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Â鶹Éç BLOGS - North East Wales Weblog

Archives for December 2007

Memoryshare - the new way for us to preserve the past

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 13:12 UK time, Monday, 31 December 2007

We're piloting an all-Wales and local Â鶹Éç Memoryshare [what's this?] service to improve the way contributors to our Local History sections can share their memories of life in our local communities and add to other people's memories.

I'd like to invite you and, in particular, our regular contributors to use the service and you'll see it's an improvement on the pages we currently use which, due to their popularity, are becoming long and make it increasingly difficult for people to search and find things. They're a victim of their own success

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Wrexham or the Wild West?

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 11:25 UK time, Monday, 31 December 2007




Thanks to for posting this picture to our flickr.com photo pool, .

Find out how to join and share your pictures of our urban landscape.

Links and stories of interest [27-12-07]

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 09:31 UK time, Thursday, 27 December 2007


[What's this?]

Find out who won in the annual Boxing Day barrel roll at Denbigh; new photo added to our pool, Street Scenes; and Wrexham MP puts the case for more devolution - for England - to unite Great Britain.

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Rhys and Sienna in Ruthin, and Lisa's in Extras

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 13:44 UK time, Monday, 24 December 2007

You'd have to be living on the moon to have missed the world's on local boy done good Rhys Ifans and his friend and fellow actress Sienna Miller every time they step out of their London home.

So imagine the surprise of the locals out enjoying a pre-Christmas drink in Rhys's home town of Ruthin when who should be seen in St Peter's Square? Find out more from .

Rhys is a still a regular in town as he visits his family here - but I would have been more interested in seeing the look on the faces of the locals rather than the actors whose celebrity status seems to have sky rocketted since rumours emerged about a relationship.

Meanwhile, I also see that Rhyl's is back on TV, this time appearing in the Christmas episode of comedy Extras [Thursday, December 27, 9.00pm - Â鶹Éç One]. [More about Lisa].

Townscapes - your photos of our towns

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 12:44 UK time, Monday, 24 December 2007

We all know that here in North Wales we've got some of the best countryside in Britain so we thought it was time for a change of tack and we've started a new pool of pictures on the photo sharing website - and we'll share some of the best on our website.

We're asking contributors to share urbans scenes from around the towns of North East Wales. And among the first is this view of Wrexham from , but there have been more from , , and others.


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Housing crisis: What's going on?

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 20:55 UK time, Thursday, 20 December 2007

A homeless man in Wrexham gives an honest and frankly disturbing insight as to what it feels like to be homeless in a radio interview due for broadcast tomorrow on Â鶹Éç Radio Wales' Jamie and Louise programme [listen online, 9am-noon].

Andrew owns only the clothes on his back and his sleeping bag, hardly enough to keep out the cold when temperatures drop as much as they have tonight.

There has been a lot of debate recently with regards to affordable housing.

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Links and stories of interest [20-12-07]

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 11:47 UK time, Thursday, 20 December 2007


[What's this?]

There's news that two florists from Llangollen appear in comedian Peter Kay's new DVD with their own funny stories, police reveal more details of the crackdown over Christmas, and the impatient motorist who tried to move an ambulance as the 999 crew treated a patient in the back.

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Sunset photo

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 10:38 UK time, Wednesday, 19 December 2007

Sunset over Snowdonia as seen from Prestatyn Central Beach, by Sebastian


Sunset over Snowdonia as seen from Prestatyn Central Beach by Sebastian.
Tag: Sunrise / Sunset

Do we need a casino?

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 08:06 UK time, Wednesday, 19 December 2007

casino sign

How do you fancy a casino here in NE Wales? And where do you think would be the best place - Wrexham? Well, the owner of Bryn Howel hotel is to make enquiries to the for Llangollen to be granted a small casino license.

The success of a pre Christmas fun casino has given owner Stephanie Booth the idea. However, no new licences, which have to be applied for through the local council, will be considered by the UK Government until an has been undertaken on the economic impact of the .

Would you like to see a casino here - and is Llangollen the best place?

In the frame: Aqueduct / Viaduct

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 16:08 UK time, Tuesday, 18 December 2007

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Cefn Viaduct, by Rhian


Thanks to Rhian for sharing this photo of Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Cefn Viaduct.
Tag: Landmarks

Is it a bird, is it a plane?

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 09:29 UK time, Tuesday, 18 December 2007

No, the world, it seems, is talking about our very own Spiderman, aka the Chief Constable.

