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Fire at Hewitt's Barn behind the butchers

Click images to enlarge

Fire started about 6.45. ? At first I thought is was a house on fire. Firebrigade turned up at about 6. 55 pm. Three fire tenders I think. Also in attendance in plain clothes North Wales Police Inspector Alun Oldfield who said hello.
Two Police officers in attendance, may be from Buckley. Not PC Chris Pullen who was perhaps off duty.
Local young man who lived not far from the fire was angry because he thought local youths had probably started it. Took the fire brigade about 15 minutes to get blaze under control.

In one of the images the leylandii can be seen on fire. The nearest houses were down wind of the barn, then there were the very tall leylandii trees and then the houses. The houses seemed less than 75 yards from the burning building. With the severe winds blowing towards the houses there appeared to me a danger to the houses if the fire brigade had not acted so quickly.
Local butcher Steve Vaughn went to see if he could contact Mr Hewitt who owns the farm.
The farm building are in the area where local youths have been causing trouble. Three weeks ago they trashed the phone box. Is it the same youths?
Police helicopter turned up 7.40 pm and did some hovering for 20 minutes.

90 minutes after the start the fire brigade are still there trying to totally extinguish the smouldering building which I think contained hay. The buildings are part of what you used to be the turkey farm.
120 minutes on the firebrigade still struggle to put out smoke.

Link The Evening Leader

Dogging

The excellent Paul Flynn MP
Link here

Two tales of MP innocence are circulating here.

One Welsh MP is freely sharing his own embarrassment. He had a call from a local newspaper, ‘What do you think of the amount of dogging that is going on in your constituency.’

‘I strongly support it,’ he helpfully suggested, ‘There should be more.’

The bemused reporter pressed for more details of the MP's enthusiasm. The MP was under the impression that dogging meant clearing the streets of stray dogs. It was delicately explained to him that there was another meaning to the word. His enthusiasm was withdrawn.

Penyffordd Neighbourhood Forum Feb 2007

The next forum date is the 8th February 2008, at 7pm. PC Chris Pullen will be in the chair.

Chris is North Wales' Police answer to Robocop. He has to duck through doors to avoid head damage or perhaps door frame damage. Very polite and friendly but not one to try it on with.

Link: North Wales Police

Access to Healthcare Fears for Penyffordd

Click The Evening Leader

Traffic Update

I found a letter from Nigel our Clerk to the Penyffordd Community Council over the weekend acknowledging my complaint about speeding. I notice it is One Year and 25 days ago.
So we have all these people killing themselves on the roads over the last month. The speed they killed themselves at are the speeds that vehicles fly through Penyffordd by the 1000 daily. We have some Police Inspector from up the coast who is going to investigate why these people are killing themselves. Just platitudes to the masses. I can write a 5 minute blog on what kills these people.

A Little Sermon for the Politicians

Link
Click here

Showtime at Penyffordd British Legion

The North Wales Branch of the George Forbmy Society will be at The Legion on Friday 1st February at 7.40 pm. Admission 50 p. Call Alison Nadin on 01745 330668 for further information.

Also

Anastasia Dobromyslova was crowned the winner of the 2008 BDO World Professional Darts Championship. Anastasia practices in The Penyffordd British Legion. The BBC are coming down to do some filming. Maybe 2nd of February. Plz check with Legion.

Complaints and Enquiries to Flintshire County Council

With regards 2000 cars speeding through our village each day. I have started a formal complaint against Flintshire County Council. We are in the first phase where the complaint is looked at and an agreement or action made to satisfy the complaint is looked for. If satisfaction is not forthcoming I move onto the second stage.

Three FOIE's have been made to Flintshire County Council with regards the council, my county councillors Colin Bithell and David Williams, Chester Road, Welsh Government Assembly, developments that affect Chester Road traffic levels and the late Cllr Derek Darlington.

Your enquiry for Highway and Traffic Management has been passed on to the
relevant people within Flintshire and the call reference number is CC 0108
018515

A Tale of Two Flintshire Villages

Populations Penyffordd 3500
Northop Hall 1600

Traffic Calming Penyffordd None
Northop Hall - Large bumps that make it impossible to speed through the village.

So we give twice as much money to Flintshire County Council for no benefits what so ever to village environment. Penyffordd remains a race track.

Well done Tony Sharps of Northop Hall. A county councillor with vision for village environment

Traffic Update to Inspector Alun Oldfield of North Wales Police

Dear Alun,

Hope you are well

I see we in Flintshire are currently having "an accident a day" in the speeding traffic department sometimes with fatalities.

Perhaps an epidemic?

The traffic here in Chester Rd, Penyffordd continues to fly through all day.

So the accidents are of little surprise.

I note that the traffic through our village has the ability to do 60 mph along

a route to school.

As you will be well aware my request for the traffic data has been denied.

My claim of 2000 speeding cars a day unable to be proved.

The figures are completely embarrassing and show that Flintshire County Council

have no idea what so ever with regards traffic calming in villages.

I have made an appeal against the refusal to supply data.

The refusal to show data just hides the complete inefficiency of Arrive Alive

with regards speeding traffic in villages.

I think it true to say that with their current resources they are unable to help much

with the current epidemic of speeding in North Wales

Airbus had a publicity piece in The Evening Leader about safe driving last Friday.

Their shift workers however continue to plough through our village from

before shift start to shift end.

Some of the speeders are Raytheon but I have an idea most are Airbus.

If the Arrive Alive data is looked at with shift patterns of Airbus and Raytheon

it will be immediately apparent that they are a major problem in the village.

