Listen to the podcast: NE Wales Update
This week reporter Rob Thomas visits the new offshore windfarm being built off the coast of Rhyl; All Things Considered talks to Polish people who are boosting church congregations in the region and the Princess Royal visits Deeside. Eye on Wales discovers allotment ownership is flourishing and Roy Noble talks to a Denbigh man who rubbed shoulders with the infamous Kray twins.
Further to the post, Where should we spread your ashes, John writes: "My father was a great and wonderful man and when he left in March 2005 I buried his ashes at Dinas Bran. Now he is with the ancients, and will forever be."
Thanks to contributor Stewart Kington for sharing old photos which give a glimpse to what life was like for the workers at the former Border Breweries, Wrexham. For the images were taken by his father, William, when he was the manager and as staff prepared for a works' outing one day way back in 1947.
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David McLean axe 30 jobs on Deeside; The future of television services in Wales; and Wrexham mum joins call for more organ donors.
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Quick links to the stories and blogs we're following today using our [what's this?], including:
- Man sustains serious injuries following incident in Buckley
- Ghost caught on camera at Chirk Castle
- 83 incidents involving BB guns in N Wales
- Villagers say 'no' to power pylon plans
- Record day for rescuers as wind batters Snowdon
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Contributor Janet prompted the talking point saying she enjoyed her childhood family holidays so much on Gronant sand dunes, that: "I would like my ashes cast to the winds on the beach that I loved so well."
You can throw me off Moel Famau, so to speak, or cast my ashes over the river Alyn at Loggerheads where, I note, someone did the same and left a little brass inscription to a loved one on one of the wooden bridges.
Where shall we put your ashes when the time comes?
Discuss and upload photos of your favourite local buildings here.
The talking point has been prompted by news in the that Flintshire County Hall at Mold could become a protected building, deemed a '70s concrete-clad classic building.
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Wrexham's Flexsys factory - or whichever name you've known it as over the years - has been around for as long as everyone can remember. And through thick and thin such as health concerns from people living in its shadow, it has long been a focus of local life and even regarded with affection.
Like the kind of relative you can curse one minute and hug the next, local people have taken it for it is because it has been there for living memory. In fact, it's one of our oldest factories. And so news yesterday that the factory will shut has come as a big surprise to the local community as well as the people who work there.
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Michelin-starred chef Raymond Blanc recently rated organic chicken from the Rhug Estate Organic Farm, near Corwen, as the best in Britain. The chef was taking part in a cookery demonstration as part of the Real Food Festival in April when he made the comments, as reported by the . Good to see local produce getting a mention from one of the world's top chefs!
has been reporting linguistics expert Professor David Crystal suggesting that this type of condensed message enhances and enriches language skills.
But can you agree when he suggests that more often than not, people know when to use it and in the right context? The reason I ask is because we receive comments from people discussing all manner of issues on this site, and often it's in that abbreviated form of written speech, aka txt talk.
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³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio Wales is planning a special week of programmes in June to celebrate links with Liverpool which is the - and producers need your help.
Among the programmes, Eye on Wales is focussing on the connection between North Wales and its unofficial "capital".
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has uploaded some great photos of and their gig at on Sunday.
, Wrexham, is the third such organisation in the region to be awarded outstanding results by inspectors with "highest ever results in Wales for work based training".
It comes after received praise for its standards along with Castell Alun being awarded the highest possible marks for the quality of its teaching.
Whilst we know the standard of teaching is important, it seems pupils and students only appreciate this when they've left their school or college. How do we know this? Just read the comments we receive about such places which are written, you've guessed it, in our history sections! Take a look:
Ysgol y Grango memories
Lindisfarne College, Wrexham
Wrexham and East Denbighshire Secondary Technical School,
Listen to the podcast: NE Wales Update
This week, there's good news for Airbus as jobs are safeguarded at Broughton for the forseeable future; the credit crunch is hitting one local house builder; and, as exam time looms, Childline launches a new poster campaign in local schools. Meanwhile, reporter Sarah Easedale meets children holding their first sports day in three years after badgers and rabbits wreaked havoc on the pitch - and Good Morning Wales hears about a film premiere - in Gronant!
The fabulous lifestyle of a former Denbigh schoolgirl now worth £5bn; Wrexham is king of bling; 100 blue badges still in use in Flintshire after owners died; and wind farm noise generates anger.
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Weekly highlights from bbc.co.uk/northeastwales
Festival time - Donkey exhibition - Dodging the bombs - War photography - Big cat sightings and UFOs - Rants and Raves - and much more...