My feed reader [what's this?] has gone into overdrive overnight finding blog entries tagged - and here's a round-up of what the is saying in response to our Chief Constable's latest antics [Brunstrom breaks into Police HQ].

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Brunstrom breaks into Police HQ

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 10:19 UK time, Monday, 17 December 2007

Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom clambered up scaffolding and broke into his own HQ to test out security, reports .
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This week's highlights

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 09:49 UK time, Friday, 14 December 2007

copy of weekly newsletter sent to email subscribers

LATEST UPDATES: Rhys Ifans and being Welsh - Your Heroes - Rants and Raves - Rhyl's Little Venice - Ships up the Dee - Town Talk - First World War stories - Sex education - Migrant workers - Favourite mountains - and more

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Links and stories of interest [13-12-07]

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 08:54 UK time, Thursday, 13 December 2007


[What's this?]

Among the stories we're looking at today include news that immigrant workers arrested last week in Ruthin and Rhyl face deportation; police investigate why anti-Irish graffiti has been daubed on a home at Deeside; and Wrexham's NEWI announces a £8m investment in a performing arts and conference centre.

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More support for our migrant workers

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 09:23 UK time, Wednesday, 12 December 2007

A couple of interesting headlines popped up in our [what's this?] this morning, including [Daily Post] and [blog, Karen Sinclair, AM]

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I feel like Sherlock Holmes

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Alan - Radio Producer | 11:24 UK time, Tuesday, 11 December 2007

The idea was a simple one - to sift through what's left of "Radio Clwyd" and pick out some material for the Where I Live website. But when I plugged in my headphones, laced up a reel of tape on the old and began listening, it became obvious that there would be a lot more work than I imagined in turning fragments of old news programmes into interesting sound bytes for the internet.

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Rhys Ifans, speaking Welsh and being an outsider in your homeland

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 09:48 UK time, Tuesday, 11 December 2007

Local boy turned Hollywood actor and proud Welshman Rhys Ifans makes some interesting comments in the and on which your thoughts would be welcome:

'We lived near the border with England, where the choice was stark. You could either succumb to the encroachment or dig your heels in and resist. I dug my heels in, but I always had my eye on the horizon. There was a definite tension, a sense of being pulled in two directions and a sense of being an outsider. Speaking Welsh and all that. Even as a young boy I felt it, but it has served me in my work. I've drawn on it and used it, in a way.'

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Buckley tip plans - meeting stopped

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 11:24 UK time, Monday, 10 December 2007

A special meeting to consider plans for a massive rubbish tip has been postponed after the applicant offered to set up a trust fund which could give the local community £450,000.

Construction company Robin Jones and Sons of Llandudno Junction, want to create a tip at Parry's Quarry in Alltami, Flintshire, capable of taking 100,000 tonnes a year of waste for the next 15 years. A special meeting of Flintshire Council's planning committee was due to consider the application. But it was called off when councillors received a letter from the applicant.

Chief's plea to legalise drugs gets dumped

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 10:54 UK time, Monday, 10 December 2007

What are your thoughts to the story that the Home Secretary has effectively binned a detailed paper presented by North Wales Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom calling for drugs to be legalised?

Is it a missed opportunity? You certainly had plenty to say about the idea originally, Do you back chief's call to legalise drugs?

What price progress?

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 10:27 UK time, Monday, 10 December 2007

It's a cliche as headlines go these days, but it seems to sum up the feelings of contributors worried, angry and sorry to see the changes to some of our towns, including Wrexham, Buckley, and Rhyl.

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Home cure remedies are just the tonic? I don't think so!

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 10:15 UK time, Monday, 10 December 2007

I can vividly remember going to see Webbs factory where they rendered down animal carcasses, and seeing old men sitting around the render pits inhaling the fumes in the belief that it helped their respiratory problems.

Thanks to Alan for this posting which helps our section Mother knows best about the home remedies we thought we're doing us the world of good!

Whether there was an medicinal benefit in sucking up the fumes of animal carcasses, I'm not sure - and who would have come up with that? Anway, what were the old wives' tonics you use or used to take? Post remedies on the page Mother knows best.

