Local appointments are available to give blood.
* Follow the link for further details: https://wbs.wales/LlangollenTC
Fe allech chi achub 3 bywyd mewn un awr
Rhowch waed os
gwelwch yn dda
Latest events and comments from the town of Llangollen in Denbighshire, North Wales, UK. EMAIL: llanblogger@gmail.com
Local appointments are available to give blood.
* Follow the link for further details: https://wbs.wales/LlangollenTC
Fe allech chi achub 3 bywyd mewn un awr
Rhowch waed os
gwelwch yn dda
Denbighshire County Council is asking people to remain vigilant over the coming few days as Storm Eunice is expected to bring significantly strong winds to the county.
The Met Office has issued an Amber warning from 5am on Friday February 18 through to 9pm on the same day.
The extremely strong winds could cause extensive disruption, including flying debris, fallen branches and uprooted trees, damage to buildings and homes, power lines coming down, effects on roads, bridges and railway lines, as well as delays to public transport.
The council’s teams have been carrying out gully checks across the county and external tree cutting teams are on stand-by to deal with any emerging issues.
Discussions are taking place with the North and Mid Wales Trunk Road Agency to put in place traffic management plans in the event Storm Eunice necessitates the closure of the A483 and A5 viaducts to the south of Wrexham.
Traffic will be diverted via Llangollen should the viaducts be closed. In anticipation of this, traffic management contractors will manually operate traffic lights on Castle Street, Llangollen during the day on Friday, February 18.
All schools in Denbighshire have been asked to move to remote learning on Friday, February 18 due to the amber warning for Storm Eunice and the significant strong winds predicted.
This decision follows internal, regional and national discussions and has not been taken lightly. The decision has been taken to ensure the safety of all pupils, staff, parents and visitors to school sites.
Councillor Brian Jones, Cabinet Lead Member for Highways, Waste and the Environment, said: “We are working closely with partner agencies to do all we can to minimise the impact of Storm Eunice on services across the county. This storm has the potential to cause damage and we want to do all we can to keep people safe.
“We ask people to follow any advice issued by the Council, Natural Resources
Wales or the emergency services and also ask people to keep an eye on the
weather forecasts, the media and social media for the latest advice and
information."
Residents are also advised to keep a record of the 105 Scottish Power number to report any power failures during the storm.
The council will be updating its website: www.denbighshire.gov.uk, as well as Facebook and Twitter accounts with any council related information.
* An example of the affordable homes built in the last five years.
More than 1,000 additional homes have been created or brought back into use in the past five years in Denbighshire - with 23 of these in Llangollen.
Denbighshire
County Council has helped deliver 394 affordable homes, worked in partnership
to develop two extra care facilities providing more than 100 homes, delivered
34 additional council homes while 695 empty homes in the private sector have
been brought back into use.
Additional
properties have been provided in communities right across Denbighshire -
including Llangollen, Rhyl, Prestatyn, Dyserth, Rhuddlan, Cefn Meiriadog, Trefnant,
Meliden, Denbigh, Ruthin, Gellifor, Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd, Corwen
and Llandrillo – including the first brand new council homes to be designed and
built for the Denbighshire area in 30 years.
Below is a breakdown of the homes created in Llangollen since 2017:
Year | Units | Tenure | Provider |
2017-18 | 1 | Intermediate Rental | Grŵp Cynefin |
| 12 | Social Rent (RSL) | Grŵp Cynefin |
| 1 | Council Buy Back | DCC |
2018-19 | Nil | | |
2019- 20 | 5 | Intermediate Rental | North Wales Housing |
2020 – 21 | 2 | Supported Accommodation | DCC/Wales & West |
2021- 22 | 2 | Intermediate Rental | North Wales Housing |
Total | 23 | | |
The council’s work was carried out under the Housing priority as part of its Corporate Plan 2017-2022, which set the direction and ambitions for the authority for the past five years.
Cllr
Tony Thomas, Lead Member for Housing and Communities, said: “The council has carried out a wide range of work on improving and creating housing
for the needs of our residents.
“We
set ourselves ambitious targets under our housing priority and we have exceeded
many of these, helping to ensure there are more homes across the county for our
residents.
“As
a council we recognise the need to ensure housing is available to meet the needs
of Denbighshire residents, and affordable housing is an essential part of this,
so we can retain and attract young people to live in the area.
“The
affordable housing created is a mix of social housing, intermediate rental, and
home ownership through shared equity, rent to own options and private
developments.”
Two
extra care facilities have been developed in partnership with Grwp Cynefin at
Awel y Dyffryn, Denbigh, opening in February this year, and Llys Awelon,
Ruthin, due to open next year.
These
developments will see 70 extra self-contained homes in Denbigh and 35 in Ruthin
which give residents a balance between living at home and having on-site,
dedicated care available if needed.
A
total of 34 additional council homes have been delivered since 2017 and this
includes new builds, conversions and the purchase of properties.
Further
developments of new energy-efficient council homes are underway in Denbigh,
Dyserth and Prestatyn with 45 new properties due to be completed this year,
with work starting on a further 59 new council homes during 2022.
