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BUCKLEY, FLINTSHIRE & BEYOND

A newsletter for Bistre East Ward residents
from Cllr. Arnold Woolley, DipIM, MCMI

Please do take the time to read through my observations.
They are intended to keep you, the ratepayers and voters
of the Town and County, up to date on current activities.

1) Worse To Come:-

In my newsletter just before Christmas of last year I did set out the dilemma facing us county councillors as we struggled to achieve two very important targets for the current financial year of 2024-25. The first was to be able to approve a Balanced Budget, for the period of 1st April 2024 to 30th March of 2025, where income and expenditure were set out as balanced sums of money. That matter of a Balanced Annual Budget being a legal requirement for us councillors, regardless of which party or group is in power. The second very important aim for all of us was to try to keep the annual increase in Community Charge to 5% or lower.

Regrettably, while we did, with some goodwill right across political divides, succeed in approving and passing a balanced budget for the current financial year, we could only achieve that by imposing upon the householders of the county an increase of 9% in the Annual Community Charge. That figure would likely have been less if the Wales Government, which had early on indicated an increase over the previous year’s funding of 3.1%, had not eventually downgraded that level of support to the 2.2% which they eventually allocated to us.

If that were not bad enough, in the discussions at that time, many county authorities asked, indeed almost begged, the Wales Government to help with forward planning by indicating, even roughly, what the level of support for the next year or two might be. That brought forth the worrying indication that for the financial year of 2025 to 2026, the increase would likely be 1% or less, above this year’s figure. If that suggested figure becomes the eventuality, then there is little doubt that next year’s increase in Community Charge for householders here in Flintshire is likely to end up at or near 25%, which can only lead to struggling families facing a greater level of struggle.

Also, in relation to the future of Community Charge right across Wales, there has been a general agreement among the 22 Local Authorities that the current manner in which the annual bill per property is calculated needs some rapid and serious re-consideration. Mainly because the calculation is based upon property value, not upon the income of the owner of the property. That message of councillors’ concerns has been made loud and clear to the Wales Government in Cardiff. However, instead of getting on and starting, right now, on the essential investigative and consultative work which is clearly necessary if Wales is to have a fairer and more reasonably affordable system for calculating the Annual Community Charge, on the table in the near future, the Wales Government has responded by setting out that although they will look at the problem, work on it will not even commence until 2078.

My best assessment is that householders will see no change in the present unsatisfactory system until 2080 at the earliest.

2) Winners And Losers:-

Without wishing to bewilder you with stacks of financial data, just briefly, here are the top and bottom 3 in financial support rankings, here in Wales, for the current year:-

No. 1 was Newport with £304,045
No. 2 was Cardiff with £623,158
No. 3 was Swansea with £435,021
No. 20 was Flintshire with £258,527
No. 21 was Conwy with £203,526
No. 22 was Gwynedd with £233,317

3) Politics or Pantomime?:-

Flintshire County Council held this year’s AGM on the 14th of May. In most years Annual General Meetings are somewhat ritualistic. All sorted out beforehand and then routinely processed, Agenda Item by Agenda Item. However, with the meeting having commenced at 11:00a.m., it did proceed much as expected. When it came to the election of the Leader of Council for the next 12 months, Cllr, Ian Roberts (Labour) was first to be put forwards, swiftly followed by (Cllr) Richard Jones (Independent Group) and (Cllr) Andrew Parkhurst (LibDem). There were 65 out of the possible 67 councillors attending the meeting, so any nominee required 33 votes in order to achieve success. As frequently does happen, there was a call for a recorded vote, which meant that instead of hands simply being raised, for or against, when asked, the Monitoring Officer had to go through the list of councillors alphabetically, one by one, with each one, when called, voicing their choice of candidate for the Leader’s position. The result was that Ian Roberts achieved 33 votes, Richard Jones received 25 and Andrew Parkhurst received 2, with others abstaining.

With that item all done and dusted, the next one on the Agenda was for the Monitoring Officer to set before councillors his allocation for the year of seats on committees and chairmanships. That is a purely mathematical annual exercise, based on percentages of councillors in each Group, with figures rounded down or up as needed. It was at that point that (Cllr) Alasdair Ibbotson, sitting as usual in the Labour Group, rose to his feet, accused an un-named cabinet member (Labour) of having knowingly provided misinformation on some day in the past year and declaring that he and certain other members of the Labour Group were so disillusioned that they were quitting the Labour Party and intended to form their own Group.

