THE WHITE LION

A massive congratulation to Simon and Nina at the White Lion for their Best Beer Award, well done!

Simon and Nina not only keep exceptionally good beer they, themselves, are fantastic hosts and there is always a warm welcome to anyone who enters…..surprisingly that includes me! There is a warm, friendly atmosphere throughout the pub and restaurant and the staff do an exceptional job of serving up some really tasty grub from a varied and full menu, there is always local produce on the menu and some really delicious “specials”. If you haven’t tried it I fully recommend it and guarantee you’ll make a second visit.

Well done again to them and I look forward to a free pint for this plug!!!

In all seriousness I strongly do advise you to give it a try, you won’t regret it.

CLLR MARGARET LYON

This blog and therefore I have, in the past, openly criticised Cllr M. Lyon and what I called the “Lyon Clan” but I raise no cheer for the way she was treated by the Conservative Party whom she as served well over the years, their actions speak volumes and goes to show the back-biting and stabbing that is prevalent in local politics.

As a contradiction to that I will also say that it is perhaps better that she may not be a Councillor for much longer, to my way of thinking Margaret epitomises all that is wrong with the Council and it’s deeply entrenched “career” Councillors.

For too long now the “old-boy” network of stuck-in-the mud diehards have ruled the roost of the Conwy hen-house, stuck in the glory days of ages past with barely a good or new idea between them. They have allowed Council Officer after Council Officer to dictate the terms to them, allowing the tail to wag the dog, it should be that people tell the Councillors what they want, the Councillor tells the Council and the Council tells the Council Officers. Unfortunately we (the Council) have now allowed the Council Officer so much power that he/she tells the Council what the people cannot have!

It is high time for a changing of the guard, the old fuddy-duddies have had their day and out lived their usefulness, time to change the sheets and bring in a new freshness, Councillors with enough bollocks to stand up to the ever demanding Officers who through glory, power or high wages think they are in charge and not the people who pay their very high wages and perks.

As for Margaret, I don’t know her personally, but I wish her well. I do know her daughter-in-law, Lynn, through the Town Council on which she sits. After a frosty few weeks I found her to be a mine of information on local commerce and we, as a Council, could do well to listen to her and the local trader’s input on many issues…but that is another story!

TOWN MANAGER

http://www.northwalesweeklynews.co.uk/conwy-county-news/local-conwy-news/2011/10/06/colwyn-bay-councillor-questions-funding-of-town-manager-55243-29545202/

The “unnamed Councillor” was, of course, me but I didn’t ask to be unnamed I merely stated that because it was a closed meeting I could not make an official statement, the Weekly News chose to “dress it up” the way they did for their own reasons, I don’t hide behind anonymity.

Chris Perry is right; we cannot afford to throw £10,000 at a Town Manager and that money could be a lot better spent elsewhere in drawing people into the town, his example of an ice-rink is a good one but so are many more.

The shopkeepers and traders of Colwyn Bay are the ones to ask if a Town Manager is worth the money and I can tell you their answer right now…”No”. On speaking to a few of them they do not know nor have ever met the Town Manager, the Chamber of Commerce do not even have a member on the Town Management Board denying them any voice in the progress of Colwyn Bay as a shopping destination.

The Town Manager, in her latest report, cited a list of initiatives she claims were hers but they were not, she may have had a hand in them but most were the work of other people. The one initiative that was hers, that she failed to mention in the report, was All the Little Shops, an internet based website for Colwyn Bay businesses. Ingrid Lewis came to us last year and asked for, if I remember correctly, £15,000 to set it all up, when asked she said a survey of shop keepers interested was very high but didn’t have the figures to give us but her enthusiasm was backed by her line-manager Rob Dix so we gave her the money. As of last week there were 18 shopping categories, 137 adverts, all very good until you look deeper and see that out of all that only 13 shops/businesses are actually doing the advertising! Works out it costs the council £1,153.84p per shop, not bad ‘eh! One of the shops has emailed the Town Manager to say they will not be re-advertising next year but so far haven’t received a reply, mind you they only sent it two weeks ago!

The Town council is requesting a job description from the County Council of the Town Manager as we believe her duties do include Rhos-on-Sea, the West End and Old Colwyn but again the shop keepers in these areas have never heard of her. An argument was put forward that she has sourced funding for the town but to me that doesn’t hold water, there should be a Council Officer appointed to source funding for the entire area not just town regeneration. She came to us not long ago to ask for £10,000 to pay for a consultancy firm to carry-out a survey to see where 3 pieces of art should be placed within the town! AGAIN why isn’t there a Council Officer employed to carry out surveys instead of spending 100’s of thousands on companies that come back and tell us what we already know? (she didn’t get the £10,000 by the way!)

To my way of thinking the County Council is full of none-jobs, jobs that are created when there is no real need for it, a creation of talking shops, where none jobs get together and talk about things that never come together but cost us, the tax payers, £1,000’s every year….what a very sad state of affairs.

Since posting this I have been reliably informed and have the paperwork to prove it that CCBC also put in an additional £15,000 to set up All The Little shops, that is a staggering £30,000 of tax payers money spent on what I believe to be a total wasteful project.

