Community Christmas lunch serves up festive cheer

* A group who had registered in advance enjoy their socially-distanced Christmas lunch in the community hall.

A team of volunteers led by Mike Connolly brought a real taste of the festive season to Llangollen by once again running the annual community Christmas lunch yesterday.

Closely observing all anti-Covid rules, they cooked from scratch and served up around 50 three-course meals plus tea, coffee or a little wine to anyone who had registered in advance.

About 20 of the meals was delivered to socially-distanced tables in St Collen's Community Hall yesterday lunchtime while the rest were taken out to people's homes by a volunteer driver starting on Christmas Eve.

Much of the food and wine, including turkey with all the trimmings, was donated by local companies.  

Rhug Estate owner makes gift of life-saving machine

* Tomos Hughes and Lord Newborough with the defibrillator unit in the Rhug Estate Farmshop car park. 

Lord Newborough’s gift to the local community this Christmas is a Public Access Defibrillator which has been installed at Rhug Estate.

Lord Newborough, Owner of the estate, said: “The greatest gift this year is life, after everything we have been through this past year with the pandemic. 

"With that in mind I have decided to purchase a defibrillator unit from the North Wales NHS charity, Awyr Las/Keep the Beats which is working in partnership with the Welsh Ambulance service as my Christmas gift to the local community, Rhug staff, visitors and anyone else who might be travelling along the A5 and in need.”

The defibrillator unit has been installed in the Farm Shop car park and is for everyone’s use if they should ever need it.

The Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust (WAST) is part of the Save a Life Cymru campaign. They work in partnership with Keep the Beats, a dedicated fund and project within the North Wales NHS charity, Awyr Las and other organisations including the Welsh Government, other emergency services and charitable organisations. 

All are committed to supporting cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training and public access defibrillation across Wales.

Defibrillation in under five minutes can produce survival rates as high as 50-70% (Resuscitation Council UK, 2019). 

The Welsh Ambulance Service staff can direct members of the public to the nearest location of a defibrillation unit in the event of an emergency.

Tomos Hughes, North Wales Public Access Defibrillators Support Officer for the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: “We are always grateful to those that care for their local community in this way to consider purchasing and managing the safety and maintenance of defibrillation units across Wales. These machines save lives.”   

Every year Lord Newborough holds a Christmas carol service with food and drinks. He does this as a gift to the local community and his staff and as an opportunity to raise funds for charity. 

This didn’t go ahead last year and again this year due to the pandemic and so Lord Newborough is giving the defibrillator as his gift to the community instead.

Lord Newborough said: “Your support and encouragement has kept us going this last year once again and I can’t thank everyone enough.

"May the good times and treasures of the present become the golden memories of tomorrow and may your Christmas sparkle with moments of love, laughter and goodwill. To our customers and your families, may the Christmas season bring only happiness and joy.”

* Rhug Estate is open between Christmas and the New Year. Visit the website for opening times. www.rhug.co.uk

Merry Christmas/Nadolig Llawen from llanblogger!

 

llanblogger wishes a very Merry Christmas/Nadolig Llawen to all readers

Mayor sends out a Christmas message to the town

* The Mayor, Cllr Austin Cheminais.

Town Mayor, Councillor Austin Cheminais, sends this special seasonal message to the people of Llangollen:

At this special time of the year I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the trials of 2021 and wish you and your loved ones a very special Christmas and happy 2022. 

We are still living in extraordinary times but we’re in a much better place than this time last year.  Hopefully we’re on the journey back to “how things used to be” and 2022 will see us at journeys end.

 

We are lucky to live where we do. Llangollen is a beautiful town in a beautiful place and I believe our community throughout the pandemic has demonstrated an inner beauty. 

Llangollen has some amazing volunteer organisations and individuals and they continue to offer help and support to others. Over the last, nearly, two years it has been so heart-warming to see people working together and helping each other, going the extra mile to ensure that those most in need are helped and supported and cared for.  These thousands of group and individual acts of kindness make me proud to be part of the Llangollen Community.

 

On behalf of Llangollen thank you to everyone who has worked hard to help others overcome the multiple hurdles that have come our way over recent times. We also owe a huge debt of gratitude to all of the essential workers who have been there for us throughout the pandemic. We thank you for your dedication, help and support.

 

Tourism is the life blood of our community and plays a major role in boosting our local economy. It’s been great to see visitors returning during the second part of 2021. The resilience of our local businesses during what have been difficult times is to be applauded.  I wish them every success going forward.

 

We live in one of the best places you could possibly live, so naturally there are lots of people who want to visit, enjoy and share what Llangollen has to offer; and recently we’ve had to re-adjust to seeing our roads and town being busier than ever. I’m sure that the completion of the works currently taking in place in and around Castle Street will help make our Town Centre even better.

 

After nearly two years of not being able to host events it was wonderful to see Llangollen emerging from lockdown in recent months with Dot Cinema, The Fringe Festival, Twenty Club, Llangollen Food Festival and The Collen Players leading the way. 

It’s been great to see Llangollen’s Silver Band out and about again, as well as local bands and entertainers. Thank you to all the volunteers that work hard to promote Llangollen’s reputation as a cultural hub and festival town. Hopefully they pave the way for a return to full programme of events in 2022.

 

It’s likely that 2022 will continue to bring further challenges but, as Llangollen’s community has demonstrated, if we work together, support each other and show compassion and kindness towards others we can overcome anything.

 

Take care and stay safe!

Have a Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

 

Cllr Austin Cheminais

Mayor of Llangollen  

Car that's the Genesis of an interesting idea

* The flagship Genesis GV80 SUV.

