Bryn Fest 2010

Things are certainly looking up for the area as two big events take place at the Faenol.

As you all know, the Big Weekend will be taking place on the 2nd and 23rd of this month, but now we hear that the line up for the 10th Bryn Terfel Festival is to be made at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff.

Caernarfon Online have been invited down to Cardiff to cover the announcement but we are unable to make it at such a short notice. Never the less, we will be giving you all the details on our website as soon as we receive them.

There as been no word or hit as yet as to who will be appearing, but hopefully it will be one of the best Festivals yet as they celebrate the milestone of their 10th Festival.

Having two major events of this kind in the area is fantastic news for not only Caernarfon, but for Bangor and all the surrounding attractions and businesses as well.

I hope we (at Caernarfon Online) will be able to bring you even more fantastic coverage at this year's event with interviews by the big names.

Congratulations to everyone at Faynol Cyf who are forefront in bringing the big names and best events to the area. Da iawn chi Hogia!

Big Weekend

Well, it's almost time for the Big Weekend. Having spoken to many of you, I know there are a great many who are disappointed at having not received tix. It is very difficult to keep everyone happy with these kind of concerts, as the demand for free tickets is astronomical.
Please rest assured that there will be many opportunities of seeing it online and on other media sources. Caernarfon Online are scheduled to interview some of the DJ's and acts present and hopefully we will be able to post these on our pages as and when they happen.

If you are one of the lucky ones present, then if you see the CaernarfonOnline team there, please feel free to come up to us for a chat and so that we can take your picture at the event. We will be wearing our Caernarfon Online Yellow and Blue Hi Viz jackets so you will recognise us instantly.

Remember, please don't try to purchase tickets from sites such as eBay etc, as they will be none transferable and you will be denied entry at the venue. You must also be aware that this means you cannot use someone else's tickets as they will be allocated to that person's name and ID will have to be provided to prove you are who you say you are.
We hope to bring you more info soon. Chris Moyles is rumoured to be in Bangor this week.

Election Fever

I was lucky enough to be asked to be the official Stringer for BBC1 last night. This meant that I was their eyes and ears at the Arfon Leisure Centre. I was to call them during the night updating them on what was happening.
I was a little worried to start with as I didn’t want to mess up. But I shouldn’t have been as Carwyn and Dilys of Gwynedd Council ensured that I was fed with all the info as it happened. Many thanks to both of you for your help, it was much appreciated.

The press were situated high above the counters and we were easily able to see where the votes were going.
As the votes came in, for a long time both Hywel and Alun were easily ahead and it was difficult to separate the two.

The votes were sorted in piles of 500 therefore it was easy to see who was in front as the first lots came in.
As the first set came in both Plaid and Labour had 4,500votes each. From then on Hywel’s pile was always slightly ahead and before long we were able to judge that he was in the lead by around two piles (1,000 votes).

I actually felt nervous for them and I don’t know how they managed to keep calm throughout the night.
I spoke with Hywel and Robin Millar who were both fresh and enjoying the count.

When the BBC phoned me later on in the evening, they (the BBC) were trying to establish what the overall feeling was.

Despite knowing he was ahead, Hywel was non committal until a few mins before the declaration when he told me it was looking good.
He said he didn’t want to commit himself further until the official word had been confirmed.

Hywel was then declared the winner and was first to the stand and he thanked everyone for their help and then enjoyed the cheers from some of his supporters in the audience.

Alun Pugh was second to speak, he made a point of thanking his agent Tecwyn Thomas, though many felt he had done him no good having lost his own two seats on both Town and Gwynedd Council two years ago.

Now the hard work starts for Hywel as he will have to work hard to get Caernarfon on the map. He has four or five years to do it - Unless of course the hung parliament means another election in the near future.

Click Here to view election video.

