UKIP's turmoil in Wales.

The Wales on Sunday reckons that UKIP in Wales are in turmoil, following an alleged fracas down in Swansea when their Regional Organiser Kevin Mahoney was alleged to have manhandled the 86 year old ex veteran and UKIP candidate Hugh Jones out of a meeting. Mr Mahoney denies manhandling Mr Jones.

My old adversary Cllr John Oddy of Colwyn Bay writing on his blog is quite scathing in his attack on UKIP's lack of organisation along the North Wales coast. John is critical of both the Wales Chairman Warwick Nicholson who is also the Clwyd West candidate, and Mr Mahoney. It would appear from John Oddy's blog that he was quite keen to join UKIP but didn't, accusing Mr Nicholson of 'dithering' as to whether he could attend an UKIP meeting. Now I wouldn't like to speculate about Mr Nicholson's motives but could it be something to do with John Oddy's past connections with another right wing party.

Whilst checking out my facts on the UKIP website, it would appear that the party have selected 22 prospective candidates out of 40 seats including Mr Mahoney whose bio describes him as a staffer for John Bufton the UKIP's Welsh MEP.
I was however under the impression that Roy Norry was standing for UKIP in Alyn and Deeside but there is no mention of him on the candidates list. I wonder what has happened there?

Farage shames us all Other British MEPs are fed up with having to apologise for a fellow national

Excellent letter by the Lib Dem MEP, Fiona Hall in today's Times:

Sir,

Nigel Farage’s insults to the European Council President Herman Van Rompuy are degrading and humiliating for other British nationals and for Britain’s reputation in Europe (leading article, February 26).

MEPs are entitled to question Van Rompuy’s appointment, but when Farage called him a “damp rag” and an “assassin” — caricatures that are rather difficult to reconcile — he tripped from the political into the personal. Describing Belgium as a “non-country” is the hackneyed put-down adopted by those who believe the global map should still be coloured red. Our European colleagues are not amused, and who could blame them in the face of such juvenile and ignorant behaviour?

Like a lager lout on a coach trip, Farage finds himself being given an ever widening berth by other British MEPs fed up with having to apologise for a fellow national. It is at moments like these that we need a European ASBO.

Nigel Farage is a disgrace, his arrogance and condescension is beyond belief. What right has to call Belgium a non country for calling for autonomy for the Flemish part and the French speaking Walloons. With a bit of luck his rudeness followed by his lack of remorse on Question Time will hopefully result in considerable electoral damage to UKIP, I hope Bercow thrashes him in Buckingham.

Police Horses

Rumour has it that Mark Polin the Chief Constable of North Wales Police is about to scrap the expensive and controversial Mounted Section which is rarely seen these days. This section was established a few years at great expense and in the face of some opposition. From my perspective the Mounted Section was nothing more than an expensive and inaffordable PR stunt and as one serving Police Officer said to me recently, "They are just there to get their picture in the paper." Most Mounted Sections like Merseyside Police contribute a lot to operational policing because they Police public order situations and football matches but North Wales's Mounted Section do neither which is why I question their value. So yes Mr Polin go for it I think you'll have a lot of political support for diverting a quarter of a million pounds into other areas of Policing that will actually fight crime and provide reassurance to the most vulnerable in our society.

Byelections.

There was a byelection in Bridgend's Pendre ward on the 18th February; the result being a Labour gain from the Lib Dems. In May 2008 the Lib Dems took the seat with 278 votes to Labour's 270 votes in a two horse race. The recent byelection saw a total of 5 candidates standing including Conservative and Plaid Cymru. The result of the byelection was:

Labour 200 (37%)
Lib Dems 193 (35%)
Independent 68 (13%)
Conservative 60 (11%)
Plaid Cymru 25 (5%)

The Lib Dems blame the loss on 3 other candidates splitting the anti Labour vote but we would expect them to say that wouldn't we. The by election was caused by the sitting Lib Dem Councillor resigning due to ill health. There doesn't seem to be any local issues that affected the vote but there were criticisms on some Lib Dem blog that their campaign didn't succeed in getting out the vote. In the current climate it would appear that it wasn't so much as Labour winning the seat but rather the Lib Dems losing it.

Other byelections in England had the BNP and UKIP getting a reduced proportion of the vote (Liverpool Fazakerley for BNP and Evesham South for UKIP).

Newspapers face plunging circulations

Thanks to Jaxxland for this interesting, if alarming, story about newspaper sales in Wales.

