Llan panto this week ... oh, yes it is!

Llangollen Pantomime group are departing from the more traditional type of show to stage a panto with a difference later this week.

From Thursday to Sunday, January 16-19 they'll be bringing to the Pavilion stage Pinocchio, the little wooden puppet learning how to be a real boy, and his many adventures.

Director Justine Bradey said: "Although Pinocchio is not is not the usual pantomime the story should appeal to both boys and girls.

"This is my second time directing for Llangollen after last year's Snow White. This year my assistant director is Samantha Fletcher."

Travel writer's glowing description of Llan

* The writer says Llangollen Bridge gives the town an Alpine look.

Llangollen has won itself a glowing write-up on the Visit Wales website.

It comes from south Wales journalist Jude Rogers who pens regular pieces for The Guardian, Observer and New Statesman.

And she describes Llan as “this beautiful riverside town.”

The author admits that despite her parents being regular visitors to the International Eisteddfod and her brother, a Swansea choirmaster, bringing groups of singers there, she hadn’t before been the town.

But she tells her readers that Llangollen is “one of the most atmospheric and intriguing places I’ve ever been to in Wales.”

She sets the scene by musing that the River Dee makes the town “look Alpine in a peculiar way”.

The 16^th century, listed bridge, she says, can be viewed from the “homely and popular” Corn Mill and she calls Gales a “stylish, wood-panelled wine bar”.

Also in for a pat on the back are The Three Eagles and the nearby Cornerstones B&B, where she stayed the night in one of their “gorgeous” rooms.

Taking a look at the shops in the town centre Ms Rogers provides complimentary descriptions of businesses such as Courtyard Books, the Oggie Shop, Porters Delicatessen and Zingiber Wholefoods.

She was also impressed with Llangollen’s heritage railway and its route towards Corwen, St Collen’s Church and Plas Newydd, for which she gives brief potted histories.      

The author ends by saying her visit: “Set off in my head the idea of Llangollen as a place ahead of its time, as I left, I knew there was even more to this progressive, beautiful place. As (I cross) the old bridge and head home, I know there's only one way to find out. And my return trip's already booked.”

* See the full report at: https://www.visitwales.com/destinations/north-wales/north-east-wales/exploring-loveliness-llangollen

Concerns raised over state of playing field

* Mike Edwards's picture of the playing field he is concerned about.

A concerned local resident has told a local county councillor of his concerns about a Llangollen playing field and the nearby site where new homes are being built.

Mike Edwards tells Cllr Graham Timms in an email, a copy of which was sent to llanblogger: "I am very concerned that the football pitch has been out of commission for months being cordoned off where SG Estates have constructed a below-ground soak-away for the Vicarage Road Development.

"The area has remained in this condition for sometime meaning it is unavailable for local youths to use. There is no sign of any final reinstatement work and no consultation or communication with residents to keep them in the picture, it’s our town and our facilities after all.

"This is on top of severe ongoing disruption for residents firstly on Willow Hill and now Vicarage Road. Vicarage Road is covered in a layer of mud despite being swept and it’s regularly littered with parked construction vehicles cause immense problems for the Vicarage Road residents.

"I would be grateful if you could take this up with the relevant officers and SG Estates and let me know what proposals are being put forward to alleviate the issues and to provide greater respect to residents of Llangollen."

Cllr Timms responded: "I had an email from a ward member about the youth centre sports pitch and the mud on the roads by the Vicarage Road site. I've spoken to SG Estates this afternoon and will be meeting with them early next week to help to resolve these issues.

"The sports field is still a candidate site for housing in the new LDP (Local Development Plan) but myself and Ken Skates have made our objections clear at the highest levels within the county council. I am hopeful that the sports field will be saved for future generations." 

Steve Griffin, managing director of SG Estates, told llanblogger: "The final seeding for the football pitch will be carried out when we have suitable weather.

"We have purchased a road sweeper that sweeps the road three times a day and have extensive offsite parking for vehicles in the compound area.

"It’s almost impossible not to cause some disruption during our development works by the nature of what we do and the weather we have to do it in."

He added: "The new road will be completed to base course by Monday meaning 99% of our site traffic will use Willow Street from Monday. This will help enormously. 

"One last mitigating point, we cannot control the site operations associated with the new reservoir. We seem to be taking quite a few blows on the chin for these guys." 