At that, (Cllr) Ibbotson strode away from his seat, followed by Councillors Sam Swash, Gillian Brockley, Dan Rose and Carolyn Preece. They all ended up sitting together on the right-hand side of the Chamber, rendering the Monitoring Officer’s allocation of seats spreadsheet totally invalid. Inevitably, that meant that the Monitoring Officer required time to re-work the figures. That caused an adjournment. With the time nearing 13:00hrs I had to leave as I was shortly to provide transport to our local Centenarian Mr. John Thornton.
As a result of that, the county council now consists of Labour, with 27 members; Independents, with 25 members; The new Flintshire Peoples’ Voice (FPV) Group, with 5 Members; the LibDems, with 4 members; the Eagle Group, with 3 members; Conservative, with 1 member; with Cllr Carol Ellis as Non-Aligned and the currently suspended Cllr Attridge also being Non-Aligned.

Hopefully, this picture of assorted groups will not detract any of us elected councillors from the primary purpose of all of us, singularly or as a body, which is to serve well the best interests of our constituents and the county as a whole.

4) Perversities?:-

We are not alone, but, along with several other of the more affluent nations around the world, we have a serious health problem here in the UK. Not a matter of another Covid or other unexpected bug suddenly attacking us, but in the matter of Obesity, which is affecting all ages and both sexes.
The World Health Organisation not long ago published a report on the global impact of set out that Obesity is a major concern of health professionals, globally, including within the United Kingdom. Their findings set out quite clearly that in adults, overweight and obesity are associated with life-limiting conditions, such as Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers.

Here in the UK, the burden on the National Health Service (NHS) due to obesity and related illnesses is well recognised. The monetary cost each year, uplifted for inflation, was estimated at £6.1 billion in 2019, according to the Department of Health and Social Care. Analysis by health professionals between 2020 and 2022 has shown that the COVID-19 pandemic had a disproportionate effect on people with obesity, who are more at risk of being hospitalised, admitted to intensive care, and of dying from COVID-19.

With that background of solid and reliable data to take note of, one would expect that those in Government in this nation would be doing everything within their powers to facilitate exercise for the population, especially along the lines of the least expensive exercise activities, which are simply walking and cycling. However, a recent High Court case by the Transport Action Network claimed to disclose that more than £200 million was unlawfully cut from the Government’s investment plans for cycling and walking after last-minute “pressure” from the Treasury. The action followed on from the Department for Transport’s March 2023 decision to reduce funding for generic “Active Travel”.

Lawyers for the group, which supports sustainable transport campaigns, argued at a hearing some months ago that the move amounted to a £225 million, or 65%, cut in dedicated funding between 2023 and 2025. They claim the reduction created a “clear inconsistency” with the Government’s aims under its Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy for 2021 to 2025 and did not take into account the impact on air quality, carbon emissions and equality issues.

In refuting the claims made by the Transport Action Group, Government Lawyers restated the Administration’s determination to achieve its objectives for Active Travel which include doubling the number of journeys made by cycling from the figure of
£0.8 billion in 2013 to £1.6 billion in 2025.

Ministers also want to increase the percentage of short journeys in towns and cities, which are walked or cycled, from 41% in 2018/19 to 46% in 2025, and have targets for boosting walking activity. The legal challenge arose after a June 2023 National Audit Office report which said it was “unlikely” that the Department for Transport (DfT) objectives for increased active travel will be achieved by 2025.

Readers need to note that the Sustrans Group have also alleged that Government has recently slashed its budget for Sustainable Transport.

5) Defending the Realm?:-

There is an awful lot of shouting from the Government about how well our economy is doing under their guidance over the past dozen or more years. Not really surprising, given that a General Election is looming. However, there are lots of issues outside of the economy which reducers need to keep a wary eye on. One that should be top of the list is the matter of the Safety and Security of the Realm. Are we, as a Nation and as Individuals, safe and secure in our little island home?

