Glyndwr to rise again

Cadw have published a plan to revive the spirit of Owain Glyndwr at key sites across Wales. The historic environment body for Wales proposes a series of major improvements to eight sites aimed at publicising Glyndwr’s life and achievements, improving the conservation of the sites and, of course, bringing money to the areas in the form of heritage tourism.

The eight places identified as best telling the story of Glyndwr’s life and uprising in the 14th century are:
* Aberystwyth Castle
* Canolfan Owain Glyndwr at Machynlleth
* Pennal near Machynlleth
* Harlech Castle
* Bryn Glas battlefield at Pilleth near Knighton
* Hanmer near Wrexham
* Glyndyfrdwy near Llangollen

The report’s proposals for Aberystwyth Castle, more modest than at some of the sites, include:
* A programme of re-enactments, including Welsh language performances
* Exhibitions and displays in the usually closed tower and underground room
* Interpretation panels
* Signage from the town centre and station
* Flying the Glyndwr flag from the tower all year round

The report points out that Aberystwyth Castle, despite having a, “pleasant, open and welcoming ambience” in a prominent setting a short walk from the town centre is currently downplayed and taken for granted as part of the town. The castle was the scene of a major siege involving Glyndwr towards the end of his uprising.

Canolfan Owain Glyndwr in Machynlleth is now working on a consortium, including Ceredigion Council, around the Aberystwyth/Machylleth/Pennal cluster of sites to access European and other funding based on Cadw’s proposals.

Although Glyndwr’s main image is as a warrior (as in the above statue in Corwen), he was a much more rounded figure than that with interests in higher education and internationalism. Whilst he's very well known to Welsh nationalists, Cadw’s plans will raise awareness amongst the mainstream population and visitors to Wales.

Prom bikes plan shelved till the Autumn

The plan to provide a motorbike parking area on Aberystwyth promenade (covered here) has been shelved until the Autumn following public protests. The delay will give the Council time to re-think the plans in the light of the comments made.

I have to say I feel a little sorry for Ceredigion's Highways department. They must be getting used to this kind of situation. It doesn't matter what the issue is, the scenario goes like this:

1/ There are widespread public protests about something or other. Everyone seems to be unanimous that 'something must be done'. So clear is the public view being expressed that it seems a waste of resources to do a full consultation.

2/ The Council takes heed and puts a plan together.

3/ On hearing of the plan, a completely different set of people, maybe even larger than the first and who were previously silent, launch a major counter-protest.

4/ Those originally calling for the plan melt away.

5/ The Council retreats with its tail between its legs.

Aberystwyth Roundup

Ceredigion Council continues to pursue the building of a multi-storey car park on the site of the current Mill Street car park. The Cabinet have now agreed the criteria for choosing the developer which will include stipulations on the quality of the building, use of local materials and support for the independent retail sector in the town. It’s hoped the building could be complete by 2014.

Plans to create a school for 3-19 year-olds in the Tregaron area have been passed in principle by Ceredigion’s Council Cabinet. Although the decision will involve closing several small schools in the area, it’s been far less controversial than similar plans for the Llandysul area passed three weeks ago because input from Assembly Member Elin Jones and County Councillor Catherine Hughes among others has succeeded in brokering two crucial concessions with the County Council’s education department.

A new federal primary school will be built at a site yet to be identified to the west of Tregaron to cover Llangeitho, Bronant and Penuwch schools. Similarly, a federal primary school will be created in Pontrhydfendigaid to cover the area to the north of Tregaron. There have been widespread concerns about the future viability of Tregaron secondary school which currently has over 200 vacancies and the plan is intended to end these worries. The planned new school will also be Welsh-medium, a step which will significantly help the long-term future of the language in North Ceredigion. Consultations involved a series of meetings with school governors and two public meetings. The Council will now proceed with a formal consultation, in line with legislation, to close the existing schools at Tregaron, Lledrod, Bronant, Llangeitho, Penuwch, Pontrhydfendigaid and Llanddewi Brefi.

Aberystwyth Town Council has moved to the (currently) stifling heat of the top floor of the Business Centre in Baker Street after being ejected from the Town Hall in preparation for the development of a new library there.