Town council seeks community grant applications

Llangollen Town Council is seeking applications for its latest round of Community Grants.

The scheme, which the council runs in conjunction with Cittaslow Llangollen, aim to reward the
skills, experience and expertise of the local voluntary and community sector and the help they give to the council in achieving its aims and priorities for residents.

A single organisation can receive funding up to £250 whilst partnership and joint applications could be supported to a maximum of £1,000.

A council spoksperson nsaid: "It has been proven over the years that small cash grants can really make a big difference in helping communities get schemes and projects started."

Completed applications should be returned by January 30.

The council says that if the planning group confirms the eligibility of an application under this year’s Participatory Budgeting scheme it will go forward to the next round. 

This is a voting event which is to be held on Monday, February 24 at 6.30pm in the Town Hall.

A preference voting system will be used where voters assign an arbitrary number to each project based on how much they like the project. 

The votes are then added up and the projects put in rank order depending on the total number of aggregate votes. Projects are then allocated funding in rank order until the funding runs out.

Applicants will be invited on the evening to give a presentation up to a maximum of three minutes in length to present for their project. 

* For further details, contact: townclerk@llangollentowncouncil.gov.uk

Corwen aims to be one of region's greenest towns

* Energy Local Corwen is ready to go live thanks to South Denbighshire Community Partnership and pictured at the Corwen Hydro-Electric generator are, from left, Leah Edwards and Margaret Sutherland with Kirsten Sedgewick, of Citizens Advice.

Corwen is on course to be one of the greenest towns in Wales thanks to a ground-breaking energy project aimed at cutting local electricity bills and making money for renewable energy providers – and for the community.

The town already has its own community hydro-electric project fed from the Pen y Pigyn Reservoir but now it wants to broaden its appeal to sign up 60 local households to join CEL – Corwen Energy Local.

The scheme is being run by South Denbighshire Community Partnership who are based in Corwen and are particularly keen to enlist stakeholders with their own generating capacity – owners of solar panel and other systems able to feed power into the grid.

That power would be added to the energy generated by the town’s hydro-electric power plant which is fed by the Pen y Pigyn reservoir and they could cash in on their contribution.

At the same time homeowners in an area blighted by fuel-poverty could save up to £300 a year from their electricity bills - and some of the profits from the scheme will be channeled into a special fund which could provide £2,000 a year for local community projects.

Wales’s national community energy project, Energy Local Cic, is showing savings of between 10 and 30 per cent for households in Bethesda, where it launched its first scheme, and experts believe similar returns could be expected in Corwen.

SDCP Chief Officer Margaret Sutherland said: “It’s very exciting for Corwen to be at the forefront of a scheme like this and we’re already showing the way with the community hydro project which will be one of the partners in this scheme.

“Research we have carried out has shown there are real issues with rural and fuel poverty in Edeyrnion and we hope this is the start of addressing that.

“Corwen can become a model for others to follow as the town develops into a hub of renewable energy and there is scope for this to be extended in the future.

“The area is a real hotbed of green energy with the windfarms being built just up the road on the Denbigh Moors.”

Energy Local is also on board in Corwen and renewable energy expert Mary Gillie, a key figure in the success of the Bethesda scheme, is playing an active role in advising on the Corwen project.

She said: “It has worked very well in Bethesda and the savings have been significant and we are now trying to include community hydro and solar schemes in the same way Corwen is aiming for.

“Smart meters can tell you every half hour if energy is being generated whether it’s a community hydro scheme or a solar array on a house like mine and if I’m not using it then it goes into the grid and the community is paid for it and that saving can be shared by the stakeholders.

“If someone is generating more electricity than they’re using then that will also go into the grid and they can earn money from that which can make it more financially viable to install solar panels.”

Residents of Corwen and the surrounding villages of Glyndyfrdwy, Llidiart y Parc, Carrog, Cynwyd, Gwyddelwern, Bryn SM and Bryneglwys will be eligible to sign up with Energy Local Corwen and a meeting is to be held in the town at Canolfan Ni on Thursday, January 16, at 7pm.

The Corwen Hydro Project which is a partner in CEL generates electricity at a turbine house in the town centre driven by the Nant y Pigyn and Nant Cawrddu streams which plunge 500 feet from a reservoir high above Corwen to generate 55 kilowatt hours of electricity, enough to supply up to 40 homes a year.

