Welsh Council Destroys English Cultural Icon

Please email CADW the Welsh conservation body to help save Alices summer holiday house in Llandudno. Llandudno is the UKs best preserved Victorian resort and yet they may allow this fine peice of Alices life to be demolished. email CADW Cadw@Wales.gsi.gov.uk and the Conwy councils planning committe to voice you objections. By focusing the worlds attention we can save it.
Email addressed to, cynllun.plan@conwy.gov.uk with ref to applications for demolition of Penmorfa, no's, 0/34325 and 0/34236. Or by letter to The Chief Planning Officer, Civic Offices, Colwyn Bay, Conwy, LL29 8AR.
Petroc is currently reading Alice in Breton (read it in Welsh, Spanish and English,)
Help Save Alice Liddell's Holiday Home

It has come to our notice that developers in Llandudno have requested permission to demolish Penmorfa - holiday home of the Liddell family. John Lawson-Reay, Chairman of the Llandudno Seaside Buildings Preservation Trust makes the following request:
"Penmorfa has for the past twelve months been shorn of
the later extensions while the developers have done nothing to protect it. There has been much concern, locally. Now a planning application has been made for the demolition of the house so that the developer can use the whole site for 29 luxury flats. It may be that the company had no real intention of retaining Penmorfa.
The site is in a conservation area which was extended a few years ago to include the hotel, thus to recognising the significance of the building. We have appealed to the Wales body for conservation, CADW, to list the building, but they say that there is no particular architectural merit in the house and that there are similar buildings in Llandudno. We seriously disagree. We understand that it is described as 'Pseudo-Gothic' contrasting with the other buildings in Llandudno which are 'Classical' in design.
However our concern is with its important historical associations which we consider to be of most significance. The fact that the house was built for his family by Dean Liddell and the fact that they used it for extended vacations over eleven years should surely be enough to protect it.
We are getting together a body of protestors locally but any objections from further afield could be crucial. Could you circulate your membership and ask them to email or write their objections to demolition to Conwy County Borough Council?
Email addressed to, cynllun.plan@conwy.gov.uk with ref to applications for demolition of Penmorfa, no's, 0/34325 and 0/34236. Or by letter to The Chief Planning Officer, Civic Offices, Colwyn Bay, Conwy, LL29 8AR.
We would want to emphasise the historical importance of Penmorfa as well as its uniqueness. There is much urgency required. We would appreciate any help."

The committe of the Lewis Carroll Society encourage you to support this cause and send an email (or preferably a letter) to the council. It seems incredible to us that this situation has been allowed to get this far.

Ein Swyddfa Tramor a'r Cymanwlad ni?

The FCO funds (ariannu) over 2000 foreign students to come to the UK each year with its Chevening Scholarships (ysgoloriaethau), which is great news. Here is my search (ymchwiliad) for 'Cymraeg' on the FCO website (wefan). No need for an in depth analysis here.

British Council Considers Welsh

If we are to believe this the British Council has at last woken up to its bilingual 'Britishness" role. We shall see.

Thank you for your interest in the work of British Council Wales.

I have forwarded your enquiry to our Communications Officer Suma
Krishnamurthy who will be able to tell you if a Welsh translation is
available on our work in Europe.

If a Welsh translation is currently unavailable, it would be possible to
provide you one within a reasonable time, allowing sufficient time for
translation.

If you would like to contact Suma Krishnamurthy personally you can do so
via email at suma.krishnamurthy@britishcouncil.org.

Kind regards,

Katherine

Katherine Snell
Customer Services Co-ordinator
British Council Wales ~ British Council Cymru
28 Park Place ~ 28 Plas y Parc
Cardiff ~ Caerdydd
CF10 3QE


-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: 05 March 2008 17:26
To: Wales.Enquiries
Subject: Welsh website

Oes na dudalenau Cymraeg yna, roeddwn yn chwilio am ddeunydd am eich
gwaith yn Ewrop a tu hwnt ond doedd dim deunydd o gwbl yn y gymraeg.

St Davids Day in London 2008

St Davids Day in London - no thanks to Ken

While the Chinese Russians and even the Candaians benefit from my Council Taxes as uncle Ken gives out the money for Trafalgar Square bashes the Welsh get zero. We are, like the Gypsies, so discriminated against that we are unseen.

However the ICA provided two nights of celebration (dathliad)- called Wales uber Alles. On 29 February 2008 a night of Welsh bands, with Genod Droog, Radio Luxembourg , MC Mabon among the famous Welsh groups.
Genod Droog, six men - not 'naughty girls' as the name implies, are from Porthmadog; MC Mabon is realy a band; and Radio Luxembourg, from Aberystwyth are a cool psychedelic band.
This was followed by a second night on St Davids Day at the ICA, 1 Mar 2008 with Gruff Rhys (ex-Super Furry Animal) and Kerdd Dant plus a midnight screening of Gwaed ar y Sêr, a little-seen Welsh horror film in the ICA bar.