Hywel Dda Health Board's consultation on changing the official name of Carmarthen Hospital from ‘West Wales General’ to Glangwili Hospital has ended. On deadline day the internal staff poll was running at 58.3% in favour with 41.7% against whilst, the last time I looked, the public poll was running at a much clearer 80% in favour.

Siop y Parc in Blaenplwyf was the venue for the launch last week by Deputy First Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones and Assembly Member Elin Jones of a scheme to offer grants of up to £1,000 to people and small businesses living in broadband not-spots. A total of £2 million is being made available by the Welsh Government to finance the cost of installation with individuals and businesses being able to combine their applications to buy a broadband solution for their wider community.

An exhibition of children’s drawings from Gaza will be on display at the Officers Club, Terrace Road, Aberystwyth from 12th – 17th July with support from the United Nations.

The Welsh Arts Council has announced that all four arts organisations in Ceredigion currently receiving support from them will continue to do so in the next financial year. The four are Aberystwyth Art Centre, Cwmni Theatr Arad Goch, Theatr Felinfach and Theatr Mwldan in Cardigan.

Plaid Cymru activists are meeting at Aberystwyth University this weekend for their Summer School, an event the party have been holding since the 1930s. Aberystwyth will also be the venue for the party’s annual conference from 9th – 11th September to be held at the Art Centre.

A recent report on the seaside industry has estimated that 1,200 jobs are directly supported by seaside tourism in Aberystwyth. The report also found that the seaside tourist industry adds £300 million a year to the Welsh economy.

Aberystwyth University have submitted a planning application for a ground source heat pump on land next to Pantycelyn hall of residence.

Seagull season again

This slightly lost looking chap is a juvenile herring gull. And he’s probably hungry. There are plenty of them around Aberystwyth at the moment and, as happens at this time every year, they’re out looking for food the easiest way they know – by breaking into black bin bags on Tuesday and Thursday mornings which are rubbish collection days in Aberystwyth town centre. The result is often rubbish strewn all over the streets until a Council worker arrives to clean it all up.

Ceredigion Council regularly receives pleas from residents to find a way to end the problem. As an opposition councillor it would, of course, be easy for me to criticise, say, the Cabinet Member for Environmental Services over this. But, having regularly lobbied Council officers on the issue over the years, I know they’ve explored every conceivable avenue. Some of these have been more effective than others (last year a thicker kind of plastic bag was trialled - the seagulls laughed and cheerfully pecked their way through them ) but I like to think some of the measures they have adopted have been put in place because of the lobbying we’ve done.

Aberystwyth town centre is full of Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs) and narrow pavements, neither of which can accommodate proper bins. Bearing in mind these unavoidable physical limitations, let’s look at the more successful steps that have been taken over the past couple of years:

1/ A separate food waste collection has been introduced using hard containers so that black bags contain much less food than in the past, thereby reducing the incentive to the gulls.

2/ On most days council officers are out cleaning the streets from 6am. On Tuesdays and Thursdays – collection days – additional Environmental Services officers are out monitoring the way black bags are put out and searching damaged bags for evidence of names and addresses. Working on the premise that the best way forward is to target individual transgressors, they then knock on the doors of those with damaged bags and discuss with the resident alternative ways of presenting their waste, e.g. was the bag put out at the correct time, is the property suitable for a hard bin (which the Council provides cheaply), do they make use of the recycling collection etc...

3/ If no-one is in a letter is sent to the resident and/or landlord. In the case of HMOs copies are then sent to the Council’s HMO Officer who then tackles the landlords individually. Since the beginning of the season in March close to 150 such letters have been sent out. Only a handful of properties have had to be told a second time.

4/ Each term all 8,000 students are e-mailed with advice on putting out their waste via the University e-mail system. Council officers also attend the Fresher’s Fayre

5/ Lastly, in a new move that hasn't yet received publicity, the Council last week passed a motion to bring in on-the-spot fines of up to £300 for people leaving out black bags on the wrong day and other littering offences.

Is this enough? Could more be done? One solution often mooted is a cull of seagulls. Quite apart from the public outcry these generate, attempted culls elsewhere have been found to be ineffective as the birds killed are quickly replaced by others. Anyone wanting to conduct a cull requires a licence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. This specifically excludes the opening of rubbish bags, noise or droppings as a justification, so a license would probably not be forthcoming.

