Prime Minster predicts Llangollen Railway has "fabulous future"

* The Prime Minister answers a question about Llangollen Railway.

Boris Johnson says Llangollen Railway has a “fabulous future” ahead of it after the coronavirus crisis.

He made the prediction during today’s Prime Minister Minister’s Questions after Clwyd South MP Simon Baynes invited him to ride one of its steam trains when the lockdown ends.

The exchange between Mr Johnson in Parliament and Mr Baynes online came after the railway announced on Facebook this morning (Wednesday) that its public appeal and share issue to help it survive the closure made necessary by Covid-19 had reached about £75,000.

* Simon Baynes MP asks his question.

In his question Mr Baynes said: “The hospitality and tourism businesses in my constituency are vital for the health of its local economy, of which a very good example is the Llangollen steam railway.

“Will the Prime Minister join me in congratulating them on their current a fundraising campaign designed to see them through the coronavirus crisis and after that crisis is over would he please pop on board one of their steam trains when he is next in Llangollen?”

The Prime Minister replied: “I have a picture at home of myself and William Hague aboard the Llangollen Steam Railway, I am proud to say, and I congratulate them on what they are doing to raise funds and I have no doubt they have a fabulous future ahead with his [Simon Baynes’s] support.”   

* Boris Johnson on his visit to the railway during the 1997 general election campaign. 

Later, Mr Baynes said: “The PM has very fond memories of the Llangollen Steam Railway from his time as a parliamentary candidate for Clwyd South in 1997. 

"I’m delighted that he has praised the steam railway for all their fundraising work in the current crisis and I know he shares my strong support for all the tourism and hospitality businesses in Clwyd South and across the rest of the country.”
    

Railway general manager Liz McGuinness posted on Facebook on Wednesday morning: “Following eight weeks of uncertainty we wanted to give everyone an update on what has been happening here at Llangollen Railway.

“Firstly, we would like to thank everyone that has donated and purchased shares over the last few weeks. We have now received approximately £75,000 in share purchases and donations, including gift aid, which is amazing!

“We have also applied for the Resilience Grant from the Welsh Government and a Bounce Back Loan from the bank backed by the Government but have yet to hear regarding either of these applications.

“Your generosity will help us to keep covering our overheads during this time. With listed buildings to maintain and engines needing regular servicing, like all heritage railways we are reliant upon our customers for an income and our income this year will be very much reduced.

“Our donations page will remain open for the foreseeable future and if you are in a position to help us further we would be very grateful.

“Regarding our events, so far we have cancelled all events and bookings to the end of June, we have rescheduled the Gin Train until September and the June Murder Mystery to November.

“With regards to other events, we are currently working a month at a time and will update these when we receive updates from the Welsh Assembly.

“Following the Government announcement at the weekend we do not think we will be open before the 4th July, we all have to wait and see and hope things improve. The safety of our volunteers, employees and customers is paramount but, rest assured, we are working as hard as we can to ensure Llangollen Railway is still here for you to enjoy once life returns to normal.”

Responding to the Prime Minister’s Questions exchange on Facebook she posted: “Simon, thank you for your question during Prime Minister’s Question time, it was great to hear and also great to hear the Prime Minister has a picture of him on Llangollen Railway.”

The railway's appeal page is at: https://llangollenrailway.charitycheckout.co.uk/…/covid-19-…

Major roadworks which may affect Llan drivers

Essential resurfacing work is to take place on both directions of the A55 carriageway between Junction 33 Northop and the A494 St David’s Interchange, beginning on 17 May for three weeks.

This is part of a series of essential resurfacing work which needs to take place on the A55 in the Ewloe to Broughton area and A483 Wrexham to Pulford area over the next few years.  The first phase took place in February this year between Junctions 35 – 34. Exceptionally it is being carried out in May and June this year as traffic levels are currently extremely low, because of the requirement for essential travel only.   Originally this work would have been carried out after the summer embargo.  Workers will be following strict social distancing at all times, and will be adhering to the relevant regulations.  Welsh Government says the work needs to be done to maintain the condition of the carriageway, protect the safety of the travelling public and to remove the risk of increasing unplanned closures. It adds that not carrying out this work would lead to further deterioration of the carriageway resulting in unplanned emergency closures causing more disruption and inconvenience than planned works.  To minimise disruption as much as possible the work is being carried out at weekends and at night. For the safety of motorists and to allow the work to set one lane will be closed on weekdays. The work is scheduled to begin on 17th of May and is programmed to last for three weeks, depending on weather conditions, but every effort will be made to finish ahead of schedule if that is possible, says the government.  The work will consist of three weekends of 24 hour working with a full A55/A494 closure of each direction in turn from J33 of the A55 Northop to St David’s Interchange of the A494 with diversions in place.   During the week there will be full overnight A55/A494 closure of each direction with diversions.  A full closure allows work to be carried out on both lanes at the same time, reducing the amount of time needed to complete the work. Transport and North Wales Minister Ken Skates said: “Our aim is always to carry out essential work while causing the least disruption possible to the travelling public while keeping them safe.  The very low traffic levels at this unprecedented time means this important work can be carried out with minimal disruption for those undertaking essential journeys.  “The contractors are able to do this essential work while observing the physical distancing rules and they will be complying with other strict guidelines to help protect them against coronavirus while they carry out this work.  I am very grateful to these critical workers who are maintaining the road network at this time.”  * To find out more about the work and for regular updates visit https://traffic.wales/ or follow @TrafficWalesN