South London pub the Vauxhall Griffin also put on a free night of Welsh pop music, Ruth Madoc videos and produced a Welsh themed quiz. Free Welsh cakes and Daffodils made for a surreal evening. Well done Nia! There were of course more traditional meals and Harpist (telynydd) all over London but not a brass cent of public Funding from the Authorities (awdurdodau). It seems you need to be foreign (estron)to qualify.
Here's some pretty websites about the groups mentioned - enjoy (mwynhau) or try Theo Bruetons 'digwyddiadur' for regular listings of Londons Welsh activities. Just google it (googlio fe) or try http://www.anoeth.demon.co.uk/cyfall.html
www.myspace.com/genoddroog
www.myspace.com/radiolux
www.myspace.com/mcmabon


English number plates are illegal

English and Welsh number plate campaign

Join the campaign to put pressure on the London Government to legalise (cyfreithloni) the use of the Welsh and English flags on the number plates of vehicles.
In 2001 the then Westminster Transport Minister promised that the UK Government would legislate to allow the use of national flags (baner) on cars. Nearly seven years on the London Government has yet to act.
If you think that the people of Wales and England should be legally entitled to use our national flags as a symbol of our identity on the number pates of their vehicles. Show Gordon Brown that we’re English or Welsh and proud of it!
SIGN THE PETITION
If you think that the people of Wales and England should be legally entitled to use their national flags as a symbol of their identity (hunaniaeth) on the number pates of their vehicles, join the campaign by signing the petition (deiseb) below.
http://www.numberplates.plaidcymru.org/content.php?nID=662;lID=1

Gwilym yn Cymreigio?

Prince William learning Welsh
Some of you may have heard the rumours that Tywysog Gwilym was intending to learn Welsh for his official role (Prince William of Wales) This would be a very welcome move. There is a sense that Welsh speakers are more conservative than English speakers, more linked in to the History of our Island, certainly Loyalty, as seen by service in the forces, is 50% higher in Wales. One could be forgiven for believing that all Welsh speakers are raving antimonarchists after the Queen was refused entry to the opening ceremony for the National Library of Wales because of a few student protesters. The issue there however was one of Language not of pro or anti Royal. Of course the provision for Welsh Medium education within the University of Wales is so poor that William may find it hard to get a course anyway. He could always have a word with the Chancellor (his father).

A quick look at the royal.gov.uk website will show you some of the Queen and Charles' pages are available in Welsh (not all) but none of Williams or other members of the Family. This begs the question of why such key resources are not available in Welsh - can we really expect Welsh children doing royalty research projects to provide their own translations. The attitudes have changed and the absence of Welsh, whilst probably an oversight, can be read as a slight.

Bank of England supports Welsh

The Bank of England rep in Wales was recently encouraging business in Wales to use more Welsh, a nice gesture indeed. However apart from a few factsheets aimed at 9 year olds the 'central bank for the UK' has no Welsh on its website, clearly it needs all the money to buy Northern Rock. Does this body actually serve the Welsh people, does it serve the thousands of Welsh speakers in England? These old beurocratic attitudes - ignoring, delaying and fogging are not acceptable in the 21st century. I am awaiting a reply to my email...

On the issue of Blogio yn y Gymraeg Draig Wen reader rhys wynne said... "I wouldn't hold my breath for a Welsh version of Blogger, even though it's available in 40 languages now. If you're after a blogging service in Welsh try www.nireblog.com/cy
or www.cy.wordpress.com" thanks for that Rhys.

Bank of England supports Welsh

The Bank of England rep in Wales was recently encouraging business in Wales to use more Welsh, a nice gesture indeed. However apart from a few factsheets aimed at 9 year olds the 'central bank for the UK' has no Welsh on its website, clearly it needs all the money to buy Northern Rock. Does this body actually serve the Welsh people, does it serve the thousands of Welsh speakers in England? These old beurocratic attitudes - ignoring, delaying and fogging are not acceptable in the 21st century. I am awaiting a reply to my email...

On the issue of Blogio yn y Gymraeg Draig Wen reader rhys wynne said... "I wouldn't hold my breath for a Welsh version of Blogger, even though it's available in 40 languages now. If you're after a blogging service in Welsh try www.nireblog.com/cy
or www.cy.wordpress.com" thanks for that Rhys.

dot cym camapign

The unused .cym for the Cayman Islands is by right ours for Wales/Cymru and for all Welsh language users around the world. The Cayman Islands, with just a few thousand people, very nice ones, actually have two .names .cym and .km - they use the .km in fact. Whereas cars all over Wales drive around with cym on the back oblivious to the existance of the Cayman Islands as a country.

Bancio yn y Gymraeg HSBC

I recieved a recent phonecall from my bank as I had completed a Direct Debit (debyd uniongyrchol) in Welsh - no - not to say it was not valid but rather to offer me the option of all my statements (cyfriflenni) in Welsh from now on. I now get my monthly statement just in Welsh, admittedly the branch (cangen) is in Wales and I am in London (Llundain) but it is a good service (gwasanaeth) that I appreciate. Diolch i HSBC. Why not ask your bank to match this service - if no-one ever asks then it will never happen.

TV licencing in Welsh

You can buy a TV licence in Welsh over the counter at Welsh Post offices, though they do make a fuss if you try, and Wrexham post office had no forms available when I last tried. Thus if you live in England your Welsh Trywydded Teledu will still be in Welsh. However you can also use the Welsh Language phone line to renew - the speakers quality of Welsh is variable as they live and work in Bristol but it's a service. 0870 601 1130. Use it for enquiries too and don't forget to ask for the paper licence to be in Welsh. The staff are freindly (cyfeillgar) and keen (frwd) to help. So it goes to show we can have bilingual services for those who speak Welsh even from bodies based in England. Write the number in your phone list for next time...

Blogio yn y Gymraeg

High time that Blogger was available in Welsh, certainly Welsh Wicipedia is amongst the strongest languages, and use of Welsh on the Web is exploding. Campaigns for a Welsh domain name .cym (cymru) are well advanced and .cy (cyprus) is being used by many people already. The Welsh Facebook campaign has 1000s of signatures and Welsh is definitely very active on facebook.
At some future date teh Welsh assembly will assume responsibility for regulating IT, businesses and services and at this point legal and social pressures for the inclusion and normalisation of Welsh will be strong.