Missing Dolwyddelan man: Police release CCTV footage in search

Posted by North Wales Weekly News team on June 27, 2008 11:56 AM

If you can help police trace William Anthony Herd of Dolwyddelan - who has been missing since Monday, June 16 - call 0845 6071001 (Welsh) or 0845 6071002 (English).

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A mouthful of cholesterol and a dose of ignorance - have a nice day!

Posted by North Wales Weekly News team on June 26, 2008 12:29 PM

By Richard Evans, Chief Reporter

PROCESSED and full of saturated fats and e-numbers we should all stay away from fast food.
But whether you have a weakness for French fries, lard-shakes, burgers or pizza we all have our moments of over-indulgence, usually the morning after the night before, but I’ve just bought a new mountain bike and had my cholesterol checked so why not?

Unfortunately the service I’ve been getting at my weekly scoffs of late has been as bad for my (mental) health as any gristly gherkin adorned steak.
Ok so McDonalds is not The Ivy, and none of us expect to be treated with a red carpet or any airs or graces, it’s a matter of get in, grab your heart-attack inducing bun and diet coke (so it’s ok to eat as long as the drink is “diet� right?) and get out.
But last week I think I actually aged about two-years while waiting for my burger due to a young girl continuing to serve the drive-through and forgetting the poor blighters in the actual “restaurant� itself. She did however offer me a dessert, but I was in a (Mc)hurry so gratefully declined.

And don’t even get me started on ketchup. The amount of fat people in America alone pays testament to McDonald’s being the world’s largest and most successful fast-food franchise yet they’re still more stingy with the tomato sauce than a Jewish Scotsman who’s completed a law degree (that’s just a joke to any politically sensitive learned Hamish McCohens out there). No matter how many times you ask for the red stuff you still get to your home/desk/canteen to find the sauce has gone awol.
However McDonald’s staff were completely outdone the other week while on a trip to Colwyn Bay’s Wetherspoon’s. Slightly weary from a lively night watching the football the previous evening I wondered in to the former cinema and ordered my meal as well as a diet coke and a hot chocolate for my wife.
The response left me speechless.

I was unable to even complain, protest or even form a sentence. On my request for a hot chocolate the young girl replied, literally word for word: “Hot chocolate, can’t you have something else? I’ve already done six of those today and they’re a pain in the a## to make.�
In the great British tradition I nodded ordered a coffee and shuffled away.

Anyway I’ve decided enough is enough. So for lunch today I think I’ll instead pick-up some fruit and a healthy sandwich prepared on wholemeal bread, albeit from the nearest supermarket where I can now serve myself. Maybe my arteries will have a nice day.

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Teaching an old dog new tricks

Posted by North Wales Weekly News team on June 17, 2008 10:41 AM

By Steve Stratford, Deputy Editor

THE Weekly News has a brand new chief reporter in the form of senior journalist Richard Evans, who has been with the paper for a fair few years now. Richard was promoted at the end of May, and then promptly took two weeks holiday. Not a bad way to celebrate!

But now he's back he has embarked on a crash course on how to be my deputy because - glory of glories - I am actually off next week! My time has come at last, but with nothing to celebrate, unless you consider travelling on Virgin Trains to London something to shout about.

But it's not until you start to think about how you do your job that you realise just how much is involved. I'm sure many of us go about our daily jobs in quiet confidence, knowing how to do it and aware of the pitfalls and pressures. That's because we're used to it, we know what to expect through experience.

But when you try to explain it all to someone fresh to the field, it's baffling. It's just as tricky to explain clearly as it is to pick up and run with. Trying to explain the intricacies of page design, copy assignment, web publishing, captioning, standfirsts, slugs, straps, webheads, newsbills, photo-diairies, capping up, capping down, italicisizing, rewriting intros, putting new noses on stories, forging a drop-intro... well, I'm baffled just typing it and it's my job to do it every day!

But I'm confident all will be well, in fact it'll be better than well, it'll be great. And if you're reading this Richard, good luck. Oh, and did you spot my deliberate typo?

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Five Things About My Week at Work

Posted by North Wales Weekly News team on June 12, 2008 9:21 AM

By Steve Stratford, Deputy Editor

Five Things About My Week at Work

1. The tide table: Most readers probably don't have any idea that for many years the Weekly News has been running the tide times for Conwy and Llandudno for the week ahead. A few weeks ago we had a redesign of the page they were on, and through human error forgot to put them back again. It's at times like that when you really learn how much of an audience certain parts of the paper have because we were inundated with complaints from readers who missed them, be they fishermen or simply local people who needed/ wanted to know! There was similar outrage when we temporarily suspended the Pocket Sermon a couple of years back. Anyway, it's back this week (page 25, if you're interested) and it's good to know people use it!

