MBE for Penyffordd lady

Linda Mary Johnson, another former nurse who played a key role in developing Nightingale House Hospice, Wrexham, has also been awarded.

The 66-year-old, from Penyffordd, was the first matron of the unit, retiring four years ago.

When her career took her to the Maelor Hospital, Wrexham, she set up a palliative care day unit – a project which eventually evolved into the hospice.

She said: “This is a tribute to all those who have worked so very hard alongside me to make the hospice the success it is today. I must also thank my family and friends for their support over the years.”

Link The Daily Post

Farewell 2008

As I sit here looking at the effects of Global Warming (ice and fog) I say goodbye to 2008. What of 2009? It would be good to see progress on Penyffordd village environment issues, ie. the stopping of the village centre being a race track. I will not be holding my breath though.

Traffic through village centre currently near 3000.
It will of course rise and rise.

Will Airbus feel the credit crunch?
When Boeing went into full production of the Jumbo Jet in the early 70's in the face of a recession they were within 2 months of going bankrupt.
Airbus one supposes has the deep (getting shallower) pockets of government behind it?

Emu's on Hope Mountain

Whilst walking around Hope Mountain we came across 4 emu's.

New Years Eve Party at The Institute

Tables are still available. There is a phone number on a blackboard outside The Institute.

Penyffordd Brickworks

Penyffordd Brickworks was situated at OS 3075 6159 which I hope is the square point on map.
The brickworks stopped making bricks after the early 1870's.

Information from the excellent " Life in the Victorian brickyards of Flintshire and Denbighshire"
by Andrew Connolly. Isbn 0863818927.

Christmas Day

I used to have to do silly things like visit relatives, wait till Dad came home from the pub at 3.00. No longer. A quiet morning. My presents include a £12 Orchid from Tesco. The price label part of the plant description. A book "Life in the Victorian Brickyards of Flintshire and Denbighshire".
It seems strange that Penyffordd seemed to bypass brick making which went on in Buckley, Higher Kinnerton , Hope, Coed Talon, Leeswood and Llanfynydd.
(Wrong on the above we did have a brick works)

The dog has had a tug toy that has to treated with extreme caution as the monster plays hardball. Visits to the infirmary with broken fingers will not be well received.

Lunch at 12.30 pm, vegetarian for Lisa, carnivorous for me and the dogs, followed by a long walk on the Welsh Moors.

What I also wanted was a village centre that can't be used as a race track. Perhaps in 2009?
Those against this worthy aim which benefits Penyffordd may find themselves ridiculed in the extreme in 2009.

The forces for environmental good against the forces of philistinism?

An evening with Steve Johnson

Chairman of the Pen Y Group. An interesting chat about a side of life I see little of, discussions about the youth of the village. Steve was very educational. He even asked the singer in The Millstone if she would sing Old Durham Town by Roger Whittaker. He had to settle for Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis.

The George Formby Society

is performing at the Penyffordd British Legion on Friday 2nd January 2009 at 7.40 pm.
Admittance price 50p.
Information Jim Knight 01978 358472

Penyffordd District - Happy Xmas 2008

Special thanks to The Evening Leader for allowing my letters to see the light of day on their letters page. Thank you to Cllr Cindy Hinds for your efforts to reduce speeding. Cllr David Williams? Not sure what David has done.( I keep missing his sheets he hands out to councillors) Penyffordd Community Council continue to be dragged along their current efforts seem to be directed ( led by Cllr Colin Bithell) on ways to prosecute me rather than help address the 1000+ and its a big plus speeding cars through Chester Rd, Penyffordd everyday. Thank you to Carl Sargeant AM who must have had 200+ emails from me in 2008. One hopes the continuing carnage ( Flint Mountain) will spur the WAG to make County Council's look at speeding through communities.

Flintshire County Council
We seem to have a system where Charles Hughes only stirs from his desk if we have 3 fatalities in an area. Community safety should change from reactive to proactive, communities are crying out for speed reductions. Flintshire Highways seem to have this huge mental block on reducing speed limits. An allergic reaction to traffic calming unless your name is Cllr Tony Sharps. Vehicle high speed continue to be put before community safety. Charles Hughes has ducked and dived all year to stop the release of speed data for Chester Rd, Penyffordd breaking FOIE Law.

Arrive Alive continue to perform well below that required by North Wales communities. They hide their data with meaningless statistics. Our Cllr Colin Bithell still can't get his head around how Hugh Jones' magic box works. Arrive Alive have evaded FOIE requests with lies such as you will not be able to read the data and it would take too long to collate asked for data.