My feeling is that, if the Council is taking all the reasonable steps above, then the next most important thing is to give good publicity about who to contact when a mess is created and then respond quickly to calls. That way any litter problems are short-lived.

The seagull problem is only there, of course, because we feed them our rubbish each week. The gulls are probably very grateful and must think we love them. Unwittingly the Council may now have come up with a measure to address this that looks likely to be far more effective than all the others brought in so far. As reported on this blog, at an unspecified time in the next couple of years, and for reasons unrelated to gulls, the Council intends to increase its recycling collection to weekly and to cut the collections of those enticing black bags to fortnightly. At a stroke this would reduce by a half the food available on the streets.

A couple of years ago I was at a public meeting of around 80 townspeople at the Morlan in which the seagulls issue was raised. The chair decided to hold an impromptu straw poll on whether ‘something should be done’ about them or not. When the hands were raised it became obvious the meeting was split down the middle.

So, over to you. Do you think the seagull situation is a real problem or a fuss about nothing? Has it got worse or better in the last couple of years? Is the Council doing enough and, most importantly, given the realities of the situation, is there anything you think it could do better?

Llandysul school plans to go ahead

Ceredigion Council today voted to endorse the recent decision of their Cabinet to establish a new school for all children between 3 and 19 in the Llandysul area and to close five primary schools. There were angry scenes in the public gallery, to coin a journalistic phrase, when the result of the vote was announced as around 30 parent demonstrators shouted and held placards as they walked out.

The opposition Plaid Cymru group on the Council had proposed that, instead of school closures, a federation should be created in the area with existing primary schools under one headteacher but this was narrowly defeated 17 – 14.

Glangwili

Hywel Dda Health Board are consulting on changing the official name of Carmarthen Hospital to Glangwili from the current 'West Wales General Hospital'. The hospital's official name has always seemed odd when there are actually three other large hospitals in West Wales - Bronglais in Aberystwyth, Withybush in Haverfordwest and Prince Philip in Llanelli (not overly happy about that last name either).

Elin Jones, Ceredigion's Assembly Member says,

“I've always called the hospital Glangwili. Having been brought up in the Lampeter area, it's been my family’s hospital and I never went to see my grandmothers in West Wales General. However, I went several times to Glangwili!

“In my experience only NHS managers have referred to it as West Wales General Hospital, and not patients and visitors to the hospital. I believe that it’s better for all District General Hospitals to be known by their local names – after all, they're all hospitals in west Wales, and no one hospital in particular should hold the name for all of West Wales”.

The online poll will be available on the Hywel Dda Health Board’s website until 9th July.

Ceredigion & Powys to share highway services

Ceredigion and Powys Councils are planning to increasingly share their highway services in an effort to cut costs.

The two councils have been meeting for some months to sort out arrangements and are now in agreement that they can work more closely together on a regular basis following the holding of workshops between the staff of the two authorities.

The working together is likely to involve sharing highways contracts and workloads to take advantage of economies of scale. Ceredigion is also working with Powys on waste. The Councils have promised their staff the plans will involve no redundancies but that, when vacancies arise, they will be looked at across the two authorities. Responsibility for any work will remain with the individual authorities.

As an illustration of the kind of pressures highways authorities are going to be under in the new financial climate, the new Trunk Road budget is due to go down from £16.3 million per year to £8.1 million from September.

Gwynedd have also been involved in the talks but want to do more research before agreeing to take part. It may be that they’re also considering an arrangement with Denbighsire, Conwy and Ynys Mon. The idea of involving the private sector was thrown out unceremoniously at a meeting of Ceredigion councillors several months ago.

Ceredigion and Powys working together fits in with the Wales spatial plan which identifies Aberystywth as the main town in mid Wales and a town of national significance, as shown by the locating of the new Assembly offices at Parc y Llyn.

