Voluntary agency announces new round of community grants

Denbighshire Voluntarry Services Council (DVSC) has launched its third emergency #Covid19 grant round to support recovery and community resilience as the country emerges from lockdown. 

A total of £26,591 is available to support the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector in Denbighshire. 

This new fund has been enabled by Comic Relief from money raised from the Big Night In.

Helen Wilkinson, DVSC’s Chief Executive said: “It is great to be launching this new grant round. 

"The previous two have been great successes and have helped the voluntary and social enterprise sector here in Denbighshire offer great service in such unprecedented and uncertain times. 

"Fifteen groups and organisations have so far been funded and over £24,000 distributed.  

"It has been inspirational to see the work being done and this will hopefully continue during this grant round. We have put together a promotional video for this funding opportunity so that we can promote far and wide”

The new grant round offers support to voluntary sector organisations and community groups. 

Its purpose is to enable those providing vital support to groups such as: people in isolation, the elderly, carers, people struggling to access food etc so that they can continue to receive support as the county emerges from lockdown.

The grant is available for not-for-profit groups and organisations that are independent of government, private and public sector and registered charities. Applicants will be able to apply for up to £2,000.

Projects must meet one of three funding criteria outlined:

         * Maintain or increase activities that support the vulnerable during the #COVID19 pandemic

         * Ensure voluntary, community and social enterprise groups and organisations have the resources needed to deliver vital services for their communities e.g. volunteer expenses

         * Encourage stringent health and safety protocols for volunteer activities to safeguard volunteers, beneficiaries, and voluntary sector staff,volunteers and beneficiaries, e.g. the purchase of PPE, hand sanitiser  

* To apply for the grant, fill out DVSC’s online application here.Applicants also benefit from a governance health check and can be signposted to other funding sources. 

If you want advice and guidance you contact DVSC’s bilingual Community Support team member, Rhys@dvsc.co.uk or call him on 01824 702441.

Railway left in "precarious position" by Covid-19, says boss

* Llangollen Railway has opened again following lockdown.

* The board welcoming back railway visitors. Picture: George Jones.

The manager of Llangollen Railway has spoken to the BBC about the challenges it faces as a result of Covid-19.

In an interview published online yesterday morning (Saturday) as the attraction re-opened following months of lockdown, Liz McGuinness said heritage steam railways in general are in a "precarious" situation and will be struggling for survival over the summer.

She described how the industry was "walking a tightrope".

lnd she predicted Llangollen Railway would lose “hundreds of thousands of pounds over the summer”.

Yesterday, the first train ran down the line at 10.40am with arounnd 20 passengers on board for the return trip to Carrog. 

Among the new measures the railway has taken in advance of the re-opening is a special hand sanitiser for staff as it is considered dangerous to use alcohol-based products on board a steam locomotive.

In total, £10,000 has been spent making the railway safe to reopen, including buying PPE for volunteers and staff, she revealed.

Ms McGuinness explained: “Lockdown has left us in quite a precarious situation.

"We have lost £600,000 over the past few months. We will probably lose another £300,000 to £400,000 over the summer holidays because we're only starting in August and we can't carry the same number of passengers.

"At the moment we're holding our own, but we are walking a tightrope. We are in a very dangerous position if we don't get enough passengers coming to ride on the trains."

The BBC story also featured the Ffestioniog Railway in Porthmadog, Gwynedd, which has been open for the past two weeks, but has also struggled financially in 2020.

Roadworks planned for Market Street

Latest local roadworks notified by one.network are:

Market Street, Llangollen, Denbighshire 04 August — 06 August Delays unlikely - Traffic control (give & take) Works location: OUTSIDE NUMBER 20 MARKET STREET... Works description: Sluice Valve Reset lid Job in Carriageway (10mm Bitmac (Tarmac) )... Responsibility for works: Dee Valley Water Current status: Advanced planning Works reference: ZU0028102/000012267530

Pavilion waste service could return on first Saturday in September

* The waste collection service could return in early September, says a council chief.

Denbighshire County Council is looking towards a re-launch date of the first Saturday in September for its “pop-up” household waste collection service in the Pavilion car park.

The suggestion of a likely date for the re-start of the facility, which was suspended back in March as a result of fears for the safety of council workers from Covid-19, comes in an email from the authority’s chief executive Judith Greenhalgh to Clwyd South Senedd Member Ken Skates explaining the position.

Mr Skates has allowed llanblogger to see a copy of the email and to quote its contents.

Ever since the service was withdrawn there has been a strong local clamour for it to be swiftly restored rather than local people having to take their rubbish on a round-trip of more than 20 to the Ruthin recycling centre.

There was a breakthrough earlier this week when local county councillor Graham Timms told llanblogger he had been informed by council chiefs the service would be coming back, probably in mid-August.

In her email to Mr Skates, Judith Greenhalgh says: “I have also received a number of emails from a small group of residents in Llangollen who are not happy that we have not yet been able to resume the service. 

“The group are very active on social media, have submitted several FOIs, and have written to various MPs and AMs on the matter. 

“I should start by clarifying that we have explained the situation to them several times, either directly, or via the local ward Members, who have been kept informed at all times. 