The Big Weekend at the Faenol
Hats of to our good friends at the Faenol who have done it again and attracted another major event to the area.
The Big Weekend is a massive event in the pop world with the big stars turning up for the free show.
The lineup (just announced this morning includes Sheryl Cole, Alicia Keyes, JLS, Dizzee Rascal, Florenece and the Machine and Rhianna to name just a few.
All the details can be found on http://www.caernarfononline.co.uk/2010/april/bigweekend.html
Thousands will apply for tickets with only 20,000 available. The BBC have promised to make sure the bulk of these tickets go to the local area.
The Faenol is the ideal setting for such an event with past Bryn Terfel Festivals being testimony to this.
I hope you are some of the lucky ones who receive the free ticket. I will make every effort to let you know anything new on Caernarfon Online as and when they make it available.

Long time no Blog!

Well, well, well - Long time no see. I'm sorry I haven't been updating the blog for quite some time, but I have been very busy lately and I find I must prioritise things better.

I do however plan to blog on a more regular basis and here is the first in quite a while.

The Royal Visit (I've noticed that Dylan Jones Conservative has blogged the same issue, apologies for this, it was just a coincidence)

I am no Royalist but at the same time neither an I ab Anti Royalist.

It is a bit like religion for me. I am neither a strong believer or an atheist.

Therefore I see this weeks visit to our town by our Queen as a wonderful opportunity for the town to cash in. Hundreds upon hundreds of people will no doubt be coming to town and I sincerely hope all goes well and with out incident by extremists!

What's wonderful about this country of ours is that we have free speech and free choice. What we do have to be careful about however, is that we don't try and force our beliefs on others.

Time after time I try my best to give it as it is on COL and sometimes this upsets people. I always try to balance arguments by asking both sides to comment yet have been taken aback by some people who still take it the wrong way. Mind you, this ofeten balances out with the many emails and phone calls I receive congratulating me on this that or the other.

But, getting back to the Queen's visit, the way some of these extremists are reacting, you'd have thought Osama Bin Laden was arriving! Thank God we don't all feel the same as them!

Queen Elisabeth is the Head of State, the head of the UK and the Commonwealth.

I therefore have no time with people who insist Wales is not a part of this.

Caernarfon is surviving because of the castle and its history.

Whatever the history books tell us. The castle may well have been built by an English King to keep the Welsh out.

But, these days, it's there to attract tourism and we (the people of Caernarfon) can enter it for free, whilst the English have to pay. Sweet! Don't you think?

I hope "we" do not show ourselves up on Tuesday as the world's media will be upon us once more.

I doubt very much if the Queen enjoys these kinds of visits at her age. It's something she has to do and you know what? She's damned if she does and dammed if she doesn't.

So lets welcome her here with open arms, fly our Welsh Dragons and embrace her visit.

I am also, so pleased to see the shops once again proudly displaying the Welsh flags I recommended the Chamber bought back in may day as their Chairman.

Nice to see they embraced my idea then and still use it today.

So all I can say, is God save the Queen and Cymru am Byth!

The Old Maes verses the New

This month we ran a survey about how people felt about the new Maes and how it compares to the Old one and after two weeks of voting, the results are alarming!
Over 90% of you think it has been a total waste of money and was better with the roundabout and buses being allowed in.

To be honest I am not surprised as in my personal opinion the Maes now looks drab!
I make no apologies for saying this, because I like to say it as it is and by all accounts most of you feel the same way.

£2.4 million has been spent on this and for what? It certainly is not going to attract more visitors to the town now is it? I personally feel this money could have been better spent in town and the empty shops and dilapidated buildings could have received a face lift to improve the general feel good factor in town.

As I write I have asked Gwynedd Council (under the Freedom of Information Act) how much they have spent on the Sian Shakespeare "Nawns am Le Project". To date we are still awaiting a response and it is a little alarming that it takes so long to answer a simple question. But we wait with baited breath.

Whatever the figure may be, and my guess is that it will be well into five figures. The survey will now be useless as it was done without the knowledge that the town was to become a Prison town!
With this information now available, the guess is that the survey would have fundamental flaws in it as it did not take the new prison into consideration.
More on this when we receive the figures.

Back to the Maes then, so what now? I hear through the grapevine that further funding is being earmarked to carry on the work up Pool Street. Is this throwing good money after bad?