Plaid call in Llandysul school plans

Plaid Cymru have today called in the recent decision of Ceredigion's Council Cabinet to create a new school for all children aged 3-19 in Llandysul and to close five existing primary schools in the area. The calling in motion has been signed by Ellen ap Gwynn, Catrin Miles and Ian ap Dewi. The issue will now be discussed at a special meeting of the Council's Education Scrutiny Committee on 28th June ahead of a full council meeting on June 30th. As reported below, a similar proposal to create a new large school in the Tregaron area and close further primary schools is due to be discussed in the Cabinet meeting on 6th July.

Aber University selected as possible Olympic mountain bike training camp

A tweet just in from Aberystwyth University tells me they've been selected as a possible pre-2012 Olympic Games training camp for mountain biking, presumably due to the proximity to Bwlch Nant yr Arian and Coed y Brenin mountain bike tracks coupled with the good sports science facilities at the University.

Meanwhile, today's street cycling races in the town (see photo) went extremely well with entrants from all over Wales and several races over-subscribed.

Prom bikes to be organised this summer

Motorbikes will be given a designated place to park on Aberystwyth Prom and banned from parking wherever they please. That’s the decision agreed by the Ceredigion Cabinet on Tuesday. The plan follows numerous complaints over the last couple of years at the way bikers have been commandeering the full width of the Prom on some summer weekends, at times forcing pedestrians to pick their way through them in order to pass.

Some local people have called for bikes to be banned from the Prom altogether but the majority view recognises the economic value to the town of the large number of bikers, many from as far away as Shrewsbury, who enjoy a leisurely Sunday ride through the bends of Powys and North Ceredigion before ending by the sea at Aberystwyth. The mostly mature bikers are impeccable in their behaviour but, without parking being organised in some way, have often allowed haphazard parking to get out of hand.

The new parking area will be a seven metre wide strip of the Prom running alongside Marine Terrace from the North side of the snack bar by the bandstand for about 100 yards towards Constitution Hill and will accommodate around 100 bikes.

Aberystwyth roundup

After a bit of a hiatus on this blog over the past couple of weeks, here’s roundup of local stories:

Ceredigion’s Council Cabinet has voted to build a new Welsh medium school for all pupils aged between 3 and 19 in the Llandysul area. The plans will involve the closure of five small primary schools – Llandysul, Coed y Bryn, Aberbanc, Pontsian and Capel Cynon. A similar proposal for the Tregaron area is to be discussed at the next Cabinet meeting on 6th July.

The next round of public exhibitions on the proposed wind farm at Nant y Moch started on Wednesday in Penrhyncoch. The new proposals have reduced the number of turbines down to 64 from an original 106. The final decision wil be taken by the PCI , probably in 2012. If permission is given, the project could be completed by 2017. Further exhibitions will be held on:
Thursday 17th June, Y Plas, Machynlleth 3-8pm
Friday 18th June – Neuadd Goffa, Talybont 3-8pm
Saturday 19th June – Neuadd Capel Bangor 9am-2pm

Aberystwyth Art Centre has been credited with contributing £10.65m to the local economy each year in a study by a Cardiff-based concultancy firm. This amount has apparently increased by 50% over the past five years.

After a few teething difficulties with negotiating new contracts, Tai Ceredigion, the county’s new housing association, have undertaken to cut the grass of all its sheltered accommodations on a three-weekly cycle, significantly better than the performance of Ceredigion Council who previously managed the buildings.

A planning application for an extra 28 new housing units at Llys Ardwyn, on the site of the old Penweddig school, is the subject of a prolonged tussle between the developer and Ceredigion’s planning department. Last week’s meeting of the Council’s Development Control Committee agreed to ask planning officers to negotiate a smaller scheme. The Council’s Highways department also has concerns about the amount of traffic the new units would generate.

Hywel Dda Health Board are hoping that money saved from the revamped Bronglais Hospital scheme (see story below) can go towards a new health resource centre in Aberaeron.

Ceredigion Council has announced that sales of the various town centre council offices sold off following the building of new offices on the outskirts of Aberystwyth amounted to almost £850,000.

The Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth has launched its new report, Zero Carbon Britain 2030. The report looks at political and economic solutions to the challenges set by climate change.