2. Van Morrison comes to Colwyn Bay: No, not really, but one reader misinterpreted a newsfile on page 4 of this week's edition to think he was. And the Eagles too! Maybe it is written a little ambiguously, but I don't imagine many people genuinely think Van Morrison and the Eagles are attending line dancing classes at Colwyn Leisure Centre this weekend. For the confused, it was line dancing to the music of Van and the Eagles, and anyway, it's cancelled now...

3. 100 not out? I'm starting to wonder whether it's sufficiently unusual enough to put pictures in the paper of 100-year-olds. To reach 100 may well be an amazing achievement, but these days it's not exactly unusual, like it was 30 or 40 years ago. What's more unusual, and so more newsworthy, is reaching 105. And what's more unusual than that is people celebrating their 50th, 60th and 70th wedding anniversaries! Maybe we should shift our focus a little. What do you think?

4. Finishing line: There's a photo on page 5 of this week's paper of sports day at Ysgol Pendorlan. The look of determination and sheer effort expressed on the face of the little lad with 65 on his shirt is amazing! It's one of my favourite photos of the year!

5. Vacation blues: Three reporters are on holiday this week, one in Northern France, one in Kos and one at Lake Como. The gridlocked traffic chaos of Llandudno Junction seemed all the more frustrating this week...

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RIP Penmorfa

Posted by North Wales Weekly News team on June 5, 2008 3:27 PM

By Steve Stratford, Deputy Editor

So that's it then. The historic Penmorfa (Gogarth Abbey) Hotel on Llandudno's West Shore will definitely be demolished, the last vestiges of what was once a proud, interesting and much-loved building will be reduced to rubble by a developer's wrecking ball.

To be honest, it was no surprise to me when Conwy planners finally rubber-stamped developer Anwyl's application to finish off Penmorfa once and for all. The campaigners worked hard to try and get the building listed, tried desperately to prove there was a genuine link between Lewis Carroll, Alice Liddell and Llandudno, but after all was said and done, it just wasn't enough.

The two modern wings of Penmorfa had been removed many months ago, and Anwyl then saw fit to leave the original shell of the building while planners and campaigners oohed and aaahed over the rest of it. But the fact is Anwyl were specifically told they could demolish the modern wings if they maintained and incorporated the original building's facade into their new apartment development.

That obviously didn't meet with Anwyl's needs, so instead they left it to fall into tragic and criminal disrepair, open to the elements, available to squatters, pigeons, seagulls and a myriad other vagrants. Anwyl simply did not care what happened to that building, and when pressed, cited the fact they'd had a report conducted which confirmed Penmorfa had no architectural merit.

It's easy to get reports, figures and statistics to support your case. But there was no avoiding the fact that the way Penmorfa was treated by Anwyl was bang out of order. Maybe there isn't a shred of evidence that Lewis Carroll came within 100 miles of the property, but so what? There was enough of a link between the resort and the fairytale to support a mini tourist trade, with an Alice in Wonderland Museum, a White Rabbit statue, an annual Alice competition, and a good number of local roads and streets named appropriately (Liddell Drive and Park, Lewis Close, Alice Gardens).

Llandudno was known in its own small way for its connections to Alice in Wonderland, just like Nottingham is for Robin Hood and Tintagel for King Arthur. To destroy the one specific thing that maintained a physical link between fact and myth was wrong, and the developer should be ashamed of being directly responsible for that. And Conwy County Council should be just as ashamed for not enforcing their caveat and allowing Anwyl to make a mockery of democratic local government decision-making.

Now when tourists come from the United States, Japan and Germany to Llandudno to capitalise on its links to a much-loved classic children's story that adults adore, they will find nothing but a caged up stone rabbit and an under-publicised museum that now has that bit less of a claim to a link with Alice.

"Where's the proof Lewis Carroll was ever here?" they cry. "In bits," we reply. "But we shall remember it with fondness."

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Weekly News video: Our report from the Urdd National Eisteddfod

Posted by North Wales Weekly News team on June 4, 2008 3:47 PM

Martin Williams reports from the Urdd National Eisteddfod 2008 Penrhyn Bay.

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