Ty Pawb – success
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Posts
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Another “teething” issue (how many are acceptable?). Someone on the Wrexham Town Matters forum expressed frustration that they could not get information on prices or even get an enquiry on how to book the theatre space at Ty Pawb after making several enquiries. I believe that contact has now been made with the right people and the issue is pending resolution, but again major concerns that artists and musicians want to book the space but a fristrating lack of readiness means they are unable to do so or assess affordability.
If they weren’t ready they really shouldn’t have rushed the opening as all of these issues being reported online are completely killing off any initial buzz and hype around the place. Reputation that is very hard to regain is in tatters.
You can accept some “teething” problems when it comes to the building but not to have a basic management team in place to manage a £4.4 million project is just utter madness and gross incompetence at officer and Council Member levels for a project with at least a three year lead in.
All of these teething problems are increasing the running costs and also lost revenue from units that are not complete or even finished off yet.
The project budget for the project was based on full occupancy of all the types of units from day one- failure to act this is just increasing the deficit budget- collectively at the rate of a few £1000 a week.I was also told today that there is an issue with the food providers about who can supply coffee and drinks and who cant- I assume if this is the case the Council has included the type of restrictive covenants in the leases to reduce the level of competition between businesses. If this is the case then we are likely to see some cutthroat business activity as the food retailers compete.
That sounds like they are repeating the problems of the old People’s Market by having restrictive covenants.
[quote quote=147931]You can accept some “teething” problems when it comes to the building but not to have a basic management team in place to manage a £4.4 million project is just utter madness and gross incompetence at officer and Council Member levels for a project with at least a three year lead in.
All of these teething problems are increasing the running costs and also lost revenue from units that are not complete or even finished off yet.
The project budget for the project was based on full occupancy of all the types of units from day one- failure to act this is just increasing the deficit budget- collectively at the rate of a few £1000 a week.I was also told today that there is an issue with the food providers about who can supply coffee and drinks and who cant- I assume if this is the case the Council has included the type of restrictive covenants in the leases to reduce the level of competition between businesses. If this is the case then we are likely to see some cutthroat business activity as the food retailers compete.[/quote]
It is the same old story, if you want things to go wrong get the Council involved.
As for restrictive covenants, in the old Council tenancy agreements you had to list the type of goods that you were going to sell, and that wording went onto the agreement. Whilst it did not give you the sole rights to the monopoly of said goods, the Council were aware that variety of stalls selling different lines was beneficial to the attraction of footfall.
Food stalls do seem to attract more business and generate more income than non food stalls. However, this is not a problem when food outlets are all very busy. The problems arise when footfall drops and business sales drop likewise. Stallholders look around for other lines to supplement there income. This could happen at Ty Pawb if footfall drops. If it is happening as early as this, the future does not look bright.
As the Tourist Information Office also sells local produce and products it would be an even better fit for a position in Ty Pawb.
Called in today,a few people there what it will be like when the novelty wears off I don’t know. Still a bit of work going on. Overall not really impressed, at the moment nothing there to get me to go back again.
Following on from what I mentioned the other day, there are additional observations that several visitors have asked vendors within Ty Pawb where the art gallery is, it seems many people can’t actually find it. For an Arts Hubs-cum-Market this is not great, as I thought the idea was art first with a supplemental market NOT a market with a hidden away obscure art gallery that nobody can find – surely the arts bit was what the funding was supposed to be all about, rather than an upgrade and renovation activity of the People’s Market? Almost sounds like WCBC hoodwinking the WAG for the funds.
The other thing, that I can only imagine the vendors are rather unhappy about is that there is still no Wi-Fi set-up in the venue, so they still can’t accept any card payments. I reckon, if you count the time since the hub launched, it’s almost been 3 full weeks of trading – the inability to accept cards, must be costing vendors potentially hundreds of pounds in lost revenue. Many people no longer carry any form of physical cash on them due to the major use of chip and pin or tap to pay or if they do have cash on them it will be limited and will hold them back from making more expensive impulse purchases that happen when you have access to your full bank account/credit card limits worth of cash.
The Art Gallery needs either glass doors or a proper eye level sign on the doors saying Art Gallery through here. They also seem very narrow doors to me ! Better still they should be open but because the Gallery has a controlled atmosphere that probably isn’t possible.
Access to the Art Galery for someone in a powered wheelchair is not possible without assistance due to the door width – in this day and age for a public facility not to have taken this into account is quite extraordinary.
At the last Town Centre Forum, officers promised that the WiFi would be up and running by the 13th – the food outlets, in particular, must be losing at least 50% of potential takings — as there is no Cash Machine nearby anyone going to High Street for cash may as well go to one of the other eateries..
Presume that the traders will be getting reduced rent to cover the lack of WiFi – if so yet another reduction in income for the Council and another increase in the subsidy that will be required.
Its one thing to get negative responses about a building but when that translates into actually lost revenue for the traders and the Council the impact can over a short period of time become irrecoverable.
[quote quote=147968]Following on from what I mentioned the other day, there are additional observations that several visitors have asked vendors within Ty Pawb where the art gallery is, it seems many people can’t actually find it. For an Arts Hubs-cum-Market this is not great, as I thought the idea was art first with a supplemental market NOT a market with a hidden away obscure art gallery that nobody can find – surely the arts bit was what the funding was supposed to be all about, rather than an upgrade and renovation activity of the People’s Market? Almost sounds like WCBC hoodwinking the WAG for the funds.
The other thing, that I can only imagine the vendors are rather unhappy about is that there is still no Wi-Fi set-up in the venue, so they still can’t accept any card payments. I reckon, if you count the time since the hub launched, it’s almost been 3 full weeks of trading – the inability to accept cards, must be costing vendors potentially hundreds of pounds in lost revenue. Many people no longer carry any form of physical cash on them due to the major use of chip and pin or tap to pay or if they do have cash on them it will be limited and will hold them back from making more expensive impulse purchases that happen when you have access to your full bank account/credit card limits worth of cash.[/quote]
I think you’ve probably hit the nail on the head of what happened. The People’s Market needed millions spending on it so the Council came up with the unusually good idea of getting WAG to subsidise it by sticking a little gallery in the back. Quite clever really.
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