Council Watcher
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There’s a big difference between Town Planners and Developers — planers may have a strategy but don’t have the funds to carry out a development. Developers look entirely at the investment value over a long period and critically build at the lost cost ideally buying land at low prices.
In the case of Wrexham Council, they actually owned the Eagles Meadow site and have leased it to the developer for a period of approx 200 years. The officers and Council Members responsible for the sales are the ones responsible for lack of funds to invest in the rest of the town. If the financial structure of the lease/sale used a proper business model it would have ensured that there was an annual income available for other town investment.
The Eagles Meadow developers will have recouped their original investment by now and still making profits from the apartment rents and the current shops- there will be a huge financial buffer that will not start to impact until at least 50% of the shops are empty. It would no take to much work to convert empty units into more apartments so investment income will be secure.
Why has this thread drifted so much from the title of refurbishment?. I hope the new pavement that is to be played is not the same crazy paving around King Street that was lifting within months and caused many people to trip. I wonder if the Council have learned anything!
Kingdon is likely to pull out of the contract BEFORE the Council terminate- this normal business practice – it will also let Bithell and Pritchard off the hook for keeping this fiasco ongoing.
It appears the second stall in Ty Pawb has given their notice in to the Council last week and are closing at the end of August. This is before all of the units have even opened up- not a good sign. There have been some one-off holiday club activities but these are due to close at the end of the month and there has not been anything done to promote any further daytime activities after the school holidays.
Unless some of the stall holders have a large cash reserve they are prepared to use up to keep their stall open it would appear there will be more following the two closures in the very near future- some have already been operating on reduced hours.
Jimbow your comment “In my opinion what a waste of putting them up as a Councillor” is actually far wider as the majority of meetings are held where Council Memre even when present are unable to have a vote that will ever overturn any proposals. With Executive Biard system the voice of Councillors is totally ineffective as only 10 people vote things through.
It could be that officers were not commercially astute when signing the Kingdom contract and have actually been saddled with a termination clause that they cannot afford whilst other Councils could have negotiated different commercial terms.
Or as I have said before they needed a ‘working group’ to come up with a recommendation to terminate as it then does not fall on Bithell/Pritchard – they walk away hiding behind ‘the committee said’ we should terminate.
Captin C the process is not about the suitability of land for housing at this stage just that housing can be built. The Building Inspectorate will check on the actual building reg. The best thing to stop the development will be once a developer trying to sell their first phase and fail. The commercial failure of selling houses will certainly stop developments of the further house building.
Brilliant news for Coleg Cambria and Wrexham and shame on those Councillors and Officers who went against the potential plan by CC for the Groves.
Unless iout actually had a conversation (very unlikely) with the ‘caravan owners’ who have they come up with the origin of the nationality. How do they not know that they are members of the Caravan Club just stopping off before going to a local caravan site?
As there have not been any more reports can we assume they have now actually left..
The personal comments being made on this thread highlights what appears to be a totally ineffective Union support service for Council workers. The decline in active union members over the past 10+ years reflects an antiquated system that questions whether they have a place in today’s working environment. If someone actually used their union fees to purchase an employment protection Policy they could get better coverage and also change to spend on private health care.
It is very rare if at all you ever hear that a Public Sector Union in Wrexham has actually managed to motivate their members to actually stand up for their rights.
Has anyone who is a Unison or Unite Member had a level of support that has proved beneficial to their terms of employment.