Airbus' public relations piece has no relation to "the reality" what so ever.

The solution to Chester Road is the inability of vehicles to do more than the speed limit.

Wrexham Council the masters, Flintshire Council the dunces.

kindest regards

Colin Hughes

Penyfordd.

ps I wonder if the new Corporate Responsibilty laws coming in April will have Flintshire County Council and the Welsh Assembly putting Safety before Leisure with regards how they spend our money?

Links

http://penyffordd-district.blogspot.com/2008/01/airbus-land-driving-safety-award-whilst.html

How The Internet changed news

Technology means that any talented trouble maker with a modem can achieve Karl Marx's dream: ownership of the means of production and distribution. The internet requires no printing presses, delivery vans, distributors or news stands. No editorial restrictions, no proprietor, no once-a-day news cycle.

Link Guido

A car accident in Penyffordd

Doesn't say which Penyffordd. The only Rose Lane I know is in Buckley. My 2 penneth at the bottom. Their form will not let you put the word impotent in.

Link: The Evening Leader.


Postscript: My 2 penneth removed by The Evening Leader because I called Flintshire County Council, Arrive Alive and North Wales Police impotent with regards speeding traffic.
I think a little unfair.

Darts Match Penyffordd British Legion

Next up will be the Scottish Open on February 16 and 17, while Clwyd will host North Wales rivals Gwynedd at Penyffordd Legion on February 3.

Link here
Also here
and here

Airbus land Driving Safety Award whilst 100's of their shift workers speed through our village everyday

Click image to read.

In The Evening Leader last Friday. Airbus win driving safety award. They refuse to acknowledge that 100's of their shift workers some with illegal exhausts plough through our village each work day. The proof lies with Flintshire County Council and Arrive Alive who will not currently allow me to have the full data.
Quote Jim Gallagher " The award recognises Airbus's commitment to road safety at all times - not just when employees are on site.
Perhaps Jim should do a site visit to Penyffordd before shift start, changeover and finish. Tea and sandwiches will be freely available from my wife Lisa. Jim and I can watch the racing through the village.

keywords: Paul Mckinley (Airbus HR), Mark Stewart (Airbus HR). corporate responsibility, corporate irresponsibilty, corporate manslaughter, Jim Gallagher, Darren Collins, apprentice training adviser, transport manager, Wales National Road Safety Awards, Hugh Jones Arrive Alive Safety Officer, Flintshire County Council, Colin Everett Chief Executive, Dave Faulkner Director for Regeneration and Environment, Charles Hughes Head of Engineering, Gerwyn Powell, Councillor Gareth Williams, Buckley, Brian Fleet, John Gillbanks, A380, Broughton, Chester, River Dee, Mostyn, EADS, Raytheon, Louis Gallois, 140001 certification, A320, A340,
CEO, A350 XWB, Toulouse, Thomas Enders, Hans Peter Ring, John Leahy, Fabrice Bregier, Lockheed, McDonnell Douglas, A300, A310, Deeside College, David Jones, A321, Boeing,

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a recognition of Airbus' application of a robust environmental management system (EMS) to continually monitor and minimize the environmental impact of its production processes.
Not really fellas.



Link: Airbus Corporate Environmnet Statement

Link: Flintshire County Council

I've found some more traffic for Chester Road

In The Evening Leader
A 13-acre site alongside the Saltney High Street has been earmarked for a 70,000sq ft retail development and 100 town houses, aimed at rejuvenating the town centre.

Did Cllr Colin Bithell gives the thumbs up to this

So now we have coming our way shortly.
1. A55 Warren Hall exit (Chester Rd a great short cut)
2. Warren Hall Business Park - 5000 employees
3. Broughton Retail Park
4. Wrexham UDP
5. Saltney Shopping Centre
6. 300 houses Penymynydd.

How many extra millions extra per year?

By the way we have a by-pass.

Regeneration without Environment.



Link : Saltney Retail Park

Meet my new Teacher of Protesting

Link: Comedian Mark Thomas
The Protester's Protester

Further Details on the FOIE Refusal - My reply

Enquiry Reference FOI Dec 07.03

Request for information

1) A copy of the speed data survey carried out on Chester Road, Penyffordd during 2007.

My answers to the refusal in RED and BLUE

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is designed to give a general access to information to the public and releases information into the public domain. However, the FOIA makes provision for withholding information that is crucial to maintaining the core activities of a public authority.

Information will not be released if it will affect the ability of the organisation in question to undertake its key functions. Or information that embarrasses the organisation.

Some exemptions are ‘absolute’ and no release is required under Freedom of Information legislation. Other exemptions are ‘qualified’ and we must undertake a public interest test to decide if disclosure should be made.

In the case of your request qualified exemptions apply and therefore a public interest test has been completed.

The exemption(s) being applied:

FOIA Section 31: Law Enforcement - a qualified and prejudice based exemption.

FOIA Section 38: Health & Safety – a qualified and prejudice based exemption

Harm Test

The information requested has been obtained for the purposes of assessing a site of community concern for safety camera enforcement. Whilst details are placed in the public domain as part of the usual business, to place maximum speeds and individual vehicles speed/times, patterns of speeding have been assessed to be operational information which could compromise law enforcement and the safety of the public. It has been shown that members of the public focus on the maximum speed which could be just one vehicle – possibly Police or other emergency response vehicle.

Yes the release of full speed data would be a huge embarrassment for Arrive Alive and Cllr Colin Bithell.