North Wales Police. The above agencies are supposed to work in conjunction with NWP to stamp out Anti Social Behaviour such as speeding. Instead we have Inspector Alun Oldfield hiding behind the data the above agencies will not supply. FCC, Arrive Alive and NWP are acting in exact reverse to what their corporate statements spout. As mentioned there are well over a 1000 vehicles that continue to speed through Penyffordd each day. We have Inpector Oldfield denying Chester Rd is a cause for concern despite the fact I have written evidence to the contrary.

North Wales Police continue to collude with FCC to deny HGV banning even though we have a bypass.

North Wales Police website says there are currently no issues in our area at all. I'm sure Penyffordd councillors may take issue with that. Still more deception with reality

North Wales Police Crime statistics. Are they to be believed? I have my doubts. Three weeks ago I had my vehicle damaged for the second time in a week. Its targeted because I protest at speeding in my village. I have emailed our CBM twice to remind him I want a crime number. I am not holding my breath, neither do I place much credence in Police data.

Neighbourhood Forums need altering root and branch. I had speeding taken off the list of concerns because they will not address it and it makes their figures look bad.

NWP continue to be unaccountable to communities.

I live in a village with a bypass, I take pride on where I live, the village is currently a race track.
Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom delivers speeches on community pride. It would be good to see his force backing communities instead of ignoring them.

Colin Hughes
Penyffordd District

Cllr Colin Bithell will welcome proposals on alleged libellous blogs

So too will half of the government.

Link The Mole

Penyffordd Spar shop

now open again after complete shop refit.

Somewhere close to home

that you may not know about. I have been to the tradesman's entrance with work in the past.

Link : Pentrhobin Hall

To The Red Lion Penyffordd

A table for 15. This is a personal view and nothing to do with the club to which I belong. Restaurant room ambiance good. Serving staff attentive. The young man particularly good. About 50 diners through out the evening. On the good side, clean plates ( no left food) all round ( just about) . Good vegetables, plenty of. On the bad side. Vegetarian pea, asparagus tart was poor. Most restaurants that are non vegetarian struggle with veggy dishes which is why we eat out rarely. The cheese plate offered was a bit poor quality in places.
My t-bone steak was very chewy to start with but got better as I progressed to the thinner pieces , uneveness of meat the issue, the chips were very good
Overall we would go back on the proviso Lisa could have a word with the chef first with regards the vegetarian options. That's if they let me in again after the Red Lion brigade tell the owner.

plus point - no background musak, although some of our group prefer background music.

Penyffordd Community Council Newsletter

is now out. Well done Cllr Linda Vidamour and Cllr Jane Hopwood for putting it together. A few of our more moribund councillors do not see the point of mass communication with the electorate unless they are asking for votes of course.
Times are changing.

ps. perhaps others helped but I am "persona non grata" at the moment also no one is talking to me.

To Rossett Hall for a Murder Mystery Dinner

The photo contains members of the acting company. Being a philistine I usually opt out of anything theatrical or opera like. A good evening though had by all. The actors/actresses stayed in character all evening. One first gets introduced to the plot in the bar for pre drinks. They move around introducing themselves handing out gossip about other characters. Their table is in the middle of the room where they play their parts out in stages. By coffee time someone has been murdered and you have to work out the motive. Amongst the 100+ were a group from HSBC, a theatre group and two lots of bobbies, one CID and the other a constabulary.

They say it like this.

MURDER ON the menu

Murder mystery dinners start with some 'unusual' characters joining guests for pre-dinner drinks. As they mingle and chat they will drop some snippets of information or pass some opinions that could be red herrings or pertinent to the plot.

During dinner keep your eyes and ears on these rather dubious persons. There may be an argument, a knowing wink, sly whispers or the revelation of some past intrigue - feel free to question them. When the murderer Finally strikes you can view the body or bodies - for often our killer strikes twice.

Over coffee you can cross-examine the suspects before making your final deduction. All is revealed at the end of the evening with prizes for the winners plus booby prize for the worst scenario.

Murder dinners can be themed e.g. Victorian, Edwardian, 1920s Gangster, 1930s Indian Raj, War-Time, A 1920s Nile Cruise are just some of the options.

Have a look at some of our themes for the 2005/6 season.

