At last the press are taking an interest, lets hope some very awkward questions get asked of our Councillors..
David Jones MP has further blogged on this issue, here, and I can only support his call for greater transparency, our council, for the last 4 years, have shrouded themselves in secrecy, treated us like children and wasted hundreds of thousands of pounds in the process.
I certainly believe that heads have got to roll for this latest, now well publicised, cock-up. Cllr Edwards needs to be questioned about his part in all of this, for example; were the full council made aware of the 3 lease options? And why was the pier purchased prior to the results of the funding when it didn’t need to be. What, if any, input was there from local Colwyn Bay Councillors, I know funds were withheld by Cllr Chris Hughes whilst he was chairman of the pier’s charity but what other involvement has there been?
We have to take our hats off to David Jones, at least he is trying to force the Councils hand, like us, he too wants the truth to come out
The pier is now in the hands of the tax-payer, any further meetings MUST be held in public and open to scrutiny, let us shake the barrel squarely and see what rats run out.
http://davidjonesblog.com/2012/04/06/colwyn-bay-pier-a-long-and-sad-tale/
Murky waters, indeed, surrounding the pier but if one digs deep enough one can always find what one is looking for.
I believe it was Cllr Brian Cossey at the first meeting with David Jones MP and Steve Hunt at David’s office, he thought the proposals for the pier were a step forward and was even hopeful of a positive result.
The problems came at the second meeting, held at Bodlondeb, David Jones MP, Steve Hunt, Ken Finch, Iwan Davies and Cllr Goronwy Edwards were all there. At the meeting 3 different lease options were put on the table, I think it would be unfair of me to discuss all of them but I can say that all 3 options were at a lower rate per sq foot than what the Council currently lets it’s seafront property out at.
Cllr Edwards got the hump about what Steve Hunt had wrote about him and allowed his personal feelings to get in the way of conducting a very important meeting about the pier’s future.
Now I cannot tell, because meetings were held under the 12a rule, press and public exempt, but I do wonder if the full council were ever made aware of the 3 offers that were put on the table, one that even started at a peppercorn rent.
This whole shambolic issue is going to cost the tax payer a lot of money, basically because one Councillor couldn’t keep his cool and, in my mind, had a personal vendetta to settle. We may never know the depths that this goes to but until someone at Bodlondeb starts to be open, honest and transparent I, for one, will have no faith in anything they do.
Now, I think, as soon as I press “print” on this article someone, somewhere is going to start accusing me of breaking the purdah rules.....well, maybe I am, maybe I’m not but personally I don’t give a flying **** I think the whole thing stinks and if they want to start accusing people then lets start at the very top shall we?
The High Street is dying, not just here in Colwyn Bay but everywhere throughout the Country, here we see empty shop fronts growing at an alarming rate only to be replaced by charity shops, pay-day loans and pawn shops....what can we do?
The Council have now purchased the Old Market Hall in Colwyn Bay and I still believe that they intend to use it for their own purpose ...
http://voicesofcolwynbay.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/old-indoor-market.html
We cannot blame the Council directly for the decline, on-line shopping, increased business rates and the current financial crisis must also take their part of the blame but what the Council can do is give the people a reason to come into Town. Use the Old Market Hall as a magnet, turn it into something to draw in the shoppers, I’ve already made my suggestions for its use but they were scoffed at.
If the Council do build their offices then it will turn Colwyn Bay into a virtual ghost-town, we need them to be far sighted and radical, we need them to visualise the future of what their decisions could entail but, most of all, we need them to think about the people and not themselves.