Release of the maximum and individual vehicle speeds could encourage some members of the public to start their own campaign against drivers who speed/or drivers who are perceived to speed. This could compromise the safety of drivers who are assessed to be exceeding the speed limit and the safety of any person who wishes to challenge speeders, placing those individuals in a position of harm with the potential to cause unrest within the community.

Members of communities start their own campaign's due to the failings of Arrive Alive, County Councillors, North Wales Police and county councils such as Flintshire.

Public Interest Test

Considerations Favouring Disclosure

Accountability

· Accountability of the Safety Camera Partnership to respond to community concern of excessive speed.

Your current response is of little benefit to the huge numbers of vehicles that speed through Chester Rd Penyffordd.

Public Awareness:

· Ensuring public awareness of the issues in relation to vehicles found to be speeding in North Wales.

You hide behind average statistics which disguise the true scale of the issue such as that in Chester Rd, Penyffordd.

· Reassuring the public that relevant action is taken if excessive speed is shown.

Your reassurance does nothing to residents of Chester Rd and Penyffordd.

Considerations Favouring Non - Disclosure

Efficient and effective conduct of the force

· Speed survey results are already placed in the public domain, however, this does not include maximum speeds nor the speeds of individual vehicles with times.

The full data should be available to any community that asks for it.

· Explanations are given to members of the community as to why a site has been included for safety camera enforcement, or why a site has not been included.

· The release of operational information will potentially have a damaging impact on public confidence and hamper the prevention and detection of crime carried out by the Police and Partnership.

Most certainly it will have a damaging effect on the Arrive Alive Partnership.

· Partnership members’ work together to ensure the best processes are used to protect the public and that all legal requirements are met.

Chester Road, Penyffordd remains a race track for well in excess of a 1000 vehicles a day.

You have been aware of this fact for 24 weeks.

Exemption Provisions

The information being withheld is exempt by virtue of:

FOIA Section 31: Law Enforcement - a qualified and prejudice based exemption.

FOIA Section 38: Health & Safety – a qualified and prejudice based exemption

Balancing Test

Information has been released in relation to this request and it is only the details of maximum speeds and individual vehicle speeds/times shown in the survey which have been deliberated under the Public Interest Test.

It is felt that accountability has been achieved via the disclosure already made and actions taken as a result of the speed survey.

Accountability should be full and frank. The actions taken so far have been of very limited benefit to Chester Rd residents.

The actions of the Safety Camera Partnership are already accountable to the Welsh Assembly Government and the Department for Transport, and the provision of this operational information will not provide any further benefit to the public.

Yes it will . It will show the large gap between public perception and what is actually happening in villages similar to Penyffordd in North Wales.

It is the opinion of the safety camera partnership that the circumstances outlined in favour of non-disclosure of the requested information outweigh the benefits in disclosure.

The only benefit to non disclosure of the full information is to the Arrive Alive Partnership.

It disguises the perception of Arrive Alive being successful when in fact as far as Chester Road, Penyffordd is concerned Arrive Alive is not being successful.

The full information requested will therefore not be disclosed.

The bottom line being that this is a traffic calming issue for Flintshire County Council similar to that in the neighbouring council of Wrexham.
Below ar good examples of villages calmed.
Villages such as Rossett, Cefn Mawr and Rhos.
Flintshire County Council are wasting the resources of Arrive Alive. They know the scale of the issue. They have plans for a further million or so vehicles to use our village because of a poorly made bypass.
Flintshire County Council are being very mean spirited. They intend to allow Chester Rd to be the 2nd bypass as the current network will not cope. I expect Chief Executive Colin Everett not to go along with this deceit of Penyffordd village which he has inherited.

I intend to pursue this issue until it is fully satisfied.
We do have some good councillors amongst the very dead wood.
Compulsory 20 mpg for village centres and route to schools will also be campaigned for.
My non county councillor status should not be an issue.
It's the message not the messenger that is important.
Protests only start when you are ignored.

I notice new corporate manslaughter rules come into force April 2008.

A Letter from Arrive Alive Management with regards my FOIE

9^th January 2008

Our Ref: FOI Dec 07.03

Dear Mr Hughes,

Further to your request for information I can now provide the following reply.

I understand you have requested a copy of the data following a speed survey carried out on Chester Road, Penyffordd during 2007, our ref SCFL26. According to the terms of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000 I can inform you that the information is held.

The survey data is interrogated by a specialist computer programme and provides detailed information. Some parts of the information are restricted and used for operational policing purposes but other information is routinely provided. Results show:

• some 16854 vehicles were monitored between 26.04.07 and 02.05.07
• an average speed of 32 mph
• an 85^th percentile speed of 38 mph. The 85^th percentile speed is a road engineering measurement used by the Department for Transport and shows the speed at which 85% of vehicles travel at or below.
• there are some peaks in speeding at approximately 0700 hrs and 2230 hrs
• a higher volume of traffic at about 0830 hrs and 1730 hrs.

Operational information includes the maximum speed and individual speeds of vehicles/time etc. When assessing release of this information potential harm was identified, please see attached Harm and Public Interest Test. This therefore represents a refusal to provide this additional information under S31 Law Enforcement and S38 Health and Safety of the FOIA.

Chester Road, Penyffordd has been identified as an area of community concern and since a suitable parking location has been identified, Arrive Alive safety camera enforcement has been carried out. In addition, the area has been visited by the Community Beat Manager and Hugh Jones for educational visits. As you see there is effort taken to raise driver awareness of the speed limit but these measures are shared between growing numbers of sites.