I am old enough to be able to see just how different the world is right now, to the world at the time during the second world war and after it, in the years when I was growing up. The Atom Bomb had been detonated and Radar had come on to the scene, but, technologically, Computers, the Internet, Smart Phones and even human beings in space had yet to appear, Among all of those our ability to defend ourselves has always seemed, at least to us ordinary folks, to be a priority for every successive Government, no-matter what its political colour.

However, if anyone casts a critical eye upon what has been going on with our Armed Forces over the past ten or so years under the present Government, one might be forgiven for finding the numbers something of a worrying pattern of diminution, as can be seen from the following figures readily available on the internet:-

British Army Royal Air Force Royal Navy Royal Marines Total

2012 104.250 40,000 27,660 7,890 179,800
2013 99.730 37,030 26,270 7,690 170,720
2014 91,070 35,230 25,520 7,810 159,630
2015 87,060 33,930 25,080 7,660 155,730
2016 85,040 33,460 25,140 7,530 151,170
2017 83,560 33,260 24,970 7,330 149,120
2018 81,120 32,960 25,260 7,010 146,350
2019 79,030 32,860 25,700 6,830 144,420
2020 80,040 32,910 26,620 6,760 146,330
2021 82,230 33,200 27,210 6,640 149,280
2022 80,730 33,320 27,280 6,650 147,960

I chose to set out those figures after a senior US General has expressed serious concerns about the capability of our British Armed Forces, particularly in the face of the growing aggressive posturing of Vladimir Putin after starting his war on Ukraine.

According to some articles on the internet, allegedly from apparently usually reliable sources, a senior US General has privately warned that the British Army is no longer considered a top-level fighting force. That is based, so we are told, upon decades of budget cuts which have eroded its war-fighting capability. The General has apparently told our Minister of Defence that the past decades of budget cuts have eroded the war-fighting capability of the British Army and advise that this decline needs to be reversed urgently. In his summation, the US General alleges that British Armed Forces would run out of ammunition “within a few days” if called upon to fight any real war. He also alleges that the UK presently lacks the ability to defend its skies against the level of missile and drone attacks seen in the Ukraine.

The US General has warned that in his opinion it would take five to ten years for our army to field a war-fighting division of 25,000 to 30,000 troops, backed up by tanks, artillery and helicopters.

It has been pointed out that most of the British Army’s armoured vehicles, including tanks, were built some 30 to 60 years ago and that full replacements are not due for years. European powers such as France and Germany have announced plans to boost defence spending, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and have emphasised the urgency of our government to address the British Army’s seemingly limited capabilities.

6) On A Much Lighter Note!:-

I do sometimes wonder just what the assorted Editors of the Leader Newspaper have against Buckley Town. Events around the county are usually well reported upon, but seldom those which occur here in Buckley.

The latest item which has never had a mention being the “Buckley Show” which was held on Saturday 11th May this year, on Higher Common. With the ground quite firm after a few days when it has forgotten to rain and some decent warm weather to go with it on the day, the crowds really did come out to enjoy what was on offer, from the traditional Funfair Rides to the Monster Truck, which had a queue waiting to ride on it every moment of the day from 12:00a.m when the show officially opened, right through to 5:00p.m. when, officially, the show closed. Entertainers of quality and talent took to the stage, Stalls of a dozen and one sorts, shapes and sizes were there, along with an excellent display of Classic Cars and Tractors.

I am sure that nobody left feeling hungry, because the burger and ice-cream van queus were lengthy all the while throughout the day.
Because of the fact that there are, thank Heaven, no entry or exit gates around the Common, there is no way that Buckley Town Council, which puts on the Annual Event, can offer, for the record, any exact number of attendees. However, it would not be wildly out of order to suggest that something between 2 and 3 thousand individuals came along, some to stay or several hours and others for perhaps a shorter while. Whichever, there were many smiles on the faces of those leaving and many words of appreciation handed out to the likes of my wife and I as we helped the event along. I might add that the number of visitors who left the event still chomping on Burgers, Chips or licking at Ice Creams or Ice Lollies was considerable.

