BAY LIFE ( SECRET) INITIATIVE

The Bay Life Initiative and the Bay Life Quality Assurance Team (QAT), both set-up to oversee the redevelopment and improvements to Colwyn Bay but who are they really?
If we look on the Bay Life website,
http://www.colwynbaylife.co.uk/
This gives us no clue; it does not even tell us who runs “Bay Life”, how many staff it has or, indeed at what cost it is to us, the tax-payer. If you were to do a Google search of “Colwyn Bay Initiative” it will lead you right back to the Bay Life site, a search of CCBC’s web-site for the QAT reveals there is no information available or, indeed of its existence.
Fortunately I have the minutes of the first QAT meeting held in May of this year and, from it, I can tell you the membership consists of...
Cllr Gwyn Hughes, Colwyn Bay Town Council and CCTV engineer
Cllr Chris Hughes, Labour County Councillor, quoted as saying “Tourism in Colwyn Bay is dead”
Cllr Bob Squires, Independent County Councillor, wants to knock-down housing
Cllr Abdul Khan Plaid County Councillor, Chairman of Chamber of Trade
Cllr Janet Finch-Saunders, Conservative County Councillor, lives in Craig-y-Don
Alan Smith, works for CCBC as Corporate Improvements Officer
Patti Fitton, works for CCBC as Customer Service Manager
Communities 1st, a CCBC imitative
Apologies were received from; Mochdre CC, Llysfaen CC, Janet Finch-Saunders, Communities 1st and the Chamber of Trade (see Abdul Khan).
The first comment of the first meeting was made by Cllr Chris Hughes...
“It is generally accepted that there will be occasions for the need to have confidentiality, especially where potential projects could be at risk should information be distributed.”
Basically that means that not only do we not want to be open and transparent we don’t want what we discuss to be either. This is hardly surprising as our Labour/Alliance led Council have implemented the LGA 1972 100a, schedule 12 (exclusion of press and public) rule on, literally hundreds of occasions.
We only have to look at what the Council are doing /proposing to do to Colwyn Bay to realise that they want to turn the town into an Administration Centre, kill off tourism and trade and make it all offices, rehab centres and sheltered housing. These “Initiatives” and “Public Consultations” are a load of bull, for a start they are Council controlled and when was the last time you were “consulted” for your opinion?, these groups they set-up are mere puppets doing the Council’s bidding, they must think we are all as blind as they are stupid.
Colwyn Bay has got a future in tourism, not in the way it had of family holidays, but we can hold our own to the day and week-end visitors, we have the best and busiest of beaches, we have the pier, if the Council ever find the guts to be straight with us about it, and we have a great little town. Yes, we need restoration; yes we need to improve our access from the beach and yes we need to restore our pride but don’t write us off because of these. Instead of hiding your intentions from us ask us what we want or listen to our representatives. The public are against the Council and the only way to change that perception is for the Council to inter-react with the people, being murky and secretive is not the solution; honesty is.