It is planned to carry out another speed survey at the same site later in the year to show speed before and after enforcement and educational efforts.

I trust this information is helpful, however, in the event that you are not satisfied I have enclosed details of the FOI complaints procedures.

Yours sincerely,

Essi Ahari (Insp.)

Manager, Arrive Alive

North Wales Road Casualty Reduction Partnership

cc Hugh Jones, Arrive Alive Safer Roads Officer, Flintshire
encl: FOI complaints procedure

PIT test

An email to County Councillor David Williams with regards traffic increase levels

Hi David,
Hope you are well and your father stable.
Last night Community Councillor Linda Vidamour read out a letter at the Penyffordd Community Council meeting from Flintshire County Council with regards I think increased traffic levels for Chester Road, Penyffordd after future developments.
The Flintshire County Council response which I think was from Charles Hughes is an absolute disgrace.

As my elected representative I would like you to ask Flintshire County Council the following questions.

1. Traffic levels through Chester Road, Penyffordd 5 years ago.

2. Projected traffic levels post :-
a. New A55 Warren Hall exits
b. Warren Hall Business Park
c. Broughton Retail Park Extension
d. Future Wrexham UDP developments that will affect Chester Rd, Penyffordd.

I know that current levels are 2800 a day and rising.

I await a copy of correspondence from Dave Faulkner Direct. Regen FCC that you promised me.

regards Colin Hughes


ps. we still have 2000 cars a day speeding through Chester Rd, Penyffordd

Penyffordd a hick village?

Last night Community Councillor Linda Vidamour read out a letter from Flintshire County Council with regards traffic increases post Warren Hall and Broughton Developments. From what I can gather the answer was basically meaningless.
Flintshire County Council have something to hide perhaps.
FCC thinks Penyffordd a soft touch.
More councillors are needed like Linda.


hick meaning: gullible, a soft touch

Cllr Colin Bithell on speeding traffic

The following article in The Evening Leader explains why it has always been a waste of time even talking to Cllr Colin Bithell about traffic calming. He just doesn't see all this speeding traffic as an issue in the centre of a village. He has absolutely no idea about village environment. He has been a politician for over 30 years, his quotes I feel are ill judged, we shall see.

The article starts:
By Petra Barnby A COUNTY councillor whose village is plagued by speeding drivers has condemned the use of night-time mobile speed cameras, branding North Wales Police's latest initiative against speeding as "overkill".

Click here for the rest

Meadowslea

Only the bats and the badgers are left.

Penyffordd Panto

Click on Image

Frankenstein The Panto by David Swan

Traffic Speed Enforcement

An article in The Daily Post

“We in North Wales are determined to reduce collisions. Together with other agencies, we have adopted a strategy which includes education, engineering, engagement and enforcement,” explained Sgt Hughes.

When an area is identified as being a potential problem a speed survey will be carried out over a period of about a week to assess how serious the problem is.

Click here.

GPS may kill Penyffordd children

Certainly the growth of satellite navigation technology has turned residential streets in cities and villages around the world into rat runs.
Click here

Speed Protest 2008 Update

So here we are 2nd week into 2008.
My illuminated protest sign back in the hedge for 3000 drivers a day to see.
Just to remind.
We are a small Welsh village with a By-Pass. Unfortunately it's much quicker coming through the village instead of the By-Pass. Our two Flintshire County Councillors Colin Bithell and David Williams see little issue with many many 100's of speeding cars and lorries passing through the middle of our village which is a major route to school for young children. The village centre is also well used by OAP's and horses.
Many of them that work at Airbus and Raytheon have illegal exhausts that make the village centre sound like a race track.
Arrive Alive have been ineffective.
Flintshire County Council hold a grudge because I upset Head of Engineering Charles Hughes with comments on my blog.
By the way at a meeting with Charles Hughes he sat opposite me knowing fully well that 2000 cars were speeding through the village. He offered us an extra 30 mph sign and half a rumble strip.
I currently have a FOIA request for the traffic data taken before the meeting.

North Wales Police have had limited success in slowing traffic but the total solution requires civil engineering.

We currently get 1,022,000 vehicles a year through Chester Rd even though we have a by-pass.

Penyfordd village has currently been set up (shafted) to receive maybe 2 million extra cars a year. Flintshire County Council refuse to protect Chester Road, Penyffordd even though they have passed plans for
1. Broughton Shopping Park Extension
2. Warren Hall A55 exit construction
3. Warren Hall Business Park (5000 employees)

The above will add maybe 2 million extra vehicles through the village.
Our By-Pass poorly constructed on a shoe string cannot deal with current morning rush hour.
Hence drivers make use of Chester Rd which is now the 2nd By-Pass for Penyffordd
Wrexham UDP will also add more through traffic.

So the Welsh Assembly Government are going to "improve" local communications by dumping perhaps an extra 2 million cars through our village.
So much for the WAG's Manual for Streets.
Meanwhile our county councillors know this
(or should) and just sit on their hands.

Link : BBC The Late Derek Darlington

Wrexham AM attacks 'council tax hypocrisy' - HAVE YOUR SAY

I think Lesley Griffiths AM ill advised.
"THE leader of Wrexham Council has hit back at allegations by the town's AM that the council is "short-changing" its council tax payers."

Click here

My 2 penneth in the comments at the bottom.

The running of Wrexham Council seems fine to me. A surplus in accounts and excellent traffic calming in villages such as Cefn and Rossett with compulsory 20 mph. Meanwhile here in Flintshire our village continues to be used as a 50 mph by-pass for over a 1000 short cut merchants each day. Our County Councillors sit on their hands. Chester Road in the hands of the law breakers.

