By Samantha Castle, Reporter
What is given with one hand, is taken with the other - so the saying goes. That is exactly how I felt writing this week's news stories for the Conwy Valley.
On the one hand I was pleased to report that the administrators for Dolgarrog Aluminium had, at last, secured a buyer from Russia for the ailing aluminium plant. Although it does not directly safeguard the workers' jobs it does offer some hope to people in the surrounding community that the factory may once again produce aluminium.
Also in Dolgarrog this week I was pleased to report on the npower hydro-electricity plant becoming a National Control Centre, providing more employment opportunities now and in the future.
However, I also had the unfortunate job of exposing Royal Mail's heartless plans to close down two of its main letter delivery offices in the Valley, one in Llanrwst and one in Betws-y-Coed, transferring the service and workers to Llandudno some 15 miles away.
To a lot of people this is another nail in the coffin for rural communities which are having the heart of their social fabric ripped out due to continuous "cost cutting" - post offices, schools, council cash offices - soon there won't be any reason to live in a Welsh rural town or village.
Part of my role as a reporter for the Weekly News is to remain impartial but I can't help but feel sorry for these people and their local councillors who are fighting a losing battle to save services and jobs that have been established within their communities for years. In the next edition of the Weekly News I shall be looking into exactly how the "cost cutting" adds up.
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