The council has made a number of improvements to the homes of council tenants which
includes installing 1,100 new heating systems, 465 new roofs, 325 new windows,
125 air source heat pumps, 775 kitchens and bathrooms while 2,550 properties
have also been externally painted.
Nearly
£2million has been invested on neighbourhood improvements for council tenants,
including 17 new play areas.
Other
work as part of the housing priority included the successful resettlement of 20
Syrian families under the UK Resettlement Scheme.
The council has contacted owners of empty homes and helped encourage renovation or
matched them with developers, with a view to bringing them back into use on the
housing market.
A
total of 695 empty homes have been brought back into use to date, exceeding the council’s target of 500 between 2017 and 2022.
The council has launched its Housing & Homelessness Strategy to co-ordinate its
work to ensure everyone is supported with pride to live in homes that meet
their needs and to end homelessness in Denbighshire.
The
aims of the strategy include providing more housing, ensuring housing is of
good quality, supporting people with their housing issues, addressing
homelessness and supporting communities.
This
includes developing our approach to homelessness by providing even more of our
own emergency and temporary accommodation with onsite support and renewing the
focus on early intervention to prevent homelessness, with a model of rapid
rehousing at its heart.
Cllr Julian Thompson-Hill, Lead Member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets, said: “Supporting the creation of so many new homes has taken a considerable amount of work to achieve and has involved sound financial planning.
"We have taken advantage of a wide range of funding grants and
affordable homes have been built by private developers and in partnership with
Welsh Government and registered social landlords, with the Council managing the
Social Housing Grant programme, which has enabled the building of the majority
of affordable homes in the county.
“We
will be continuing to build on this success and provide more affordable homes
in our communities which is part of our ongoing work to retain more young
people in Denbighshire as well as ensuring there is adequate housing for the
needs of all our residents.”
Denbighshire County Council has responded to complaints about noise caused to nearby residents by overnight working on the Llangollen 2020 project.
A post on social media yesterday (Monday) asked: "Anyone know why the workers doing the footpaths (were) still working at 12, waking up my little girl driving machinery in and out of market street?"
This point was later taken up by campaigning page Llangollen Advocate which posted: "Things that go bump in the night …. Yes it’s the 2020 works running on past midnight last night keeping people awake in the town it seems.
“The council would like to thank members of the public and businesses for their continued patience during the ongoing work.”
* Simon Baynes MP in the House of Commons Chamber.
Clwyd South MP Simon Baynes has been appointed as a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Ministerial team at the UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
A (PPS) is selected from backbench MPs to act as an assistant to a minister or team of ministers in the House of Commons.
The unpaid role is seen as the first rung on the ministerial ladder.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) helps to protect and promote the UK’s cultural and artistic heritage and help businesses and communities to grow by investing in innovation and highlighting Britain as a fantastic place to visit, as well as giving the UK an advantage on the global stage, striving for economic success.
Mr Baynes said: “I am very honoured and delighted to have been appointed as a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Ministerial team at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
"The work of the Department covers many areas of UK Government policy which are extremely important for Clwyd South.
"And I am looking forward to delivering on the Government’s commitments and continuing to work hard for the people of Clwyd South as their local Member of Parliament.”
A social care leader is calling for an assurance that everybody working in the sector will receive a £1,000 bonus payment – even staff like cooks, care support workers and cleaners.
Mario
Kreft MBE, the chair of Care Forum Wales (pictured), said the extra cash for front line
social care workers announced by the Welsh Government was welcome in the midst
of a dire staff shortage.
But
he’s concerned that some ancillary staff might miss out.
Mr
Kreft says that would be totally unfair when they too have played a vital role
in keeping vulnerable people safe during the pandemic.
According
to Deputy Health Minister Julie Morgan MS, the initiative is costing £96
million and the bonus will be aimed at some 53,000 people working in the
sector.
It
comes on top of the £43.2 million announced last December that’s designed to
ensure social care workers receive the Real Living Wage from April onwards.
Care
Forum Wales are concerned that all of this money might not reach the frontline
because it is being channelled via local authorities and health boards.
Last
year Mr Kreft was criticised by the Welsh Local Government Association for
suggesting that asking councils to distribute social care funding to care homes
and domiciliary care companies was like “putting a fox in charge of the henhouse”.
Some
authorities were better than others in getting the cash to front line but in
far too many cases, he said, care homes were still waiting for any extra money
to reach them.
Mr
Kreft said: “We certainly welcome the £1,000 as a first step recruiting and
retaining social care workers at a time when we are facing the worst staffing
crisis anybody in the sector can remember.
“There
is a much bigger issue about how we value social care worker and how we
commission social care to ensure that our wonderful workforce receive the
rewards that they deserve.
“We
have been having weekly meetings with the Deputy Minister and we are grateful
to her for her inclusive approach in involving Care Forum Wales in her
deliberations.
“In
relation to the £1,000, there is a question mark about those people who have
slogged their guts out during the Covid nightmare, through all of the
challenges, who may not be eligible.
