Funding for Splash Magic
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Posts
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Andrew did any of the your labour colleagues including yourself put your hands up to save Plas Madoc leisure centre when labour were at the helm, if I can recall none of you did.
I agree with Dick 500k of tax payers money then you have Derek Wright from Cefn having his picture taken with Ken Skates welcoming the grant and he was another labour councillor who put his hand up to close it shame on you.
It seems some labour councillors are jumping on the bandwagon now trying to save face, one thing is for sure I like many others won’t forget who closed Plas Madoc LABOUR did.
It’s a shame to see this issue turned into a political cat-fight.
What threatened Plas Madoc Leisure Centre at the time of the initial crisis was the state of its finances. Every time that money was pumped into it, as a loss making concern, it had to be taken from elsewhere. Any politician worth his or her salt had to look at this in the round, especially as things like Nursing homes were also in the frame concurrently.
I’m not in politics and I’m not sure what I would have done faced with the clear financial mess that was Plas Madoc Leisure Centre back then. Given the history of its finances, at the very least canning it seemed reasonable. Of course, a timely public campaign was followed by a political split, a financial rescue and an admirable initiative to save this local centre. Now more money has had to be sourced to make a capital investment and over time possibly more again will be needed. In Economics they use a phrase called Opportunity Cost and the real cost of saving Plas Madoc is the sacrifice that the community has to make in terms of what the money spent here could have been used for. It seems that the general will of the local community is to spend this money and I hope it will be used wisely. Plas Madoc once had alternative income streams derived from the occasional Concert and it would be nice if this type of use could be revisited as a concept
Alun- when trying to work out the Opportunity Cist you also ned to factor in the impact on all of those people that use the centre if they did not have access and developed a variety of health related issues or use it for therapeutic recovery.
Yes the £500k could have been spent on the health service to treat a couple of patients– isn’t the value for money that 100’s/1000’s use the facility in the year and have health benefit or attend their under the Health Service Exercise on Referral etc.
There is no reference here to the £1m (no one will give full details) of the contract fee the Council are paying Freedom Leisure to keep all of the other leisure facilities open — yes your taxes and rates!#
It is time that people stopped picking on Plas Madoc and using it as a political football -look at the wider picture to we want facilities for all to benefit everyone – simple YES or NO. If it is NO then close Waterworld, Gwynne Evans, and Chirk etc.I Have to agree with Alun on this one regarding the opportunity cost. You may have noticed in the news lately that there is a care home crisis going on as most local councils are under server pressure due to cuts in funding from central government.
Each year for the foreseeable future Wrexham council will have to make real cuts in services. Fact!
You can’t say we should cut fat cat executive pay or trim perks for councilors and that will solve all the problems because it won’t. Although it may help a bit and it would be good for them to share some of the pain the common folk feel day to day that alone will not solve the council deficit.I can see where everyone is coming from regarding plas madoc / splash magic but everyone wants to keep all their local services and have no reduction in spending whatsoever. But I can tell you now that’s not going to happen long term.
Long term we are going to see some really harsh cuts in Wrexham which will have a hugely negative impact on peoples lives. You can’t keep spending more than you earn or you’ll got broke.
Hi Council watcher
I suspect you have missed my point here. My comments weren’t designed to dump on the Plas Madoc project but merely to remind those who are writing on here that whichever way you stand on this issue, it is not some sort of goodies vs baddies issue. Spending vast dollops of cash has to be dealt with very carefully and I can quite easily see why some Councillors might have concluded that the centre was a Money Pit…..
Things like the Plas Madoc Centre and the Arts Hub are very worthy projects but that doesn’t mean that Councillors shouldn’t evaluate whether they are the ideal mode of delivering necessary services into a community. There has to be a proper plan on the table with realistic budgetary projections because, believe it or not, someone will have to pay for these things over time
My apologies it wasn’t my intention to turn this into a political football far from it, I along with my family and hundreds of others joined hands around the leisure centre in solidarity to protest and stop the closure, when I read the initial comments it was like a red flag to a bull I had to reply. The volunteers should be commended because without them the battle would have been lost long ago good luck Splash.
Well said
Those who have played a positive role in this matter need to be applauded for what they have done. Brilliant campaign to retain the centre and very inspirational
I was never much good at maths BUT …:
Splash Magic’s delight in the brilliant improvement in support – and accordingly revenue – (congrats – well done) projects hope for the future ? As a supporter and an user of SM – sincere thank you to all for your hard work.
£50,000 requested from WBC – fair enough – …if this having taken into account the increased revenue?
If so – when (as already outlined) the Welsh NHS is severely short of money, Care Homes YET AGAIN facing closures, victimising the vulnerable…YET AGAIN…what are the reasons (and the rationale) behind the granting of an EXTRA £450,000.
Is it anything to do with the dynastic nature of Labour politics in the area,with an election looming – as already mentioned? Some sweetener ?…Or is there even more aspirations beyond…?
By the way…why was the Annual Accounts to the HMRC late…timing…?
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