According to the Press Gazette, the beleaguered regional newspaper industry continues to lose print readers at an alarming rate. Only two out of 86 daily regional titles managed to increase sales between July and December. Figures released today show a similarly dire situation in Wales:

• South Wales Evening Post - 43,644 (down 8.8%)
• South Wales Echo - 36,928 (down 11.1%)
• Daily Post - 32,864 (down 5.0%)
• Western Mail - 30,133 (down 10.6%)
• South Wales Argus - 25,035 (down 7.6%)
• Wrexham Leader - 18,368 (down 8.5%)

It remains to be seen whether the Leader's switch to a morning title helps stem the losses and whether that, in turn, impacts on the Daily Post. That has seen the lowest circulation fall in percentage terms - is that because of its willingness to campaign and break stories?

Jaxxland concludes by half-heartedly arguing for a print equivalent of the BBC. Although the figures look grim for the news corporations, local newspapers have proved resilient in the past. If they can cope with the internet challenge in a more imaginative way than they have so far, can continue to flourish. I hope so.

Wrecsam's Budget 2010/11.

Ar a meeting of Wrecsam CBC's Full Council last night the budget was passed relatively simply with our council tax increase at the lower end of the scale of 2.94% compared to a Wales average of 3.6%. The Wrecsam Council tax is well below the retail price index of 3.7%. The average Band D Council Tax will now be £862.92, the Police precept will be £201.33 and the average Community Council precept will be £35.04, making the average Band D Council Tax of £1100.55. There is a vast variation in Community Council precepts of £6.81 in Hanmer to £82.85 per year in Coedpoeth.

Wrecsam's total budget is £208 million up from £200 million in the last financial year, this is made up of £125 million Revenue Support Grant from WAG, £37 million Non Domestic rates and £44.6 million Council Tax.

The budget was passed by 34 votes to 10, with 1 abstention, with Labour voting against the budget despite there being no cuts to schools or essential front line services. To be honest the leader of the Labour Group was floundering in his attempt to justify voting against the budget.

Plaid 'punch well above their weight' - Evening Leader

LETTER TO THE EVENING LEADER

Dear Editor

It was good to see Mark Brittain in his Evening Leader column (24 Feb, 2010) accepting that Plaid Cymru's current MPs "punch well above their weight".

Their record in exposing the 'cash for honours' scandal as well as impeaching Tony Blair and exposing Labour's shady links with the Mittal brothers marks them out as independent and original thinkers in Parliament. Indeed The Independent's Westminster reporter Simon Carr recently described the three Plaid MPs as more effective than all the 63 Liberal Democrat MPs put together.

Mr Brittain then goes on to argue that smaller parties such as Plaid can't really wield any power because of the big two parties. This is usually a line trotted out by the Tories and Labour (and occasionally the Lib Dems) to argue that a vote for Plaid is a "wasted vote". It's a line that suits the establishment, who want to maintain the status quo of two major parties wedded to the bankers and big business rather than putting the people of Wales's interests first.

As well as perpetuating a failed and discredited political set-up, it also reduces the real choice for voters fed up with paying for MPs' duckhouses, moats and flip-flopping second homes. Plaid offers a strong independent voice across Wales in this coming election, one that is pro-public services and wanting a fair pension for the elderly.

People will vote Plaid in this coming election because they are offering something different to the big three London parties. Voters understand that politics is sometimes about principles and beliefs and not just about power. In the words of the American socialist Eugene Debs: "It is better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it".

Fianna Fail's Coalition in crisis!

Guest blog by Shane Brennan, a Plaid Cymru member in Wrecsam, a native of Dublin and a keen follower of Irish politics both sides of the border.

Last week the Irish Minister of Defence, Willie O’Dea, hard man of the largest party in the governing coalition, Fianna Fail, resigned. Today Trevor Sargeant, the Junior Minister for Food and Horticulture and former leader of the Green party, the junior party in the coalition, also resigned.

On the surface these events appear to be completely separate and unfortunate occurences for an extremly unpopular Government. However the talk in Dublin is that Fianna Fail blame the Greens for the resignation of O’Dea, and that the controversy that emerged this afternoon ending in Sargeant’s resignation was payback for the Greens behaviour last week.

Willie O’Dea‘s troubles began last year when speaking to a journalist from The Limerick Leader. He stated that local Sinn Fein candidate, Nessan Quinlivan, was involved in the running of a brothel. Naturally enough, Mr Quinlivan objected and pursued a defamation case against Mr O’Dea. Mr O‘Dea, who happens to be a barrister, swore an affadavit that he had not made any such allegations about Mr Quinlivan. There was however one slight problem, the conversation between the bold Willie and the journalist had been recorded. Mr Quinlivan was duly awarded damges in Decemeber 2009.