Lib Dem policy changes begin

This blog avoids too much political sniping. But it does seem that a significant point was reached on Tuesday when Ceredigion's MP Mark Williams and other Lib Dems voted against including Trident in the government's forthcoming Strategic Defence Review, despite having given assurances during the election that they would oppose the massively expensive weapons system. The vote, which would have forced the government to consider scrapping the £100 billion programme as part of their financial cuts, came as an amendment to the Queen's speech proposed by Plaid Cymru, the Greens and the SNP. More details here and here. This could be the first of many Lib Dem policy changes as a result of their alliance with the Conservatives.

Major revamp for Bronglais Hospital scheme

Plans for the £45 million Bronglais Hospital Front-of-House Scheme are being re-written because hospital planners have worked out new solutions to problems posed by the site.

The major changes to the scheme, which is the largest capital investment in the whole of Hywel Dda Health Board, has been prompted by hospital consultants expressing concern at the distance patients would have to travel between the proposed new operating theatres and the current intensive care unit. A review has concluded that existing theatres could instead be refurbished, leading to a massive saving of space in the scheme. New plans are now being worked on which it is hoped will provide new day surgery facilities not previously included whilst still managing to reduce the scheme from five storeys down to three. This, and the likely reduction in timescale for the work, will be a massive boost for local residents who are currently subject to considerable disruption from the ongoing development work.

As reported previously on this blog, the scheme will ultimately provide a badly needed new Accident & Emergency department alongside a 14-bed medical assessment unit, all directly accessible from the Penglais Hill side of the site where another deck will be put on the current main car park.

As I write the car park is closed whilst drainage works are completed and the building of the extra deck commences. This, together with the demolition of the old maternity unit (the white buildings in the back of the picture in which many local people were born), is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year, allowing car parking on site again and paving the way for the new block to be built. In the meantime the hospital has arranged an interim car park on the Llanbadarn University campus and runs a regular shuttle bus from there to the hospital.

The whole scheme was scheduled for completion in August 2014 but it’s now hoped that date can be brought forward.

Continental cycling in the streets of Aberystwyth

The streets around the old college area of Aberystwyth will be transformed for three hours one Saturday night in June when they become the course for a series of cycling races known to aficionados as ‘criteriums’. These are races particularly popular in Flanders and Holland based on doing laps around closed-off town centre streets. The continuous turning, changing gear and accelerating is an intensive form of racing for the riders and the format is good for spectators as the riders are constantly passing.

The event, organised by the Ystwyth Cycling Club, will use a 980m course shown here and will have up to 50 riders in each race, quite an interesting prospect when the narrow streets and tight bends, like the two sharp lefts in the picture above, are considered.

The Aberystwyth Seafront Criteriums will be held on Saturday June 19th from 6 – 9pm.

NHS Wales at last taking action to cut its carbon footprint

Can’t find anything related to Aberystwyth in this press release by the NHS in Wales but I’m going to publish it anyway because it’s good green news and this blog likes good news.

The NHS in Wales will be undertaking a major exercise to assess its carbon footprint as part of the development of a low carbon strategy, Health Minister Edwina Hart announced today as part of Wales Sustainability Week.

This exercise will identify NHS Wales’ main sources of carbon emissions and opportunities for improving performance and reducing the carbon footprint. This is certainly long overdue. The Welsh Government is legally bound to produce a scheme setting out how it will promote sustainable development in all that it does.

Measures already introduced apparently include:

* All new hospitals are required to be designed to meet strict environmental performance standards. For example, the new developments at Ysbyty Cwm Rhondda Llwynypia, Ysbyty Alltwen, Tremadog and Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan, Ebbw Vale all incorporate biomass boiler heating systems into their designs (the new Bronglais development in Aberystywth unfortunately not included)

* Existing hospitals, including University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, and the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, Llantrisant, are introducing new combined heat and power systems;

* A £3million Assembly Government fund has supported 149 schemes over the past three years, including installation of low energy external LED lighting, highly efficient condensing boilers, improved insulation, improved internal lighting controls and movement sensors, that together were projected to result in savings of 13,400 tonnes of carbon dioxide over the three-year lifetime of the fund;

* Figures for energy consumption across NHS Wales show that consumption fell by four per cent in 2008-09 over the previous year and is now 17 per cent lower than the 1999-2000 base year;

* All 18 major hospitals in Wales have developed travel plans to support staff, patients and visitors to travel by public transport, car sharing or by walking or cycling. Other hospitals are now developing similar plans.

