Male voice choir concert at RAFA Club

Feast of food and fun at the Co-op

* Above and below: Singer Shea Ferron belts out some numbers.

* Chef Jack Hatley gives a cooking demonstration.

* Visitors look around the food and drink stalls.

* Two of the exhibitors on their stalls.

A selection of Welsh produce was served-up by the Co-op’s Llangollen store as it hosted a celebration of food and drink this morning (Saturday).

The free event took place in the car park of the Regent Street store and members of the community were invited to sample products from Co-op’s Welsh suppliers including Conwy Brewery, Daoini, Edwards of Conwy, Llaeth Y Llan Village Dairy, Radnor Hills, Village Baker, Welsh Lady Preserves, Wild Trail and Wrexham Lager.

The store, which re-launched in May this year after a £500,000 investment, also welcomed local singer Shea Ferron who performed a selection of songs which are featured on his first CD collection, out this week.

Later, Llangollen-based chef Jack Hatley prepared a selection of dishes and offered recipe suggestions.

The family-friendly event also included activities for children, including face painting.

Mandy Hughes, manager of the Llangollen store, said: “We were delighted to welcome a flavour of our Welsh suppliers to our store, providing a taste of the great food and drink which is produced in Wales.

“We have had a great response since we relaunched the store in May. The investment was a great way to mark the Co-op’s 175th anniversary year."

Police declare knife amnesty

North Wales Police is cracking down on knife crime as part of a national week of action which highlights the risks that carrying a bladed weapon can bring, as well as targeting offenders who use and carry knives in the area.

Taking place between  September 16 and 22, Operation Sceptre will see the force taking part in a knife surrender, where special amnesty bins will be located across the region giving people the opportunity to dispose of knives and blades safely. 

Similar bins will be placed at a number of recycling centres for people who do not feel comfortable attending a police station.

As part of the Home Office supported campaign, licensed premises are being issued with knife-detection wands which have been funded by the Police and Crime Commissioner, Arfon Jones.

Temporary Detective Inspector Tecwyn Green, Operation Sceptre Co-ordinator for North Wales Police, said: “Carrying knives is totally and utterly unacceptable and we hope that introducing these wands will not only act as a deterrent, but they’ll also reassure people who are planning an enjoyable night out.

“Knives are dangerous and there is no place for them on the streets of North Wales. Carrying knives or other weapons do not keep you safe. By carrying a knife you are putting yourself in much greater danger, and more likely to become involved in a violent situation and get injured yourself.

“All licensed premises that are being given these wands have been extremely positive and are pleased to play their part in the national campaign. These venues rarely have issues relating to knife crime, yet they fully understand the importance of having a preventative initiative such as this one in place."

He added: “We want to ensure residents are safe from knife crime in their communities so we are pleased to be promoting our week-long knife amnesty where people can hand in knives without fear of punishment. Since July 2017, a total of 1,691 knives have been handed in across North Wales.”

North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones said: "The rise in the statistics for violent crime is a general trend across the UK and it is important to remember than North Wales is still one of the safest places to live and work.

"Another important factor to remember is that there have been changes in the recording methods of some categories of crime, including violent crime, and this has also had an impact in skewing the statistics.

“Nevertheless, it is vitally important that we tackle this scourge and I know it is a priority for North Wales Police.

“The message is clear. Knives and dangerous. They can maim and even kill people.

“I would urge young people to support this campaign and report any concerns they have about knife crime.”

During the week School Community Police Officers will be attending primary and secondary schools throughout North Wales to give a presentation on knife crime as part of the All Wales Schools Programme.

Unwanted knives can be disposed of in special amnesty bins which will be placed in police stations in Wrexham, Mold, Rhyl, Llandudno, Colwyn Bay, Bangor, Caernarfon and Holyhead. They can also be taken to recycling centres at Mochdre, Abergele, Rhyl, Denbigh and Ruthin. People should ensure any sharp ends are securely wrapped in a protective material,say police.

T/D.I Green added: “We take a robust approach to anyone found to be illegally in possession of a knife or bladed article on the streets and I would encourage you to take this opportunity to rid yourselves of any illegal weapons by taking them to any of the named stations.

“We are grateful for the support of the licenced premises, the community and our partners with this campaign and together, we will continue to work towards removing knives and dangerous weapons and bring those responsible, for carrying and using them, to justice.”