The Ceasefire ends .......

Approximately 2 months ago after talks with Inspector Alun Oldfield of North Wales Police I agreed to a 1 month suspension of protest whilst a traffic calming initiative was applied to Chester Road , Penyffordd. As a token of good faith I added a month on myself.

The traffic continues to speed through the village by the 1000 each day.

Whilst talking to Nigel Jones the Clerk to the Council I noted that the traffic behaviour in our village is impossible in Rossett due to their traffic calming and 20 mph compulsory speed limit.

Prestatyn Windmills

Castle Cement support Penyffordd Junior Football Club

Mark Cox the General Manager of Castle Cement Padeswood presenting Sean Lewis-Wickes of Penyffordd Junior Football Club with boot bags for the players to ensure a mud free Chrismas for the young Penyfforddians.

Entertainment

A reply from ArriveAlive with regards my FOIA request.

Re: A Freedom of Information Act Request Our Ref: FOI Dec 07.03 SCFL 26

Dear Mr Hughes,
Thank you for your request detailed below. Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) a response will be sent to you if possible within 20 working days. Due to the Christmas break this reply is due on 29^th January 2008; however, we hope to respond before that date.

The Perfect Christmas Present from the Evening Leader

The Evening Leader letter published in todays edition.
Letter Title Human's Safety is Important Too


Hi Kate,

Hope you are warm enough.

A letter for possible insertion into The Leader with regards the bats and badgers at Meadowslea

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

Re: McLean's housing development for Meadowslea, Penyffordd.
I see Cllrs Colin Bithell and David Williams are in The Evening Leader with regards
a new bat house and the protection of a badger sett on the above development.

Colin mentions a possible zebra crossing to be placed near Meadowslea because it is busy.

Chester Road is the centre of the village, 5 times as busy, a major route to a junior school,
crossed by many OAP's, many busy exits and used by horses. It has no crossing or traffic calming.

I was wondering if our county councillors have negotiated any concessions from McLeans for funds for
traffic calming on Chester Rd which is a short cut and rat run that
has over 1500 speeding cars, lorries and buses each day from 5.30 am to midnight?

Us human creatures in Chester Road have a right to an environment too.

The village centre currently trashed daily.
The figures of 1500 speeding vehicles daily can be confirmed by Flintshire Highways Dept.

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

regards Colin

Penyffordd District

A Freedom of Information Request

I have made a request to Esmaeil Ahari - Project Manager for Arrive Alive. I have asked for a copy of the data collected by Hugh Jones, Arrive Alive Safer Roads Officer for Flintshire prior to the meeting with Flintshire Highways and my County Councillors in May 2007.
This data was collected for the 4 days prior to the meeting. This data is collected so Flintshire Highways have an exact view of the situation.
I have asked for the information in electronic format.

Open Door Newsletter

Castle Cement produce a community newsletter. Both in English and Welsh. A letter from Mark Cox who is general manager of Castle Cement Padeswood. Mark and staff wish us all a Merry Christmas. Mark mentions Emissions Watch who he says have a role to play but their information gathered must not be confused with kiln emissions which are continually measured and regulated to less than 30mg/Nm3. The maximum allowed by their permit.

Mark points out that Emissions Watch's monitors must also pick up other pollutants in the area as well. (inc. traffic pollutants)
Our village gets a regular stream of traffic pollutants off our main road to the By-Pass.

Castle Cement's sponsor the following groups.
Mold Rugby Club £1500.
Peny Y Group £19,000
Penyffordd Scouts and Guides £5,000
Penymynydd Church £9,000
Also many other causes are sponsored.

I wonder how Castle are fixed for a little traffic calming?

Employers to bear responsibility for their employees driving.

The publication of a new policy by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in relation to "bad" driving has implications not only for drivers but for employers and the police as well.
Link: BBC

Sunday - Race Afternoon

We are doing a little re-arranging so I have been out and about. On Sunday, Chester Road is plagued by many many 100's of speeding cars using Penyffordd as a short cut. I can't think of too many villages in Flintshire where cars are left to their own devices to do whatever speed they like.
Penyffordd is short of good county councillors.
Our current councillors are hopeless.

I am of a mind to re-start protest now but I will wait until January 2nd 2008.
My notice board in the hedge for 3000 daily passers by.

Trouble at Croes Atti Flint

Since I am currently in the protest business I keep my eye on developments else where.
I haven't got a full handle on what's happening at Croes Atti but ...........

Last week a lady was complaining her correspondence to Flintshire County Council was going missing. This week a letter by John Yorke who is a campaign leader against the way Flintshire County Council appear to be operating.
Noted.
1. The reluctance of officers to deal with her over requests for information.
2. County Councillors stating they had been misled by council officers.
3. Incensed County Director writes to Council Leader to protest the above
and for the correct information to be published to correct what councillors had misled about.
4. Three Flint County Councillors accuse protest group of misinformation.
I am currently experiencing a very mild version of this.
5. The protest leader states he has proof of all statements made.
I think he has done a FIA enquiry.
6. At Flintshire UDP enquiry only one proposal was offered in defense of the Croes Atti development, submitted after the closing date. (Thrown out.)
7. The signature on the above letter was allegedly that of a relative to the Flintshire County Council planning officer appearing before the enquiry.
8. Back to 2004 a member of the same planning team said that only a few vehicles would use the Croes Atti distributor road.
9. I suspect that the following was divined after a FOI request. Email from a County Director reads concern about estate design and the 2000 vehicles a day that would be using the area as a rat run.
10. A planning meeting where the planning application was passed. Flint County Councillors were substituted with non Flint Labour councillors.
11. The above was strongly criticised by the County's auditors.
12. Plans were changed to allow access from the A548 (bottom road)
13. WDA, the landowner has asked for time extensions from 3 to 5 years to finish landscaping commitments also they want higher house densities.

