Mixed Messages

Home Forums Wrexham.com Forums Wrexham Forum Mixed Messages

  • Author
    Posts
  • #168209

    Ioan y Ffin
    Participant

    The organizers of Wales Comic Con certainly know how to cause a political storm and deflect attention away from the fact that they are the ones taking their Welsh event out of Wales. In short, WCC gets too big for its initial venue, they find somewhere bigger (which is what anyone sensible would do) and everyone else turns their decision to move into a nice political football to kick around during an election campaign. We can’t seriously be expecting the taxpayer to fork out for a new and larger venue just for this event unless there is some guarantee the place will be used on the other 360 plus days of the year. Comparisons with Celtic Manor are facile. Telford meanwhile is a city, with a major metropolis right on its doorstep so it is bound to have larger venues. Wrexham has very clearly stated that any councillor with ambitions to make Wrexham a city needs his head examining so we are sending out mixed messages: moaning about city status, then moaning that we should have city facilities.

    The council offers support to events in the town centre as that benefits the town centre, The calculations are bound to be different to events that are outside the ‘central shopping zone’. No one has made any suggestions as to what they should do. It is just the old ‘more should be done’ or ‘something has to be done’ platitudes.

    As for car parking, the council doesn’t own any car parks near the university so while free car parking in the town centre might help those prepared to walk out to Plas Coch, you could easily make the case, that we should be increasing the parking charges to take advantage of the increased demand so we could lower them at other times.

    #168213

    bubble
    Participant

    Maybe they could commandeer the car park of Eagles Meadow for Comic Con. It might be a tad draughty but it’s a good size and at least it would be dry (I believe this was one of the gripes about the Glyndwr Uni site).

    #168217

    DerekJackson
    Participant

    Park and Ride- school sites, Mold Road where the Circus goes,
    What part of this issue probably was the organisors wanted financial support from the WG Big Event budget

    #168220

    Matt
    Participant

    At the end of the day if each Comic Con was reported to bring £1m into the town each time & included massive cash injections to the hotels & restaurants etc… then all the local stakeholders involved – the University, the Council & the major affected businesses have dropped the ball massively.

    It’s a case of complacency and something being taken for granted. Had they set-up a special grouping to ensure there were no snags on the day (e.g. parking, transport etc…) on the staging of such a large event then perhaps they would have not been forced to look elsewhere.

    Although there is equally the argument in play that for everything that could have been done Comicon has become so successful that it has outgrown the town. The Telford venue is way larger & will tap into the entire West Midlands market – so from a commercial point of view it was a very smart move. They don’t owe Wrexham anything.

    I’m not sure what other assets they could use to have expanded the event locally – except perhaps the Racecourse – but obviously that is always dependent of what is going on – on a match day.

    I’m of the opinion that the Comicon will be such a success in Telford it won’t be coming back to Wrexham.

    Glyndwr could perhaps take on board lessons from organising this event and how to improve and again – stakeholder group I mentioned could be set-up to look at how future events of a sustainable size could be attracted to Wrexham.

    #168221

    Wrexham ITK
    Participant

    I heard that a lot on the Council are relieved that Comicon is going away as it was causing them headaches. The quote I heard from a Councillor was that, between them, they’ve had to deal with “literally tens of complaints from residents” about parking, traffic, etc.

    I also understand that, if all goes well with the one in December, Telford will become the permanent new venue for the Comicon (summer as well)

    #168233

    DerekJackson
    Participant

    This is a failure of the Council/ors realising the scale of the event that was going on. The attendance at ComicCon was higher than football games yet look at the effort the council have put in about the Racecourse. Gross failings by those that should have known better and taken on board the residents’ concerns at the outset.

    Perhaps the Council would have moved quicker re the car parking if it was Mon – Fri – Sta and Sunday is a close down as far as senior managers and the Council as a whole so they could not react to the parking issues. Thankfully, nothing has ever gone wrong of major significance if it had could the Council have coped, or would they wait till the Monday to respond.

    What did local residents used to do in the days when the Racecourse had crowds of 15,000 – 20,000 on a regular basis and Mold Road was closed far longer to traffic when the crowds swarmed up the road.

    #168234

    Wrexham ITK
    Participant

    [quote quote=168233]This is a failure of the Council/ors realising the scale of the event that was going on. The attendance at ComicCon was higher than football games yet look at the effort the council have put in about the Racecourse. Gross failings by those that should have known better and taken on board the residents’ concerns at the outset.

    Perhaps the Council would have moved quicker re the car parking if it was Mon – Fri – Sta and Sunday is a close down as far as senior managers and the Council as a whole so they could not react to the parking issues. Thankfully, nothing has ever gone wrong of major significance if it had could the Council have coped, or would they wait till the Monday to respond.

    What did local residents used to do in the days when the Racecourse had crowds of 15,000 – 20,000 on a regular basis and Mold Road was closed far longer to traffic when the crowds swarmed up the road.[/quote]

    In them days people tended not to complain, just got on with it, also it was more difficult to complain – no Facebook, Twitter, email, etc. Also, I guess people buying or renting a house near the Racecourse expected these inconveniences every so often. I mean, you wouldn’t buy a house on the road leading to Old Trafford or Anfield and then complain about traffic when they have home games.

Content is user generated and is not moderated before posting. All content is viewed and used by you at your own risk and Wrexham.com does not warrant the accuracy or reliability of any of the information displayed. The views expressed on these Forums and social media are those of the individual contributors.
Complaint? Please use the report post tools or contact Wrexham.com .

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

More...

Level crossing safety plea to North Wales holidaymakers this Easter

News

Three ‘never events’ reported at health board during February

News

Clwyd South MS welcomes plans for baby loss certificates for bereaved parents

News

More detail on club accounts as owners will ‘continue to offer minority equity positions to strategic partners’

News

Turnover up 75% as Wrexham AFC say ‘losses shouldnt be repeated’ as payroll nears £7m

News

Lasit Spearheads a Clean Revolution: Laser Technology Redefines Industrial Cleaning

News