Healthy eating project for schools to be launched

Denbighshire County Council is launching a three-year school nutrition project.

From January pupils will benefit from additional activities to learn more about healthy eating and cooking skills and so far nine schools have signed up, with more able to engage in the next two years.

The project will be open to all schools in the county and will be based on the Nutrition Skills for Life Come and Cook Programme developed by dieticians at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

Sessions will focus on nutrition, food hygiene, safety, practical cooking skills, food tasting, as well as planning and budgeting meals. 

Staff will benefit from training to run the sessions and parents/carers will be presented with an opportunity to engage in the project. 

Cllr Huw Hilditch-Roberts, the council’s Lead Member for Education, Children's Services and Public Engagement, said: “The project will create a learning environment where it is easy and enjoyable to learn about eating healthily and making good food choices.

“A healthy balanced diet has a positive impact, not only on physical health, but also on mental and emotional wellbeing, as well as school performance.

“This project is part of our work to ensure young people in Denbighshire have the best possible start in life.”

Some pupils will be selected as food ambassadors to work with their school and school cooks to promote healthy diets while a cooking competition will also be held annually, working with local chefs.

* For more information contact healthy.settings@denbighshire.gov.uk 

£10m in upgrades planned for all Llan schools

* Ysgol Dinas Bran is to benefit from a major rebuilding project. 

Over £10m has been earmarked by Denbighshire County Council for major improvements at all three of Llangollen’s schools.

According to local county councillor Melvyn Mile, the council’s cabinet voted at its December meeting to spend £5.4m in the next financial year at the two primary schools - Ysgol Bryn Collen and Ysgol Gwernant.

This will provide an extension for additional classrooms and refurbishment of existing provision.

A council report says: “The purpose is to provide a clearer demarcation between the two schools – currently the layout of the building has an impact on both schools’ ability to operate independently and meet any demand for additional spaces.”

Of the money being spent £3.5m will come from the Welsh Government with the remaining £1.9m being provided by the county council itself.

The cabinet approved a further £4.8m being spent at Ysgol Dinas Bran.

The report explains: “The proposal allows for an extension to the dining block to provide spaces to remove poor areas of learning and for the provision of a new parking area to remove the current issues regarding segregation of cars and pedestrians on site.”

Of the total amount being spent £3.1m will come from the Welsh Government with £1.7m being laid out by the county council.

County Cllr Mile said: “I welcome the investment in all three of our schools, particularly the scheme for the two primary schools which will give each one its own separate identity.”

Llanblogger wishes readers a Happy New Year

Ambulance service prepares for busy New Year

THE Welsh Ambulance Service is reminding New Year’s Eve revellers to stay safe and know their limits as they ring in 2020.

As with Black Friday, the Trust has teamed up with blue light partners, health boards, St John Cymru Wales and local authorities across Wales to ensure one of its busiest nights of the year goes off without a hitch.

Louise Platt, the Trust’s Assistant Director of Operations, said: “After a busy Christmas period our ambulance service is preparing for New Year’s Eve with a plea to those celebrating to start 2020 safe and well.

“The traditional party night puts more demand on 999 call handlers, ambulance dispatchers, clinicians in the control room and ambulance crews than any other time of the year.

“Whilst most people will drink responsibly, unfortunately there are some who will overdo it.
“From causing a scene in a bar, falling over and breaking your leg, to driving home over the limit, we urge everyone to stop and think.“We don’t have an endless supply of ambulances and our message is clear: behave responsibly and only call us if it is a genuine emergency.”The service is urging people to consider these tips to have a good time and keep safe:

·       Don’t drink on an empty stomach – make sure to eat something before you go out

·       Drink in moderation and pace yourself – alternate your alcoholic beverages with soft drinks or water

·       Don’t drink and drive – pre-book your taxi home or arrange a lift

·       Think carefully about when you jump in the car the following day – tiredness itself can impede your ability to drive

·       Keep away from hostile situations

·       Look after yourself and your friends

Health chiefs deny claims of cuts to heart failure service

* Mabon ap Gwynfor claims the heart failure services faces the axe. 