Latest podcast

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 13:12 UK time, Friday, 7 December 2007

NE Wales Update - listen now

How one of Britain's top police officers got caught speeding near Wrexham and how a little girl from Flintshire born with nine toes on one foot, is learning to walk with a prosthetic leg. We also hear how documents from 70 years ago, giving details of the Gresford Colliery disaster, have been found in a solicitor's vault, and how Wrexham FC's new manager thinks the tide might be turning for the team. Plus, we discover how people in Brymbo are fighting to save their community centre.

Links and stories of interest [07-12-07]

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 11:49 UK time, Friday, 7 December 2007


What's this?

- North Wales Police Press Releases
Two people have been arrested on suspicion of facilitating the illegal entry of illegal immigrants and 19 people have been detained under immigration powers. The arrests and detentions have all been made after warrants were executed at addresses in the Rhyl and Ruthin.

- Flintshire Chronicle
A pub closure order, the first of its kind in the region, has been imposed on a Deeside pub - but it will be able to reopen on a restricted basis.

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Who has got the best Christmas lights? Not us!

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 08:20 UK time, Friday, 7 December 2007

There doesn't seem to be too much Christmas cheer around this week with contributors grumbling about the [poor] quality Christmas decorations in our towns.

Chris started it all off ranting about the lack of Christmas lights in Connah's Quay, and then sarcasm afflicted so-called Off Flint over the lights in their town. Over night, Wrexham Lad came down with similar symptoms in Wrexham.

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There's a thought - 'popping to Cardiff'

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 15:44 UK time, Thursday, 6 December 2007

A Conservative AM is calling for Wales's air service between north and south to be moved from Anglesey to Liverpool, reports . I'd vote for it, would you? I'm fed-up of the three or more hour train trips to Cardiff - that's if there are no hold-ups.

Liverpool or even Hawarden Airport would be great. Anglesey is just too far away for us over here.

What it's really like to live here

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 16:36 UK time, Wednesday, 5 December 2007

After reading the new book, Real Wrexham, and blogging about it earlier [Under the skin of Real Wrexham] I'm wondering how you true local experts would describe our towns and villages.

Tourist websites like paint one obvious view and others like try to give the facts while works because people have an agenda, something to push or promote.

But how would you sum up the place - honestly, frankly?

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Links and stories of interest [05-12-07]

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 13:58 UK time, Wednesday, 5 December 2007


What's this?

'Traffic Police Taliban' fine EIGHT times more speeding drivers than a decade -
The number of drivers slapped with a speeding fine by 'Mad Mullah' Richard Brunstrom's police force has soared eight-fold in less than a decade.
tag:

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History on our doorstep

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Alys - Web Team Alys - Web Team | 10:35 UK time, Wednesday, 5 December 2007

A new booklet with information about the medieval sites and buildings to be seen in Denbighshire has been published and is available at . It's surprising how many fascinating locations there are right on our doorstep. I was particularly taken by the photo of the skeleton on the wall of which "reminds viewers (in Welsh verse) that time flies by and life is short"!

Under the skin of Real Wrexham

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 10:13 UK time, Wednesday, 5 December 2007

If you thought you knew Wrexham, this book will make you think again.

A proud boast on the back of a new book and one which didn't fail to deliver as I read from cover to cover the fascinating Real Wrexham whilst stuck on a go-slow train running late to Cardiff yesterday.


Poet, author and colleague really gets under the skin of this place we call home combining his knowledge as a local boy, his skill as a journalist to separate fact from fiction, and taking a tour of the district with people who know the area best - the locals. Here are a couple of things that took my interest:

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Castle Cement: Residents plan to sue

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 10:09 UK time, Monday, 3 December 2007

Villagers who say their lives have been made a misery by the nearby factory, Buckley, are planning to sue for the 'nuisance it causes, says . About 150 residents who live near works in Padeswood claim they have no choice but to take legal action because of the dust and noise they suffer. The action is led by campaign group .

Your rubbish is being recycled in China

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 07:47 UK time, Monday, 3 December 2007

Welsh councils are sending their waste to be recycled in the Far East and South America, says . The party has published data showing that Cardiff, Powys, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Pembrokeshire, Monmouthshire and Swansea are all sending some of their waste outside the EU.

So we take the time to save, sort and send our recyclables off for processing and then it gets shipped half way around the world. Does that seem environmentally friendly to you?

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Did the earth move for you - again?

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Nick - Web Team Nick - Web Team | 16:55 UK time, Sunday, 2 December 2007

Minor earth tremors struck parts of north and mid Wales on Friday night, reports .

Just a month ago there was another tremor confirming our previous blog that these minor earthquakes are quite common.

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