On the walk tonight near Bwlchgwyn

 

Found one of these tonight under a plank of wood. It's a common grass snake. It was about a foot long, darker brown than this one. It was all curled up but hung around long enough for Lisa to tie the dog up and have a look. The yellow band around the neck was very striking. 

Where we walk also plays host to the adder or viper. Black zig zags on the back. Best not to stand on one as their bite is poisonous and painful

Garden in Penyffordd, near Mold, to open to the public

Dove Cottage, Penyffordd, near Mold, will be open from 2-5pm on Sunday (July 31) as part of the National Gardens Scheme (NGS).

Link Cheshireonline

postscript. Apparently David Butler of Butler TV was on the gate, over 70 cars in the car park.

Perhaps yet another accident?

Dobshill main rd closed 4.15 pm today.
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And here we are, fast A road traffic and bicycles don't mix.
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/2011/07/30/road-closed-after-car-and-cyclist-accident-at-dobshill-55578-29145425/ 

postscript: Outside Dobshill garage where there are numerous accidents. Cllr Hinds has been trying to get this 60 mph speed limit reduced to 30 mph. As usual Flintshire foot dragging on speed limit reduction. It needs to be 20 mph for the muppets.

Road closed at Penyffordd after crash

also in The Daily Post

Speed limits to be slashed on Flintshire death roads

in The Daily Post

The question is who will enforce speed limits? North Wales Police and Gosafe have no idea, don't want to have any idea.
NWP have effectively retired from traffic policing but none of the media will report it. ( backed by county cllrs may I add)
We have a rat run every work day morning. There seems to be this god given right that workers can hammer through Chester Rd and many other places in Flintshire.

Why is this? Votes over safety and environment?

The A5104 between Penyffordd and Pontblyddyn is a deadly road. How many deaths do you have to have before Tony appears in the local paper. Flintshire Highways policy with regards dangerous roads needs seriously upgrading and who is going to police the idiots?

Also to be noted that you can't speed in and out of Northop Hall where Cllr Tony Sharps is in charge due to the speed bumps..............
HGV are also banned in Northop Hall where Chester Rd, Penyffordd is now a short cut for A55 Warren Bank.
I get the distinct impression Penyffordd has been shat upon by WAG and FCC over through traffic.

Roll on the local county elections.

Places where I fear to tread

The main letter in The Chron today is written by a friend. He discusses a subject I leave to others. He is very brave dealing with people whose values are medieval.

Cllr Arnold Woolley v Liverpool Daily Post (Welsh edition)

Press Complaints Commission - Read below.

http://www.pcc.org.uk/news/index.html?article=NzI1Nw==

A view of Hanson Cement

 

From outside the Spa. Quality of phone camera something of an issue. It's two houses on The Forge development with a car at the bottom.

Flintshire tea party raises £354 for Access to Counselling Wales

FUNDRAISERS put the kettle on to raise funds for a counselling charity.

Access to Counselling Wales (ACW) held a tea party at the Penyffordd and Penymynydd War Memorial Institute on Saturday.

Read the rest in The Flintshire Chronicle

Biker killed on Kinnerton Rd

in The Daily Post and The Flintshire Chronicle.

Leisure Facilities for Penyffordd

There was a special meeting held on 18th May 2011 by Penyffordd Community Council to discuss the erection of 234 dwellings at Wood Lane Farm.

During which Cllr David Williams stated that according to an Open Space Survey we should have a recommended minimum requirement of 5.9 hectacres for Penyffordd area. We currently had, he stated 0.85 hectacres.

Further in the meeting Cllr Tom Jones suggested  that the community council should not seem to be too greedy.
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These two items taken from the meeting minutes suggest that Penyffordd community has for years been short changed by landowners and developers. Football is a main sporting activity in the village that has over 5000 residents that will soon rise to near 7000. As far as I am aware we do not even have a full size football pitch, never mind full size all weather pitches with illumination.

There seems to have been a long term trend for us to rely on other communities such as Hope, Broughton or Buckley for our requirements whether we are talking sport or medical care. It would be fair to say that if we only have a sixth of that normal for a community of our size that we have been far from greedy Tom.

Time to catch up David. There is pressure on the building trade due to the current economic circumstances which are most probably going to get much worse ( EU). Penyffordd  should take advantage for a change.

Letting the village down

Penyffordd has entered a FCC Environmental Competition 2011. We have entered various competitions inc Under 5000 population best kept village.