The campaign leader finishes by hoping that in the May elections 2008 Flint residents will be afforded service and understanding of their concerns.
Quite, I hope for a similar arrangement by Penyffordd County Councillors in the dealing with speeding cars in Chester Rd.

The Minister for Regeneration and Environment

This is Jane Davidson AM , Minister for Regeneration and Environment for the Welsh Assembly Government. I have 200o cars a day speeding passed my house every day Jane. We need some environment similar to Rossett. Also County Councillors to match.

So they have finally got one of us!

We have watched the HMRC data handout debacle from afar.
Not any longer!
The letter arrived in the post today

AGAIN! HMRC loses pensions data tape.

Totting up

So we now have the following identity record leaks:-

- HMRC Standard Life - 15,000
- HMRC child benefit database - 25 million
- HMRC Countrywide Assured - 6,500
- NI DVA - 6,500
- Driving Standards Agency - 3 million

The messing around when identity fraud is committed can be legion.
The compensation for worry, time, etc will not be forthcoming because its the government.

Link: Techworld

The Current State of the Village Centre Environment

So it is 300 days since I first brought the speeding traffic to the attention of my councillors. It didn't start out as a protest just a few emails to councillors.

The first gambit by Cllr Colin Bithell and Penyffordd Community Council was to tell me speeding traffic was nothing to do with them.

People and organisations who stand out.

1. The Evening Leader
2. Cllr Linda Vidamour
3. Cllr Cindy Hinds
4. Police Inspector Alun Oldfield.
5. Cllr Edwina Davies
6. Alan Skips
7. Springfield Building Supplies

People and organisations who do not shine.

County Cllr Colin Bithell.
County Cllr David Williams.
Flintshire County Council.
Airbus.
Raytheon.

David has been sending me a letter from Dave Faulkner of FCC for about a month. People ring him up about issues, he directs them to ring FCC. Not quite councillor mode.
Flintshire County Council in corporate spite mode. They give us half a rumble strip.

My friend Truth Crusader thinks nothing of the speeding traffic. His attitude sums up a proportion of Penyffordd.

Do we have the worst county councillors in the worst county in Wales?

So as we go into 2008. It's more eye catching signs and attempts to get in The Evening Leader.

The traffic speeds have altered little, still many over the limit.

I can feel a letter coming on

Very cold today. Third day in a shed of 2 degrees C. I have pulled my lower back doing inappropriate lifting. I also have a slight cold that is manageable.
My back gets better very slowly. Coughing causes a sharp spasm in my lower back. Sneezing is an option best to be avoided.

The traffic of course continues to plough through the village............................
Noisy and dangerous.

North Wales Police are finishing their traffic calming initiative this week.
It has altered some behaviour but it is not enough.

Having a village centre as a place to meet and talk rather than a speedy short cut to somewhere else seems foreign to some minds. Penyffordd has plenty of philistines and is seen a soft touch by Flintshire County Council.

Penyffordd village awaits an extra million or two vehicles a year with A55 Warren Hall, Broughton Park Extension, Warren Hall Business Park, Flintshire UDP and Wrexham UDP.

Flintshire County Council have given the thumbs up to The Welsh Assembly some time ago, Penyffordd roads will take all the above mentioned developments , no problem.

We are getting regeneration stuffed down our throats with no thought to village environments.

The Penyffordd By - Pass is already gridlocked at times before these extra millions arrive.
The late Cllr Derek Darlington saw all this coming. Our current councillors say nothing.

Much fun is going to be had with Freedom of Information requests.

Possible multi-use path between Mold and Saltney Junction

The track would be 12 miles long. The excellent Sustrans are involved. The route goes passed Castle Cement, Penyffordd Station and Airbus. Saltney Junction is close to the Saltney pedestrian bridge over the River Dee, then a long lane with little traffic leads to Sealand Road. Then its on the cycle path into Chester. From Mold to Chester on a cycle track with very little vehicle involvement.
External funding will be needed.

Planning for 29 houses on the Meadowslea site granted

Plans have been approved for 29 mock Tudor houses reports Kate Forrester of The Evening Leader. A building has been left standing because it has bats in it. Also there is a badger sett present.
Cllr Colin Bithell is looking forward to seeing the new bat house built. The application includes a small play area. Cllrs Colin Bithell and David Williams say they prefer more play area in central Penyffordd of which Penyffordd is short of. The badgers will also have to be built around.

Cllr Bithell opines that we should have a zebra crossing in the middle of the village.

This is something I agree with him as well a the bat house and the badgers, best not to let DEFRA know :(
It would help if it was on a raised platform so traffic cannot any longer just plough through the village. There is an issue here with less parking space for the Post Office. The removal of double yellow lines would help.

Postscript: I think Colin means a zebra crossing up the Vounog
2000 cars a day continue to speed through village.
Some villagers including Truth Crusader think me an idiot to protest.
Just wait until January my idiot friends

To my three readers

The blog may look a little strange whilst I wrestle with trying to get an image at the top of the blog.
There is a bug, so I will try different formats.