Questions began to emerge about Mr O’Dea’s behaviour in this case in the Oireachtas at the beginning of the month. Mr O’Dea felt he had done nothing wrong despite accusations of perjury being made in the chambers of the Dail and the Seanad. A vote of confidence in the minister was called and the Green party members supported O’Dea. However things began to unravel when Green party chairman Senator Dan Boyle tweeted that he had no confidence in Willie O’Dea. The following day the Dail had to be suspended due to the rowdy behaviour of members. O’Dea then went on to RTE radio’s lunchtime news programme and gave a robust and ill judged defence of himself in which he stated that he had been a victim in the whole affair. Mr O’Dea resigned later that day.

All was well again in Dodge until about 11 am today, when an article appeared in The Evening Herald newspaper stating that in 2007 the aforementioned Mr Sargeant had written on behalf of a constituent who was under Garda investigation using Department of Agriculture stationery. At 5 pm today Mr Sargeant resigned his ministerial post.

Now, one resignation is unfortuante but two is careless. What is emerging tonight is a question as to why a letter that An Garda Siochana recieved two years ago has emerged less than a week after Willie O’Dea had to suffer the indignity of resignation; a resignation that many in Fianna Fail felt had been forced by Dan Boyles ‘treachorous tweet’. In particular, the Minister for Justice speaking on RTE issued a strong denial that he was responsible for any leak, and then continued to attack the Green party for listening to their membership.

If it emerges that Fianna Fail is the source of the leak it is inevitable that the Greens will have to walk and force an election that would undoubtedly result in Fianna Fails worst electoral showing in the party’s history.

Short Selling.

One of the causes of the banking collapse was Hedge fund managers having the ability to bet on movements in share price, otherwise known as short selling. Following the near collapse of HBOS after shorting of its shares the government banned this method of trading banking and other vulnerable shares. In January 2009, the Government lifted the ban on short selling and as soon as they did so shares in Barclays collapsed. I blogged on this and wrote a letter to the Daily Post criticising the lifting of the ban.

We may well criticise the European institutions but at least they have the courage to take on these fund managers and traders who exploit and damage our companies value and they intend to announce a clampdown tomorrow of short selling following the recent collapse of the Euro and the Greek financial crises.

Good for them I say, they are showing Brown and Darling the way in regulating irresponsible trading. For the full story go to Euractiv

Clearsprings.

Clearsprings were a private company contracted by the Ministry of Justice to run private bail hostels to house prisoners who had been released early or those on bail awaiting trial or sentence. They ran about 200 bail hostels in the UK and two of them are in Wrecsam, one in Old Mold Road, Gwersyllt, and one in Holt Road, Wrecsam.

No one knew that the premises were bail hostels, even though Clearsprings were supposed to notify Police, Probation and the Local Authority, although the Police claimed they had no knowledge. The most important thing was that local people had no knowledge of the hostels, the first they knew about it was being woken in the middle of the night by fighting or Police attendance. Neighbours found it difficult to contact Clearsprings and when they did they were less than helpful.

The big question was however, who were these people and what were the offences they had committed?, did they pose a risk to the local community? nobody knew, but one thing we can be sure of was that they weren't supervised, even though the offenders were either on early release or bail conditions there was nobody from Clearsprings present 24/7 to ensure they complied with conditions. I have long had concerns about Clearsprings since an ex Police colleague of mine got a job with them and after a day of training left because of concerns he had regarding the role and responsibilities, especially around a lack of supervision.

Needless to say that it was only a matter of time before something serious would happen and this occurred in a hostel in Stockton, Teeside, when two inmates of a Clearspring hostel murdered a third and a judge criticised controls at the hostel. I suppose we should count our blessings that nothing similar happened in Wrecsam.

The Government would seek to reassure us that prisoners who are released early are properly supervised and those that pose a risk are assessed and supervised by a multi agency public protection panel (MAPPA and MARAC), but clearly this is not the case as this untimely dealth in Stockton testifies.

The good news out of all this is that the Prisons Minister, Angela Eagle has now re tendered the contract and awarded it to Stonham, a charity which specialises in housing vulnerable adults, let's hope that the terms of the contract ensure that each hostel has 24/7 supervision and that local residents are informed. I will seek reassurances from Angela Eagle to that effect.

Waste of Public Money

We on this blog have been highly critical of the Communites First projects mainly because of what we have seen locally in Caia Park and Plas Madoc and how money has not been used to the benefit of the community. We are therefore pleased to be vindicated with the publication of the Assembly's all party Public Accounts Committee who have published a critical report which said:

“It is disappointing that the Welsh Government did not adequately plan the Communities First programme. Flaws in its initial construction have allowed fissures to develop throughout the programme as it has progressed, making achievement of its ambitious goals more difficult.”

