By Steve Stratford, News Editor

WE try not to let on, but journalists love it when a plan comes together - especially one we didn't plan in the first place.
This week we have two front page stories, one for Llandudno and one for the Conwy Valley, about speeding along main roads, endangering schoolchildren and villagers alike.

Residents are calling for urgent traffic-calming measures and speed monitoring on Colwyn Road in Craigside and the B5106 Conwy Road in Dolgarrog, before - cue Journalist's Cliched Phrase # 17 - someone is killed.
It's a sad fact that someone has to lose their life in order for traffic-calming measures to take place. At some point, it seems, a family will have to be torn apart by the death of one of their number so that a few speed humps or a "Slow" LCD sign can be erected.
What price life? Well, the couple of thousand pounds it costs to lay some Tarmac and wire up a roadsign, it seems.
But the icing on the cake for these two stories was that this week (November 6th - 12th) is road safety charity Brake's National Road Safety Week, giving both stories that added topicality. Sometimes such serendipity is priceless.

This week was also the first that our Chief Reporter Martin Williams and reporter Richard Evans spent on one another's former "patches".
On the Weekly News, each reporter has their own geographical area (or patch) to cover for news, so we have Samantha Castle covering the Conwy Valley, David Rutland for Llanfairfechan and Penmaenmawr, and so on.
For several years Martin has been covering the Conwy, Deganwy and Llandudno Junction areas, and Richard the Bay of Colwyn, but recently we decided a change is as refreshing as a rest and that they should swap patches.
There's no hidden agenda, just the desire to bring a fresh approach to two of the most important patches in the Weekly News area, and give each reporter something new to get their teeth into.
I think the change will do the Weekly News the world of good, and the fact Martin actually lives in Colwyn Bay, and Richard in Conwy, makes it seem like it should have been that way all along.

It was particularly important that we published a picture of Shamshu Miah this week, the man who killed a swan at Llandudno's West Shore boating lake because he was allegedly hungry during his Ramadan fast.
Miah has been remanded in custody pending psychiatric reports, but we felt it important to re-state the facts of this case after we heard of the plight of a young, innocent family from the West Shore who have been targeted by an anonymous, vindictive letter writer who believes the father of their household to be the infamous swan killer.
Somebody somewhere has misread the facts in previous articles on this case and assumed Miah lives at this innocent family's address. Consequently, they have been bombarded with threatening and abusive letters accusing them of somebody else's gruesome crime.
Hopefully, the publication of Miah's picture, and the latest facts in his case, will make the author realise they have been targeting the wrong household, and distressing a perfectly innocent young family to boot.

Next week's edition will have all the news and pictures from our annual Sports Awards, sponsored by Conwy County Council.

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