A pioneering heart treatment service in north Wales faces the axe as the local health board looks to make savings, it has been claimed.

But this has been denied by a board spokesperson.

Since 2015, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) has funded the heart failure service - a series of community hospital based one-stop diagnostic clinics, heart failure nurses and pharmacists - to look after the most seriously ill heart patients.

The money was designated as “spend to save” and has resulted in significant savings for the health board, hospitals and their patients.

But health campaigner Mabon ap Gwynfor, Plaid Cymru's National Assembly candidate in Dwyfor Meirionnydd, says the board's "dire" financial situation means that there is no core funding to continue the service in the longer term.

He said: "The service has been shown to prevent between a quarter and a half of heart-failure patients being admitted to a district general hospital.

"It costs about £430,000 a year but is estimated to save at least £1.5m a year because of reduced admissions.

"Concerned GPs contacted me over plans to cut funding last month and the service has had a six-month extension. However, the future of the service remains uncertain and is likely to deteriorate further without guarantees of long-term funding."

He added: "The health board has spent the last year unable to decide on whether to continue the service funding, despite the evidence presented of lives improved and hospital admissions saved.

"GPs say this has exposed serious deficiencies in the health board management’s ability to make simple decisions. Despite intense lobbying of different managers and executives, the board’s funding lapsed and the service was due to be disbanded until a last-minute temporary reprieve.

“The community heart failure service is saving around £1.5 million each year in direct inpatient hospital costs, not to mention the benefits in patient safety, lives saved and quality of life improved, enabling our DGHs to avoid further overcrowding.

"With further investment to a total of £600,000, the service could be extended across the region and make the £2.5 million annual savings that it was on the verge of reaching previously."

Mr ap Gwynfor said he was disappointed that a service that was delivering good outcomes for patients and making savings was "under threat" and called on the health minister, who has direct control over BCUHB, due to it being in special measures, to intervene.

But a BCUHB spokesperson said: “It’s entirely wrong to suggest we are looking to cut funding to this service.

“We asked the service to complete a business case which takes into account an evaluation of the service and its performance, as well as detail on how it can be replicated in other areas of North Wales. 

"As with all requests the health board receives to commit funding, we need to go through a robust evaluation of the benefits of non-recurring projects to ensure the best use of public funds.

“This request for a business case is not about stopping the service, but about ensuring we have the best approach to providing this service to people across North Wales.

“More work is needed to ensure this business case takes into account the future development and provision of the service.

“We fully recognise the value of the heart failure service, and are actively working with the service so that, together, we can continue to ensure this service remains available to people in North Wales.”

Railway volunteers in running for top award

* The new track looking west into the station site.

The Llangollen Railway Trust is in line for an award for the work put in by its volunteers to complete a new track layout for the Corwen station project.

The Trust has been listed for the Heritage Railway Association's 2020 Award for Large Groups for the completion of the trackwork to connect with the extension railhead into the station site.

There are five entries in the Large Group category with competition from projects including the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway, TalyLlyn Railway, Isle of Wight Steam Railway and the Volk's Electric Railway at Brighton.

The winner will be unveiled at the annual Heritage Railways Association Awards night to be held in Birmingham on February 8 when the shortlisted entries in all categories are announced.

George Jones, spokesman for the Corwen project, said. "We hope the immense effort to infill the gap in the embankment and lay a new rail formation across it during the course of the past eight months will receive appropriate recognition at the awards ceremony, although we recognise we are up against some stiff competition."

Following the Golden Fishplate occasion on December 10 the volunteers continued to work laying track for the siding and completed the 300 ft length on December 21. There is a now an impressive length of double track on the final approach to the Corwen terminus where once there had been a void in the embankment.

Looking forward to the New Year, the project members plan to concentrate on completion of the island platform with the insertion of drains, installation of lamp posts and running-in board, and the final pair of canopy columns, with a need to level up the infill material and spread fine grain sand ready for the pavers. 

There is also the matter on completing the gap in the platform wall, which has provided road vehicle access, with the final layer of easi-blocs and platform edging.

All this represents a lot of work for the project volunteers, who are mainly retired and working on the basis of three day a week.