So much for Rhodri Morgan's 2001 flagship plan to reduce poverty by empowerment. So there we have it a significant proportion of the £214 million wasted, £140 million of that on administration. For a detailed account of the background go to Valleys Mam.

For us in Wrecsam we are still waiting the WAO report into the running of Plas Madoc Communities First which will probably not make pleasant reading for WAG officials when it is published.

Isherwood and Millar get their facts wrong!

Isherwood and Millar two of the three North Wales Tory AM's, succeeded in getting their facts wrong when they went to press with a release on the cost of pupils excluded from schools to authorities in North Wales. This is what Millar had to say about Wrecsam CBC:

Figures obtained by an Assembly Member have revealed that Local Education Authorities in North Wales are spending millions catering for excluded pupils – and the amount is rising each year.
North Wales Regional AM, Mark Isherwood, and Clwyd West AM, Darren Millar, who obtained the figures, were shocked to learn just how much is being spent in the region on Pupil Referral Units (PRU). Each local education authority has a duty to make arrangements for the provision of education in or out of school for all children of compulsory school age. If children may not receive suitable education for any period for reasons such as illness or exclusion from school, these arrangements can be made through Pupil Referral Units.

Figures for 2007-2008, the latest available, show Wrexham spent the most out of the five authorities, a staggering £1.829m, up £278,000 on figures for 2003-2004.

The truth behind these figures are quite different, for starters Pupil Referral Units are not only for children who have been excluded from school but two of the four units in Wrecsam are for children who have not been excluded i.e there is a unit for girls of school age who have children.

Officers analysed the figures quoted by Messrs Millar and Isherwood and came to the conclusion that they included a lot more than the costs of the PRU's and services to excluded pupils. The disaggregated figures are as follows:

For information the total cost of the PRU's in 2003/2004 was as
follows: Gross £601k Net £467k, this compares to the 2007/08 figures of Gross £854k Net £612k

The net figure is the cost to Wrecsam, the gross figure is additional grants from other sources so the £1.829 million is three times more than the ACTUAL cost to Wrecsam CBC.

Tonight's lesson is that you should alway treat Tory statistics with an awful lot of caution, it is after all only the Tories who could confuse 5.4% and 54%...doh!!

Plaid Values v Labour Values!

Letter sent to the Editors of the Leader and the Daily Post, 22nd February 2010.

Dear Editor,

It was magnanimous of Stephen Hester the Chief Executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland to turn down a £1.3 million bonus for overseeing a £5 billion loss at the bank this year. However it is a disgrace that the bank which is 84% owed by us the taxpayer intend to pay their investment bankers total of £1.3 billion in bonuses, an amount which is difficult to visualize. Suffice to say that £1.3 billion is enough to fund ALL hospices in the UK for the next 12 months. This clearly shows how far the Labour party have become removed from their original values. In Wales we are fortunate in that those that care about social welfare have another choice, Plaid Cymru, a party with a social conscience, and who wish to see taxpayers money being used to improve the lives of all and not just a select few.

More Tory poster fun

The Tories keep churning out terrible posters and they get hijacked by some very creative people. This is the best of the recent bunch.

Planning in Scotland.

Aviemore is not a particularly attractive town, it has developed as a tourist destination since the arrival of the railways around 1860 and was further developed in a rather hideous fashion in the 1970's with the building of the Macdonald Resort hotels with the Four Seasons towering over the resort.

Can we really imagine the Snowdonia National Park granting planning permission for an 8 storey concrete monstrosity in Llanberis? I can't see it myself. Talking to people who knew Aviemore before the arrival of Macdonald's Resorts there was major opposition to this development in the mid 70's and it makes one wonder who gave the planning permission, the local authority or the Cairngorms National Park; if it existed then.

I wonder what the Section 106 settlement (or similar) was to get planning for this building?, a minimum of a new school I would suggest!

Mersey Dee Alliance

The following letter was published in the Leader tonight and challenges Mark Isherwood's position on the Mersey Dee Alliance:

Dear Editor,

I would be grateful for an opportunity to reply to Mark Isherwood’s letter (Devolution Can Work for Wales, Leader, February 10th)
Mr Isherwood writes in praise of the Mersey Dee Alliance (MDA), the Regional Plan and the Wales Spatial Plan. I really don’t have a problem with cross border partnerships that benefit BOTH SIDES of the border but these partnerships are not equal, these plans aim to build 20,000 homes in North East Wales, but what does North East Wales get as an economic benefit from this partnership? What has it had up to now, has it had new jobs or better transport?