Llan musician helps put together charity video for London

* Louise Redknapp features in the film Jack Found helped put together.

A young musician from Llangollen has helped produce a video to promote a charity which is delivering meals across London to the NHS, the homeless, children and key workers.

Feed Your Community, which comprises hospitality industry colleagues, has so far sent out meals worth a total of £30,000 around the capital.

To help promote the cause and raise more money to pay for the meals the charity recently arranged for a short film featuring media personality Louise Redknapp.

And Jack Found, who comes from Llangollen and now lives in London, has written the backing music and recorded the video.

* Jack Found performs on stage.

Jack, who came back home to play at Llanfest with his band, said: “It was lovely to be asked to put together a video and write some music for Feed Your Community, which is an amazing initiative.”

His proud father Alan Found said: “He did the video for no fee in conjunction with Louise Redknapp.”

* You can see the film Jack helped to create at: https://www.facebook.com/jackfoundband/videos/3482150788466490/

MP welcomes extension of jobs furlough scheme

Clwyd South MP Simon Baynes (pictured) has welcomed the Chancellor's announcement that the coronavirus jobs furlough scheme will be extended.

Rishi Sunak said that the scheme, which pays the wages of workers on leave, will be extended for a further four months.

The Chancellor said: “Until the end of July, there will be no changes to the scheme whatsoever. From August to October the scheme will continue, for all sectors and regions of the UK, but with greater flexibility to support the transition back to work. 

"Employers currently using the scheme will be able to bring employees back part-time. To change their incentives, we will ask employers to start sharing, with the government, the costs of paying people’s salaries.

“Workers will, through the combined efforts of government and employers, continue to receive the same level of support as they do now, at 80% of their salary, up to £2,500.”

Simon Baynes said: “This is great news for furloughed workers in my constituency of Clwyd South and the rest of Wales, and it shows the UK Government’s level of support for people hard hit by this terrible pandemic.

“The Chancellor and the UK Government are taking a sensible, measured approach as we begin our return to normality, and that is absolutely the right course of action.

“As always, if there’s anything I can do to assist workers or employers in Clwyd South, I urge them to get in touch with me at simon.baynes.mp@parliament.uk. I’m here to help in any way I can.”

Garden waste collections to re-start from Monday

Denbighshire County Council has announced that its garden waste collections service is set to resume on Monday, 18^th May.

The garden waste bins will be collected on the usual collection days and residents that have subscribed to the service are asked to put their bins out by 7am on collection day. Those that have already subscribed have received the relevant information.

 People who have not renewed their garden waste subscription are being asked to do so immediately online:

or by phoning 01824 706000.

Residents are also being informed of the following information:

·        Collections may run late due to the high demand, please leave your bin out if it appears that the Council team has not attended your property (teams will work late and at weekends if necessary);

·        Make sure your green bin(s) only contains garden waste;

·        No extra waste will be taken so please do not leave any out;

·        No missed collection reports will be accepted during this two-week period;

·        The Council will not be charging subscribers for collections made in May;

·        Subscription charges will begin again on 1st June;

·        Please clean the handles of your green bin before and after collection;

·        Make sure you wash your hands before and after touching your bins;

The Council will extend subscriptions by a period equivalent to the length of the current stoppage (residents have not been charged during this break in service);

Councillor Brian Jones, Cabinet Lead Member for Waste, Transport and Recycling, said: “We fully understand that there has been disruption to the service and we would like to thank people for their understanding.