Later reports from the town traders indicated that several cafes, retail outlets and general stores in the town centre also saw increased trading on the day. In closing, fulsome thanks must go, once again, to Andy White, our Town and Events Manager, who literally single-handedly organised the day from scratch. Not forgetting his hard-working wife, Paula, who put in a long day by helping out wherever she was most needed.

7) Who You Know Against What You Know:-

It has been axiomatic for many decades that who you know is far more important than what you know. Another example of that at work was reported less than a month ago by the Good Law Project. That organisation, which, in 2021 revealed the secretive existence of the VIP Lane relating to the awarding of Government Contracts revealed that early in the Covid Pandemic, a lady named Zoe Ley spotted a business opportunity. She teamed up with the former Tory MP Brooks Newmark, to lobby Matt Hancock and other Ministers to get a coveted place on the VIP Lane for Worldlink Resources.

Within a month, the company had signed two contracts worth £258million to supply gowns and safety goggles for the NHS. However, more than £100million of the materials supplied were found to be of no use in a medical setting.
Weeks after this contract was signed, Ms. Lay used her cut to purchase The Old Rectory, which, according to its slick website is “One of the most prestigious rectories in Britain.” Readers can find out more about this extraordinary deal on the Good Law Project’s own website.

8) Matters of Taxation:-

Most residents of the UK pay Taxes in one form or another, from earnings from working wages through to investments, or by VAT when we go shopping. It may be unpopular, but in terms of national finance, it is necessary.

Having said that, us ordinary residents who pay Tax surely have a right to expect that taxes are fair, reasonable and proportionate, right across the board from individuals to corporate entities of whatever size. However, because of a perception that fairness did not prevail in government’s demands upon us for support from taxes, TAXJUSTICE.UK came into being a short few years ago. What they have exposed appears to be a system whereby the super -rich can vastly reduce their taxation burden, be they individuals or a corporate entity. That is certainly so in the matter of Inheritance Tax, whereby those with Estates worth £10million are able to pay just 10% inheritance tax. A particularly stark example of this being that in 2016, no Inheritance Tax was paid on the Duke of Westminster’s £8billion estate. Calls are growing for a fairer system, which would raise something in the order of £3billion for the national fiscus to be put in place by Government. Somehow, Government does not seem very keen on making that kind of change.

The organisation called 38 Degrees has recently pointed out that while Amazon UK made profits of £222million last year, that organisation paid Zero, yes, Zero in Corporation Tax. Just think on how our NHS or our badly potholed roadways might have benefitted if Amazon had paid any fair share of those profits to the nation instead of that £Zero figure.

We residents of the UK do need to be asking the question of just why, when so many ordinary folks are genuinely struggling to stay afloat financially, did Jeremy Hunt, the Minister, decide that large corporations such as Amazon UK should get permanent tax breaks, which is precisely what he did during last year.

We also need to be asking, as TAXJUSTICE.UK, along with the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition are doing, just why the Government seems either unwilling, or incapable of action which needs to be taken to stop Britain’s Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies such as The Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Jersey and the British Virgin Islands from being able to create arrangements whereby financial flows into their jurisdictions are shrouded in secrecy, thus potentially benefitting corrupt politicians, gangsters and oligarchs from all across the globe and depriving our government and people of the benefits to our economy if a rightful volume of tax were to be paid by those tax dodgers.

9) Climate Change:-

There is an ancient wisdom that sets out that “Money is the root of all evil!” Much money, globally, is vested in the Banking System, which uses it to enhance its own profit levels just as much as to benefit its clients. There is now out an interesting report called “Banking On Climate Chaos” which the Just Money Movement has endorsed. The report sets out that over the past 8 years the world’s 60 biggest banks have poured $6.9trillion into the growth and development of fossil fuels Barclays still comes out as Europe’s biggest fossil fuel banker. Since the Paris Climate Change Agreement of 2015, Barclays has financed the sector to the tune of $235billion.

It is glaringly clear from the report that Barclays, along with lesser offenders, is still intent upon putting money-making ahead of the global need to get away from the production and usage of fossil fuels, just as soon as we can, if we are to avoid the worst effects of Climate Change.

