Council Watcher
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Well, this is now turning into a real hot potato for the new Chief Executive when he starts in September. There is now so much coming out from various quarters that no stone should be left unturned by an independent investigation.
The stall holders future is at stake whilst Council Officers and Members are in salaried positions that give a level of protection self-employed people don’t have.
It is time that there was a public meeting so that the people who are having to pay any subsidy – the public of Wrexham – can actually find out fully what is going on and what plans if any are in place to try and turn the fortunes around.
At the moment this feels like the Titanic with a Captain at the helm in total denial that the ship is going down – Ty Pawb is limping from one mismanagement issue to the next on a daily basis.
Rob confused with your comment about possible legal action — are you referring to the Council or Traders threatening the action.
Alunh- I agree with the need for a root and branch review but not by the existing management (that includes the Lead Member) as they clearly don’t have the skill set to make a difference — if they did then surely being handed what effectively was a blank canvas to develop but unfortunately failed. This is not personal as I am sure they are very nice people.
If they (the Council) cannot even get their rental income systems sorted shows the level of incompetence across the Council. There are two sides to any set of accounts – income and expenditure- failure to balance these is only resulting in more and more loss. Financial Management on this scale is not even to do with the Ty Pawb management as it surely goes to the top of the Finance Department not to have had systems in place – they had a two year run in period!
The lack of the establishment of the “Advisory Group” (yes they advertised but never held a single meeting) shows that the Council probably have a bigger back hole that they don’t want external people to scrutinise. Having a meeting including external people would open them with independent eyes to delve into the whole running.
With so much negativity the Arts Council as the largest investor should be asking their own questions about how they agreed to pump so much money into a project that is on a closure pathway before the 1st Anniversary.
How the Council will present this disaster at their forthcoming budget meetings – “Difficult Decisions” when there will no doubt be proposals to cut more funding to Social Care and other services so that they can retain the subsidy for this vanity project.
The situation about no rent being paid has been around now for a number of weeks with the inevitability that any rent demand will be the thing that breaks the bank for a number of the traders so they will be off.
A number of the traders have never signed any lease agreement for the stalls so who can the Council chase if there are no contracts in place?
It will be interesting to see how much more digging that the BBC will undertake now they have the thread of a story that could unravel a number of mismanagement issues both locally and possibly within the Arts Council assessment process.
The situation about no rent being paid has been around now for a number of weeks with the inevitability that any rent demand will be the thing that breaks the bank for a number of the traders so they will be off.
A number of the traders have never signed any lease agreement for the stalls so who can the Council chase if there are no contracts in place?
It will be interesting to see how much more digging that the BBC will undertake now they have the thread of a story that could unravel a number of mismanagement issues both locally and possibly within the Arts Council assessment process.
50 apartments is a good start to revitalise the town as a place to live but it will need significantly more apartments/flats if there will be changes in the retail offer and restaurant/cafe culture developments that make areas in cities have a vibrant feel.
The good thing about the Henblas Street development is that it is a single developer and can progress rapidly. Ideally, Regent Street should be developed but the downside is that there are so many property owners it will take a huge level of funding to entice them to do anything that resembles a single development opportunity.There is a report due to Council in September – I’m sure they will try an gloss over the issues – “teething problems”, “market forces”, “delays in recruitment” – you can almost write the report with the level of excuses as the Executive have been so good in the past at spinning stories about other failures — the Sprouts fiasco was one example – report due in September.
Unfortunately, I predicted this over a week ago after talking with some stallholders- the closures/amended hours Jimbow has indicted are probably the tip of the Iceberg- others are saying they are likely to go as soon as the summer children’s activities have ended at the end of school holidays.
It will be interesting to find out if any of the trader’s -stalls and food have actually been offered rent-free for the time being to try and bolster up some trade. (Of course, this means a larger bill for the ratepayers of Wrexham to pay an increased subsidy!!!!).
Are any of the traders prepared to tell if they have been offered rent-free or discounted rental period as their trade has not hit the level that had been predicted in the business plan for Ty Pawb?
The only way any Council can influence a development and its location is by controlling the infrastructure of connecting roads. As most Councils across the OK do not own much of the land in a Town Centre or peripheral areas they cannot determine who develops the sites that are often owned by a very large number of landlords. It is only the likes of Llandudno where a single landlord (Mostyn Estates ) that a greater influence can be brought to bear.
Based on all the information we provide on the internet when buying products, answering surveys, the profile of jobs and social status in the area Lidl will be armed with all the statistics necessary to determine that the site has a significant profit earning. They will have their target to shift some of the spends from all the other supermarkets and discounters before the ink was even dry on the contract paperwork.
With this level of data, the High Street retailers know where to invest and which shops they need to close due to making a loss.
You can’t blame the planners for permitting the development as commercial competition is not the grounds to refuse planning permission – if they did there would be an appeal and undoubtedly be successful and the Council would have to pay costs to the developer.
All that can be hoped is that the Council have secured Section 106 funding from the developer to invest in local amenities and schools.