Ballasting, packing and alignment of the track in the platform loop, with the aid of a hired in tamper machine, will follow before an official inspection later in the year.

If all this can be achieved, the new station will open on a date to be announced in 2020. It is all subject to available resources and continued support to complete the project.

Hard to see the road ahead for comeback Camry

* The revived Toyota Camry (above and below).

Toyota Camry road test by Steve Rogers

Toyota is turning into a company of comebacks.

First we had Corolla, back after 13 years on gardening leave, and now the Camry has been given a second chance 15 years in exile.

It's a strange one because Camry was loved the world over - a staggering 19 million sold since 1982 - yet it couldn't do the numbers in Britain. 

Thirty years ago this was the sort of car most people aspired to, downsizing hadn't entered our vocabulary, but we preferred our Ford Sierras, Vauxhall Cavaliers, and Volkswagen Passats to a Camry or Mazda 626.

Bringing Corolla back made total sense because people are still buying family hatchbacks, but Camry? It is in the same league as Ford Mondeo, Vauxhall Insignia etc where sales have plummeted as customers turn to SUVs and smaller cars.

Premium models like Audi A4, Mercedes C-Class and BMW 3 Series are coasting along but Camry is not in that league and wouldn't you buy a Lexus, the luxury arm of Toyota, instead?

Not everyone thinks that way so here are a few positives to get us in the mood with Camry. It's well built, roomy with space aplenty front and back, and it's a hybrid. Mark my words there will be plenty of action on the hybrid and electric fronts in 2020.

Yet my first impressions of Camry were a bit dulled. There was a dated look to the dashboard, a mixture of the future (touchscreen) and past (big switches). Then I drove and did not like the feel of the brakes. The pedal did not have the usual progressive feel; all a bit too sharp and took a while to produce smooth braking. Minor stuff in the scheme of things although I believe first impressions count for a lot, particularly when parting with big money for a car.

Oddly enough I got to like the big, clearly marked illuminated switches because it harked back to the days when life was easy. You got straight on with it rather than spending 10 minutes, or more, trying to fathom the touchscreen just to get some heat or change the radio station.

Readers may recall my silly rant a few weeks ago with the voice control on the Lexus UX. As a sister car the Camry uses much the same technology and although our friend rejected my request to change the radio station she did manage to input a post code for navigation so let's just leave it at that.

Go for the top of the range Excel and you will get a decent amount of kit for your money. Toyota has weighed in heavily on safety so there is a full range of features to keep you safe. I was particularly grateful for the rear cross traffic alert when warned of an approaching car when reversing out of a parking space with a van alongside blocking my view.

Excel sits on 18in alloy rims with low profile tyres so road thumps are often felt although generally the ride is all you would expect from a large family saloon where the emphasis is on comfort rather than sharp handling.

Which brings us on to the hybrid engine. Camry gets the larger 2.5 litre petrol which combined with the electric motor pumps out a healthy 215bhp. It is the only choice and a drawback for fleet sales where there is still a market for diesel but Toyota is sticking to its guns.

The surprise is that in spite of its size economy is good and engine emissions exceptionally low. It never fell below 46mpg and there were trips when I averaged better than 50mpg so as far as hybrid goes I am finally convinced this is a viable alternative to diesel.

I hear fellow motoring scribes digging the knife into the electric CVT transmission - I've done the same in the past - but Toyota has refined the system down the years and I had no complaints this time round. Acceleration is brisk, mid range pick up adequate, and as long as you don't thrash the engine, when it doesn't sound happy, everything is smooth and refined.

Batteries for the electric motor are housed under the back seat which means boot space is not compromised and is a good size.

If hybrid is your bag then you have to look at Camry because Toyota has pedigree and knows what it is doing.

Is Camry set to make the big comeback? It is going to be difficult, the market for big saloons is declining, and Camry is not making it into my top five.

Key facts

Camry Excel hybrid

£31,295

2.5 litre petrol; 215bhp

0-62mph 8.3secs; 112mph

50.4-53.3mpg combined

101g/km. 1st year tax £140

Insurance group 32

Boot: 524 litres