10) Buckley in General:-

Item 1) To repeat an item from my previous newsletter, please be assured that the battle to bring back a real live Bank to the town centre is continuing and that us councillors and other interested groups will not cease our combined efforts until we have succeeded, no-matter how long it takes. I am the first to concede that with the ever-increasing cost of liquid fuels for cars alongside rising energy costs for those who have gone electric, keeping motoring milage down is sensible. If we then add to that, the extra time burden of getting to the Mold banks while adhering to the 20mph speed limit and trying to find a parking space in Mold at almost any time, the increasing use of on-line banking facilities by local residents can be easily understood. However, there are various banking services which cannot be accessed on-line. Not only that, but there are still a significant number of residents, mostly older ones, who do not possess computers and/or smartphones.

To add to the issues above, we now have all too many people falling foul of on-line tricksters. The latest figures released by UK Finance highlight that fraud fell in the first six months of 2023 with a total of £580 million being stolen by criminals. This is a decrease of two per cent compared with the same period in 2022. The advanced security systems used by banks also prevented £651 million from being stolen. In today’s world of fraud and scams, criminals mainly focus on the social engineering of their victims. These tactics include scam phone calls, text messages and emails, as well as fake websites and social media posts. Their aim is to trick people into handing over personal details and passwords. This information is then used to target victims and convince them to either authorise payments that they are unaware of or encourage them to make the payment themselves.
If you are active on-line, please be both aware and wary when providing personal information, especially account details to strangers.

Item 2) The planning application submitted last year to convert the disused Methodist Church at the junction of Brickfields and Spon Green into housing was refused at the end of April of 2023. However, it has recently returned, slightly modified. For various planning reasons I have again registered my concerns and opposition to the latest application, which at time of writing this newsletter is awaiting a committee hearing.

Item 3) The battle to obtain some sensible and safe parking arrangements and/or safe traffic flow for residents living on Chester Road between Brook Street and the Willowdale Residential Rest Home is still ongoing. Us councillors have been advised of a fresh plan, which it is hoped will be presented to local residents before any firm decision to implement it appears. On that score, I am of the personal opinion that the appearance of the 20mph speed limit has made matters worse rather than better.

Item 4) In Flintshire’s Local Development Plan (LDP) one site approved by the Inspector at the public inquiry, was for a minimum of 140 dwellings in the field alongside Well Street, close to the junction with Bryn Awelon. Fresh plans have now been submitted for 155 dwellings on that field. The plans show an intended roundabout on Well Street, with another access point via Daleside. Just how fast that development will progress is unclear.

There is a groundswell of objection from local residents, over likely traffic congestion on Well Street and Rose Lane, the added burden on already stretched public services ranging from health to education and beyond. but, having been approved as part of the county council’s LDP and with the availability of an appeal process via Planning Inspectorate Wales, the application will be difficult fend off for those who are of the belief that it should not go ahead. Clearly a case of “Watch this space, but don’t hold your breath!”

Item 7) Hard on the tail of Item 7, Mr. Brian Jones of Bryn-y-Pys Farm, has submitted a planning application to make the field adjacent to the proposed 155 houses, into a 90-day limited stay site for use by members of the Travelling Community. The application does limit the number of Caravans to 5 at any one time, but local residents who are drivers will probably shudder at the thought of encountering any form of Caravan on either Well Street or Rose Lane. If approved, that planning application and the 155 houses okayed for the field next door, will likely provide some interesting moments for motorists when using Well Street or Rose Lane as routes in and out of the town.

Item 8) The Buckley Old Baths Building. Following on from Mary Wright’s excellent and diligent work, several years ago, in pouring through the old documents in the Records Office in Hawarden, the town council was able to fend off the attempt by county council at that time, to sell the building to a developer, for the purposes of tearing it down and building one or two more blocks of flats.

A limited company was formed, with 5 town councillors of the time becoming Directors. Their task was to see to the conversion of the building into a multi-purpose community hall for the benefit of all of the town’s residents.

Between then and now, the three remaining Directors, Councillors Carol Ellis, Dennis Hutchinson and Mike Peers, have struggled to make progress with the project, despite their best endeavours, largely because their efforts to obtain Charitable Status for the project failed. That meant that National Lottery funding was not available.