* The cockpit.

* The Genesis GV70 estate.

Genesis first drive by Steve Rogers

It’s the first book of the Bible and my favourite rock band, and now a spanking new car brand.

New to the UK that is, Genesis has been around the Far East and North America for five years and is the product of Hyundai which wants to break into the European premium car market.

So this is a posh Hyundai? Wrong. The Korean outfit, which also runs Kia, is bank rolling the operation and although the H word is rarely used the cars will use some common under the skin parts and the Kia Stinger platform.

The question you are asking is where are the grand motor mile showrooms? There aren’t any. Instead city centre Genesis studios will be set up but the buying operation will be online with the customer getting a virtual tour of the models, buys one and gets a personal assistant who looks after them in a cradle to grave operation.

The car is delivered on a covered transporter, has five years of warranty, roadside assist and servicing. Any problems call the buddy who will have the car collected and leaving a courtesy car while yours is sorted.

This sort of operation is gaining popularity in the second hand market and, perversely, could benefit from the effects of the pandemic with people reluctant to have too much face to face contact.

Since the beginning of the year the Genesis line-up has grown to five models, G70 saloon and shooting brake, GV70 SUV and the flagship G80 saloon and GV80 SUV.

If you need convincing that Genesis is a premium brand step inside the all wheel drive GV80. Apart from looking good it has lashings of luxury, with bang up to date technology, the 14.5 inch centre screen is particularly impressive, and the car will park itself remotely from the key fob outside the vehicle.

Engine choice is 2.5 litre petrol or three litre diesel mated to an eight speed automatic gearbox, with prices starting at £56,715 and £56,815 respectively.

This is a big car with a big road presence and enough room for an optional third row of seating. As expected it glides along motorways and smooth A roads but is too twitchy on twisting B roads. Select sport mode and the ride is more settled.

Safety features right across the range are about as good as it gets and the one that impressed most is the cameras in the speedometer and rev counter dials. It reacts when indicating changing either the left or right hand dial to a camera giving a clear view for overtaking and returning to a lane.

There is also a head up display for speed, speed limit and navigation directions.

Genesis 70 models are more mainstream competing with Audi A4, Mercedes C-Class, Jaguar XE and BMW 3 Series. Saloon and shooting brake have elegant lines and will be offered with a 197bhp 2.2 litre turbo diesel, again with a lot of standard equipment. The shooting brake is just over 46 grand.

The new brand is clearly designed to scare the pants off the opposition with high levels of trim, equipment and ground breaking technology. Will it succeed? It is going to be a slow burn but at least its masters have not set unattainable targets for the UK operation.

Nissan’s premium Infinity brand failed here and DS, part of the new Stellantis empire, is only ticking along, but considering how Hyundai and Kia have become dominant forces in a relatively short time you would not bet against Genesis succeeding.

Fast facts

GV80 Luxury Line

AWD 7 seat

59,600 71,300 tested

2.5 litre turbo petrol 300bhp

8-speed automatic

0-62mph 7.7secs; 147mph

31.4mpg combined

Boot 727-2144 litres

SG Estates helps Old Vicarage residents enjoy advent calendar

SG Estates recently made a donation to the Old Vicarage nursing home for an advent calendar which gives the residents a personalised gift on their day.  

The residents made the boxes with a picture of them on. 

Here, SG's sales and marketing manager Cate Jones hands over one of the boxes to one of the residents.

Welsh Ambulance Service gets extra £34m of funding

Health Minister Eluned Morgan has announced more than £34m of extra funding to support the Welsh Ambulance Service through the coming winter months.

It includes £11m to extend military support for ambulances until the end of March – the number of personnel will increase from 100 to 250 early next year.

£15m will fund the replacement of 111 emergency vehicles to improve fleet reliability and availability.

The new fleet will include 39 replacement emergency ambulances, 12 new emergency ambulances and 23 rapid response vehicles.

And more than £8m has been made available to support emergency ambulance services, and non-emergency patient transport services. This is made up of:

1. £5m for the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust:

• 36 additional frontline ambulance clinicians to enable a doubling of existing clinical support desk capacity to provide advice over the phone to 999 patients
• Additional capacity to support winter response, including non-emergency patient transport services
• Support to co-ordinate the response to pressures in the urgent and emergency care system
• A ‘make ready depot’ at Singleton to increase ambulance vehicle availability in Swansea Bay

2. £2m for non-emergency patient transport services and the recruitment of mental health practitioners to support people with mental health issues over the phone.

3. Further funding to support mental health patients through a transport pilot delivered by St John Cymru Wales.

This funding complements £9.8m previously allocated to Regional Partnership Boards to support people to return to their local communities after admission to hospital. This will help improve hospital patient discharges and ease the pressure on hospital beds.

Health Minister Eluned Morgan said: "Ambulance services and staff in Wales are under great strain due to the impact of the pandemic and winter pressures.

"We are determined to support the NHS – and them – in every way we can. Investing in the ambulance service shows our commitment to ensuring people can access high-quality emergency care when they need it the most.

"Ambulance t clinicians and staff have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic. I want to thank them for everything they have done to care for people."

Jason Killens, chief executive of the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: "Winter is traditionally our busiest period, and when you factor in the pandemic and its record levels of demand and staff absence, we have to redouble our efforts to provide a safe service to the people of Wales.

"The trust and its partners are working hard to find long-term and sustainable solutions to the issues across the entire health and social care system, but in the meantime, we have to look at short-term measures to bolster our capacity as best we can."