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³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Wales political correspondent takes a closer look at who is running our County Halls and Guildhalls as the dust has started to settle following the local elections two weeks ago.
Under the headline, Independents rule Welsh councils, he explains more than a third of all Welsh local authorities will be led by independent councillors over the next four years.
Going one stage further, this means that they'll be playing their part on 15 out of 22 councils cabinet or boards - the top table of council committee groups.
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Lord Sebastian Coe paid a flying visit to North Wales yesterday, including stopping off in Wrexham, to hear the county's plans for preparing three pre-games training camps - Wrexham's Racecourse, NEWI Sports Centre and Queensway Stadium - in time for the 2012 games.
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Weekly highlights from bbc.co.uk/northeastwales
Boy sleeps on as lightning strikes - WWII evacuees' stories - Touchline trouble caused by parents - Street scenes - 'Hoodies aren't thugs' - Wrexham FC clear out - and much more...
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Listen to the podcast: NE Wales Update
This week - Eye on Wales investigates why council workers are facing a cut in salary as part of an equal pay agreement; Rob Thomas reports on the aftermath of the council elections in Flintshire and Chris Dearden meets St Asaph's answer to Lassie. Our sports team look at who's had the chop from the relegated Wrexham side and Roy Noble celebrates North Wales' links with Liverpool.
The quote of the week comes from website contributor Andrea who jumped on the soapbox about Wrexham's Eagles Meadow shopping development - and how she expects it to be a lure for the town's 'sausage roll brigade'.
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Pupils from Ruthin's Ysgol Brynhyfryd will present this year's Urdd Gobaith Cymru (Welsh League of Youth) message of goodwill ahead of its annual eisteddfod. The message, along with a song, will be presented on CD for the first time and its theme is environmental change. Read more on our Welsh language news site (with vocab help). This year's Urdd Eisteddfod will be held in Llandudno.
Half of Britons have said hello to fewer than half a dozen people in their street in the last week, says a survey for .
Well, they should have sampled people in North Wales because I reckon they'd have found us a much more friendly bunch judging by the amount of people enjoying the last of the evening's sun together last night in Mold.
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Chief Constable pounces on his day off, Flintshire Welsh festival in photos; Close look at election results in Ruthin; and Wrexham woman dies in bridge fall.
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Weekly website highlights from bbc.co.uk/northeastwales
Pushing the car up-hill - Dog takes bus to seaside - 'In Concert With' Mike Peters - Arts Festival - Wrexham FC: What next? - History today - and much more...
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Listen to the podcast: NE Wales Update
This week, reporter Chris Dearden boards the first direct train between Wrexham and London for 40 years; is fingerprinting schoolchildren [tag: ] to reduce school dinner queues a good idea; Sarah Easedale meets the Cheshire villagers who want to be Welsh; Good Morning Wales travels to the European Parliament in Strasbourg with a group of Denbighshire students and a naughty cockerel is expelled by a school in Llandudno.
Meanwhile, today's Roy Noble show [from 2.30pm] is looking at links between Liverpool and Wrexham which is a theme of this year's Wrexham Arts Festival.
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So came in at a usually ungodly hour and Labour lost control of the council.
Now we're waiting on Wrexham and Denbighshire and will be providing results.
For info, the newspaper has been providing an ultra local service using their account to post results on a ward by ward basis - and real time updates like, Postal votes are being opened and verified. So many questions will be answered today, and the atmosphere is electric.
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That's according to journalist who discusses whether chief executives of big organisations should be using the web more to give an account of themselves - just like North Wales Police Chief Constable, .
There will be many people who believe, often for good reason, that it is simply not done for public servants to sound off in public. Would we be comfortable with the commander in chief of the armed forces being so frank about government policy?
And yet chief executives of public organisations are no longer expected to be mere administrators. In the era of the £200,000-a-year council chief executive, they are also expected to be leaders - arguing the case for policy, engaging in debate, demonstrating accountability, and providing a degree of transparency about the organisation's work.
Brunstrom's blog certainly ticks those boxes in ways that vapid annual reports and anodyne press releases will never succeed in doing. If you want to know "why" north Wales police are doing something, as opposed to "what" they are doing, the blog is instructive. And it tells you a lot about his personal style, where he is "coming from", how he wishes to present himself
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A new website has been launched called , and, as it's run from Wrexham, there are no shortage of local interest films like this one about Mold. has more details about the website's aspirations.