The result of that set-back has been in the middle of last year the three Directors sought assistance from both the town and county councils, because the greatest problem is in finding a source, or sources, of funding to pay for the conversion work. Your town council has already assisted the Directors over the past several years by funding the insurance on the building, give or take £5,000 per year. That was permissible within financial rules, because The Old Buckley Baths building is inextricably linked to the entirety of the Town Council Building, the façade of which is Listed.

Regrettably, whatever the building is finally morphed into, for operational purposes, one of its problems in attracting footfall is bound to be a certain lack of any great quantity of public car parking close by.

11) Saving Some Pennies?:-

During my time as a county councillor, residents have quite often asked my how best they can dispose of unwanted items of furniture, large and small. My answer has unfailingly been to refer them to the service which the county council has been providing over the years, whereby, for a fee, sometimes in the £40 range, council employees will arrive and cart away your unwanted lounge suite, double bed, wardrobe of such.
Now it is only fair for mee to inform readers of this newsletter that Nightingale House Hospice, which is based in Wrexham but has a retail outlet in Buckey Shopping Centre, is offering a totally free collection service for any of your no longer needed furniture items, large or small. The service was the subject of a full-page notice on page 16 of the recent 28-page Spring Edition of their periodic magazine.
That page carried a “Scan-Me” square along with the alternative of contact via a website link of <nightingalehouse.co.uk/collection-service>.

Those are fine for readers who ae on-line, but I am aware that quite a few are not. So, I am sure that if you lack any IT function, a phone call to Nightingale House in Wrexham on 01978 316800 or even the Buckley shop on 01244 630909, will set the free collection service under way for you.

12) Delays In Clearance of Criminal Cases:-

Between 2010 and 2019, over half the courts across England and Wales were closed. This was part of HM Courts and Tribunals Service's (HMCTS) plan to fund improvements to the court system, such as new digital services, by selling under-used court buildings. While readers will, I am sure, broadly support efforts to improve the courts through better technology, I am sure that there will be times when only a face-to-face hearing will deliver justice, because much can be learned from facial expressions and body language. Various bodies within and around the justice system have commented that while there may be advantages to the greater use of technology within the system, most seem to agree that any technology used to replace physical hearings must be tested and shown to work before courts are closed.

The various published observations have appeared at a time when Government has announced that there are now, at time of writing, something in the order of 61,000 criminal cases which are delayed somewhere along the process of getting them into court, properly heard and justly and fairly decided upon.

As of the end of 2022, there were 61,737 outstanding serious-crime cases, which is the highest year-end figure recorded so far. Although this number has decreased from a peak last autumn, it remains a significant burden for the justice system. The problem started before the difficulties of Social Distancing and Courtroom Closures imposed by the Covid Epidemic. The backlog began to grow way back in 2019 when the government capped the number of days judges could sit to hear cases.

Matters were not made any better when Defence Barristers decided to go on strike for a while last year over their pay and terms and conditions of employment. It is also noted that many lawyers over the past few years have removed themselves away from the criminal justice system, heading instead for other areas where more can be earned, Writing as a uniformed Senior Officer and one-time police public prosecutor myself, all too many years ago, somewhere along the way, there appear to be too many people in positions of responsibility, who seem to have forgotten the wisdom that “Justice Delayed is Justice Denied!”

13) Something for the Environment?:-

Although word about it has been rather muted over past months, the environmental project called “Hynet North West” has been quietly progressing. The project concerns the carbon capture and storage of the literally thousands of tonnes of CO2 produced each year by our collection of industrial activities here in the North Wales and Merseyside region. The storage is of course achieved by pumping the environmentally damaging CO2 into certain vast underground caverns below the seabed in Liverpool Bay. Locally, it is Padeswood Cement Plant which is currently our greatest CO2 producer and emitter. The intention of the scheme is to capture the CO2 emissions, transport them via an underground pipeline between the Padeswood Cement Plant and a point in Northop where it will link into the main conduit for transportation onwards to Liverpool Bay.

Liverpool Bay CCS Limited (LBCCS) is the company proposing to develop the Padeswood Carbon Dioxide Spur Pipeline which relates specifically to land in this area. The development forms part of the wider North West Hynet Project. The Hynet Carbon Capture Pipeline was granted a Development Consent Order by the Secretary of State for Energy, Security and Nett Zero in March of 2024.

