Overnight closures of A5 east of town announced

* The Traffic Wales notification posted by Llangollen Rural Community Council.

Fresh night-time closures of a main route through Llangollen have been announced for next week.

Llangollen Rural Community Council this morning (Tuesday) posted on its Facebook page details of overnight closures, coupled with diversions, in connection with the ongoing work to strengthen retaining walls on the A5 to the east of the town.

According to the notification from Traffic Wales, these will take place between next Monday, April 4 and Saturday, April 9 between 7pm and 6am each night.

Traffic will be diverted via the A539 and A483 and Traffic Wales warns the closures will result in potential traffic congestion on the A5 and adjacent local roads.

They say the retaining wall works, which have been going on for many months, are due to be completed on April 14 and that the closures are required to resurface the carriageway.

They add that it would not have been possible to carry this out under the usual lane closures due to the narrowness of the A5 at this point.

Traffic Wales also says the overnight working could result in higher levels of noise for which it apologises in advance.

Meanwhile, night-time closures of Castle Street, which began last night, will continue until this Friday, April 1.

Councils treating care home residents as "second class" says leader

* Mario Kreft MBE, chair of Care Forum Wales.

Vulnerable care home residents are being treated “like second class citizens” by  councils thanks to a growing North-South divide, according to a sector leader.

And a home owner from Llangollen agrees with his assessment.

An investigation by Care Forum Wales (CFW) has revealed that the fees paid by local authorities in the North are up to £11,000 a year less per person than those on offer from their counterparts in South Wales.

They say the issue was brought into sharp focus when Torfaen Council announced big increases in their rates – 17 per cent for residential care and 25 per cent for nursing care.

It means that a 50-bed care home in Torfaen will receive £546,000 a year more for providing residential EMI care than a similar sized home in Anglesey, Wrexham and Flintshire for exactly the same levels of care.

In the cases of Denbighshire and Gwynedd, it equates to an extra £494,000 a year and £444,600 more than a home in Conwy.

Care Forum Wales chair Mario Kreft MBE says it’s adding insult to injury at a time when care homes across Wales are being forced to close because chronic underfunding has made them “unviable”.

This comes at a time when local authorities in Wales have received an additional £36.5 million to meet the extra costs of paying staff the Real Living Wage of £9.90 an hour.

Overall, there has been an overall rise of 9.4 % in local authority funding but the increases in fee levels have almost all been lower, at 6-7.5%.

It was clear that local authorities in North Wales were choosing not to pass on the extra funding to the front line of social care.

As a result, there was “growing chasm” between the fees paid by councils in the north compared to the majority of authorities in South Wales.

He said: “The North-South divide is essentially treating our beloved care home residents - who are by and large extremely frail and vulnerable - like second class citizens.

“It is neither fair nor is it kind. The people making these decisions should take a long look at themselves.

“It’s also a kick in the teeth for our magnificent staff who have been utterly heroic and put their lives on the line during the pandemic to protect the people for whom they provide care.

“I have said in the past that channelling funding through local authorities without clear conditions was like putting a fox in charge of the hen house and what’s happening now is doing nothing to disabuse me of that notion.

“Everyone is blaming the Welsh Government but they have come good with extra funding.

“Councils have been given more money to cover the additional costs of implementing the Real Living Wage but the increases we’re seeing in North Wales are generally around six or seven per cent.

“North Wales used to be the top of the league in terms of care home fees and now we are in the relegation zone.

“Fees are unsustainable at this level and something has got to give. In many cases, the extra financial burden will fall on hard-up families to make up the difference.”

According to Bethan Mascarenhas, who runs The Old Vicarage care home in Llangollen, most care homes were at breaking point.

She said: “You have look at the impact on residents and what you can do with £10,000 more a year.

“We have 17 beds so it would be a huge amount - £170,000 more a year for us to do all sorts, including better equipment, better activities and paying our team better.

“It like councils are turning care homes in North Wales into areas of deprivation.

“It’s really demoralising. We’re in an impossible situation and as a care provider I don’t have a quality of life.

“I’ve struggled over the last two years and buck stops with you. We’re all exhausted and I’ve not taken a holiday in two years because I don’t want to leave my team.

“Like any business, unless you have the finances to back it up, especially when the kitemarking and the expectations are so high, there comes a breaking point and I think most homes are quite close to that.”

New choir hits happy note for Covid recovery

* Cllr Mark Young, pianist Morwen Blythin, tutor Dylan Cernyw and conductor Sionedd Terry with young Denbighshire Primary Choir members ready for rehearsal.

A new youth band and a children’s choir are offering young people a route back to normality after the easing of Covid restrictions.

Both have been set up for free by the award-winning North Wales Music Co-operative which has sister organisations in Wrexham and Denbighshire.

Sessions are free to join and, at the youth band, participants do not need to own their own instruments but can borrow from the Co-op’s supply.

The idea is to make music more accessible for young people of all ages and backgrounds as well as boosting their mental well-being in the wake of hardships caused by the pandemic.

