Two workmates from Cheshire are planning to paddle their two-man Canadian canoe from the head of the Llangollen Canal to the Big Lock pub to raise money for charity.
* For the full story, see the Middlewich Guardian at: Workmates cast off for Llangollen to Middlewich canoe trip | Northwich Guardian
People have been having fun at The Legendary Llangollen Faery Festival currently being held at Llangollen Pavilion.
Now the largest faery event in the UK calendar, it offers a
range of free activities and events, including wand making, circus skills
workshops, storytelling, acts in the outdoor arena and live
music.
Hundreds of traders have come from far and wide to take part
in the big fairy market browse jewellery, fey clothes, faery houses, faery
dolls and figurines, candles, steampunk curios, carved wood furniture, faery
doors and crystals.
This evening (Saturday) from 7.00pm, there's a Grand
Faery Ball where anyone over 16 can put on their fairy finery and dance
the night away to live music.
The event continues tomorrow (Sunday).
Campaigners are calling for a top level inquiry into the “eye-watering” £2 million a year fee a North Wales council is paying for the care of a disabled child.
It’s been revealed that Denbighshire Council shelled out £37,500 a week for the care of the child while they only pay £774 a week to fund residential care for an older person in the county.
The news has prompted social care champions Care Forum Wales to write to the Auditor General for Wales, Adrian Crompton, to investigate the £2 million bill for the child who has significant disabilities and complex behavioural needs and receives 24-hour specialist care.
They are concerned the huge bill represents inequality within a social care system where care providers looking after older and vulnerable people have to constantly battle for every penny they receive from local councils.
Care Forum Wales chair Mario Kreft MBE said: “There needs to be an inquiry into this, based on the inequality on how we fund older people’s services.
“I think the Auditor General who’s the head of Audit Wales needs to scrutinise this thoroughly with a proper inquiry so we can get to the bottom of this.
“And I think it’s about the court of public opinion as well, I think the public needs to understand what’s going on with this.
“Denbighshire are notoriously poor payers when it comes to funding adult social care. In fact, they are just about the lowest of the low.
“My question to the council would be have they done a cost of care review on this placement for this child, as they would for an older person, because none of us can get our heads around how it can possibly be £2 million a year.
“That figure is totally extraordinary, so you’re asking who signed it off and on what basis. How can that figure possibly be correct? It’s an eye-watering sum of money.
“The bigger question is the inequality around this, the imbalance in the system.
“It’s a council which wants to reduce fees all the time, always looking to penny-pinch.”
It was a message echoed by Thea Brain, North Wales Policy Advisor for Care Forum Wales.
She said: “My initial response to the £2 million figure was just shock. We want a breakdown of the costs, of what that £2 million comprises.
“We want to know who signed it off, and we also want to know if they conducted a cost of care exercise.
“There is an issue here of fiscal responsibility with the public purse.
“I’m very curious to know if this £2 million figure is like fag packet maths or if they have done a proper cost of care exercise.
“Care Forum Wales’s position on this is not that the child should not have that money spent on them, we don’t know what the situation is, and that’s why we are asking questions.
“We want to ensure the best possible care for everybody, whatever their age – whether it’s for children or older people.
“But we would say that if Denbighshire can see there’s a legitimate need there and spend the necessary money, they should also be doing it for adult social care.
“This comes down to equality, and how we look after our most vulnerable people, no matter their age.
“Care Forum Wales is the champion of the adult social care sector and we are here to advocate for the providers, their workforce and, most importantly, the recipients of adult social care.
“Part of that role is having an active role in the scrutiny of where other monies from the social care budget are being spent, because the area I safeguard is underfunded.
“I’m interested to know that if Denbighshire are doing proper cost of care exercises for children’s care, I would like to know why they are not doing it for adults.
“One thing we have consistently complained about with Denbighshire is that they have not undertaken a cost of care exercise with us on adult social care, unlike the local authority directly across the border in Conwy.
“Conwy did do a proper cost of care exercise using a recognised methodology and they arrived at a sensible figure for the cost of care and they put their fees up accordingly on the back of that exercise.”
Earlier this year, Care Forum Wales highlighted the discrepancy in fees Denbighshire County Council pays towards providing care in a care home compared to their neighbours in Conwy. The difference in fees is up to £7,000 a year per person.
Thea Brain said: “Some care providers will just accept it, and will try to cut their cloth to fit, and that’s a very dangerous game to play because you wind up making concessions on things and the quality of care can really suffer.
“It’s incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to deliver quality of care on what Denbighshire pay.”
Care Forum Wales and other organisations have warned of a funding crisis in the social care sector.
Bosses at the Anheddau charity recently warned support for 140 disabled people and the jobs of more than 400 staff in North Wales were under threat because of the funding crisis it faces.
According to the organisation, the funding provided by the county councils which commission Anheddau’s services does not come close to covering the costs of supporting its clients who have extensive support needs.
The problems facing Anheddau, which has its main office in Bangor, mirror the plight of another charity organisation, Cymryd Rhan, which was forced to fold in March this year.
A spokesman for Denbighshire County Council told North Wales Live: “All packages of care for children or young people in Denbighshire are reviewed in line with the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014 and associated codes of practice and regulations, with all packages of support signed off by the head of children's services, who bases their decision on the assessment of need presented by the case holding social worker.
“Every six weeks all high-cost children's placements are reviewed by our review panel, chaired by the head of children's services, with relevant service and team managers and (the) finance officer. The council has received a Freedom of Information request from Care Forum Wales on this particular case and will be responding with more detail through that formal process.”