When Gweledigaeth and Caernarfon Online filmed the interviews on the Maes a few weeks back, I thought that Owain had filmed it in Monochrome (Black and White).
But after further viewing I noticed that this was not the case. The problem was that the Maes was grey in colour and looked very drab on film.

On closer inspection one can also notice bad cement staining on the surface which should have been addresses as the work was carried out. This "staining could be removed by "polishing" but this in turn would have "health and safety" issues as the surface would then become slippery and dangerous under foot.

We are aware of many claims already being made against the council and one in particular contacted COL with details of their visit to town and they are now in the process of suing for compensation and vowed never to return to the town again.

News like this is disastrous to the livelihood of the town and one which has to be addressed sooner rather than later. Last year the Herald reported and incident where and elderly woman suffered serious injury having fallen on the uneven surface.

A big concern by many apart from the fact that the cobbled pathways are uneven and difficult for both the elderly and disabled to manoeuvre was the fact that when vehicles enter the Maes they are totally lost and unsure of where to go.
As a professional driving instructor I agree that this system is very dangerous and signage is inadequate.
This is an accident waiting to happen and I hate to say iItold you so on here, but I foresee a major accident on the Maes which could even result in a fatality.
I hope I am wrong, but as it is, this is a time bomb waiting to go off.

Whilst filming on the Maes we contacted Gwynedd Council to see if they were prepared to send out an officer to talk with us, but received a response that said all officers were busy at that specific time.

To be frank, I think the Maes and Caernarfon has now lost all its character and focal point.
Us older Cofis all remember the Maes a bustling centre of activity and a centre where everyone met up. Now all we have is an open space.

One little boy asked me this week:

Qu. What do you say to a "Space Man"?

Ans: You tell him it's the "New Maes Dude"

Have your vote here

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Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen Overspend

In the news this week - Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen Governors are blamed for over spending to the tune of half a million.
It seems that the Governors are to blame because the ASSembly chooses to run the country to the ground!

I have to admit I voted NO for the Assembly for Wales as I thought they would find it difficult to run the country and true to form, we see that this certainly seems to be the case.

Let's deal with Ysgol Syr Hugh first.
As a school Governor myself, I sympathise with what has happened at Syr Hugh and all because they are trying to do what's best for their pupils.
Quite simply if Syr Hugh Owen has overspent by £500,000 then perhaps the question should be:
Are they receiving enough money?

I can tell you that Governors at Ysgol Yr Hendre meet on a regular basis and even though our headmaster is doing a grand job, we would welcome more cash in our coffers and cringe at the thought of some schools actually underspending! Not much is said about this in the press!!!

We all owe it to our children to give them the best possible education they deserve and we can give them.
Ysgol Syr Hugh has nearly 1,000 pupils and the level of education they give either makes or breaks them.

OUR KIDS DESERVE THE BEST and if this costs then so be it.

No one should be pointing the finger at anyone at Syr Hugh.
The people in charge have the best interests of our children at heart. If the Assembly chooses not to give enough money to run a school of this size then perhaps they themselves should be looking at why they are giving so little!

Less money = less service
This month we learnt that Gwynedd has to increase our Council tax by nearly 4% YET at the same time they have to cut our services because of a poor settlement by the (yes you guessed it) Assembly!

We can blame the current situation on the credit crunch and the current world climate, but quite frankly Gwynedd's dire position is down to what they give us at Cardiff!

There is no point blaming Gwynedd here, if they have less money to work with, then something has to give - QED!

Scenario
If the average family of four has two wage earners and bring in on average £500 per week then the family budget spending will reflect this.
If one wage earner looses their job then the income will be less. THIS MEANS THEIR BUDGET MUST CHANGE AND CERTAIN ITEMS OR "ESSENTIALS" WILL HAVE TO GIVE WAY.

This is the same at our schools, with the Assembly giving less (due to bad management perhaps?) then certain essentials will have to go. (THIS MEANS THE QUALITY OF TUITION A SCHOOLS WILL SUFFER).

Enough is enough. It's time for the people of Wales to realise that this lot at the Assembly can't organise a p**s up in a brewery!
Unfortunately we voted (very narrowly) FOR the ASSembly and we are therefore now counting the cost.


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