Don't take my word for it, check it yourself but don't count the adverts, count the shops...

http://www.shoppingcolwynbay.co.uk/

TAKE A LONG WALK....

The Pier saga rolls on yet there is no real end in sight, nobody seems to have a long term plan and the personalities involved seem more intent on back-biting, mud-slinging and personal insults than in finding a solution, here is how I would like to see it resolved…

We allow an energy company to build an underwater barrier from Rhos Point to Llanddulas Point, this barrier will contain turbines that work on the rise and fall of the tide and not the in and out flow of it, the depth of the sea just off shore will allow for this and, unlike wind turbines, power is guaranteed to be produced at least twice a day.

As a concession the Power Company along with private investors fund the lengthening of the Pier by 250 to 300m and a crescent shape is formed at the end to allow for shops and accommodation to be built. At the end of the pier will be a pontoon marina, making it the only non-tidal marina in North Wales, down the sides will be docking and storage for jet-skis.

Down the centre of the pier will be more shops with accommodation above and where the old theatre stands a new casino could be built. You may wonder why a casino; if you think about it the only private investors capable of funding a project like this would be somebody like a gaming company and there has to be a little give and take if a venture like this is to succeed.

The benefits of a project like this are plain for all to see, cheaper electricity locally, an increase in local revenue, more and future employment and an increase in footfall to Colwyn Bay of affluent people mooring their boats.

If we are to be successful as a town we have to be more far-sighted than the next couple of years, we have to look at a time when the regeneration money runs out and we have to be self-funding, it’s all very good doing a quick paint-job and sprucing-up a couple of streets but if nobody comes to Colwyn Bay to see them then what’s the point ?

We, as a county, cannot afford the so-called millions of pounds being talked about to demolish or restore the pier and why should the people have to pay for it’s upkeep for years to come or finance someone’s personal folly, the Council’s lack of understanding and business acumen over the pier has brought us to this point and it is their utter stupidity that will lead us further into the dark smelly stuff, you really do have to ask yourself; who got us into this mess and why were they allowed to do it?

BIRD FEEDER

This was sent to me after the recent riots.....

The Bird Feeder

I bought a bird feeder.. I hung it on my patio and filled it lovingly with seed... It was indeed a beautiful bird feeder. Within a week we had hundreds of birds taking advantage of the continuous flow of free and easily accessible food.
But then the birds started building nests in the boards of the patio, above the table, and next to the barbecue..

Then came the bird sh * t. It was everywhere; on the patio tiles, the chairs, the table ...everywhere!

Then some of the birds turned mean. They would dive bomb me and try to peck me even though I had fed them out of my own pocket.

And other birds were boisterous and loud. They sat on the feeder and squawked and screamed at all hours of the day and night and demanded that I fill it when it got low on food.

After a while, I couldn't even sit on my own back porch anymore. So I took down the bird feeder and in three days the birds were gone. I cleaned up their mess and took down the many nests they had built all over the patio.
Soon, the back yard was like it used to be ... quiet, serene and no one demanding theirrights to a free meal...

Now let's see ....... our government give out free food, subsidised housing, free medical care, and free education and allows anyone born here to be an automatic citizen.

Then the illegals came by the millions. Suddenly our taxes went up to pay for the free services; small flats are housing 5 or more families; you have to wait 6 hours to be seen by a doctor in an emergency surgery because it is filled with illegal non tax payers; your child's year 12 class is behind other schools because over half the class doesn't speak English.

Corn Flakes now come in a bilingual box; I have to 'press one' to hear my bank talk to me in English, and people waving flags other than 'The Union Jack' are squawking and screaming in the streets, demanding more rights and free liberties.

Its just my opinion but:

maybe, just maybe, it's time for the government
to take down the damn bird feeder.

SHEEPISH RETURN

Wow! I cannot believe it was December when I last posted, time surely waits for nobody.

I will not go into a drawn out reasoning for my absence save to say that I’ve had a couple of related illnesses, one quite serious, that have left me incapacitated for some months and also an injury that trapped the sciatic nerve.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the well-wishers and also the Councillors who contacted me offering their support, it was refreshing to learn that I had more friends in Council than I thought, a big “thank you” to all of you.

A question that was sent to me during my absence……

“Hi can anybody tell me who owns the old indoor market in colwyn bay? i wish someone would do it up and rent the units out to small businesses who can't afford the silly prices being charged in the bayview shopping centre.

By baz”

Baz, I can tell you that CCBC bought it on a CPO and although they will deny it I still think it is their intention to turn it into Council offices or some other Civic Building, this will go along with the rest of their plans of turning Colwyn Bay into a Civic Centre during the day and a Ghost-town by night.

My disappointment of CCBC continues with their purchase of the pier, another millstone around the council-tax payer’s neck. When will they realise that it is our money they are playing with and not theirs, if the council was run as a business and not as someone’s private little empire then the piers purchase would never have arisen and we would have been saved from years of upkeep costs on a white elephant. I am all for saving the pier, if it’s economically viable but not at the cost of more important issues.

On a final note; a quick thank you also goes out to Oscar, it was his comment on… thoughtsofoscar.blogspot.com that prompted me to step back into the blog, thanks….. mate!