“The reason behind the service being suspended is simply Covid-19.  As a consequence of lockdown, we had to ask several members of our waste team (including a number of HGV drivers) to refrain from work due to underlying health conditions which made them vulnerable to Covid-19. 

“We therefore had to prioritise our most critical waste services and used our remaining staff to keep the most critical waste service running.

“By doing that, we were able to maintain our household residual, recycling and food waste services during the entire lockdown period. 

“The other reason is this service requires our staff to come into close proximity with residents, and we were concerned that the service could not be delivered safely.  At the very least, it would have placed our staff at an increased risk, which would (in turn) jeopardise our critical household waste collections.”

The email adds: “We have been very clear that something needed to change in order for us to start planning to re-open the pop-up service.  Specifically, there were two things that needed to happen:

“a) Relaxation/removal of social distancing measures by Welsh Government; and/or

b) A change in our guidance about staff needing to refrain from attending their place of work due to underlying health conditions. 

“We have recently had a change in the 2nd element, and we are now starting to work towards bringing vulnerable people back into the workplace, even if they have underlying health conditions (subject to additional risk assessments and occupational health approval). 

“We therefore expect to have more staff capacity from mid-to late August. However, we are trying to grant summer holiday leave to those staff that have not had a break since the start of lockdown. 

“Therefore we are working towards a re-launch date of the first Saturday in September for the Dee Valley pop-up service. 

“I must stress that there is still work to do to ensure that we can re-start the service safely.  Social distancing is still a requirement, and we will need to develop risk assessments, and engage with staff, unions and our partner (CAD) to ensure that everyone is satisfied that it safe to resume the service.  

“A key remaining risk is the handling of waste taken directly from the public, and it is extremely important that we are able to keep our operational staff distant from the public to prevent Covid 19 impacting on our core frontline service.

“We have informed the local ward Members about this plan, and I’m sure that the message has already been communicated to the residents who have contacted you. 

“We will be issuing some external communications about it once we are more certain about the plans and, more specifically, when we are more confident about the start date.”

Clwyd South MS Ken Skates, said: "I am pleased the council is working towards re-starting this service as soon as possible.

“Thank you to councillors Graham Timms and Mel Mile for keeping this on the council's agenda and for their hard work on behalf of local residents."

Latest coronavirus update from Welsh Government

* First Minister Mark Drakeford at the briefing.

Latest coronavirus update from the Welsh Government, dated yesterday, is:

·       First Minister Mark Drakeford today set out the latest changes to the coronavirus regulations in Wales following the sixth review.

o   https://gov.wales/written-statement-review-health-protection-coronavirus-restrictions-no-2-wales-regulations-2020 and https://gov.wales/family-and-friends-at-the-heart-of-new-coronavirus-regulations

o   Watch the press conference again: https://twitter.com/WelshGovernment/status/1289165652654137348

·      Welsh Government has today published updated guidance to support higher education, further education and work based providers as they continue to prepare for the autumn term and beyond https://gov.wales/new-coronavirus-guidance-support-providers-higher-education-and-further-education-wales

·         A number of changes have been made to the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (Wales) (Amendment) (No3) Regulations 2020, which require people returning to the UK to self-isolate for 14 days if they have visited certain countries.

o   Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia and St Vincent and the Grenadines have been added to the list of exempt countries and territories;

o   Luxembourg has been removed from the list of exempt countries and territories.

o   Further details are set out at: https://gov.wales/written-statement-health-protection-coronavirus-international-travel-wales-amendment-no3

·         The Chief Medical Officer for Wales has written to the 130,000 people who are shielding in Wales confirming shielding will be paused on 16 August. The letters set out the next steps and advice for this group of people: https://gov.wales/written-statement-new-letter-chief-medical-officer-wales-those-who-are-shielding

·         Deputy Minister for Health and Social Services Julie Morgan has published a written statement about an action plan for care homes: https://gov.wales/written-statement-action-plan-care-homes

·         A series of priority actions to support Wales’ world class food and drink industry recover from the impact of coronavirus have been jointly published by the Welsh Government and the Food and Drink Wales Industry Board https://gov.wales/actions-support-welsh-food-and-drink-industry-recovery-impact-covid19-published

·         The Welsh Government has announced a £53m fund to help Wales’ diverse culture sector deal with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

o   It will provide essential support to theatres, galleries, music venues, heritage sites, museums, galleries, archive services, events and festivals, and independent cinemas who have all seen a dramatic loss of revenue due to the pandemic. Funding will support both organisations and individuals in the sector.

o   The announcement is on top of the £18m portfolio package provided in April, which was delivered by the Welsh Government, Arts Council of Wales and Sport Wales.

o   https://gov.wales/written-statement-cultural-recovery-fund

·         The latest figures published by Public Health Wales show there are a total of 17,258 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Wales – the real number will be much higher.

o   Public Health Wales has reported a total of 1,560 deaths from coronavirus.