“I
am thinking of people who may have been dealing with infection control,
catering and cleaning staff because they have all played an absolutely key role
in keeping people safe.
“We
really need to have clarity that these people are not going to be overlooked
because there has been an astonishing commitment by the social care sector and
social care workers in different settings come in all shapes and sizes.
“I
hope there’s going to discretion in that guidance for employers to be able to
ensure those who have kept people safe and gone above and beyond during
the pandemic are rewarded for those efforts.
“The
key thing is that nobody gets overlooked because in Wales social care staff
have made an astonishing contribution to the safety of vulnerable people.
“We
need to make sure that social care family benefits but I think that’s
possible because I think the government understands the sector has made.
“The
issue is quite different in terms of the £43 million that’s been set aside to
pay people Real Living Wage from April.
“The
delivery mechanism for that needs to be very carefully developed in partnership
with the sector so that the guidance is such that local authorities and health
boards will ensure it gets through to the front line so that our staff can
actually receive the Real Living Wage.
“Care
Forum Wales was very clear in 2020 when we launched our campaign for social
care workers to receive an annual salary of at least £20,000.
“Every
political party in Wales bought into that campaign and what now need to ensure
is that we have the right mechanism so that local authorities have no wriggle
room.
“We
don’t want to see a repeat of the shambles last autumn when £41 million in
recovery funding was given to local authorities because we Know that has been
less than consistently allocated to the sector, as we warned would be the case
at the time.
“Last
October we felt the guidance was not strong enough or clear enough and we were
criticised by the Welsh Local Government Association for daring to suggest that
would be the case.
“In
the event our concerns were proved to be wholly accurate. Surprise, surprise –
many months later in February we see there are those local authorities, as we
predicted, that there were some local authorities who did the right thing while
others sat on the hands.
“We
still have some local authorities in Wales that have not ensured that
desperately needed money has got to the frontline as the Welsh Government
intended.
“Some
providers have still got the begging bowl out at a time when care homes are
closing because of financial difficulties.
“Among
the places we have lost is a greatly valued care home in Mold and that is a
stark reminder we have to have a sustainable service and that people with
complex needs can be cared for in their own community and they don’t have to
remain in hospital so the NHS can concentrate on what it’s best at.
“That
is why we have to ensure the new guidance for the Real Living Wage is worked on
and co-produced in partnership with all parties so we have an effective
mechanism for distributing funding in the right way.
“This
is surely the beginning of a more consistent national approach instead of the
postcode lottery of having 22 local authorities and seven health boards doing
things differently.
“Last
October I said that allocating the funding via local government was tantamount
to putting a fox in charge of the henhouse and sadly what I feared has now come
to pass. It hasn’t been consistently applied and there are cases where the
money has not got to the front line.
“It’s
therefore vital that we learn the lessons and we approach this issue in
partnership so that we do not repeat the same mistakes.
“We need to see social care workers as a value not a cost to our society and our country.”
The former Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member, from Rhosllannerchrugog, passed away yesterday following an illness.
In his role as Commissioner he fought for the rights of Welsh speakers and to promote and facilitate the use of the Welsh language.
He graduated with a law degree at the University of Aberystwyth in 1983, and he later went on to practice as a solicitor.
His career in politics began when he was first elected to Wrexham County Borough Council in 1991 for the Rhos and Ponciau Ward. In 2003 he became Mayor of Wrexham and the following year was voted in as Leader of the council.
In the 2011 election for the then National Assembly for Wales, he was elected as a Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for North Wales, going on to become the party’s spokesperson for Children and Young People and for the Welsh language. In the 2016 Assembly election his North Wales regional seat was captured by UKIP.
In April 2019 he was appointed by the Welsh Government to the role of Welsh Language Commissioner, succeeding Meri Huws in the post.
He was also very active within his local community, and has been a member of the Stiwt Arts Community Centre committee since it was established in the 1980s.
Tributes have been comping in throughout the day including those from Clwyd South Senedd Member Ken Skates and former MP for Clwyd South, Susan Elan Jones.
Ken Skates described his former colleague in the Senedd as a ‘true champion for the people and places of our region and nation.’
He said: "Aled was a gentleman, a brilliant and professional public servant, a
true champion for the people of this area and Wales.
"He was always good company to have and was utterly dependable. He believed passionately in his home community of Rhos and the wider area of Wrexham County Borough, serving our communities with understanding and full commitment.
"We’ve lost a
rare type of politician in Aled – someone who was always polite, compassionate
and empathetic at all times. He will be missed by so many people, across the
political divide."
Former MP for Clwyd South, Susan Elan Jones, also grew up in Rhosllannerchrugog and said the community would be united in sadness.
She added: "He was an exemplary public
servant, who served his home community and the people of Wales with great
dedication.
"He was also a brilliant Welsh Language Commissioner. We will remember in our thoughts Llinos and the rest of Aled’s family, his friends at the Stiwt, and his many friends across a large number of organisations that he was involved in."