Tuesday 4 August 2009

CCBC AND DEMOCRACY

Here, in Colwyn Bay, we have a wonderful beach, far better than Llandudno has; we also have the potential to have an attractive and inviting town. What we do not have, unfortunately, is a suitable link between them. Throughout the year thousands of people visit the beach and the prom but never step one foot into town, that is a staggering amount of lost revenue for the town and its traders. It is crucial that we improve access from the beach to the town centre; be it by a tram system, like I suggested or a land train that others have mentioned, it is imperative that we get that link opened.
Once we have that link established we need a reason for the people to use it, kids love McDonalds, why they were refused planning permission I’ll never know, kids will drag their parents through snow storms to get a big-mac. If we also improve the town in the way I’ve suggested and with the week-end market bringing people in; then there is no reason why the town cannot prosper.
The County Councils self serving idea of offices for 600 staff will be the final nail in the town’s coffin. The Council have already written us off, Councillor Chris Hughes is on record as saying “The future of Colwyn Bay is not in tourism”, he slated the idea of a market and a regenerated town and favours the idea of Council offices. He, obviously, sees the financial benefits to the Council of having those offices but he fails to see the misery it will cause to a failing town. There, as yet, has been no consultation with the public or community leaders, despite promises to the contrary. Our Labour led Council are, once again, denouncing the right to democracy. Their hopes of pushing this through unopposed have fallen by the wayside, they now use silence as a shield and hope that we’ll forget about it until it is too late. There is a nasty surprise awaiting them because we haven’t forgotten; we are waiting.

2 comments:

councillor Blog said...

I was living on Caley Promenade about the time that the A55 Expressway was under discussion. I moved to the Midlands and missed the outcome of the decision as to which route it would follow. Later visits to the area revealed the answer. In my opinion the location of the Expressway through Colwyn Bay has divided the town in two and created a silent barrier that people find it difficult to cross. Maybe the possibility of a "cure" is fairly remote.

DD said...

Of course, the railway has divided the town in two since 1849...but the motorway has certainly not helped matters in that respect. On the Italian Riviera, they had a similar problem as the railway hugs the coast closely, so they moved the railway and put it in tunnels behind or underground the resort towns.

When the Expressway was in the planning stages, there were three routes mooted by Consulting Engineers Travers Morgan:

Brown Route - The Coastal Route

Orange Route - through the south of Colwyn Bay on land allocated for housing

Blue Route - up through the hills above Colwyn Bay.

In the end, the Brown Route was chosen. The fact that it was the cheapest route to build of the three was, of course, purely coincidental!