My hedges are currently wild and the gable end wall a mess. I presume speeding traffic is not on the menu. So does that make it a draw?

Congratulations to Ruth Purdie

our former village bobby who is now Assistant Chief Constable of Cheshire.
Ruth has risen high from humble beginnings.
Previously Ruth was Chief Superintendent for South Flintshire of which Penyffordd was part of until the recent shake up.
Ruth had no interest at all in traffic policing in Chester Rd which was about 2000 vehicles a day in 2007. It would be fair to say that she is not on her own. The list includes
Former Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom*, Chief Constable Mark Polin, Carl Sargeant AM Head of Transport Welsh Assembly Government, Mark Tami MP, Mark Isherwood AM.

* RB managed to do an audit of the village with Penyffordd Cllrs in tow that ignored the 2000 a day speeders. Did any of our cllrs raise the question.............

It may be quiet cllrs on the email front but traffic is still hammering through the village. It does every workday morning and has done for 5 years plus.

Zumba Fitness

at Penyffordd British Legion on Mondays at 6 pm

or Kinnerton Village Hall at 9.30 am.

Contact Laura on 07788120100 for details.

The "Forces of Evil"

as mentioned by Alison in The Daily Post

Penyffordd Air Quality

I have a copy of Hanson Cement Investigation Issue 3. In it a review is mentioned of fine particulate levels in local air undertaken by the Centre for Radiation Chemical and Environment Hazards ( Wales).

Data was analysed between 2001 and 2010 on how Hanson Cement had influenced local fine particulate levels. Fine particles are present everywhere and come from such sources as sea salt, dust from sand storms as well as human activity such as industry and road traffic.

Data shows there is a continual improvement around Penyffordd. The air quality report can be read here.
http://www.wales.nhs.uk/sitesplus/888/page/49601


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I think noise pollution of much more import to Penyffordd. Noise from the bypass. Noise from speeding traffic in the village. There is also emissions from traffic on the bypass. These are largely ignored by our older political leaders. Perhaps its because they live in cul de sacs?

Local and National Politics

I've heard it said and at the time agreed the sentiments that local and national politics should be kept apart. I no longer share this view. Chester Rd has reverted to a part time trunk road courtsey of a Labour led National Welsh Assembly and a Labour led Flintshire County Council.

The amount of traffic using Chester Rd as a speedy non policed short cut is depressing. How much has through and HGV traffic increased since the construction of  A55 Warren Bank exits? Our councillors are too scared to ask.

From a Chester Rd perspective

Labour don't deserve a Penyffordd county councillor. They have sold Chester Rd down the river.

Flintshire led Independent County Council do not deserve a county councillor either as they know the score but do nothing.

And Tom Jones' Dad's Army don't deserve one for sitting on their hands whilst all this was happening. They seem incapable of doing anything more than writing letters of protest.

Can the good people of Penyffordd be persuaded of the above? We shall see. A slim chance but so were the differences at the last council elections.

http://www.transportdatacollection.co.uk/

Hi Colin,

Thank you for your e-mail, we were undertaking a traffic count at 4 locations at Penyffordd.

The aim of the survey is to determine to direction vehicles are turning at these location, we were instructed to undertake the survey on behalf of an independent Highways and Transport Planning consultancy.

Regarding speeds through Penyffordd, if you ever wanted to prove you point regarding the high speeds, a week long speed survey would cost £175 +vat

An example of the output is attached,

Kind Regards,

Carl

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I wonder if Chester Rd is on the list?

Traffic Surveillance Penyffordd Bypass

 

This camera is situated on Hawarden Rd looking at the section of road where Penyffordd village traffic joins and leaves the bypass. What is its purpose? There is a telephone number on the lampost to ring, I've emailed instead lol.

http://www.transportdatacollection.co.uk/ 

This is NOT a junction I use in the rush hours and that's before we have 234 extra households on Wood Lane Farm.

I see they do speed surveys. How about an honest one on Chester Rd, councillors? 

keywords: Transport Data Collection Ltd, Arrive Alive, Gosafe.

Hacking comes to Flintshire

Cllr Bernie Attridge's email account has been hacked by Flintshire County Council officers. Big questions here. I work along the lines that everything I do on my computer is monitored. I have 20 meg of data uploaded off my computer everyday without my permission.

You may say why do I not stop it? The question is how? I've worked out the IP address taking the info belongs to Google.

Anyway here's the story. This involves big issues between elected members , county officers and the Welsh Assembly.

Link The Daily Post