Edwina Hart said: “As Wales’ biggest single employer and organisation, the NHS is a consumer of a considerable amount of goods and energy and generates a lot of travel as it works to care for the health and well-being of the people of Wales. The work that I am instigating on determining the carbon footprint of the NHS will help me identify where further efforts should be focussed and help to prioritise future work in this area. Being more energy efficient is not only good for the environment, but also helps to save money.”

Examples of specific new measures are:

* The University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff has replaced its ageing combined heat and power unit with new, energy-efficient model. It is believed to be one of the largest in the UK and is the largest in NHS Wales and has the potential to achieve carbon savings estimated to be in excess of 3000 tonnes of CO2 per year compared to traditional grid supplied electricity. The £3.8million installation is estimated to provide annual savings of £1.6million, based on current energy prices.

* The Aneurin Bevan Health Board has introduced waste segregation and mixed recycling facilities across the estate, resulting in recycling rates in excess of 50 per cent of domestic waste being achieved in some of its hospitals and a reduction across the LHB of twenty eight percent in the amount of waste being landfilled.

* The Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has invested in new equipment to recover waste oil from the kitchens to convert it into bio-diesel for use in grounds maintenance vehicles and equipment.

All very heartening. The next thing NHS Wales needs to tackle is its attitude to the Welsh language.

The Dance of Life

These images show sections of a mural called The Dance of Life by Mildred Eldridge. Although now little-known in her own right, she was married to the poet R. S. Thomas.

The mural is a huge piece of work in six sections depicting man’s alienation from nature and the attempt to reclaim a lost natural wisdom. It was begun in Montgomeryshire and finished in 1956 in Eglwysfach, between Aberystwyth and Machylleth. Currently in storage at Gobowen Hospital near Oswestry awaiting a home, it will feature on the programme O Flaen dy Lygaid on S4C on Tuesday night (18th May) at 9pm.

The couple’s son, Gwydion Thomas, is quoted as saying, “I think that somebody should shift themselves and find a building for it in Wales. It should be on show”.

Given the Ceredigion connection, could it be displayed in Aberystwyth? Maybe it would fit on one of the large walls in the new Council offices or the Town Hall when that becomes a library or even Bronglais Hospital which runs an arts scheme. Just floating the idea...

Gwyl Werdd Aber / Aber is Green

Cliciwch i ehangu / Click to enlarge

The annual Aber is Green festival runs from the Bandstand on Aberystwyth Prom for five days from Saturday 22nd May. Full timetable is here. One event being highlighted is the talk and discussion on Tuesday 25th at 6.30pm with Peter Segger, probably the foremost organic farmer in Wales.

The Ceredigion 8,000 – Why

Ever since the morning after the first TV leadership debate Mark Williams’s second win in Ceredigion was expected by those on the ground. The incumbent MP always has an advantage but, even though Cleggmania ultimately amounted to nothing across the UK, the galvanising effect of seeing Nick Clegg holding his own on TV with Gordon Brown and David Cameron, with Plaid Cymru the only main party in Wales excluded, seemed to give the Lib Dems in Ceredigion a boost that Plaid had no answer to.

What was a surprise was the scale of the win. Not since Roderic Bowen’s victory over Labour in 1959 has Ceredigion been won by a margin of more than 8,000 votes and no-one has ever achieved 50% of the vote before.

The Lib Dems targeted the large student vote, sliding a leaflet under the doors in their halls with the headline, “Students will decide who our next MP will be!” – pretty irritating for local people. This can explain away some of the result. But most of the credit has to go to Mark Williams himself. The question opponents are scratching their heads over is how he managed it. The answer might lie in the contrast between the styles of Mark and the man he defeated in the 2005 election, Plaid Cymru's Simon Thomas.