Link The Brain Stormer Murders

Another accident in Dobshill

A woman was taken to the Countess of Chester Hospital with minor injuries following an accident at Chester Rd Dobshill on Thursday just before 8.00am. Cllr Cindy Hinds has pressed for a speed limit reduction from 60 mph to 30 mph. Flintshire Highways remain deaf to any slowing of traffic.

keyword: Charles Hughes, Head of Engineering.

Penyffordd Multi Use Games Area up and running

Would have taken a photo but children were playing on it. The opposition to controlling speeding in the village keep an eye on the blog and get on to any parents whose children appear on the blog.
Then I get irate phonecalls from parents.
Not too many people bothered about speeding traffic. In Chester Rd there are about 9 adults who do not like the speeding traffic. North Wales Police of course have given up.

keyword Inspector Alun Oldfield, Eastern Division. Chief Superintendent Ruth Purdie.

Thank you to Cllr David Williams

and the Leader for allowing this letter the light of day.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Leader

A letter for possible insertion.

Cllr David Williams of Penyffordd is to be congratulated on educating Leader readers on the voting system for school governors. Whilst I do not speak for Cllr Cindy Hinds I'm sure Cindy would look favourably on David and herself having one pick each for governors rather than the two "Independents" that Cllr David Williams is currently pushing for.

Cllr Williams say my digs are predictable. I think not, I have had letters published on over 10 different topics.

My other point with regards so called " Independents". Flintshire County Councillor prospective Independents stand then if elected vote for leaders etc of their own group.

At Penyffordd Community Council level we do it the other way around. The local big "Independent" persuades the sick, the old aged, those not interested, etc to stand as a block vote of 10 out of the 12 seats. Nothing is required by most except a photograph and perhaps turn up on the day to vote. My wife Lisa and I produced our own leaflets at a cost of £150 and walked around 1500 houses and managed to get half of the Independent block vote in last May's elections. Some readers may think my complaining is just "sour grapes" others may come to the conclusion like myself that there is something rotten in a political system that encourages the moribund to stand at no effort at all.

Colin Hughes

Penyffordd District

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One of course can't say everything one wants to say to get a letter published. Economies have to be made to increase the likelihood of publications.
1. Lisa walked for 4 days with a swollen ankle to deliver leaflets
2. David in his previous letter purveys the image that all councillors work together for the good of the village. This did not come shining through when Cllr Colin Bithell and Cllr Joe Bell decided to question planning for the Multi User Games Area AFTER they had given the nod for its approval adding an extra layer of agro that was not needed.

The Millstone

re opens Friday. There is a free buffett.

A Xmas Truce

I have decided to call a truce till after Xmas for all you councillors* and agencies who are not doing your jobs paid or unpaid. Some of you may think I go about things the wrong way. Some of you may forget but I did start politely with both Penyffordd Community Council and Cllr David Williams.

Chester Rd, over a 1000 ASB's every day.

* there are of course a few councillors who see the benefits to the community of our village being a centre rather than a race track.

A Leader letter from Cllr David Williams

Click on image to read

The above letter is in reply to a letter published in the Leader last Friday. Here

Penyffordd Councillor Age Gap

Not that I have any problem with age. Its attitude that matters.
Here is a 20 year old Town councillor with a dreaded blog

Link Cllr Simon Gibson

Local Walk Llandegla Llyn Cyfynwy

Penyffordd Witch spared ducking pond and jail

A YOUNG woman who set fire to her house, claiming she was a witch and wanted to die, walked free from court yesterday.

Sara Jane Lowe, 29, set fire to the settee at her home in West View, Penyffordd, in a suicide attempt, causing £17,000 damage.

Link The Daily Post

The Millstone

to open again. Best of luck to the new people in charge. If they can replicate The Brasserie in Hawarden they are on to a winner.

Road Accident Dobshill

Emergency crews were called at 5.10pm yesterday to the incident on the A550 at Dobshill near Queensferry. A North Wales Police spokeswoman said an articulated lorry and a car were involved in the incident.

Full story The Daily Post

Crime Figures down in Flintshire

according to Inspector Alun Oldfield. Criminal damage is the largest. The Inspector has no interest in a 1000+ speeding vehicles through Penyffordd, neither have Arrive Alive. Talking of criminal damage data I am still waiting for a crime reference number 2 weeks after my car was damaged.
I will persist. I do not trust NWP crime data. As far as I am aware it is collected and collated by the police themselves.

This year national serious crime data was found to be flawed when someone took an interest.

