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July 2008 Archives

Working on adrenaline

Posted by North Wales Weekly News team on July 31, 2008 3:59 PM

By Steve Stratford, Deputy Editor

THIS week's edition was something of a moveable feast as deadline approached. Usually I know pretty much which story is going on which page by around 10.30am on a Wednesday, and by a Wednesday there's only really the front section of the paper left to finish (pages 1-15 roughly). The rest of the paper is often already done by deadline day.

But this week all the best laid plans refused to stay still, and it was often all dependent on outside forces outside our control. So I had to draw up a kind of flow diagram - like one of those old Choose Your Own Adventure books - so I knew all the different permutations of pages if x, y or even z happened!

There was a stage where I didn't know what we were going to put on the front of the Conwy Valley edition - if North Wales Police released a statement and photo from the family of tragic Lee Thompson-Walker in time, we'd lead with that, but if that didn't come through in time we'd go with a story about the Post Office closures in the Valley. But if the Post Offices did go on the front, that would mean I'd have to have three versions of an inside page to carry the news we did have on Lee Thompson-Walker....

There was similar indecision surrounding the Colwyn Bay front page - we had the story we eventually led with about Victoria Pier owner Steve Hunt's current financial tribulations, but we needed a third party to verify a few points before we could run with it safely, and they weren't going to be free until 1.30pm... So we had to work on a back-up lead story for the Bay, which has yet to see the light of day (tune in next week for that one, folks!) but we were unsure whether we'd get it finished in time because of yet another third party obstacle.

So it was a bit hairy, but immense fun working on adrenaline alone! Not every week is like that - as I said, we usually have firmer plans by that stage of the week - but when it's all up in the air like that, it reminds you how lucky you are to be in a profession where no two days are the same!

Why do people contact the press?

Posted by North Wales Weekly News team on July 23, 2008 4:41 PM

By Samantha Castle, Reporter
Samantha Castle

NEW research recently published has revealed the reasons why people share their real-life stories with the press.

In an era when people are increasingly selling their own stories to the national press for cash, you'd be forgiven for assuming the majority are salacious kiss-and-tells, with the tale-tellers seeking instant fame and a quick buck.

However, research has revealed that people's motivations for sharing their experiences in newspapers like the Weekly News are often far more admirable - in fact, almost one third were hoping to warn other people of dangers they had faced first-hand, ranging from the criminal (identity fraud, money scams and injustice at the hands of the police) to the medical (liver transplant patients and slimming successes).

The research, conducted by an agency which specialises in real-life stories, also shows that a further 21% hoped to "inspire and motivate others" with their tales of successful weight loss, moving on after heartbreak and recovering from serious addiction or illness.

The third most popular reason for selling a story was to raise awareness of an issue, whether it be promoting disabled sports or talking about personal experiences of illnesses such as anorexia, cancer and dementia.

Here at the Weekly News we are no different. We are here to bring you real-life stories that affect people just like you. Every day people contact us in the genuine hope they can prevent someone else from going through a horrific experience or, on the flipside, spur people on to success in their personal or business life.

The survey unveiled the top ten motivations to be:
1. Warn others of dangers they had faced (31%)
2. Inspire and motivate others (21%)
3. Raise awareness of an issue (17%)
4. Earn cash (10%) (national newspapers and magazines!)
5. Gain publicity for a product/ business (8%)
6. Find a missing person (4%)
7. Gain closure on a personal situation (3%)
8. Pay tribute to a lost loved one (3%)
9. Kiss-and-tell (2%)
10. Pressurise a Government body (1%)

United in strike action

Posted by North Wales Weekly News team on July 21, 2008 11:36 AM

By Steve Stratford, Deputy Editor

THE council workers' strike last Wednesday and Thursday probably affected people with rubbish and recycling to get rid of more than anybody else. Yes, libraries were closed and the odd school (six closed in Conwy, but amazingly they were all closed in Flintshire!), but by and large the most frustrating effect of the industrial action is that wheelie bins weren't emptied. It's bad enough having to wait two weeks to have your household waste taken away; any longer than that is particularly galling.

Throughout the two days my inbox was bombarded with updates from Unison about what effect the strike was having across the UK. There was an almost smug pride in the way the union was bullet-pointing all the closures, cancellations and postponements across the country, but there were some real gems to come out of these press releases.