If you can answer that question Mr Isherwood you are doing better than the three representatives of the MDA who gave evidence to the Assembly’s Petitions Committee. Even the highly regarded North Wales Economic Forum are hard pressed to identify benefits arising from these plans and question what they have delivered from North Wales.

Mr Isherwood as an ex manager of a Building Society may well be happy to see Wrecsam, Flintshire and Denbighshire covered in concrete but I and thousands of other residents of these three counties are not.

Job Cuts!

The worst case scenario for public services in Wales according to the Welsh Local Government Association is a possible reduction in budgets by 20 to 25% over the next 5 or so years. In Scotland they are looking to 12% savings over 3 years. This equates to a reduction in Glasgow City Councils workforce of 4,000 out of a total of 34,000. Since November 2009, over 2,200 employees over 50 have applied for a voluntary/early retirement at a total cost of £100 million and which is aimed to save £65 million a year. These are staggering figures and will undoubtedly have an impact on the delivery of front line services. To read the full story go to Herald Scotland online.

Leader's Debate.

According to Jeff Breslin at SNP Tactical Voting, Alex Salmond WILL be included in the Sky broadcast of the Leader debates. Not only is this good news for Scotland and the SNP but it also gives extra leverage for Elfyn Llwyd to demand a slot in the Leader's debate as well and it will be a demand that will be very difficult to refuse.

Seven years ago...

Seven years ago today two busloads of us went down from Wrecsam to join the mass march in London against plans for war against Iraq. The million-strong march failed miserably to make any impression on Blair, who today stands condemned as a war criminal who took the UK to war on a tissue of lies and deception.

He is making millions from his speaking tours and memoirs while thousands of young soldiers he sent to fight for "queen and country" lie dead and maimed, along with countless thousands of innocent Iraqis.

I've never been on a demo so huge that central London stopped. Despite marching for hours in the freezing weather, we arrived at Hyde Park just as the last speaker was packing up.

As Spike Milligan would say, Tony Blair - my part in his downfall.

Give the worker a full set of tools

How to explain the coming referendum in ways that does not involve "another step", "tidying-up exercise" and "we still won't have Scottish-style powers" is difficult. So perhaps we should be grateful to Carwyn Jones for giving us a very clear idea of what we'll be voting for sometime in the next year or so.

Hat tip to WalesHome.org for pointing up this:

Welsh political watchers were also treated to Carwyn Jones with Andrew Marr yesterday morning. At bleeding last, a face to face interview with Wales’s leader and the man who could, in three months time, be the most senior elected Labour politician in Britain. And he did well. To me, the high point was the clever analogy about getting more powers for the Assembly.

“Well, I could talk about the constitutional situation in Wales, but can I explain it in this way? You hire three workers. With two of them, you give them a full set of tools. Call them Scotland and Northern Ireland. The other worker, you give that person an empty box and you say, ‘Each time you need a new tool, come to me, explain why you want that tool and then I’ll decide whether I’ll give you that tool.’ That’s Wales. What we want is a full set of tools in the same way as Scotland and Northern Ireland, so we can do the job properly.”

New video of EDL in Wrecsam

Plaid more effective than Lib Dems in Westminster!

Yes, that's the view of Simon Carr writing in today's Independent. This is an extract of what he had to say:

"What a relief to see Elfyn Llwyd in the House yesterday, still alive and asking questions. He's always more interesting than he looks. Tiny Plaid Cymru are a great parliamentary asset. Blair and Mittal's £2m, that was them. They kicked off Cash for Honours. The Blair Impeachment project, they did that too. Llwyd and Adam Price (they are two-thirds of their party) have probably had more effect on Parliament than the entire Liberal Democrats."

Says it all doesn't it!

Choosing a travellers' site (you lose some)

Most of the 100+ people in the gallery at tonight's planning committee meeting on the Local Development Plan were from Brymbo and Chirk. Both have been shortlisted for a possible travellers' site of up to 15 pitches along with the possible expansion of the existing site on Ruthin Road.

It's fair to say the discussion that followed wasn't the most coherent, although Cllr Keith Gregory's contribution raising the first round of applause. He'd actually spoken to a traveller family who had made it clear they didn't want to move to Chirk for a number of reasons, not least the distance from that site to the nearest Catholic schools in town.

Those who had visited the three sites were in no doubt that the Brymbo site had access problems as well as practical issues because it was next to a sewage plant.

The Chirk site also has an issue in that there is now a confidential proposal for a large and ambitious project of national significance for the same site that could create 70 new jobs. This, we felt as Plaid councillors, materially altered the situation for the Chirk site.