The council spokesman said that the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014 placed a duty on local authorities to assess and meet the eligible needs of both children and their carers. He added: “The child in question has very complex needs which means that a high level of expert care is required in order to safeguard the child’s welfare. The authority cannot provide any further information as this will potentially identify the child concerned.”
The spokesman went on to explain that every council has different annual funding settlements from Welsh Government, without addressing the fact that Denbighshire has enjoyed the highest percentage rise in North Wales in 2024 and 2025 alone.
“Each local authority has a different funding settlement and therefore must strike a very delicate balance of navigating challenging financial constraints and ensuring that we are maintaining a sustainable future for the care sector in Denbighshire. The cost of this care package has had no bearing on the setting of care fees for care providers in adult services,” he said.
“In determining our care fees each year, we undertake a consultation with care providers and for 2025 / 2026 Denbighshire invested in Care Cubed (a recognised care fee methodology) along with most of the other local authorities in North Wales to ensure a consistent approach across the region. Every care home provider in Denbighshire is encouraged to discuss their care fees with the local authority and using Care Cubed will work out the cost of care and agree fees. Denbighshire currently funds approximately 382 placements across 85 care homes."
Here's the latest column from Denbighshire Citizens Advice:
Q: I’ve just returned to work after a long time out of the workforce and I’m slightly embarrassed to say I don’t understand what all the different sections of my payslip refer to. How do I know what each means?
A: Payslips contain lots of information which can be overwhelming at first but are important to understand. All employers are required to give employees a payslip showing your pay and deductions. This might be provided on paper or via an online platform. It’s a good idea to keep your payslips for up to six years if possible as you can be asked for them for various things.
Your payslip must contain specific information, you can read about this on the ACAS website. It should include your employer's details along with your name and payroll or employee number.
You’ll also see lots of different numbers and codes. The payment date is when your pay will normally arrive in your bank account, it can be monthly or weekly and fall on any day of the month. Your payslip might also show a tax period (the tax year starts in April and ends in March). The number here corresponds to the period in which you’re being taxed, e.g if you’re paid monthly, 01 will represent the tax period in April, while 12 would mean March.
Your National Insurance (NI) number refers to your unique number and you need one to work in the UK. It’s used to make sure all your NI contributions are recorded so you can get any state benefits you’re entitled to, including state pension later in life.
Next is your tax code. This is decided by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and is made up of several numbers and a letter. The numbers refer to how much tax-free income you get, while the letters mean different things depending on your circumstances. You can find out what they mean on the government website.
When you start a new job it’s important to provide your employer all the information they need to make sure your tax code is correct and to prevent you being put on an ‘emergency’ code that ends with a W1, M1 or X and could see you initially paying more tax.
Your payslip will also show your total ‘gross’ pay and deductions. ‘Gross’ pay means how much you’ve earned before anything is deducted. It will usually itemise your ‘basic’ pay and then any additional allowances, such as travel allowance. If you are paid by the hour, your payslip must show your hourly rate and how many hours you worked. If you are an ‘irregular hours worker’ your employer may have opted to include holiday pay with your normal pay - if so, this should be itemised separately.
Deductions are amounts taken from your gross pay, such as income tax, national insurance, pension or student loan payments. Income tax is used to fund public services, the amount deducted will vary depending on your earnings. You can look up the different rates on the government website. The rates for NI payments can also be found online.
Most payslips will add up all the deductions from your pay into a single amount to make it easier for you to see how much is taken from your pay each month. Your net pay is the amount of money you will receive after all the deductions have been made.
Lastly, taxable pay is the amount of your salary, to date in the current tax year, that has been subjected to tax. This will usually appear next to your net pay figure. Anything you think might be wrong should be raised, first, with your employer.
A historic silver cutlery set that once belonged to the Ladies of Llangollen is set to go under the hammer later this month.
* For the full story in the Denbighshire Free Press, go to: https://www.denbighshirefreepress.co.uk/news/25370645.ladies-llangollen-cutlery-go-cambridge-auction/
The number of harmful drinkers could be reduced by nearly 5,000 people under plans to raise the minimum unit price of alcohol in Wales, claims the Welsh Government.
And it is consulting on both maintaining the Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) for alcohol beyond March 2026 and raising the unit price from 50p to 65p.
The policy, which came into force in Wales in March 2020, aims to tackle alcohol-related harm by reducing alcohol consumption in hazardous and harmful drinkers.
Minimum Unit Pricing is targeted at high-strength drinks sold at very low prices and drunk in large volumes.
According to the government, modelling data suggests raising the MUP to 65p per unit could further reduce harmful alcohol consumption, as well as encourage more people to drink at moderate levels instead.
It could also lower the number of hazardous drinkers by more than 6,300 and harmful drinkers by nearly 5,000, reducing hospital admissions and deaths attributed to alcohol.
Drinking large quantities of high-strength alcoholic drinks puts people at long-term risk of cancer, stroke, heart disease, liver disease and brain damage.
Minimum pricing for alcohol is not designed to work in isolation and, combined with a wide range of health policies in the substance misuse sector, is targeted towards prevention, support and recovery and tackling availability.
Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing Sarah Murphy said: "Since we brought minimum unit pricing into place there has been a pandemic, a cost-of-living crisis and high inflation.
"Despite all of these, research through independent evaluations has shown the policy, which is not a tax, has had a positive impact and has helped reduce levels of harmful drinking.
"We’re consulting on raising the level as high inflation has made the 50p rate ineffective and reduced its value in real terms to 39p in 2020 prices.
"Due to this it is no longer significantly influencing the price of the cheapest alcohol and we need to review it."
* The consultation launched earlier this week and is open until September 29 2025.