North Wales Police will act on all information reported regarding knife crime. Anyone with information can call North Wales Police on 101, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

The wands have been distributed at the following licensed premises:

* Wings, Denbigh

* Mojo, Wrexham

* Central Station, Wrexham

* One to Five, Wrexham

* Atik, Wrexham

* Penny Black, Wrexham

Tourism brings in over half a billion to county economy

* Tourist attraction: The Horseshoe Falls. 

The economic benefit of tourism in Denbighshire has reached the half billion mark for the first time.

Figures monitoring the impact of tourism in the county show that in 2018 visitors brought £509million into the local economy, up from £283.79m in 2007 and up 3.8 per cent on 2017.

The STEAM figures also show an increase in the number of staying visitor days to 7.19million, an increase of 0.5 per cent, while the economic impact of staying visitors was £345m in 2018 up 4.3 per cent on 2017.

Cllr Hugh Evans OBE, leader of Denbighshire County Council, said: “These figures show visitors are staying longer in Denbighshire and spending more money, which is benefiting local businesses and helping to grow the local economy.

“We have a fantastic offer across the county, from seaside towns and attractions to market towns, historical sites, beautiful scenery and outdoor activities. Denbighshire’s businesses also offer visitors a great experience and our aim is to encourage visitors to come throughout the year and stay longer so they experience more of what Denbighshire has to offer.

“With the addition of a new Travelodge hotel and the opening of SC2 in Rhyl, as well as new offers across the county in 2019, the future of tourism is looking bright.”

The total number of visitors in 2018 was 5.87m, with 1.5m of those staying, the total number of visitor days spent in Denbighshire was 11.57m while tourism supported 6,108 jobs in the county.

The Council’s tourism strategy aims to encourage people to visit Denbighshire throughout the year, stay in the county for longer and to spend more money with local businesses.

New tourism projects include the Denbighshire Tourism Ambassador Scheme launched in June and designed to improve the visitor experience by training people who work in tourism or with visitors to provide a consistent message on the offer in the county.

Cocktail launched in honour of Llangollen Ladies

* Gruff and Ieuan Jones.

A new cocktail is being launched in honour of two aristocratic women who scandalised 18^th century society when they eloped together from Ireland and settled in Llangollen.

The concoction called Ladies’ Dee-light that’s being unveiled at the town’s popular food festival will celebrate the lives of the Ladies of Llangollen, Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby.

The new drink is the brainchild of two brothers whose micro bar business is taking North Wales by storm.

Trained mixologists Gruff and Ieuan Jones have enjoyed rapid success since launching their mobile cocktail bar, Booze Brothers, just 12 months ago. 

They have just toasted the launch of their own product range and will be raising a glass to Llangollen Food Festival  later this year with the cocktail that’s people will be able try for the first time at the festival that being held on Saturday and Sunday, October 19 and 20.

The event has now established itself as one of the highlights in the culinary calendar and has been named as one of the Top 10 food festivals in the UK.

It’s being held at the Llangollen Pavilion, less than a mile from the house, Plas Newydd, where Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby lived.

They were regarded as eccentric characters and the exact nature of their close relationship remains a talking point to this day.

As well as working on their house and garden, the ladies spent their time in reading, studying foreign languages and corresponding with a wide variety of people.

Many of these were well-known figures of the day and they often came to visit the ladies.

Among them were the likes Wordsworth, the Duke of Wellington, Lord Byron, Sir Walter Scott and Anne Lister who was inspired to go home and informally marry her own lover as a result.

Lister’s life was recently immortalised in the hit television series starring Suranne Jones in the title role.

The series was based on Lister’s collected diaries which contain over four million words and are written largely in secret code, documenting a lifetime of lesbian relationships.

Former personal trainer Gruff, 26, from Wrexham, said: “When we started out, the Llangollen Food Festival was one of those events in the calendar we really wanted to attend and we just kept our fingers crossed that everything would go well and we’d get there.

“We’ve been there plenty of times as visitors but this is completely different. We’re really excited to show off our skills and bring along our bespoke cocktail bar.

“To help mark our first anniversary and our first visit to Llangollen Food Festival as a business we wanted to do something really special, and the Ladies’ Dee-light will celebrate the legendary Ladies of Llangollen and another local icon, the River Dee and the town centre Dee Bridge which is one of the Seven Wonders of Wales.