The process to shortlist these three has not been easy - 700 potential sites were whittled down over more than a year until it became 15, then seven and then finally three. All, the officers conceded, had potential problems and chief planning officer Lawrence Isted was honest enough to say "there's no such thing as a perfect gipsy site."

There's no doubt in my mind that the best option is to extend the existing Ruthin Road site, even though this could involve years of wrangling over buying more land.

Taking this clear route was looking increasingly unlikely with one proposal being made to re-consider the shortlist of seven. Things took a turn for the worse when it was suggested the committee recommended a shortlist of 15 to the Executive Board - a buckpassing exercise.

Cllr Carrie Harper cut to the chase with a one-sentence amendment that both the Chirk and Brymbo sites be taken off the shortlist.

The vote was narrowly lost 9-10, so the shortlist of three sites has gone forward to the Executive Board, who will no doubt be bombarded with letters and e-mails from all three areas.

Wrecsam's LDP - you win some...

Tonight's planning committee was a bit of a marathon - four hours of debating the local development plan. And we're still not finished. The final decision lies with the executive board and I sense that will also be a long-drawn out affair.

The packed gallery waited patiently to hear about the travellers' camp sites at Chirk and Brymbo. They had to wait three hours for a decision.

Before that, the thorny issue of affordable housing was raised by Plaid councillors.

The first amendment from us was a simple cap on house building above the planned limit - this was a "belt and braces" approach to limit the kind of over-development we've seen in recent years.

This shouldn't have been contentious and officers acknowledged that but it was voted down 14-6.

Our second amendment - to raise the affordable housing threshold from 30% to 50% on housing developments - was opposed by officers. The plan claims it will deliver 2200 affordable homes over 15 years, but it's already fallen behind that target and I think it's based on an over-optimistic set of assumptions.

Claiming 640 homes through a village exemption scheme just doesn't add up - not one has been built under the same scheme in the current plan.

The 30% target was put forward after a consultant's report said 50% affordability was not viable for developers. Funny that it is viable in a number of authorities, including nearby Conwy. The officers couldn't explain why that example had not been studied more fully. After a lengthy debate, the 50% amendment was lost - by just 9-10.

Labour was split 2-2 as were the Lib Dems, and I will await the final decision of the exec board with interest. I just hope those voting against a radical but achievable target never complain about a lack of affordable homes in their wards.

Housing plans for the old Groves site were the next challenge. Local councillor Carole O'Toole called for a more imaginative use of this strategic site and for a mixed scheme that satisfied the existing covenant on education and training, work and some housing as well as protecting the green spaces.

I proposed that the plan include that and, for a change, backed a winner. If we're serious about creating a capital for North Wales here, these key sites have to be used more creatively.

Next up was the travellers' sites - but that's for another post.

More on Aberconwy Tories.

More trouble in Tory camp following Councillor Hazel Meredith's appeal against her expulsion by Aberconwy Conservative Association. Hazel won her appeal in London today and we can only guess whether what remains of the Tory group on Conwy CBC welcome her back with open arms. I wonder what Oscar will have to say?...watch this space for more sparks!

Best for West - croeso Llyr

Croeso i'r diweddara' o'r blogwyr Plaid. Llyr Huws Gruffudd ydi ymgeisydd Plaid Cymru ar gyfer Gorllewin Clwyd.

Good to see a new kid on the blog... Llyr Huws Gruffudd is Plaid Cymru's candidate for Clwyd West.

http://bestforwest.blogspot.com

Spotlight.

Spotlight is Wrexham Labour's leaflet, again there is not a word of Welsh on the leaflet unlike Plaid's which are totally bilingual where we aim to meet the needs of ALL the people of Wrecsam. There is nothing original about this leaflet it starts off with "Labour on your side"...sounds familiar? of course straight lift from Plaid Cymru posters, "Plaid On Your Side." which have been around for a while.

The leaflet then goes on to say "Labour Help - or Tory cuts" wow what a statement to make eh, 12 years of a Labour government, massive deficits high rates of unemployment poor regulation of banks, massive bail outs of banks, child poverty on the increase and local government budgets slashed. Is that what Labour call Help, I'm sure the ex workers of Flexys, JCB and Air Products would have something to say to our esteemed Business Minister about his non existant Help! I could go on and on but suffice to conclude with another misrepresentation, "Labour - working to make life fairer to Wrexham people." Is that what abolishing Attendance Allowance and Disability Living Allowance will do then?

Shop Locally

I signed up today to get a Wrecsam Loyalty card which provides discounts and promotions for food, drink, shopping and much more at more than 100 locations in Wrecsam. To sign up for your Loyalty card go to http://www.wrexhamsavers.co.uk/ or telephone 01978 851014. Once registered you will get a weekly email listing all the discounts and promotions

Please sign up for this initiative, support local businesses and save jobs as well as saving money.