In Bristol strikers were doing the "low paid limbo" on picket lines demonstrating how low council workers' salaries are, while others were walking tightropes to show how hard it is to balance their budgets. Sounds like a lot of fun, and it would have made great pictures for the media of course, as would the strikers in Leeds who dressed up as Cinderella to demonstrate that they were the poorest paid in the public sector. They did want to go to the ball, but the council-run community centre was shut for the day...

Unison was pleased to announce there were stray dogs roaming the Amber Valley as the dog wardens were on strike, and almost gleeful about the fact that registrars in Barnsley were on the picket line, although they were still registering deaths, it was just births and marriages they were turning away. It's good to know the dead still have rights in Barnsley.

National judges arriving for the Bury in Bloom contest were made to use a taxi instead of a limousine because the mayor's chauffeur was on strike. What's more, the economy class judges were greeted by council gardeners picketing when they visited Bury Gardens!

Oh, and parking was free for two days in Hastings because parking attendants joined the strike. I don't think we had such luck in Conwy, although I did spot the mayor of Bury's chauffeur parking his limo on Llandudno prom at one point...

Weekly News video: Alice's Llandudno wonderland

Posted by North Wales Weekly News team on July 17, 2008 2:10 PM


Take a look around the Rabbithole exhibition in Llandudno, dedicated to Alice in Wonderland.

Weekly News video: Reporter Sam's brave death fall

Posted by North Wales Weekly News team on July 17, 2008 1:58 PM


See North Wales Weekly News reporter seek out the latest thrill at Treetop Adventures with a 110ft death fall.

Weekly News video: Sailor Billy returns to Aus

Posted by North Wales Weekly News team on July 17, 2008 1:48 PM


Sailor Billy Hughes bids farewell to Conwy and returns to Australia. The North Wales Weekly News was there to see him off.

Weekly News video: A brilliant new pool for Llandudno

Posted by North Wales Weekly News team on July 17, 2008 1:36 PM


See the new state-of-the-art competition-standard swimming pool at Llandudno.

Education for gipsy traveller children

Posted by North Wales Weekly News team on July 15, 2008 11:42 AM

By Steve Stratford, Deputy Editor

OUR sister paper the Abergele Visitor has sourced a cracking story this week about plans by Conwy and Denbighshire county councils to have a school catering for gipsy traveller children based in Rhyl.

The whole issue of whether local authorities or the Welsh Assembly should be paying for facilities for a transient population is an explosive one which almost everybody probably has an opinion on, so I'm wisely not going to go into it here (but you, dear reader, can if you wish to leave a comment!).

No, what amused me were the quotes from Denbighshire's social services scrutiny committee chair Diana Hannam, who to my mind seems to regard the gipsy traveller lifestyle as an undesirable way of life which those who live it should be looking to "escape". After some rather florid eulogising about the advantages of a good education - "Education is the key to the journey of life. It unlocks the door to the path of opportunity" - Cllr Hannam goes on to say: "These children didn't choose where they were born and they didn't choose who their parents are. How can they ever lift themselves from that life if they aren't treated to an education?"

I agree with her that every child deserves a good quality education, and when children live nomadic lifestyles it is difficult for them to become part of the standard education system with any beneficial effect. But to refer to the gipsy traveller lifestyle as something to "lift" oneself out of is a rather demeaning turn of phrase. It's like saying that children born into poverty in the North of England don't choose where they are born or who their parents are, and should be given the opportunity to escape their unfortunate existences. It's a little elitist, if well-meaning.

There could be anything up to 12 children being educated at the proposed centre at any one time, we're told, so there must be a demand. But just because Conwy and Denbighshire provides a centre doesn't mean other authorities will in England and Wales, and so when families move on (as is their way of life) they may find that when they arrive in Ynys Mon or Shropshire or Dorset there is no equivalent education centre, and so the child's education is disrupted and devalued.

It's not an easy problem to solve, but if we are to start catering for the education of the transient population, it needs to be a UK-wide initiative, not something introduced ad-hoc in pockets across the country.