Over its 40-year lifespan of receiving government feed-in tariffs it is estimated that the project will generate £1.2 million with £120,000 going directly to community benefit for local organisations and good causes.

The scheme is publicly owned and it is also payback time for them after an issue of £1 shares raised £318,000, over half of them bought locally, to fund the project which was developed by rural regeneration agency Cadwyn Clwyd.

The agency provided a £12,000 feasibility study through its LEADER fund as part of the Welsh Government Rural Communities – Rural Development Programme 2014 – 2020, which is financed by the Welsh Government and European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).

* For more information on the Energy Local Corwen project and South Denbighshire Community Partnership go to http://www.canolfan-ni.org/ and to https://www.facebook.com/SouthDenbighshireCommunityPartnership/ and for more on Cadwyn Clwyd go to http://cadwynclwyd.co.uk/

Make more recycling your resolution, says county

Denbighshire County Council is asking residents to make 2020 the year to recycle more ahead of major changes to waste and recycling collections being introduced next year.

A series of initiatives have already been introduced in parts of the county, to encourage people to get prepared for the new waste and recycling collections that will provide residents with:

§  a new weekly collection for recyclables such as paper, glass, cans, and plastic

§  a weekly collection for food waste

§  a new fortnightly collection for clothes and small electrical items

§  a four weekly collection of non-recyclable waste

The aim is to encourage more recycling on top of the council’s current rates (64%) to meet the Welsh Government’s 70% target by 2025, with an expectancy that the target will rise to 80% in future.

If residents use the recycling service correctly, it should only result in a minimal amount of residual waste being created, the council says.  

It is therefore proposing to change the collection of non-recyclable waste to every four weeks for the majority of households.

Residents would be issued with a  bigger black bin if they need one, but overall, households would have more capacity each week for managing their waste than they have with our current service, the council believes.  

The new weekly recycling service (using a stacking recycling trolley) will provide more capacity for recycling when compared to the current fortnightly collection with the blue wheelie bin, it adds.  

Councillor Brian Jones, Cabinet Lead Member for Highways, Planning and Sustainable Travel, said:  “We want to thank the county’s residents for their recycling efforts to date.  

"Denbighshire is one of the UK’s highest recyclers but the goal posts are changing and we expect recycling rates to be a lot more stringent in future. That is why we need to work together now, ahead of the changes coming in next year, to encourage more people to recycle even more than they are doing now.

“We want to work with communities to understand their recycling behaviours and we are introducing a series of initiatives aimed at focusing more on recycling over the coming 12 months. There will also be lot of engagement going on and information being shared across the county, so watch this space."

* For further details about recycling in Denbighshire, please visit: www.denbighshire.gov.uk/recycling

Concerns expressed over school budgets

*Llyr Gruffydd AM with Malachy Edwards, NAHT Cymru’s 

North Wales regional officer, outside the Senedd. 

Members of teaching union NAHT Cymru were outside the Senedd yesterday (Tuesday) to lobby AMs over the Welsh Government’s draft budget.

They, along with members from other trades unions, were there to discuss our concerns over the budget proposals.

They were met by Llyr Gruffydd, Plaid Cymru’s North Wales AM, who said he shared their concerns that the funding in the draft budget does not go far enough to “reverse a devastating decade of austerity” for schools in north Wales.

The NAHT pointed out that the draft budget includes £8m funding for Additional Learning Needs, but this will do nothing to address needs of schools where children need additional support.

Mr Gruffydd said: “There are 120,000 pupils with Additional Learning Needs in Wales so £8m equates to just 66 per child so, welcome as it is, it’s not going to make the difference that those pupils and their families need. 

"The heads, teachers and support workers in our schools, who are doing their best for those pupils, are facing an impossible position. 

"Too many of our schools, through no fault of their own, are now in deficit and having to lay off experienced staff to balance the books. So the announcement of new funds – for example of £15m to help with the professional learning of teachers – is welcome but is a drop in the ocean and fails to reverse a devastating decade of austerity.”

Mr Gruffydd added: “Too many schools, in particular secondary schools, are now feeling the financial pressures and promises of additional funding from the UK Government needed to become concrete proposals for those on the frontline. 

"Otherwise, schools in Wales will continue to struggle and our pupils will not get the education they deserve. I’m grateful to NAHT Cymru for meeting with us to discuss how we can make the improvements we need.”