“Although nobody knows for certain whether their relationship was a sexual one, the Ladies of Llangollen are revered today as icons for the LGBT+ community.

“We will be keeping the recipe secret until the new cocktail is launched at the food festival but we  are keeping our fingers crossed it will be a hit.”

Gruff and former bartender Ieuan, 21, who run the Bargain Booze Plus Rhosddu store in Wrexham, had no intention of launching their own business a year ago.

Last summer, they were asked if they could share their gin knowledge and expertise at the Garden Village Fete in Wrexham. They bought a gazebo from Argos and set up a makeshift bar with a range of specialist gins – and it went down a treat.

“Obviously gin is very popular at the moment. We bought a little gazebo from Argos and put together a variety of gins and it was extremely busy!” said Gruff, a former Ysgol Morgan Llwyd pupil.

“From there, we started receiving emails from festival organisers and local people in the area asking us whether we could set up the same stand at their event or in their back garden.”

Such was the demand they established Booze Brothers, a name which communicates their shared love of good drink, and invested everything they made in the first year into a brand new triple horsebox which they professionally converted into a bespoke cocktail bar.

They also took themselves off to London and completed a course in Mixology at the London European Bartender School to learn more about the art of cocktail making.

“We absolutely never expected this success. We never even intended it to become a fully-fledged business,” explained Gruff, who grew up in Rhosllanerchrugog.

“It’s really a case of word-of-mouth momentum. We’ve really tried to nail down the quality of what we do and work hard perfecting the cocktails.

“A lot of bars provide a great offering when it comes to gin and also cask ales. When it comes to cocktail bars, often they’re stuck in the mould of what’s available already. What makes us different and professional is the fact we’ve moved towards customised cocktails.”

Although cocktails are the mainstay of their business, the bar carries a wide gin offering as well as plenty of other spirits including rums, whiskey and vodkas. However, the duo’s own Angel Delight Margarita and Raspberry Ripple Daiquiri cocktails have been so popular, they’ve now branched into product development with the launch of six tinned cocktails which will be available at events and local bars, restaurants, hotels and pubs in the near future.

“We’ve worked very hard to formulate these into bar standard cocktails,” said Gruff.

“We’ve not skipped on the alcohol content. When you’re buying from a supermarket, ready-made cocktails are all around 5% alcohol volume. Ours are around 14%.

“We’re now looking to push them out further in bars, hotels, restaurants and hotel chains locally and develop the branding.

“It’s all about the quality.”

New Forester helps Subaru branch out

* The Forester e-Boxer.

* The Subaru XV crossover.

Subaru launch news by Steve Rogers

The idea of turning Subaru into the fastest growing brand in the UK with a yearly sales target of 10,000 cars by 2022 sounds little more than wishful thinking.

Here is a company virtually anonymous in the UK - sales in 2017 were a paltry 2679 - but half an hour with Torbjorn Lillrud would have you believing the world is flat.

Lillrud has taken over as group director for International Motors, the Midlands company responsible for distributing Subaru cars, and he has been tasked with achieving this formidable target.

The Subaru guru is both passionate and blunt when delivering his spiel. "The car is not the problem. We have not done a good job."

Why is he so confident that he can turn things around? Because he has done it already in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Latvia and Lithuania.

His message is "Subaru has changed." No longer a company for rally enthusiasts and petrol heads, the focus is on family and people with lifestyle pursuits.

The point is well made. Ask anyone to name a Subaru model and they will either fail or say Imprezza, the saloon car famed for its outrageous performance, deafening exhaust rap and huge boot spoiler. Now the spotlight will fall on the XV crossover and Forester SUV.

The recovery has started with sales last year up to 3242 and a target of 3,600 for this year, still low but progress is progress.

New product helps progress and the headline news is hybrid power for XV and the new Forester. The e-Boxer is a 150bhp 2-litre petrol boosted by a 13.5kW electric motor to sharpen performance, bring down emissions and improve economy. It is now the mainstay of the range replacing the diesel which was dropped because it did not comply with the latest emissions regulations.

Subaru took us to Latvia to drive the new models, an odd place I thought until I learned that it is one of the Nordic countries where Subaru's reputation has soared since Lillrud waved his magic wand.