Invitation to film Doctor Who in North Wales

Posted by North Wales Weekly News team on July 7, 2008 3:40 PM

By Steve Stratford, Deputy Editor

There I was on Saturday night, watching the much-heralded Doctor Who finale on BBC1, apparently along with 10 million others.

The new look Doctor Who is one of the BBC's modern success stories and a real feather in the cap for BBC Wales at Cardiff. Before Russell T Davies stalked the corridors at Llandaff, BBC Wales was largely known for productions which very rarely got shown outside the Principality (Pobol-y-Cwm, Belonging), but now it is one of the UK's major TV production centres, responsible not only for Doctor Who, but its spin-offs Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, Casanova, Life on Mars, This Life+10 and Ashes to Ashes.

And it's great that the success of Doctor Who and Torchwood has put an international spotlight on Wales, both for tourists and film-makers alike. Before American and European audiences started seeing "Made by BBC Wales" at the end of Doctor Who and Torchwood, many foreign TV viewers probably thought Wales was a county in England, or maybe hadn't heard of it at all!

Much of the Doctor Who made since 2005 has been filmed on location in South Wales, principally Cardiff and Swansea, but what I'd like to see is the focus widen to include North Wales. Why not bring the production crew up to North Wales to film some of the Doctor's adventures? We've got quarries, mountains, lakes, coastlines, scrubland, magnificent views, caves, mines, rolling beaches, an Italianate village, historic country houses, ancient castles - heck, we've even got an abandoned ship and a giant foot! I'm sure the Doctor Who team can write a story to include that!

But seriously, it would be nice for North Wales to get a look-in because we do have so much to offer production companies and film-makers. The sad thing is that it's undoubtedly easier and cheaper to get the TARDIS from Cardiff to almost anywhere in Mid and Southern England than it is to get it up here. It's that old problem of the North/ South divide - this time geography gets in the way!

Ah well, perhaps now Doctor Who is getting a new supremo in the form of Scotsman Steven Moffat North Wales will get the opportunity to showcase its wares when they start filming the fifth series next summer. It'd be great to see a giant foot on Doctor Who - they had the Face of Boe, so why not the Foot of Boe?!

Credit card fraud

Posted by North Wales Weekly News team on July 2, 2008 12:57 PM

By Judith Phillips, Reporter
Judith Phillips
VIOLATED, angry, upset - these were my emotions when I opened my bank statement on Tuesday evening and discovered I'd been the victim of debit card fraud.
Disbelievingly I looked at the balance, and then looked again, and realised I was a lot worse off than I thought I was. My next reaction was to check through my current account statement, item by item, and there it was, a card payment of £633 to an insurance company I've never dealt with, and another for a top-up with a mobile phone company I don't use. Altogether I've been robbed of over £650.
I can only assume some crook has somehow cloned my debit card and used it to pay their car insurance, and enable them to carry on texting or gossiping about inane trivia to their mates.
Obviously I immediately contacted my bank, who have stopped the card, and promised to issue me with a new one. The nice woman I spoke to also said they would make a goodwill payment into my account while they investigated further.
A new card is in the post to me, as are forms I will have to fill in so they can carry out the necessary enquiries to establish whether or not this was fraud or a slip-up somewhere.
So not only has this callous person stolen my hard earned cash, they've also involved me in not inconsiderable hassle to try to get it back.
Obviously I'm only one of many thousands who suffer from this type of crime each year - a colleague had £2,000 taken last year in a similar scam.
I think what annoys me most about theft of any kind is that it is usually perpetrated by people either too lazy to earn their own money, or who have addictions to drink or drugs which need a constant supply of cash to fuel them.
As someone who has worked in gainful employment since I was a teenager, taking holiday jobs to buy myself treats, and have tried to live a decent, honest life, this sort of behaviour really gets up my nose.
This week I've written a story about members of the Gloddaeth United Church in Llandudno backing the stance taken by the Bishop of Rochester on what he sees as the erosion of Christian values in this country leading to moral decay and the erosion of traditional values. I think they're absolutely right, and like them I might well send a letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the subject.

This page contains an archive of all entries posted to Working Week in the July 2008. They are listed from oldest to newest.

June 2008 is the previous archive.August 2008 is the next archive.

Many more can be found on the home page or by looking through the archives.