Where to find the latest information

·         Public Health Wales provides a daily update about the number of cases of coronavirus in Wales. It is available at: https://phw.nhs.wales/news/public-health-wales-statement-on-novel-coronavirus-outbreak/

·         Information about coronavirus is available on the Welsh Government’s website at https://gov.wales/coronavirus and https://llyw.cymru/coronafeirws

·         Queries about support for businesses, including about eligibility for the Economic Resilience Fund? Visit the Business Wales website https://businesswales.gov.wales/coronavirus-advice/

·         If you can help the effort to produce PPE in Wales please visit https://businesswales.gov.wales/news-and-blogs/news/provision-critical-equipment-and-personal-protection-equipment-ppe

·         Want to know when and where to wear a face mask? https://gov.wales/face-coverings-frequently-asked-questions

o   Want to make your own face covering? https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2020-06/how-to-make-a-3-layer-face-covering.pdf

·         The Welsh Government holds a regular media briefing about coronavirus. These are on-the-record, on-camera and routinely supported by a BSL translator. They will be held at 12.30pm. They are live-streamed on our @WelshGovernment Twitter channel and are broadcast live on BBC One Wales and S4C.

o   From the week beginning July 20, the Welsh Government press conference will be held every Tuesday and on the Fridays following the 21-day review of the coronavirus regulations.

o   First Minister Mark Drakeford held today’s press conference: https://twitter.com/WelshGovernment/status/1289165652654137348

Life-saving machine installed at bowling club's HQ

* With the new defibrillator on the bowling club wall are, from left, Plas 

Newydd site manager Paul Evans, bowling club secretary David Ensor, 

Health Centre Friends trustee John Palmer and acting Friends 

chairman Alan Bodicoat.  

A new defibrillator has been placed outside the headquarters of Llangollen Bowling Club at Plas Newydd.

The £1,700 cost of buying and installing the life-saving machine was shared between the club and the Friends of Llangollen Health Centre.

The socially-distanced installation ceremony yesterday morning was attended by officials of both local organisations.

David Ensor, secretary of the bowling club, said: "This was a joint venture by our members and the Friends and is a very valuable addition to both Plas Newydd and the whole town.

"It started off with a £500 legacy left by Phil Williams, of Watkin & Williams, which could only be used for a good purpose such as this. 

"Further fundraising was then done towards the final cost of buying and installing the machine."

He added: "Apart from benefiting around 60 members of the bowling club it will also be added the list of local defibrillators kept by the the ambulance service which will also initially maintain the machine.

"A number of our club members have received training on how to use properly it."      

More local organisations announce plans to re-open

* Llangollen Sightseeing is heading back to town.

More local organisations have announced on Facebook their plans to emerge from lockdown.

Llangollen Sightseeing posted: "We are back!

"We are delighted to announce that from this weekend the Horseshoe Pass Tour will be back and will run 5 days a week.

"However, the bus will run at a reduced capacity to maintain social distancing so pre-booking is recommended.

"Tours run Wednesday to Sunday and depart at 12pm, 1:30pm and 3pm from Parade Street."

* The Bridge End Hotel aims to re-open on Saturday.

The Bridge End Hotel said: "The wait is finally over!

"We are delighted to announce that at long last we will be opening our doors from Saturday 1st August.

"The safety of both our customers and staff is paramount, so we’ve had to make a few changes to the way we do things.

"We will be serving drinks ONLY at this time in our outdoor seating areas. Booking is not essential, but at busy times you may be asked to wait.

"If you would like to book a table, please get in touch with us via our Facebook page or by texting us on 07387715020, and we will send you confirmation of your booking. Please note that we will be accepting cash payments, but card would be preferable.

"We will resume serving food very soon, and our chef John will have some delicious treats to offer you. Please see our Facebook page for updates to service and offers.

"This is all as new to us as it is to you, and we do ask that you are patient with us while we get to grips with the new procedures we have put in place, and that you follow government guidelines. Abusive behaviour towards any member of staff or a disregard for our new regulations will result in you being asked to leave.

"We’re really looking forward to welcoming all our customers old and new back on Saturday."

And the Llangollen Group of Anglican Churches posted: "Following on from last update regarding the careful process of re-opening our churches for public worship, Fr Lee is currently working out the precise details of the adapted liturgy and Risk Assessment for St Collen's church.

"We hope - and this is not definite - that St Collen's can open on Sunday 30th August for public worship at 11am.

"If we get the go-ahead, this will be the only church in the Llangollen Group available for a single service each Sunday.

"As mentioned in the last update, there are many factors and considerations involved in this staged process. There are also reports of an increase in corona virus cases here in north wales. So we need to be cautious.

"Re-entering the church will feel like a joyful homecoming; a return form a long period of exile. There will be mixed feeling of grief and loss; thanksgiving for the courage and generosity of so many; the resurgence of neighbourliness which has transformed communities.

"It is important that the liturgy reflects these mixed emotions.

"So, for the first Sunday back, Fr Lee is looking for people from our regular congregations and also from the town to share their own personal stories of the crisis and lockdown.

"Please let him know if you are willing to share your story for 5 minutes during the service.

"More updates will follow in due course. Please remember to observe physical distancing."

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/wales-coronavirus-hotspot-chances-local-18675495