Meanwhile Inspector Oldfield will have had a very full day today. An elderly couple killed and 4 taken to hospital. Speeding vehicles the issue just like over 1000 plus that speed through our village everyday. Accident spot Mold Bypass, follow the link.

Link BBC NE

keyword: Chief Superintendent Ruth Purdie

A Letter in today's Leader - A big thank you

Hi Leader

A letter for consideration

Cllr Aaron Shotton is right to raise the issue of school governorship nomination. I feel it is impossible to de-politicize the present procedure. Becoming a governor gives you a fast track to the parents (voters) of school children. It gives you 4 years of exposure to your electorate.

This is a huge advantage to those picked over new people wishing to stand for council.

Penyffordd Community Council is made up of 11 "Independent" councillors and 1 Labour. The council acts as 11 against 1. The term Indpendent should mean what it says. Penyffordd is currently run by one Independent. The whole use of the word Independent needs to be debated to make it fully transparent to the electorate and children's parents. The current system prevents change.

Time for change?

To Shotwick Park

Where the great and the good once lived, very impressive. Not impressive is the tail back onto the A494 for Sealand Rd traffic going into Chester. Sealand Rd is gridlock city at 8.30 am.

The strange bird in the woods

Just had a phone call off Gladstone woodsman Frank Mills of Hawarden. He solved the problem of the strange bird we see on our travels in 10 seconds. It's a Woodcock.



This bird is being ringed for research. If its caught again the bird authorities will know a little more about its movements.

The distinctive courtship flight of the male Woodcock is called "roding" and is usually performed in the twilight just before dawn and at dusk. The bird flies circles with a flickering flight 3-30m above the canopy with it's bill held pointed downward and accompanies this with several croaking sounds ending with a sharp squeak. The sounds can be heard up to 300m away.

Elegantly beats 2 bottles of wine and an invite back for a coffee.

Links Woodcock,
Bogbumper
The Western Isles

Penyffordd Community Meeting November 2008

is tomorrow Wednesday at 6.30 pm. I may go along. I have complained to Castell Alun that Cllr Tom Jones and Cllr Colin (we have done all we can) Bithell should not be picked as school governors for Castell Alun. I have sent a previous email to Elwyn Davies in charge of Flintshire County Council education stating that Tom and Colin were also unfit to be governors of Penyffordd Junior school as they continue to ignore the 1000 plus rat run through the village each day. Ignoring their responsibilities as councillors and governors.

I hadn't really thought through the school governor bit but it seems to me the following.
Colin and Tom are of Tom Jones' local party called the Independents. Not sure how they can be called this as they act as group. Being a governor of the schools allows one to network with many residents of Penyffordd so building up a good voter base that keeps other totally independent councillors off the Penyffordd Community Council.

I think Cllr Klaus Armstrong Braun has the best idea of videoing the meeting so residents can see things councillors get up to. The rant by a Penyffordd Councillor at me in a previous meeting over my speeding cars protest would have made good viewing on the Leader website or Youtube. Community Council minutes fail to give the full flavour of a councillor in full rant mode over an issue he should have addressed in a proper manner.

Hundred-year-old law forces council to hunt for allotment space

Someone in Penyffordd ward is pushing for an allotment. Which is another item we haven't got that other towns and villages have.

Link The Flintshire Leader

Penyffordd Spar to close for refit

between the 5th and 18th of December. Stocks are running low on some items.

Tesco / Spar price comparison


Paracetamol : Tesco 24p, Spar £1.22.

Spar's brown bread rolls however are superior to Tesco

This morning I have suffered from Pyrexia (High Temperatures) which is one of the side effects of paracetamol.
A long dark night awake coughing followed by damp pyjamas. I thought of course that I was having a healing crisis. Foolish person.

By the way ending one's existence using Paracetamol is not the way to go.
Read the bottom of the link.

Link Paracetamol

Good news for Penyffordd bank customers

Who have had rip off bank charges. Especially good for us as Nat West are leading the way. They ripped us off for £250.

Link City Wire

Traffic works divert

From Wednesday, 3rd December, for three days no vehicles shall proceed in Penymynydd Road between Penymynydd Roundabout and its junction with Hawarden Road. Alternative Route is via A5104 Chester Road, A550 Hawarden Road and Fammau View Drive.

Full description in Penyffordd Post Office

keyword Charles Hughes.

Entries will be very light this week.

A cold / slight flu in full swing.
So I suppose will be emails to the great and the good.