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Powys County Times
31-05-2025
- Business
- Powys County Times
Rhayader chip shop discovers original 1950s menu board
A STROLL to the chippy for Rhayader residents of a certain age may now seem like wondering down memory lane, after the owners uncovered the original menu board from when the shop first opened 75 years ago. Evans Plaice marks being a fixture of Rhayader's high street for three quarters of a century this year, and is now being run by the third generation of the same family. Located on North Street, Evans Plaice is a traditional fish 'n' chip shop that sells all the classics, as well as Celtic pies, homemade Pizzas, burgers and Southern Fried Chicken. It also now boasts an ice cream parlour, serving Mario's ice cream. However, its roots can be traced back to 1950, when it opened as the Halton Fish Restaurant. And, to mark being open in town for 75 years in 2025, the original menu board has been found and is now on display in the shop 'We're proud to now have on display the original menu board from when the business first opened as Halton Restaurant 75 years ago,' read a post on the chip shop's Facebook page earlier this month.' The old board screams nostalgia and has not been touched, with the original blue paint on the wood board flaking off. RECOMMENDED READING: Back 75 years ago, customers could purchase many classics that still exist today, like cod or plaice, as well as sausage, chicken and steak and kidney pie. Chips were originally labelled as 'chipped potatoes', and while the Halton Fish Restaurant originally offered chipped potatoes with some staples that still exist today, other original items have disappeared from traditional chippy menu boards – such as sausage or bacon with egg; just egg and chipped potatoes, or cold ham and chipped potatoes. Cold ham and chips was the most expensive item on the menu in 1950, at just 39 pence – although in 2025 that equates to £17.08p. The Rhayader shop did, surprisingly perhaps, have a steak burger on the menu back then, at 20p (£8.76p), the same price as cod or plaice. The cheapest thing on the main 1950s menu was egg and chips for 18p (£7.88p). The Halton Restaurant also sold separate portions of peas and beans for 5p and 6p (£2.19p and £2.63p) respectively, as well as bread and butter for 4p (£1.75p). Fruit salad, fruit sundae, peach melba and ice cream were all available back then on the sweets menu too, from between 7½p to 17p (£3.07p to £7.44p); while drinks sold were water, Coca Cola and tea or coffee, with Coke the most expensive at 7½p. Somewhere along the way, the Halton Restaurant became Evans Plaice, and the chip shop is today owned by Andrew Lewis as part of the Croeso Grwp, a collection of family-run businesses which includes the Tŷ Morgans café, restaurant and bar, the Crown Inn and Lamb & Flag pubs, while it also re-opened Ty Penbont (the old Penbont House tea room) in the Elan Valley in late March/early April. 'The original shop was called Halton Fish Restaurant and opened by Megan and Edgar Evans,' said Evans Plaice. 'The business was then handed over to Andrew's aunty Eunice and uncle Lyn and then onto Andrew, as it is today, as the third generation of owner, marking 75 years in the same family and in the same building.'
CBC
16-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Ontario's bill to remove certain bike lanes to be tested with Charter challenge
The Ontario government's "irrational and dangerous" bid to remove three major Toronto bike lanes should be ruled unconstitutional, a lawyer for a group of cyclists said in court Wednesday, arguing the province's own internal advice and experts suggest the move won't accomplish its stated goal to ease congestion. Lawyers for a Toronto cycling advocacy group and two other cyclists are asking the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to strike down parts of a law empowering the province to remove the 19 kilometres of protected bike lanes on Yonge Street, Bloor Street and University Avenue, and replace them with vehicle lanes. "It's a narrow challenge to what we see as the irrational and dangerous ways that this government has chosen to remove these bike lanes," said lawyer Andrew Lewis. The challenge was brought by the advocacy group Cycle Toronto and two other cyclists — a university student who relies on the Bloor Street bike lane to get to school and a bike delivery driver who uses the lanes daily. They argue the province's bid to remove the lanes violates their constitutional right to life and has no connection to its stated objective to reduce congestion. The bill could even make traffic worse, they suggest. Removal doesn't violate Constitution: province's lawyer A lawyer for the government argued Wednesday that removing bike lanes does not violate the Constitution. Bike lanes were put in place under provincial law to reduce the danger posed by drivers, lawyer Josh Hunter said, and the government could choose to take away that risk-reduction measure for other reasons, such as to ease congestion. "No one's saying the government is causing the harm. It's the drivers on the road that's causing the harm," said Hunter. Six cyclists were killed in Toronto last year, all on roads without protected bike lanes, a lawyer for the cyclists said. Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative government has said that the law passed last year, which also requires municipalities across Ontario to get the province's approval for bike lanes that cut into vehicle traffic, was a bid to fight traffic gridlock. Lewis used the government's own internal documents to try to undercut that claim. Removing bike lanes won't reduce congestion, lawyer says He said a document signed by the minister of transportation on Sept. 9, 2024, advised that the government's plan "may not reduce congestion." He said a Ministry of Transportation briefing note dated Oct. 28, a week after the government introduced the bike lane bill, stated that "removing cycling infrastructure may not have the desired goal of reducing congestion." Lewis also cited an engineering report, commissioned by the government and finalized earlier this year, that found while removing the bike lanes might increase vehicle capacity, the actual alleviation of congestion may be "negligible or short lived." The same report also found bike lanes are predicted to reduce crashes involving cyclists, pedestrians and motorists by between 35 and 50 per cent, Lewis said. "Those facts were kept from the public until produced here, while (the government was) engaging in a public relations campaign to the contrary," he said. 'Two lanes is more than one,' government lawyer says Hunter, the government lawyer, argued the law was connected to its purpose: to increase the space available for cars. "Two lanes is more than one," he said. In response, Justice Paul Schabas suggested some traffic experts may question whether adding more lanes would just induce more traffic, and congestion could wind up just as bad as it was before the bike lanes were removed. Hunter suggested a study prepared by a Toronto Metropolitan University professor and submitted as evidence found travel times worsened after the bike lanes were installed. But Schabas took issue with that report, too, and how it compared travel times in 2020, when "hardly anybody was on the road" due to the pandemic, with times in 2021, when it was "a little busier". "I found that very odd," he said. The bike lane issue has sparked protests by the public and pushback from the City of Toronto. Mayor Olivia Chow and the city have proposed a solution to the province that would allow for a car lane to be returned to those roads while also keeping a bike lane. Mayor wants 'win-win solution with the province' A spokesperson for Chow said the mayor is committed to achieving a "win-win solution with the province." "Discussions with the province are ongoing," Zeus Eden said in a statement. Earlier this month, a spokesperson for the provincial transportation minister suggested the government was open to collaboration with the city, provided it funds its portion of infrastructure needs. Ford's recent re-election campaign included fresh promises to reduce traffic congestion. He has cited the bike lane on Bloor Street, not far from his own home, in describing the issues he hopes to address. The premier has said he's not against bike lanes but prefers them on secondary routes. Lawyers for the cyclists argue there's no evidence that cyclists would avoid arterial roads and cite Toronto's city manager as saying there's no feasible parallel alternative that wouldn't cut into traffic lanes. The initial stretch of the Bloor bike lane was installed in 2016, then extended several times since the start of the pandemic. It stretches around 13 kilometres from near Islington Avenue to Castle Frank. Temporary University Avenue bike lanes installed in 2020 were made permanent in 2021, the same year the Yonge Street lanes were installed.