After just a few weeks in operation the band in Wrexham and the choir in Denbighshire  have proved an invaluable lifeline for children across the two counties.

Founder and Head of Service Heather Powell set up the not-for-profit co-operatives nearly a decade ago after funding cuts were made to music education services across Wales. Today they offer music sessions in 200 schools, covering more than 5,000 children, and they have more than 70 self-employed tutors on their books.

Heather thanked local and national arts and community organisations for their support, including Denbighshire and Wrexham Councils, Offa Community Council and the National Lottery community grants project.

She said: “We have faced many challenges keeping music lessons alive over the two years of the pandemic. With social distancing in force, face to face lessons were off the table and some instruments could not be played at all.

“It is massively rewarding not only to see our existing services back up and running again but the addition of new sessions like the youth band and children’s choir.”

The choir for primary school aged children meets at the Denbighshire Music Co-operative headquarters on Spencer Industrial Estate, Denbigh.

Co-operative leaders are overjoyed they have been able to set it up in time for the staging of the 2022 Urdd Eisteddfod in Denbigh.

The choir is led by classically trained mezzo soprano Sioned Terry who has performed at international sporting events, for the Royal family, and sung alongside international tenors Rhys Meirion and Wynn Evans.

She is helped with the Denbighshire Primary Choir by fellow Denbighshire Music Co-operative tutors, Dylan Cernyw and Morwen Blythin.

The choir has about 20 members to date at free weekly one hour sessions, where they are busy rehearsing a mix of Welsh and English language music.

Sioned is delighted to be back teaching face to face and says even though the choir meets after school time when children are naturally winding down from their  lessons, they are still full of enthusiasm.

She said: “We have been hugely encouraged by how many children turn up each week and how keen they are to learn new songs. We have a good mix of both boys and girls, and they’re all looking forward to getting out in the community to do their first public performances.”

Dylan added that one of their favourites was the Sound of Music classic Do, Ray, Me, which teaches children the musical scale while actually singing it.

He revealed that they are hoping one of their first ever public performances will be at the Denbighshire County Council Queen’s Jubilee Service in June.

He said: “It would be a great opportunity to celebrate our music and our talented young people while also being a wonderful thankyou to Denbighshire County Council for the support they have given us.

Denbighshire councillor Mark Young, who is also Denbighshire Music Co-operative Chairman, said the co-operative was a credit to the local community.

He said: “We all know how good music is for the soul and we are blessed to have such strong advocates of music in the heart of our community especially over these last few difficult years.

“Heather and the whole co-operative team have done us proud keeping music lessons alive and offering our young people the chance to de-stress through their various music themed activities.

“It’s also great news that we now have a new up and coming young choir right here on our doorstep in the year when the Urdd Eisteddfod, one of Europe’s largest touring festivals, is due to be staged in Denbigh this spring.

“What a brilliant testament to our region’s musical heritage.”

The Urdd Eisteddfod was originally due to visit Denbigh in 2020 but was postponed due to the pandemic. It is now scheduled to be held in the town from May 30-June 4.

The Denbigh Primary Choir meets on Thursdays at the Denbighshire Music Co-operative headquarters, Spencer Industrial Estate, Denbigh, from 4.30-5.30pm. For details visit: denbighshiremusic.com

Castle Street re-surfacing work begins

 

* Heavy equipment moves into position on a closed Castle Street.

The long-awaited resurfacing of Castle Street began earlier this evening (Monday).

At 6pm the street was closed from the A5 to the A539 with only a short section from Parade Street to the bridge remaining open, controlled by lights, for traffic coming out of Parade Street in the direction of the A539. 

The night-time closure will remain in force until midnight with diversions in place for through-traffic.

From around 6.45pm tonight heavy road-laying equipment, some of it delivered on low-loaders, began to move into place at the A5 end and begin the operation.  

The night works will continue until this Friday, April 1.

Oak Street was also closed off by diversion signs this evening. 

Phase one of the work will involve resurfacing Castle Street between its junction with the A5 and the Market Street junction. 

Phase two, which will involve surfacing Castle Street between the Market Street junction and the Mill Street/Abbey Road junctions, will commence in early May. 

Lloyd's Coaches posted earlier today on social media that during this closure evening service T3 will divert between Ruabon & Llangollen Via A483 / A5 Froncysyllte and will be unable to serve bus stops at Plas Madoc, Acrefair, Trevor & Llangollen Parade St & Bridge End. Buses will pick up and set down passengers in Llangollen on A5 near to Stans Garage.

The re-surfacing is part of the town's on-going 2020 project.   

The works, which started in October and are due to be completed in May, are being undertaken by the county council in partnership with Welsh Government and Transport for Wales.

The council says consideration was given to options other than night-time closures, such as undertaking the work during the day or conducting a shorter series of night closures.

However, it was determined that these options would not be feasible for safety reasons and because, in the case of the shorter series of night time works, they would cause more disturbance to residents.