UPDATE - Saved £14 on a 2 course dinner at Za Za's, Overton Arcade, High St, Wrecsam,
last night and very nice it was too!

Gwestai Sir y Fflint!!

Braf oedd gweld tri o fobol Glannau Dyfrdwy ar Wales Today y noson blaen yn gwrthwynebu penderfyniad Days Inn a Holiday Inn i ddisgrifio ei gwestai fel 'Chester North a Chester West' a hwythau yng Nghymru. Braf hefyd oedd clywed barn rheolwr gwesty y St Davids (De Vere) yn Ewloe sydd yn disgriofio ei hun fel yng Nghymru ac yn falch o hynny. Mae'r sylwadau ar wefan BBC Cymru hefyd yn galonogol.
Dim ond gobeithio y cawn y canlyniad iawn yn dilyn ymchwiliad Adran Safonnau Masnachol Sir y Fflint.

Ennill y Frwydr.

Cofiwch fy ymdrech i gael Ian Lucas AS i gyhoeddi ei adroddiadau blynyddol yn ddwyiaethog a gorfod mynd i Bwyllgor Deisebu y Cynulliad i ofyn am ymestyn Adran 6 o Ddeddf Iaith 1993, i gynnwys Aelodau Seneddol Cymreig. Yn dilyn yr ymgyrch yny mae Mr Lucas wedi newid ei diwn ac mae ei agwedd ychydig yn iachach tuag at yr iaith gan iddo wneud ymdrech go lew i gyfiethu ei wefan yn y fan hyn. Does bosib gwybod os mae ryw sop gwleidyddol ydy hyn i ni'r Cymru Cymraeg fel bod hi'n edrych yn debyg fel y bydd hi'n dipyn yn agosach yn etholaeth Wrecsam na fasa rywyn yn meddwl, ac hwyrach fydd Lucas angen y bleidlais Gymraeg.

A oes na esiamplau eraill o Aelodau Seneddol Llafur Cymreig wedi newid ei hagwedd tuag at yr iaith?

Living Pension pledge from Plaid

Plaid Cymru Press Release:

The man campaigning to become the next MP for Wrexham has pledged to fight for a "Living Pension" for every pensioner in the area.

Councillor Arfon Jones, of Gwersyllt, is standing for Plaid Cymru in the coming General Election and is backing his party's campaign for a Living Pension.

He said:

"As a candidate in this election one of my main concerns is that of elderly poverty, those people who have worked all their lives only to struggle on a small pension of 95 a week.

"Many older people dont know that they are entitled to a minimum guaranteed income of 130 per week for a single person or 198 for a couple. This is because they dont know about Pension Credit and, because it's means tested, so people have to apply for it.

"Many people have saved a little for their retirement and because they have savings they think they cannot have any more money, but that is not the case."

Cllr Jones, who also volunteers at the Citizens' Advice Bureau one day a week, said:

"The first 10,000 of savings is not counted when calculating Pension Credit.

"Married couple who have incomes in the region of 250 per week may still be entitled to some Pension Credit. There are 13,500 people over 65 years in the Wrexham Constituency and only a third of them are in receipt of Pension Credit."

He added:

"Research suggests that one third of all pensioners are eligible to Pension Credit but dont get it. This means that about 4,000 older people in Wrexham are losing out to the tune of 140,000 a week - or 7.2 million a year.

"I and Plaid Cymru believe that Pension Credit should be included in the State Retirement Pension and then everyone gets it automatically - 35 a week would make a massive difference to the lives of those people currently not getting Pension Credit."

Tax tanning booths to help cancer charities - Plaid

Plaid Cymru Press Release:

Cancer charities and hospices would benefit under a new scheme to tax tanning booths by Plaid Cymru.

Councillor Arfon Jones, who is challenging to be Wrexham's next MP, wants further measures to regulate tanning booths. Cllr Jones said he welcomed moves to ban under 18s from using tanning booths as well as calls for booths to be supervised, but didn't feel it goes far enough.

Cllr Jones said:

Tanning booths can cause skin cancer and we should do what we do with other harmful pursuits like smoking and drinking - tax them to discourage use. In the United States they intend to impose an additional 10% surcharge on tanning salons to pay for new healthcare proposals.

Cllr Jones added:

It is very difficult in Wales for us to impose our own tax because tax-raising powers have not been devolved but we could introduce it as part of non-domestic rates. There are over 400 tanning booths in Wales and if they were to pay on average a 1000 harm tax each, that would equate to nearly 5 million in a decade. The money would then be distributed to cancer charities and hospices in Wales.