“The national restrictions meant that some staff needed to either self-isolate or were feeling unwell and we needed to make the difficult decision to suspend the service. However, we have had daily discussions around the earliest point we could reintroduce the service and we have drafted in external contractors to help us.  We have also been involved in regional discussions and now is the right time to be reintroducing the service.

All our staff will be working to social distancing guidelines, for their own safety and that of others”.

Discussions are still being held at regional and national level about household recycling centres and the Council will inform residents of developments when information becomes available.

Labour politicians make statement to "clarify" PM's lockdown announcement

* Clwyd South MS Ken Skates is amongst those who have signed the statement.

Six North Wales Labour politicians have put out a joint statement "clarifying" what they say is confusion caused by the Prime Minister's announcement on Sunday about the easing of lockdown.

The statement has come from Ken Skates MS, Hannah Blythyn MS, Lesley Griffiths MS, Ann Jones MS, Jack Sargeant MS and Mark Tami MP.

It says: "As elected members for constituencies close to the border with England, we recognise that the Prime Minister's statement regarding the UK Government’s easing of the lockdown (Sunday) created confusion for many of our constituents following the First Minister’s statement last Friday.

​

"Firstly, we would like to clarify the position for people who live in Wales but work in England.​​ The regulations on employment have not changed. 

"You are able to go to work whether in England or Wales as long as you can’t work from home and it is safe to do so. 

"​​If your normal place of work is in Eng​land, you should discuss your working ​arrangements with your employer in the first instance. 

"If they ask you to go back to work, they should be able to demonstrate why you can’t work from home and what measures they have taken or are putting in place to help with hygiene and social distancing. If they are unable to do so, please do not hesitate to contact us or your trade union if you're a member of one.​"

It goes on: "The Covid-19 situation remains extremely serious. The over-arching advice in Wales has NOT changed. It remains that you should stay at home wherever possible. 

"Please only travel when necessary and continue to follow the Welsh Government guidance.​ Measures including staying at home and social distancing are in place to continue to protect you, and our NHS, from the transmission and spread of coronavirus. ​​

​

"We un​derstand that having slightly different rules in W​ales and England may cause some ​confusion. However, the Welsh Government is working hard to ​make sure people are aware that, in Wales, our rules apply. 

"Travelling to Wales to ​spend​ time in the countryside or at the coast is not allowed ​under Welsh law​. We are in regular contact with North Wales Police and traffic flow on all main routes ​into Wales is being monitored.​

​

"In Wales, we have been able to make the very small changes the First Minister announced last week - such as allowing people to go out locally for exercise more than once a day - because of the impact the regulations have had in slowing the spread of coronavirus in Wales and ​people’s ​compliance and the sacrifices they have made.​ 

"This ​has helped control t​he situation in Wales - reducing ​the number of people who are admitted to hospital with coronavirus,​ the ​number of people who are seriously ill in intensive care​ and ​the number of people ​who are, sadly, dying from coronavirus.​​

​

"Exercising outdoors is an ​important exception, but the main aim of all Welsh Government regulations is to reduce the speed and spread of coronavirus. ​Preventing unnecessary travel helps to reduce the risk of the virus spreading further ​and imposing additional burdens on health services. ​So please stick with it - stay home, protect the NHS and save lives.​

​​

"Last but by no means least, we would like to thank everyone in North Wales who is playing their part in helping get us through this extremely difficult and challenging period.​"

Drakeford fears traffic could increase as result of PM's announcement

* First Minister Mark Drakeford leads today's press conference.

Welsh police bosses reported an increase in traffic activity over the weekend and the First Minister is concerned this trend could continue as a result of the Boris Johnson’s announcement that travel to exercise is to be allowed in England.

During his press conference earlier today Mark Drakeford said that in their latest weekly briefings to him all four of Wales’s Police and Crime Commissioners had reported a “distinct increase” in activity over the bank holiday weekend.

This, he said, came after English-based national papers were reporting last Thursday that an easing of lockdown regulations was just over the horizon.

Mr Drakeford said the police chiefs had also reported an increase in traffic across areas of the Welsh road network.

He added: “They and we have concerns that traffic flow could continue to increase as a result of the Prime Minister’s announcement that travel to exercise will be allowed in England.

“I want to be clear that in Wales it is Welsh law that applies. Travelling to exercise in Wales is not to exercise locally.

“We will use whatever means to convey this message, including signs on the major roads and motorways and in articles we hope to place in local newspapers across our border.

“The Welsh Government will continue to make decisions that are right for Wales using expert advice on how coronavirus is circulating here to keep us all safe.” 

* To view the First Minister's press conference, go to: 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=568265914105731&ref=watch_permalink