Simon was a politician’s politician. I’ve spoken to, or heard comments from, a range of politicians from different parties all testifying to what an excellent performer he was in the House of Commons. He was highly credible on the BBC’s Question Time and seemed to effortlessly command large public meetings in the constituency. He was loved by radicals, including this one, for his no-nonsense stance on peace and justice issues, climate change and the Welsh language. At one time he was voted the hardest working MP in Wales. Unafraid of a political battle or taking on big local players, Simon once publically described the then County Council Leader as “fundamentally corrupt”.

On the other hand, in 2008, this is how Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail viewed Mark Williams in the House of Commons,
“We are assured that one Mark Williams sits for the electors of Ceredigion. Does he? Could have fooled me. What makes this all the worse is that the alleged Mr Williams - who may well be Inspector Clouseau, for all we know - won his seat at the last general election by ousting Plaid Cymru's Simon Thomas, an outstanding parliamentarian.”

So that’s the comparison from a political journalist. But from another perspective the story is very different. Engaging individually with his electorate wasn’t Simon’s strongpoint. Mark, on the other hand, for all his shortcomings at Westminster – and they sound quite serious - has become renowned for his warm and helpful attitude to all who approach him, including opponents.

The routine seems to go like this. He’s approached on an issue by a constituent. He writes a letter on their behalf which doesn’t get the desired result. He then explains nicely - really, really nicely – why he’s been unable to help. The constituent decides to vote for him next time because he’s been so nice.

In the space of five years an awful lot of coffee mornings are held in Ceredigion, and Mark Williams goes to a great many. You can guarantee that at each of these he’s spoken very agreeably to everyone there, apologised bashfully for his lack of Welsh, offended absolutely nobody and certainly hasn’t discussed anything as crude or controversial as politics. The skills he honed as a primary school teacher in Devon, Cornwall and then Breconshire are directly transferable to this style of political work.

It’s easy to disparage him for his avoidance of controversy and lack of punch, and activists from other parties do. But in cold, hard electoral terms they’re wrong. Decency is an underrated asset that should probably be given more currency in politics. Mark’s all-round niceness and approachability may seem to lack the evangelism, decisiveness and charisma expected of politicians but as a slow-burn, low-level campaigning tool it’s an absolute killer. Plaid activists, being generally more cerebral and ideologically-minded, really haven’t got to grips with it.

About 18 months ago I was helping at a Christmas dinner for the elderly in Aberystwyth. Mark was also present and obviously knew many of the attendees. At the end of the evening I watched widows in their late sixties quite literally queue up to give him a hug and kiss. Maybe it was the sherry. He may be the least impressive parliamentary performer ever to have represented Ceredigion but these women simply don’t care. His cuddly, non-threatening, nice-boy-next door attraction is more than good enough for them. And they all vote.

The approach doesn’t just get votes – it gets activists, activists of a certain sort. The day after the election I was in a conversation with a Lib Dem community councillor who had been flattered to be asked to join the party by Mark a couple of years ago and had quickly found herself elected. I congratulated her on the Ceredigion result but couldn’t resist mentioning the demise of Lembit Opik in neighbouring Montgomeryshire. She’d heard of Lembit but didn’t know where he represented and had no idea that he may have lost support due to some interesting extra-parliamentary activities. It’s almost inconceivable that a Plaid Cymru councillor would have been similarly out of touch. But there’s the catch. Plaid, and the other parties, are seen as ‘too political’ by these people.

The Lib Dem vote in Ceredigion has become a strange mix of the middle-of-the-road, the mildly radical, the Cymru-phobic and the kind of people who would form the core of the Conservative vote in any other constituency. All these people have effectively ganged up on Plaid in much the same way that Independents and Lib Dems on the County Council have joined together for years to keep Plaid out of power.

Mark Williams himself can be sensitive to accusations that he’s no more than a glorified social worker (not that there’s anything wrong with social workers) and at times during the campaign he somewhat angrily listed what he felt were his campaigning successes. Unfortunately anyone knowing anything about many of the issues he mentioned knew they had had very little to do with him. After one hustings I was regaled by community activists indignantly saying, “You’ll never guess what he’s claiming credit for now...”. Jokes began circulating that he was claiming full credit for the good weather in election week.