Trade Descriptions Act.

I recently made a complaint to Flintshire Trading Standards regarding the Gateway to Wales Hotel changing its name to Days Inn Chester North and the Holiday Inn on the A55 at Northop Hall calling itself the Holiday Inn Chester West when both hotels are situated in Wales. The complaint I made to Trading Standards was that the hotel groups were breaching the Trades Descriptions Act and misleading customers as to the true location of the hotels and the actual distance from Chester as well as the fact that they are in two different countries. The good news is that Flintshire Trading Standards rang me today to tell me that they will be meeting with the management of both hotels next week to discuss the matter. The management have also requested my details so they can arrange a meeting! I can't wait!

PFI - is this the best option for Wrecsam?

Radio Wales's Eye on Wales programme last night took an interesting look at how waste in Wales is being recycled - or not as the case may be.

The programme* asked Wales's 22 councils if they were hitting the 40% recycling target.

As well as questioning how much separated waste actually ends up in landfill, the programme raised questions about the financing of Wrecsam Council's Public Finance Initiative (PFI) waste recycling scheme.

A lot of the debate about the PFI in Wrecsam, which goes right back to the incinerator issue in the 1990s, has happened behind closed doors in the Guildhall. I understand that some commercial confidentiality is needed during contractual negotiations but huge amounts of public money are being spent on this 25-year project and councillors are unable to share that information with the people who'll foot the bill.

I've questioned the rising cost of this project before and been told it's a good deal for Wrecsam Council. I remain to be convinced, especially when the bill for the next financial year alone will be £17 million.

Given the coming squeeze on the council's finances, this is one budget we'll be unable to cut because it's ringfenced to safeguard the company's profits. So other budgets such as education, social service, roads, etc will face a greater proportion of any cutbacks.

* The programme is available on iPlayer for one week only.

20,000 voices against the West Cheshire plan

The National Assembly's petitions committee came to Wrecsam today. It's an innovation that allows Welsh citizens to raise their concerns directly with their representatives and this was a well-attended session.

No surprises there - first up was a evidence regarding a petition of nearly 20,000 names opposing the West cheshire/North East Wales sub-regional strategy.

Carrie Harper, Pol Wong and myself spoke for 15 minutes and then answered questions from the committee, arguing that the impact of the strategy on Wrecsam, Flintshire and Denbighshire was negative in terms of housing, local services, communities, Welsh identity, the environment and our carbon footprint. The key argument was that this was to the detriment of Assembly policies and that this was why the Assembly should reconsider its role in the strategy. We also wanted a specific North-east Wales Spatial Plan to reflect the needs of our communities and local people, wherever they come from originally.

In response, Cllr Dennis Knowles (leader of Wirral Council and chair of the Mersey Dee Alliance) droned on about the strategy for the full 15 minutes.

Backing him up were Wrecsam Council leader Aled Roberts and Flintshire's deputy leader Tony Sharps.

Sharps made an, er, interesting contribution after initially admitting that he hadn't prepared as he wasn't expecting questions. Apparently we need more people moving into north-east Wales because we don't have the skills to meet demand at Airbus and other factories in Flintshire. That'll be an eye-opener to the many hundreds of skilled local engineering workers who have lost their jobs in the past year. It also begs the question of what Airbus's own extensive apprenticeship scheme is doing if they can't meet demand at the plant.

Aled Roberts claimed that Network Rail only want to deliver the Bidston-Deeside part of the rail line, which was news to everyone present.

The feedback after the meeting from friend and neutral alike was very positive. It's safe to say this was far more constructive debate than last February's Wrecsam Council scrutiny committee, when three councillors opposed the council's role in the Mersey-Dee Alliance. The questioning from the petitions committee was sharp and exposed many of the holes in the sub-regional strategy.

Whether that's enough to change the Assembly on this matter remains to be seen, but the pressure put on defenders of the current unsustainable strategy is mounting.

The Cost of Policing Hatred.

Readers will recall the EDL/WDL march in Wrecsam on the 21st November 2009, where 30 Bolton fans turned up outside Wetherspoons to chant racist and anti Islamic slogans. We blogged on this event here, here and here.

Following a Freedom of Information request to North Wales Police about the cost of policing the march I received the following response:

We can...provide information regarding the combined cost of the WDL and EDL march in Wrexham on the 21st November 2009.

The total figure to date is £217,854. This figure could change subject to further invoices being forwarded for payment.

All costs fall to North Wales Police.

So there we have it, the costs of allowing racists to enjoy their freedom to spread hate and intolerance. What else could North Wales Police have spent this money on?