Here some of the public roads are unmade with lose gravel surfaces so ideal for testing the off road capabilities of XV and Forester both of which have the famed symmetrical all wheel drive system.

The fifth generation Forester is new from the ground up although the overall shape is pretty much unchanged. That said it is lower, longer and wider, and extra width has also been applied to the rear doors for easier access while the tailgate aperture has been increased by 10cm so more boot space and easier loading.

That is just part of the story. The best place to test the difference between old and new is a circuit and that's what we did.

Chalk and cheese, black and white come to mind having torn up the track in both cars. New Forester is streets ahead in the key areas of handling and steering. Body control is on a different level and the steering quicker and more precise. In real world driving with the family on board the big difference is comfort, and to a lesser degree the generous back seat legroom.

Performance is adequate as opposed to sparkling but the electric motor sharpens response at low speed and will certainly improve fuel economy in town driving where it can travel on electric power over a short distance. At higher speeds the engine recharges the battery for the motor.

Even so the addition of the hybrid will not offset the economy advantages of a diesel.

This is also the safest Forester ever with the Eyesight system now able to apply emergency braking going forward and in reverse as well as detecting side obstacles. Facial recognition technology is a new feature detecting fatigue in sagging eyes and giving an audible warning if gaze is diverted from the straight ahead for more than a few seconds.

This piece of wizardry will also identify the driver on entry and select the preferred seating position, door mirror angles and air conditioning preferences so no need to reach for the seat memory button.

Although new Forester has come on leaps and bounds and is still Subaru's biggest seller here, the smaller XV has to be halo model if only because that is where the majority of sales are going. Its trendier styling is more appealing and the e-Boxer technology brings it into line with the growing number of hybrid rivals.

The interior looks more upmarket and is now colour coordinated with orange and copper tones while an 8inch touchscreen is the centre for multi media and navigation supported by a smaller inset screen showing clear navigation instructions or the state of play with the hybrid system.

The 2-litre e-Boxer is quicker here compared to the heavier Forester and this XV had a far more settled, comfortable ride than the 1.6 litre XV I drove last year.

Key facts

Forester XE or Premium

£33,995-£36,995

2-litre petrol/13.5kW motor; 164bhp

0-62mph 11.8secs; 117mph

41.9mpg

Emissions 154g/km. 1st yr tax £530

Boot: 1779 litres max

Towing: 1870kg

XV SE or SE Premium

£28,995-£30,995

2-litre petrol/13.5kW motor; 164bhp

0-62mph 10.7 secs; 121mph

Emissions 149g/km. 1st yr tax £210

43.4mpg

Boot: 1193 litres max

Towing 1270kg

Two Llan hostelries in latest Good Pub Guide

* The Cornmill. 

Two famous Llangollen hostelries feature in the 2020 Good Food Guide.

The Corn Mill gets a prominent mention in the main Wales section as “a fascinating riverside building with fine views, personable young staff, super food all day and good beers.

And the Chainbridge just further up the river makes a favourable appearance in the “also worth a visit" slot.

The guide, described as the pub lovers’ annual manual, is published every year and for 2020 lists 5,000 pubs across the UK together with their contact details, facilities and opening hours.

Of the Corm Mill it says: “The interestingly fitted-out interior of this cleverly restored watermill has a striking open stairway with gleaming timber and tensioned steel rails, pale pine flooring on stout beams, and mainly stripped-stone walls.

“One of the two serving bars, away from the water, has a much more local feel with regulars sitting on bar stools, pews on dark slate flagstones and daily papers.

“Seats on a raised deck in front of the pub overlook the mill race and rapids below; you can also watch steam trains arriving and leaving the station on the opposite riverbank.”

The guide then goes on to list the beers, whiskies and cider available.

Besides the fully inspected pubs, the guide also lists those “also worth a visit”.

In Wales that includes the Chainbridge (pictured above) which is described as a “refurbished 19^th century-c hotel in great position overlooking River Dee rapids, chain bridge and renovated steam railway; bar, lounge, restaurant and good outside spaces, decent food from sandwiches and pubby choices up, two or three well-kept ales; children and dogs welcome, plenty of bedrooms (some with river view balconies), good walks, open all day.”

* The Good Pub Guide 2020 is published by Penguin at £15.99.