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...
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