily closed streets to St Collen's where a full service was held. 

Vicar Father Lee Taylor commissioned local artist Christian Lancaster to carve an image of St Collen, whom Llangollen is also named after, and it's the first one ever done of a Welsh saint, he believes.      

Father Lee said: "The saint was carried aloft on a carrier with wreaths of flowers.

"It was a very important day for the town."

Saint Collen was a 7th-century monk who is said to have arrived in Llangollen by coracle and founded a church beside the river. 

As there are no other churches in Wales dedicated to St Collen, it is possible that this St Collen may also have connections in both Colan, Cornwall, where Colan Church is dedicated to him, and Langolen in Brittany.

St Collen died on May 21, probably sometime in the early 7th century. He was buried in his chapel. 

For centuries it was known as the 'Old Church' and stood immediately to the west of the present medieval church of St Collen in Llangollen.