Christmas Festival hands over £1,550 to air ambulance

* Christmas festival committee members hand over the £1,100 cheque. From left, helicopter pilot Paul Cakebread, critical care paramedic Greg Ambler, Austin Cheminais, Dr Ally Hogg and committee members John Palmer and Ian Parry.  

* The team receives the £450 cheque from Austin Cheminais.

Members of the committee behind the annual Llangollen Christmas Festival have handed over more than £1,500 in donations to the Wales Air Ambulance.

They went along to the ambulance base at Mid Wales Airport in Welshpool to meet paramedics, doctors and pilots manning the lifesaving helicopter which flies from there on missions across the country.

And they presented them with two cheques – one for £1,100 which was the proceeds of last year’s festival at the end of November and the other for £450, the cash collected by festival committee chair and Llangollen town councillor Austin Cheminais on his appearances with Santa during the festival season.

The group was then given a closer look at the banks of hi-tech medical equipment packed in the helicopter’s fuselage.

Wales Air Ambulance covers the whole of Wales every single day.

Each year its fleet of helicopters attend around 2,500 missions, covering countryside, towns and cities. This includes miles of Welsh coastline and mountain ranges.

Wales Air Ambulance prides itself that it can be there for anyone in Wales within 20 minutes and brings a mobile A&E direct to patients.

Its team of critical care consultants and practitioners has some of the most pioneering equipment and skills in the world, including blood products and techniques developed in the armed forces. This means that patients receive advanced care before they even reach hospital.

The air ambulance is funded by the people of Wales and relies entirely on the public’s support to help keep the helicopters flying.

The charity does not receive direct funding from the government and does not qualify for National Lottery funding.

It therefore needs to raise £6.5 million every year to operate the service, with each mission costing an average of £2,500.

Cllr Cheminais has raised many hundreds of pounds for the air ambulance over the past few years as a way of saying thank you for the way the Midlands helicopter zoomed in to airlift him to hospital back in 2010 after he was run over twice by a delivery van in the car park of the school in Walsall where he was then headmaster.

_{He said: “All our air ambulances do a fantastic job of and I am delighted that, once again, we have been able to support the charity with money raised at the Llangollen Christmas Festival.}

_{“It was also very interesting for our committee members to get a first-hand look at the Wales Air Ambulance and chat to crew members about their vital role during our visit to Welshpool.”}  

AM's call to bring back Llan's minor injuries unit and others

* The former Cottage Hospital whee the Minor Injuries Unit was based before its closure.

North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has called on the Welsh Government to restore the Minor Injury Units (MIUs) they closed in North Wales seven years ago, including the one in Llangollen.                                                                                                                                                                              

Raising the matter with the Minister for Health and Social Services, Vaughan Gething AM, in the Welsh Parliament yesterday, Mr Isherwood said those in power were wrong to ignore warnings at the time that closures would result in additional pressure on A&E departments and GP practices, as this is exactly what has happened, and urged the Minister to consider reinstating MIUs for the communities that lost them.

He said: “According to Betsi Cadwaladr's website, there are five Minor Injury Units identified, other than A&E units, across the North Wales regional constituency. Luckily for me, one of them is in Mold, but most people aren't so lucky.

“In accordance with Welsh Government policy, in 2013 Betsi Cadwaladr closed five others - Colwyn Bay, Ruthin, Llangollen, Flint and Chirk - despite local campaigns to retain them and despite repeated warnings that this would place extra pressure on our A&E departments and GP practices. Of course, this is exactly what's happened.

“What consideration are you giving to perhaps restoring Minor Injury Units to the communities that lost them or that are accessible to them in other communities nearby?”

The Health Minister said that “Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has established “a pan-health board group to assess the scope of minor injury services across North Wales to ensure standardisation and to reduce demand on busy emergency departments within north Wales”, but that there are many issues to consider including ensuring there are adequate staff for the units.  

Speaking after the Chamber exchange, Mr Isherwood said: “In early 2013 Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board announced that it was rushing through the closure of five Minor Injuries Units in North Wales. 

"We had repeatedly warned the Labour Welsh Government  that their NHS community bed cuts and Minor Injury Unit closures would add to pressure on A&E and GP services, but they ignored us and the chickens have now well and truly come home to roost."

Water company says 'sorry' for garden flooding

* A stills picture taken from Steve Griffin's video of water
entering one of the SG Estates properties last Sunday.

A water company has said it is “really sorry” for an incident last Sunday which led to the gardens of new homes on a Llangollen housing estate being flooded following heavy rain.

Hafren Dyfrdwy are constructing a reservoir close to the new estate being built off Vicarage Road.

The flooding problem was spotted by former county councillor and mayor Stuart Davies who on Monday emailed Denbighshire County Council officials to complain, sending a copy to llanblogger.