Things you don't read about Penyffordd County Councillors

Mold Councillors are looking for a showdown with Flintshire County Council over speeding issues in the town. Whilst my new friend Truth Crusader equates cars parking on paths with cars, motorcycles and lorries speeding passed my house at 50 mph by the 1000. We are a major route to school (primary), we have horses, OAP's and parked cars and the middle of the village.
My friend Truth Crusader has a strange regard for village environment.
I recommend a visit to Rossett. That model of traffic calming with a compulsory 20 mph in the village centre.

I see half of Flint appears to be a rat run. The natives are getting restless at Coed Onn and the surrounding areas. The one way system and a lack of by-pass being responsible for the rat runs.
Coed Onn awaits the onslaught of the Croes Atti development with its 400 houses plus 600 vehicles?

The Bewley family in The Evening Leader

Ian, Carol and Samantha Bewley, 12 of Penyffordd are out Geocaching.
Link: Geocaching

Cllr Edwina Davies Lady Captain of Padeswood and Buckley Golf Club 2008

Edwina stood with me for 2 hours last week while PC Chris Pullen attempted to calm the speeding hordes. Edwina informs me that she played competitive football up to the age of 40.
Edwina is the lady in pink on the right, second row.
No sign of a county councillor yet. They think little about village centre environment.

A Community Council for the 21st Century

Penyffordd Community Council should have its own website. Google's Blogger can meet the basic standards. Its easy to use and free. Council minutes put on the website before the following meeting. So residents can question respond to issues that affect them. A forum where matters can be aired.
I have had Nigel Jones (Clerk to The Community Council) speak to me. As he rightly points out minutes have to be ratified by The Community Council at the following meeting.

Cllr Linda Vidamour Community Councillor for Penyffordd

An Independent Councillor for Penyffordd. May we get more like Linda next May. Political flavour of no concern. Linda has pushed for a village newsletter. Lets hope it develops to something online. Lets have an inclusive democracy for the village. Not some top secret meeting once a month to which most people are oblivious. An email address for Penyffordd Community Council would be good.

Christmas Newsletter from Cllr Cindy Hinds Page 3

NEWS FROM THE VILLAGE

PENYFFORDD AREA COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION - This Association was formed because of the lack of facilities within the village. We are there for everyone young to old but our first priority was facilities for young people, mainly an area for different ball games.

I am pleased to say we now have planning permission for a multi-use games area on Millstone Playing Field for all our young people in the village. Due to the kindness of the Community Council, A.D. Waste and Castle Cement we are well on the way to achieving our aim. There is also a Committee, who work very hard to raise funds but help is always needed from any volunteers for future events to improve the quality of life for people in the village. The Association would welcome anyone to come to their meetings.

The time and place will be put on the notice board in the Post Office.

We would want to hear from all voluntary organisations and residents to are needed for our village.

The Pen-Y Group (which is some of the young people of the village) have received another award which is the “Criminal Justice Award” for their help in improving relations between young and old and giving a presentation on safety in senior citizens' homes. If anyone is unsure of what our aims and objectives are, please do not hesitate to contact Mr. Steve Johnston (Chairman) on telephone no: 077 897 157 94 or myself. We are a registered charity and are here to help the community.

DANCING CLASSES ROYAL BRITISH LEGION

After 36 years of giving excellent service of running dancing classes, Mrs.

Pam Lomas has decided to retire. Pam held her final show in October and everybody thanked her for all she had done. It was a very emotional evening where she received a number of presents and bouquets of flowers Pam has been ably assisted over the years by Mrs. Jean Morley, Mrs. Barbara Large, Mr. Patrick Reeson and the late Mrs Val Ragsdale.

ROYAL BRITISH LEGION

The Royal British Legion in Pen-y-ffordd is more than just a place to go and socialise and have a drink. lts premises are used by many charitable organisations, mostly free of charge. A presentation evening was held in October for all those who took part in walks, bike rides etc. throughout the year to raise money for MacMillan nurses (total amount £9,000). These are so worthwhile and could not exist without people like The Ramblers. The Legion itself, through its membership continues to raise money for the welfare of our servicemen and women and its membership and its Branch, through the Poppy Day Appeal. It is seeking new members. The more members it has the more viable the club becomes and more money is raised for our serving and ex servicemen and women. If you would like to know more about the work of the Legion, both officially and socially,

to be continued

Christmas Newsletter from Cllr Cindy Hinds Page 2

ENVIRONMENT AGENCY - Some months ago, because of my concerns about any emissions and dust that may or may not have been coming from Caste Cement I agreed in July of this year to have a small monitoring system installed in my garden This is checked by the Environment Agency and I am pleased and relieved to say that up to this date they have not reported any contamination during their monitoring.

The Environment Agency is due to withdraw their main air pollution monitoring system which is based by The Institute. Carl Sargeant has objected to the air monitoring system being removed on behalf of his constituents.

CASTLE CEMENT - I also contacted Mr. Cox, General Manager of Castle Cement, with residents and my own concerns, mainly on dust and noise issues. Mr Cox has been very co-operative and vastly improved the infrastructure over the past three months and ensured a strong and continued focus on the environmental impact. Also he will be installing 5 noise suppression systems this month on dust plant motors and 2 acoustic screens by the end of the year, which will benefit noise emissions greatly.

UNITARY DEVELOPMENT PLAN - The U.D.P. for the village has been discussed at the Public Inquiry held at County Hall Mold, and is now well under way. A number of written and verbal submissions have been given to the Inquiry (including my own). The main complaints are the infrastructure and amenities e.g playing areas for all age groups of young people, adequate sewerage and drainage systems doctor's/dentist's services over-development, affordable housing, schools, the impact of more traffic on our village roads etc. I was very shocked to learn that we are losing another amenity, which is the clinic. This has been done without any discussions with our County Councillors and Community Councillors.

