Members of the Llangollen Tidy Town Team held their annual Christmas dinner at The Hand last night.
The team, who are all volunteers, were celebrating carrying out more than 500 hours of unpaid community work over the past year ranging from assisting with the remaking of the corner garden of Centenary Square to handling traffic management for Covid vaccination sessions at the health centre.
Almost every piece of the orange plastic fencing was blown down, along the length of Castle Street, the top of Centenary Square and the corner of Bridge Street.
Just after 8am a lone workman from the contractors undertaking the work could be seen starting the job of putting the barriers back into position.
Clwyd South MP Simon Baynes (pictured) has welcomed the return of Denbighshire Council’s Free After Three parking scheme for car parks across the county.
From November 21 to December 31, certain Denbighshire Council-run town centre car parks will be free for members of the public to use from 3pm every day, in a bid to attract and encourage people to use their local high street during the festive period.
In Mr Baynes’ Clwyd South constituency, the initiative will be available for the following Council-run car parks:
* Llangollen - Market Street, East Street, Hall Street and Mill Street
• Corwen - Green Lane
Mr Baynes said: “I very much welcome the return of the Free After Three scheme to car parks in Llangollen and Corwen, which will hopefully not only benefit our local town centres across the festive season but also will make parking more accessible across the county.
"After the serious disruption caused to businesses in Clwyd South due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s more important than ever that we support our local businesses, independent traders and town centres – and this is a great scheme to assist in doing just that.”
Work planned for week starting November 29 on the town's 2020 project is:
A scaled-down version of the town’s annual Christmas Festival, taking account of ongoing pandemic safety measures, was due to be staged on Saturday afternoon featuring a programme of entertainment in Centenary Square.
But town mayor Councillor Austin Cheminais, who also chairs the Christmas Festival Committee, said this morning: "In view of the really bad weather forecast we have very reluctantly decided to cancel the event.
"I've been checking with a number of weather forecasts and they all predict very high winds. In fact, the Met Office is forecasting gusts up to 54mph and the gazebo in which the entertainment programme was to be staged just couldn't have coped with that.
"There was also a major question mark over whether the firework display which was to round off the afternoon could have gone ahead in these conditions."
He added: "We're really sorry to cancel but we've done it just to keep everybody safe.
"We will perhaps organise a post-Christmas event but of course we will let everyone know about that."
Latest information from the festival committee is that the Christmas lights will be turned on around 5pm tomorrow but without the usual ceremony.
* Once again this year the festival committee is hosting its popular Christmas Scarecrow Trail.
Throughout December they are encouraging people to come up with some creative and colourful entries.
It was held last year and even during the pandemic it managed to attract over 50 inventive entries from all parts of the town.
Cllr Cheminais said: "I knew of 40 locations on the list and there were a lot more out there that I didn't know about.
"I’m hoping to get even more this year as I know how incredibly creative Llangollen people are.
"Santa and his elves will judge the competition in the week leading up to Christmas, and there are two main prizes of £25 plus five runners-up prizes of £10.
"People can help choose the winner by sending a picture of their favourite to: santa@btinternet.com."
A programme of upgrading and improving the public access technology facilities in all libraries in Denbighshire has started.
The work began
on November 20, and is anticipated to take 6-8 weeks to complete.
The project
will see new public access computers installed, a new PC management system,
self-service printing, an online booking system and printing via Wi-Fi.
Each week one
or two libraries will be upgraded and during that week, customers will not be
able to access computers or printing at that particular library.
Customers will
be informed by staff and notices at each library and via social media, and
advised to consider visiting another library to use the computers there.
Cllr Tony
Thomas, Denbighshire County Council’s Lead Member for Housing and Communities,
said: “This upgrade will really benefit our library customers and provide a
better service for those who use our public access technology facilities.
“Our libraries
provide a wide range of services for our residents including free access to
books, free downloadable books and newspapers, free computer internet and Wi-Fi
access, and a shared space for community activity.
“We apologise
for any inconvenience caused to customers during these improvements and thank
them for their patience during this time.”
The programme
started at Rhyl Library and will roll out across the county in the coming
weeks.
Customers are
advised to check with their local library before making a special journey to use
the library computers or printing.
The free
public Wi-Fi will remain available during this time.