In it he said: “Yesterday I went for a look at the top end of the SG Estates site opposite the Welsh Water (Hafren Dyfrdwy) site in Vicarage Rd.

“Water was pouring off it, on to the road, some of it going in to the gardens of the three new big houses, some of it being deflected by the new kerbstones down the new road to Willow Hill.”

Steve Griffin, managing director of house-building firm SG Estates, says he went out to the site immediately after hearing of the problem and shot a video of the water pouring into one of the new houses.

Referring to the film, he told llanblogger: “This is what was flooding one of our purchasers’ homes on Sunday. It came from the HD (Hafren Dyfrdwy) site.

“SG staff (including myself) went to site at 8.30am on Sunday to alleviate the problem by manually constructing a temporary damn to stop the flood getting into the new home.

“I’ve sent three emails to managers at HD requesting a response to our predicament but no reply.”

A Hafren Dyfrdwy spokesperson said yesterday: “We’re really sorry to those who had their garden flooded with rain water on Vicarage Road over the weekend, after measures taken to control the surface water at our construction site failed.

“We’re working with the housing developers and those who were affected, and want to assure everyone that measures will be taken to prevent this from happening again. Again, we’re sorry for any issues caused.”

llanblogger understands from Mr Griffin that he has a site meeting today with the water company's site contractors.

Registration closed for climate emergency meeting

Registration for the public meeting on February 25 on how to tackle the climate and ecological emergency has closed.

Last year Denbighshire County Council declared a climate and ecological emergency which included a commitment to make the authority net carbon zero by 2030 at the latest and called on the Welsh and UK governments to provide assistance and resources to enable the council to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Members of the public who registered have now been sent confirmation of their place on email and will attend a meeting on February 25 at County Hall, Ruthin, between 6pm and 8pm.

This event is now full and only those who have registered and received this confirmation email will be able to attend the meeting.

For those who have not registered the meeting will be webcast live via the council’s website and questions can be submitted via https://countyconversation.denbighshire.gov.uk/project/510 or on the night via Twitter in English @DenbighshireCC or in Welsh @CyngorSDd using the hashtag #DCCClimate in English or #HinsawddCSDd in Welsh.

Older drivers' workshop planned

Denbighshire County Council is hosting a workshop for older drivers at Llangollen Health Centre from 1.30pm on Monday March 9. 

Road safety officer Rebecca Musgrave said: "We have an Older Driver Scheme available for drivers over 65.  The assessment is free for all older drivers in all local authorities in North Wales.

The workshop, which lasts for about an hour, is an informal presentation, I have set it up to encourage more drivers to partake on  the scheme and feel at ease, the assessment is not to take away your license but to keep you driving for longer." 

Festival walks filling up fast, says organisers

Organisers of this year's Llangollen Walking Festival have given an update on the state of bookings: 

They say that all the walks planned between Friday May 8 and Sunday May 10 are filling-up fast...

FRIDAY MAY 8th:
• Offa's Dyke Path Challenge Walk 20 miles - coach to start.

ONLY 2 PLACES LEFT

• NEW History Walk - Llangollen's Mills a fascinating walk through local history.

ALREADY HALF FULL

​• Nordic Walking* FREE with instructors from Erddig Nordic Walking Group.

​BOOKING-UP FAST

SATURDAY MAY 9th:

• Wilderness Walk 15 miles and Steam Train Ride back.

ALREADY HALF FULL

• Steam Train Ride and Dee Valley meander 8 miles.

ONLY 4 PLACES LEFT

• 5 Ugly Sisters Walk 14 miles - bus to start. 

BOOKING-UP FAST
​
​• World Heritage Site Walk to the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct 8 miles with Hazel, our friendly botanist.

ALREADY HALF FULL

To book, go to: https://www.llangollenwalkingfestival.co.uk/choose-a-walk.html

Region's Tory MPs welcome HS2 decision

The seven Conservative MPs across North Wales have welcomed the Government’s confirmation that the HS2 project will proceed.

A spokesperson said: "The Prime Minister reaffirmed this government’s commitment to the delivery of HS2 as part of the levelling up of the regions within the UK.

"The economy and life of North Wales are critically dependent upon its East West links – for business, tourism, leisure, international travel, higher education, specialist health care and much more.

"Therefore we completely endorse the Prime Minister’s statement that ‘many in the north [are] crying out for better east/west links instead of improved north/south ones.’

"It is vital for the development of North Wales that plans for its own faster railway service are now included in the scoping and planning of High Speed North. That starts now by ensuring that the Crewe Hub is configured accordingly within HS2.

"We will be pressing Ministers in the Welsh and UK governments for guarantees that this provision will be made.”