A new hospital for North Wales announced

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 4:56 PM | add or read comments (0)

Just back from a week in sunny Mallorca. Very pleasant but unbelievably expensive. What's happened to Sterling? It's worthless. Europeans are burning it for fun.
Regular readers may recall my last trip there and a few choice "lost in translation" menus. I am pleased to report that the beach bar in Ciutat Jardi is still serving "mussels to the sailor's blouse". Add to this a great new find at a restaurant in Portixol which is serving up steaming bowls of "crap bouquet". Mmm.
I managed to find a telly to see Wales' triumphant conclusion to the Six Nations. No thanks by the way to an Irish bar in Palma which assured me the Wales v France match was 6pm on Sunday. Good job I happened to be thirsty at 6pm on Saturday and in the vicinity of another bar which had a giant telly.
Anyway, back to reality. We'll be splashing tomorrow on the good news that £300m is to be spent on a new main hospital building at Glan Clwyd. There is also more hopeful news about the future of breast cancer services at Llandudno.
We have the shortlist for our wedding of the year competition which attracted many thousands of votes. This event is shaping up to be a big success.
And we have a page lead on the frightening cost of a litre of diesel in North Wales - now up to £1.16 a litre.
Even with the dodgy exchange rate I could have bought wine cheaper than that to wash down my crap bouquet.

New tourism website launches

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 2:37 PM | add or read comments (0)

Our new tourism website for North Wales has launched. I'll say no more other than to ask you to visit www.northwales.co.uk and fill in the message box below with any comments you have on the site.

Many thanks, Rob Irvine, editor of the Daily Post and fretful father of a newborn website

• Tags:
• northwales.co.uk
• tourism website

Are you sick of gangs with their 24-packs of booze?

• Posted by Rob Irvine at 5:18 PM | add or read comments (0)

We are starting to crank up our coverage of the issue of binge drinking and its associated problems of anti-social behaviour and ill health, especially among the young.
To me, a lot of the sound and fury around the issue of extended licensing hours misses the point.
I think that round-the-clock availability of booze in licensed premises has had a limited impact in North Wales. By all means tell me if I'm wrong or if your lives have been affected.
The bigger issue, to me, is the ready availability of cheap booze in bulk. Teenagers used to slip off to the park with a bottle of cider. Now they are shouldering two cases of 24 packs of lager to the park. The more you buy, the cheaper it seems to get.
Our page nine report today highlights the misery one gang of boozed up people is causing in Porthmadog. This problem is repeated across North Wales. I've seen it and I bet you have too.
And I am pretty fed up of walking Max and seeing the aftermath of these ghastly soirees, the smashed bottles and discarded beer cans, the chip papers and fag packets.
So if you're fed up of gangs (mainly of young lads) tripping into the local store and out again with a crate of beer and a bad attitiude, and if you know that they are making a bloody nuisance of themselves, drop me a line or call our news desk (Debbie James and Rob Davies) on 01492 574455.

Station announcement...
A new reporter joined us today. Kelly Fenna has worked on the Pioneer, Wirral Globe and Wrexham Evening Leader. In a couple of weeks, Owen Hughes also joins the team. He doesn't have far to come - about 10 yards from his desk on the North Wales Weekly News. Join me in wishing them all the best in their new posts.

• Tags:
• binge drinking
• porthmadog