The lack of clear political direction conveniently allows the Lib Dems to adopt a tactic of being all things to all people. Whilst strongly stating their support for the badger cull when talking to farmers, Lib Dem canvassers in the towns told electors worried about the issue that Mark Williams was opposed to it. Whilst Mark, a non-Welsh speaker, supports the language in public, there were numerous reports around the County of his canvassers thoroughly condemning Welsh speakers on the doorsteps of those recently moved to the area. Eighteen years after Cynog Dafis’s extraordinary Plaid/Green campaign brought Welsh and English speakers together in a common radicalism, the Lib Dems were trying to divide them again.

Ceredigion, of course, could do worse. He’s never going to put the county’s name on the map as previous MPs have done but, in as much as he’s political at all, Mark Williams is on the greenish left of his party. In his victory speech he pledged to actively support a Yes vote in the coming referendum on more powers for the Assembly and will probably do a reasonable job of persuading some of his more conservative supporters, of which there are plenty, to vote the right way or, at least, not to vote the wrong way.

The bright note for Plaid is this. In 2007, two years after Mark Williams first won the Ceredigion Westminster seat, and with his party still with their tails up, Plaid Cymru’s Elin Jones was re-elected to her Ceredigion Assembly seat with a considerably increased vote. The two elections didn’t relate at all. And, just as my canvassing was telling me two weeks ago that Mark Williams was going to win again convincingly, that same canvassing was also telling me that next year’s Assembly elections will be very different. And that Elin Jones will win well here next May.

Ceredigion – the stark facts

I don’t suppose anyone reading this blog needs to be told the election result in Ceredigion. There are some pretty stark facts in it for all the losing parties and it's probably best to face them:

* It was the best Lib Dem result in Ceredigion ever in terms of proportion of the vote (50%) and the highest in numbers of votes since 1983.

* It was the biggest margin of victory in the constituency since 1959.

* It was Plaid Cymru’s lowest proportion of the vote since 1987, i.e. since the election before Cynog Dafis’s historic 1992 win when he more than doubled his vote (could be grounds for hope there then).

* It was the worst Conservative performance since 1974

* It was the worst ever result for Labour in Ceredigion

* It was the worst Green result since the first time they stood here in 1983 and the first time they’ve ever come as low as sixth.

Sobering stuff. More reflections to follow.

Meanwhile, Plaid's candidate, Penri James, who demonstrated at the count that he was a good loser, has offered this statement:

"I’ve thoroughly enjoyed meeting the people of Ceredigion on the doorstep during the election campaign and I thank them for their support. I also congratulate Mark Williams on his re-election.

“It was always going to be difficult as a first-time candidate in Ceredigion. However, with Plaid Cymru excluded from the TV Leaders’ Debates, it was a particularly challenging election for the party throughout Wales.

“I’d like to thank the many Plaid Cymru members and volunteers for their dedication and hard work on our enthusiastic and professional campaign, which has laid firm foundations for future elections”.

Plaid Back Greens in England

Cynog Dafis, Plaid Cymru’s former MP for Ceredigion, has written to green-minded electors urging them to vote Plaid in Wales whilst fully backing Green Party leader Caroline Lucas in her bid to win the Brighton Pavilion seat on the south coast of England.

Lucas is currently 11/8 favourite to win the seat from the Conservatives in what would be the second major Westminster breakthrough for the Greens following on from Cynog’s historic win in 1992 on a joint Plaid / Green ticket.

Cynog (seen here with Plaid's Ceredigion candidate Penri James) also argues that the model of proportional representation strongly supported by Plaid could eventually result in Green seats in the National Assembly.

His pitch to green voters in Ceredigion points out,
“Environmental activists agree that since Plaid became a partner in the One Wales Government there has been a step change in implementing green policies, including,

* A target for Wales to become self-sufficient in renewable energy by 2050 and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3% per year from 2011.

* A green jobs strategy

* A new farm support scheme, Glastir, with environmental protection at its heart.

* Emphasis on improving public transport and the rejection of the M4 upgrading plan.”

He points to the marginality of green issues to the main parties and the various prominent Greens, like George Monbiot and Professor Peter Midmore, who have expressed support for Plaid Cymru.

This blog’s favourite election outcome would be a tight hung parliament with a strong showing for Plaid, the SNP and the Greens in England to gain real concessions out of any new government.