Considering the number of houses proposed for the village I still cannot understand Flintshire's Planning Committee, who are adamant that our villages can take at least 300 extra houses without all the facilities mentioned being dealt with first. I will endeavour to keep you informed as the Public Inquiry continues.

DOBSHILL - In response to some resident's complaints, I wrote to to
Flintshire C.C. s Highways Department on the 12 July 2007 concerning the dangers of having 60 mph in a residential area In response they stated "The Welsh Assembly Goverment is currently reviewing the criteria for the setting of local speed limits. Some further consultation is required by WAG on the published document and following ratification an assessment of all speed limits/requests will be made including consideration of the appropriate speed limit for Dobshill.''

A Christmas Newsletter from Cllr Cindy Hinds

This is the first part of Cindy's newsletter. I have some OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software which will scan a sheet of paper and turn the text into digital format.
As it is in the public domain I have not asked permission to copy. There may be an occasional mistake due to the OCR getting the wrong idea.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Policing - We now have a new Community Beat Manager, P,C. Chris Pullen. His telephone number is 0774 824 1744.

Police Neighbourhood Forum - Since the last but one Forum I am still receiving complaints about dog excrement on pavements, the Millstone Playing Field and other spots within the village. The vast majority of dog owners are very responsible and clear up their dog's mess and put it in the receptacles provided but that small minority still seem not to care for the environment in which they live. Could I make a plea to that small minority to please clear up their dog's mess? I have also received complaints about horse droppings on the footpath by the side of Meadow Rise and the Church. Many of us like to see horses and their owners riding or walking them through the village as it adds considerably to village life atmosphere.

The horse owners using this footpath. could you please use another area as the droppings are causing problems for our senior citizens and young children? Speeding and Heavy Goods Vehicles though Village - Speeding and heavy vehicles using the village as a rat run is still a concern among a number of people. Mr. Colin Hughes has been fighting very hard to get speed restrictions put on Chester Road and the heavy goods vehicles redirected along the by-pass instead of coming through the village. Whilst I believe in his sentiments of making Chester Road safer for pedestrians of all ages and heavy vehicles redirected is worth supporting, I feel at times he does go over the top with his enthusiasm. Another area where there are complaints of this kind is Vounog Hill. We know that on many occasions large vehicles do need to come into the village for access but there is no need for other vehicles to abuse the villagers by using it as a rat run.

The answer I received from Flintshire County Council's Highways Dept. to my letter (dated 12th July, 2007) regarding an environmental weight limit on heavy vehicles was this would only be possible with Police support, as they would have the sole responsibility for enforcement. It did be further discussed with the Traffic Inspector from Wrexham at the next Police Liaison meetings

A Test

I have allowed a person called truth crusader the rights to comment and publish.
Which side is he on?

A Doctor writes........................

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Further on the Chief Constable visiting Penyffordd

The above item covered by The Evening Leader. Cllr Colin Bithell photographed for the article. No mention of the speeding traffic through Chester Rd in the article. I suppose Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom and Colin Bithell can't be seen to have anything to do with a so called vigilante.

You only normally get vigilante type action when the people in charge ignore what's going on ( a commentator at the bottom thinks otherwise). I have well over a 1000 speeding cars passed my house every day which is in the centre of the village. Both Colin and Cllr David Williams have shown little interest. A look around at councils around me shows better run villages. Rossett being a shining example. Compulsory 20 mph and traffic calming measures that make it near impossible to do more than 20 mph.

I noticed the other morning when out on the speed gun with PC Chris Pullen that there were quite a few children cycling to school. It's criminal that this traffic is allowed to fly through the village. Quite a few are fellow villagers, out of their little cul de sacs, foot to the floor. It was a culture shock for the rat run that morning. More speed training this week.

We are having trouble in the village with youths at the moment. The Chief Constable was shown a 20 minute video by a villager showing the antics of the youths. At one point one of the youths was seen "mooning" in front of the others. To the uninitiated showing his bum.

The Traffic Calming Initiative by North Wales Police nearly half way through. A difference of behaviour ie. less speed, can be seen by some drivers.

Penyffordd Residents to Sue Castle Cement

Residents to sue Castle Cement over dust and noise

Dec 3 2007 by Carl Butler, Daily Post

DOZENS of villagers who say their lives have been made a misery by a nearby cement factory are planning to sue for the “nuisance” it causes.

Click here

Someone has been using my Wireless Broadband

One of my community councillors thinks I'm quite good with computers. I can however be a little thick. We have had this occasional problem accessing the internet. Its very frustrating because it goes then comes back. Anyway, I have a wireless Belkin router.
We do not use the wireless bit at present, we are all hard wired.
For months I have been wondering if the Police were downloading my hard drive or we were being used in some DNOS denial of service attack as a "BOT"

I wouldn't mind but someone has been hogging all the bandwidth.
We have nearly lost money on Ebay auctions.

It would appear my wireless side of the router is open. This is done as a default. I think this is wrong. I ran an IP address that was in the firewall log.
It's in China ..............................
I live next door to a Chinese Take Away.

I have looked at the wireless security before.
It looks complex.
There are 4 versions
The fear is being locked out by the firewall without the encryption key.
Anyway my friends next door appear to be sorted.
I've set the encryption to mild.