A Parry Construction Co Ltd is the principal contractor for the work.  

More details given of £6.5m plan to transform Royal Hotel

* Artist's impressions of how a redeveloped Royal would look from the river side (above) and Bridge Street (below). 

Potential developers have given more details of the £6.5m plan to transform the Royal into luxury hotel and spa.

As revealed last week by llanblogger, Denbighshire County Council is currently considering an application to breath new life into the historic hotel which dates back to 1752.

If this wins approval the Royal Hotel, which has been empty since 2019, would be redeveloped by One Hundred Knights, the Welsh company behind local success stories at the nearby Tyn Dwr Hall wedding venue, the Three Eagles Bar & Grill, and The BLK Sheep Baa & Grill. 

The planning application for the Grade II listed Royal Hotel has been submitted by local business partners Tom Bellis and Matt Jones who have owned the hotel since 2019.

Mr Jones says the proposed redevelopment would conserve many of the historic characteristics of the hotel, and that refurbishment and development work would be undertaken with expert guidance from the Welsh historic environment service Cadw.

The proposed development would include an extensive refurbishment of the hotel’s interior, with the addition of an upscale bar and bistro, as well as a flagship new luxury spa wing. 

The spa wing would include plunge pools on a cantilevered super-structure, with elevated views over the River Dee. The total investment would be in the region of £6.5m.

With its commanding riverside location adjacent to the Grade I listed Llangollen Bridge - one of the Seven Wonders of Wales - the 18th century Royal is a key part of the visual identity and heritage of the town.

The future Queen Victoria was a guest at the hotel with her mother in 1832, just five years before she succeeded to the throne. More recent visitors include the late Italian operatic superstar Luciano Pavarotti.

The new Royal Hotel development would include 45 bedroom suites, and developers say it is likely to generate in the region of 65 jobs and six apprenticeships per year. 

Mr Jones says that if planning is approved, he could reopen the hotel to guests as early as summer 2023.

“The Royal is a gem of a building and location, and has drawn visitors to Llangollen for more than 250 years. Our redevelopment plans would help to ensure that it is still bringing visitors to our town for many more generations to come.

“For a long time The Royal was considered one of the most prestigious hotels in Wales, but now it needs significant investment and development to help it shine again. We believe our plans can deliver a landmark hotel for the region, drawing new visitors to Llangollen and Denbighshire, and creating sustainable year-round jobs.”

Mr Jones says that his company is in the process of setting up the One Hundred Knights hospitality training academy in partnership with Coleg Cambria, and says the hotel would take on six hospitality apprentices per year.

Jim Jones, CEO of North Wales Tourism said: “It’s great to see such an ambitious company as One Hundred Knights producing major plans for transforming the iconic Royal Hotel in Llangollen. 

“The company has a track record of investing in quality, such as their restaurant The Three Eagles Bar and Grill also in Llangollen, which won the best eatery at the Go North Wales Tourism Awards in 2021. I wish them the best of luck with the planning application and look forward to working with them.”

A decision on the planning application is expected from Denbighshire County Council in the coming weeks.

Holy Cross Church holding soup kitchens to support Ukraine

Holy Cross Catholic Church is hosting two Lentern soup kitchens during April to raise funds for the people of Ukraine. 

The first one will be held at the church in Oak Street this coming Friday, April 1, from 12 noon until 2pm.

The second soup kitchen will also be in the church on Friday April 8 between the same times.

Entry is through the church. 

MS calls for more Welsh Government support for tourist sector

* Sam Rowlands MS, far left, on a recent visit to Llangollen Railway. 

Sam Rowlands MS, chair of the Senedd’s Tourism Cross Party Group, is calling for more Welsh Government support for the tourism sector.

The Senedd Member for north Wales was commenting on the latest Council Tax Empty Dwellings Regulations.

He said: “The tourism sector is so important here in Wales. We welcome around 11 million overnight domestic visitors, 87 million day visitors, around a million international visitors in normal years.

“These people come to our country, spend their money, support local jobs, enjoy all that we have to offer, and in my own patch in north Wales, this sector is worth around £3.5 billion a year to our economy. 

“One of the big concerns that the tourism sector are sharing with me is the Government's latest council tax empty dwellings regulations and specifically, the criteria for self-catering accommodation. 

“The new changes mean they are now in line with business rates instead of council tax with properties needing to be let for 182 days, which is a 160% increase, and available to let for 252 days, which is an 80% increase. 

“Many people in tourism sector are shocked with these changes, and they seem to be detrimental to their livelihoods.” 

Mr Rowlands asked the Economy Minister, Vaughan Gething, did he think the changes were good for the sector. 

The Minister said it was a challenge to strike a balance which could not be struck successfully if they did nothing and simply carried on as they were.

Mr Rowlands added: “I am extremely disappointed with the response from the Welsh Government. Tourism in my region of North Wales is vitally important for the economy of the area and businesses involved in this sector need to be supported more.”