For any reader interested in learning more about the Project, that can be done by going on-line to: https://infrastructure.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/projects/wales/hynet-carbon-dioxide-pipeline/.

Quite clearly there will be formal planning applications which will be submitted to Flintshire County Council in terms of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. The company aims to be in a position to submit the application to FCC early in 2025. To this end, the company has commenced survey activity to inform the proposed route for the Spur Pipeline. The company has advised that this work includes non-intrusive environmental surveys, ground investigations and cultural heritage surveys.

The company has advised that if any landowner has any concerns relating to the project, they are invited to contact Mr. Sean Williams, who is the Lead Land Consultant at WSP, either by IT at hello@hynethub.co.uk or via telephone on 0203 116 5919, or to seek their own independent advice.

14) Back at the Roadside Again:-

I am sure that some of you who are drivers will have noticed that the Buckley Community Speedwatch Team, which I co-ordinate, is now back at the roadside again, after being stood down last September when the considerably unpopular 20mph blanket speed limit appeared. Whether or not you agree with it, until the Wales Government get around to actually debating and deciding upon whether it has a future or not, it is current law and all laws should be obeyed, by one and all.

The aim of CSW, nationally, is to try to support our regular police forces in their ongoing struggle to keep our roads safe, for all who use them, pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists or vehicle drivers. We are not at the roadside to get you into court, slap points on your licence, nor to cost you £s out of your pockets to pay fines. However, please be aware that the details of vehicles, which we record as speeding for our purposes, do get forwarded to GoSafe North Wales and do go on record. If any vehicle comes to our notice for a third time, its details find their way to the Road Traffic Unit, who are likely to pull it over for a full check if they find it on the road.

The team is always 3 or more in strength at the roadside, 1 or more radar gunner and always 2 scribes, to ensure accuracy in the details we record and forward. What we record is not any vehicle just doing a mile or two over the area limit. In the 20mph areas, you have to be doing 26 or more. In a 30mph zone any vehicle doing 35mph or more will set us scribbling, while in a 40mph zone the vehicle has to be recorded at 46mph or more before we take written notice of it.

To give you a flavour of driver behaviour here in Buckley, the team recently spent an hour on Jubilee Road, alongside Jubilee Court, which is an Older Persons bungalow complex, within the blanket 20mph area. In that hour we recorded 43 vehicles at 26 mph or greater, with the fastest one going down at 51mph.

More recently, after several requests from residents, we took up a position on Nant Mawr Road by Farm Road. Our written records from that hour listed 23 at 26mph or more, with the fastest at 36mph. Perhaps the most interesting item among those 23 was a vehicle which went down as doing 31mph, Us two scribes recorded exactly the same number plate details and exactly the same make, type and colour. However, when I checked the vehicle at DVLA, what came up against that number plate was a totally different vehicle, by make, model and colour. The vehicle on record at DVLA has been out of Tax since 2018 and out of MOT since 2019. Criminality maybe? Whatever, the details have now gone through to GoSafe North Wales, with the probability that the number plate will become an entry on the ANPR system, marked up to be stopped if found on the road by uniformed police details.

Standing as we do at the roadside, it is not only the speeding which catches our eyes. We see drivers on mobile phones, without seatbelts, drinking from assorted cups and bottles and even having a child or an animal sitting in their laps. We have also been asked, more than once, by drivers who have pulled up alongside us, “Excuse me, but what speed was I doing and what is the speed limit here?

In closing this item, if any reader has a spare hour or two in the week, do please give a thought to joining our friendly team, because we have lost a member or two over the course of the last 7 years in which we have been operational. My contact details are below, as usual.

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If you have any problems, troubles or worries and perhaps need a friendly word of support or advice, please do remember that I am a town and county councillor who is in position to serve and assist the communities of Buckley and Flintshire. To that end, I available 24 hours of the day and 7 days of the week, via my home phone number of 01244 5449421. If I am out, please do leave a message on the answerphone. I will get back to you just as soon as I can. I can also be contacted by email at either arnoldwoolley@outlook.com or Arnold.Woolley@flintshire.gov.uk. You are also welcome to visit my website at www.arnoldwoolley.com.