Friday, January 19, 2007

check out our latest campaigns

There is a big feature on our latest camapigns in the Rhyl Journal. Go to www.rhyljournal.co.uk
and click on the image of the paper. Keep "turning the page" until you cast your eyes on the vision of loveliness that is cymrumark. Clue he is the one standing next to Janet Ryder out side Prestatyn Hospital.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Car parking at Glan Clwyd Hospital

A couple of weeks ago Glan Clwyd Hospital was refusing to take new admission because it was overwhelmed. How it will cope if the Labour government gets their way and shuts Stasaph and Aberegele Hospitals as well as down grading Llandudno. Its anyones guess.

Usually I am fairly sympathetic to the management of the hospital who are in an almost impossible situation. However they sometimes act in a pig headed manner seemingly determined to enrage staff patients and local residents alike.

Given the problems with carparking on the site they introduced charges for staff. They failed to win agreement from the unions but pressed ahead anyway introducing the charges on a "voluntary basis" eg to park in a safe car park you have to pay. There are only a limited number of spaces available all of which were given out on a "first come first serve basis" . There is priority for consultants and senior medical staff and I am believe senior management and admin staff. However no priority is given for nursing staff.

The situation at Glan Clwyd regarding parking for patients and staff alike is ludicrous and the monstrous parking charges should be scrapped. Already Bodelwyddan residnets are telling me that more and more people are parking in the village as a result of being unable to get intoi the hospital car park. So time to go back to the drawing board.

Car parking at Glan Clwyd Hospital

A couple of weeks ago Glan Clwyd Hospital was refusing to take new admission because it was overwhelmed. How it will cope if the Labour government gets their way and shuts Stasaph and Aberegele Hospitals as well as down grading Llandudno. Its anyones guess.

Usually I am fairly sympathetic to the management of the hospital who are in an almost impossible situation. However they sometimes act in a pig headed manner seemingly determined to enrage staff patients and local residents alike.

Given the problems with carparking on the site they introduced charges for staff. They failed to win agreement from the unions but pressed ahead anyway introducing the charges on a "voluntary basis" eg to park in a safe car park you have to pay. There are only a limited number of spaces available all of which were given out on a "first come first serve basis" . There is priority for consultants and senior medical staff and I am believe senior management and admin staff. However no priority is given for nursing staff.

The situation at Glan Clwyd regarding parking for patients and staff alike is ludicrous and the monstrous parking charges should be scrapped. Already Bodelwyddan residnets are telling me that more and more people are parking in the village as a result of being unable to get intoi the hospital car park. So time to go back to the drawing board.

Got to be nice to Mr Banks now

It was interesting to learn that the Lib Dems have dropped their red line issue of Proportional Representation for local Government elections as we approach the Assembly elections. The policy had made a return to a Lib-Lab pact after the Assembly elections impossible due to the veto of Labour Councillors across Wales , most of whom depend on the current unfair electoral system for their seats.

PR is about the only policy the Lib Dems over the years have argued with any passion. It just goes to show that the Lib Dems would sell their souls for a chance of power and a Ministerial car.

Those ho seek power should do so for a purpose. The raison d'etre of the Lib Dems in Wales it seems is power for powers sake whilst propping up an incompetent and visionless Labour Administration. The people of Wales deserve far better.

David Banks....yes him, again

One week on and another column from David Banks. He is still on like the pub bore about sonic logos and now claims we want the youth of Wales corrupted by porn but......

He has got it (half) right about the whole independence/defend the union stuff. Wrong that nobody supports independence for Wales. Actually support is up according to the BBC poll (from 16% a year ago to 19% so only 12 years to go !) and I suspect that its understated anyway.

However the assembly elections are about who will best govern Wales. Do we want a party whose leader will quit after two years(shades of Blair here) or the Tories whose election campaign is being funded from England. How about a party that exists to create the best possible government for Wales? Yes good idea.

So Mr Banks is right nobody is going to vote on those issues but who has the best ideas for Wales...think we are on to a winner.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Those nice people in the SNP

are ahead in another poll in Scotland. Good look to them. I had cause to ring them to check some facts about something this week. Everyone I spoke to went out of their way to be helpful including their Education spokeswoman, Fiona Hislop who took time out to ring me at home to answer a couple of questions.

Lets hope they do as well as the polls indicate.

its a shame about David Banks....

When I moved to the ancestral home land a few years ago obviously I started reading the local press. Mostly it is dull but worthy sometimes dreadful now and again excellent etc.

One of the few people who wrote with any great style or appeared to have anything to say was Daily Post columnist David Banks. Its not that I agreed with him but he wrote with passion skill and humour and seemed generally well informed. I am not sure whats happend of late but he seems to have gone off the ball.

I dont expect him or any other columnist to give my party an easy ride. A party that cannot listen to fair criticism has a problem. About a year ago David wrote a column attacking Plaid for spending time coming up with a new logo and our sonic version of said logo. He mentions the sonic version just about every time he writes about Plaid. He claimed we should be spending time developing our policies. I pointed out to him that we were doing just that and that comparatively little time had been spent on the logo. In the comments section on his blogg he accused me of being less than honest in my response . Yet the reality is that the we have spent two years developing policy and a series of meetings held over a six month period sorted out the logo. Still maybe he gets some pleasure in winding us up.

This week he had a pop at our policy of giving a free lap top to every child claiming that we would want the computers back after 5 years, that not every child would need one and that the money would be better spent on a few books. A phone call to one of our press team would have revealed its not our policy to ask for the computers back. The cost and bureaucracy of some sort of means test would be absurd. Huge numbers of kids in Wales have no access or very little access to IT at home. Many parents struggle to find the money to help equip their kids. Here is a great chance to really help develop the Welsh IT skill base and in the long term attract better paid jobs and investment. David Banks couldn't be bothered to check his facts.

Fair enough we all make mistakes and get a bit lazy. I have been guilty now and again of the same thing. It would be less of a problem if David had mentioned the latest budget in the assembly. Thanks in part to Plaid schools will get extra money and will be able to keep money saved through greater efficiency that Labour wanted returned to the general "pot". Still mentioning this would have made his comments about spending the computer money on books look a bit daft which is perhaps why he neglected to mention it.

However if it was just about having a go at Plaid I would be tempted to leave it. The other week though he had a go at the Conwy County Council Cabinet for refusing to allow cyclists on the promenade or for finding a safe route for them. In fairness he has a point about safe routes and if there was an easy solution one would have been found. However his claims that the cabinet were ignoring the local economy are close to barmy. He asked what the strategy is for developing tourism in Llandudno. Well maybe the multi-million investment in the conference centre has passed him buy but the strategy is fairly clear to those of us who actually read the Daily Post.

Does any of this really matter? Actually I think it does. There are few media outlets in North Wales and as I said above David Banks was one of the best writers commenting on issues in North Wales. I would welcome him taking a serious look at our programme, things like the 50% cut in business rates, support to first time buyers, plans to halt the hospital closure programme etc., even if I didn't like his conclusions .

Some people in my party tell me that it is a risk criticising a journalist a few months out from an election. I reckon he is big enough to respond honestly.

Welcome to Bethan Jenkins...

Her new blogg is a good bit more entertaining than mine:)

Clearly it helps you if you have a few relatives to give you a plug....

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Tough on Crime?

If you want an example of Westminster governments ineptitude the recent decision on the funding of Community Support Officers is probably as good as you will find.

CSO's were brought in a few years ago to supplement police officers. Its fair to say that the police were not overwhelmed by the idea with many officers opposing the introduction. Chief Constables were encouraged to apply for funding for CSO's and did so knowing that not following a government programme, however short sighted, only leads to trouble.

So now the funding is up for review and guess what. The government has halved the amount of money available and tells the local police to continue using CSo's but to find the funds from elsewhere.

Exactly how this is to be achieved is not explained. A raise in Council tax not possible or desireable, effeciency savings possible but where is the incentive if all you ever do is stand still?

As ever a deafening silence from Labour MPs on this issue.

Second Chance for Chatsworth House

The campaign to save Prestatyn Community Hospital continues apace. We have had over 300 people sign our "second chance for Chatsworth" petition. With many people asking for more forms and more time for the campaign we have extended the petition deadline to 20th January. Leave a message here if you would like some forms.

New year must start blogging again....

Along with my other resolutions I guess this will last till February.

2007 is already off to a flying start . I have to say I am excited about the new year as we are in the count down to the elections in May.

I cannot remember the last time I was so positive about an upcoming election. The team in Vale of Clwyd are working well and give me the best support any candidate could wish for. My colleagues Phil Edwards and Gareth Jones are both in top form and picking up new supporters as well as motivating the exisiting ones.

The 2003 elections were a bit of a nightmare with everything that could go wrong going wrong. This time we have already done more work on the ground and the national campaign will be a lot more impressive.

Exciting times ahead....