ddraig
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[quote quote=103566]Why is it that a town of Wrexham’s size doesn’t really have anywhere decent you can go for a bite to eat in the centre?
Somewhere like The Fat Boar in Mold would be great, proper hearty food cooked on the premises not plastic crap done in a microwave. There’s a real gap in the market for a place like this in Wrexham.
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Looks like there will be soon https://www.wrexham.com/news/fat-boar-confirm-wrexham-as-location-for-new-restaurant-112800.html
Good to see a local company taking a chance on the town centre, if they stick to the model they have used in Mold I am sure it will be a success.
The chosen location also seems to be right – not on the main bar crawl
[quote quote=109367]Might well be reliable.
The TK Maxx site is not up for let so I suspect they have a tenant signed up or in discussions.
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Might well be reliable.
The TK Maxx site is not up for let for suspect they have a tenant signed up or in discussions.
Think the ‘Cinema’ was misreported by the BBC. There is a performing arts space but its a small 100 seat set-up/can also be deconstructed. I would imagine to host events similar to what is currently hosted at Undegun on a regular basis (poetry, comedy, music).
[quote quote=105913]If Wrexham had a Vanderbilt, Peabody, Carnegie or Saatchi minded to fund a Peoples Market Arts Hub I still have no doubt it would fail, as it is in the wrong place with the wrong demographic, but its their money.
Going ahead with this project using Wrexham Council Tax even in part is a different matter. Its all very well stating the odd £80k isn’t a large amount if it is private money on the hook but it isn’t.
There are families, couples and single people in Wrexham that genuinely struggle to pay their Council Tax.
Wrexham Council should be trying their hardest to minimise the likelihood of asking for a further increase in CT every year rather than pushing ahead with a vanity project that suggests they care even less about people that struggle to pay it than people in Wrexham care for this arts hub.
If Wrexham Council has enough money to fund this we can assume no increase in 2016 CT yes ?
No![/quote]
Sorry that is nonsense.
Would you say the same of Wakefield? Very similar demographic.
[quote quote=105887]
People who would take the time to fill in an on line survey would be in favour, as I said go round the town with a clip board ![/quote]
Agreed people who were strongly in favour would fill out the survey, but so would those who were just as strongly against.
[quote quote=105872]ddraig. You quote 60% of respondents agree with the proposal to have an arts and cultural space at the People’s Market. When they were asked, were they told that it would cost 4.1/2 million pounds to bring to fruition? I guess not, as I believe on the same lines as MP1953,the 60% may have turned out to be 2%.
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So you would have each consultation explicitly ask each Wrexham resident?
And the £4.5m figure is misleading, since the council contribution is at £1.5m.
Again I am not saying the council have consulted to communicated well in this project – but throwing figures around like that is misleading to say the least.
[quote quote=105843]
Have a walk around town and ask say 200 people and ask them would they support this project, if you got more than a handful I would be very surprised, personally think it is the City Status brigade at work once again ![/quote]
How about the 95 people that replied to the online consultation?
“Nearly 60% of respondents (57.32%) agree with the proposal to have an arts and cultural
space at the People’s Market with comments such as “Any cultural improvement will lead to
a social improvement in the long term.” It was felt that it would enhance the visitor
experience in Wrexham; boost the local economy and jobs and give an identity to the town.
There were also those respondents that felt that there is no place for art in Wrexham and a
large proportion of those not in favour cited the loss of the market and market traders as
being detrimental to the town although the project will actually include market stalls and will
increase footfall to the area and attract new audiences to the market.”Reference:
http://moderngov.wrexham.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=4154I understand your concerns, but the numbers we are talking are not that large in context.
How much does the existing Oriel lose per year? The figure quoted is not incremental. The turnover must be significantly lower at the moment due to the small size and exposure that the gallery receives.
With regards to ratepayer subsidy, its £1.5m capital from the council, for a >£4m regeneration project (surely good value for the Wrexham ratepayer, a worthwhile refurb of the market for retail purposes would surely cost more than £1.5m).
The on-going costs at 80k/year, i’m sorry don’t seem excessive. Its an arts centre, the opportunities for direct revenue are limited so actually that is a relatively low figure in the wider scheme of things. 80k in social or education would not stretch far at all, and to my previous point – this is education provision. Just because it is not text books and teachers doesn’t mean it does not have significant community benefit.
Sure I will get shot down by most other posters on here, but here goes.
Firstly, I agree that the council have managed the entire process and project incredibly badly in regards to communication and consultation.
That said, I do think the arts centre concept for the peoples market is a good one. Firstly, arts is a critical and often ignored element of our education – not just for children but throughout our lives. It gives us different perspectives and outlook on the world and the people we share it with. Wrexham Council MUST provide an arts service, this was the Oriel at the library and this will almost always be a loss making service as it is in pretty much every art gallery in the UK.
Combining the provision of arts through a town centre location helps to bring it to a wider audience but also utilise such projects to regenerate some of our empty/dilapidated buildings. Whilst the Peoples market is not the prettiest building, for a project such as this it actually does not matter. Its internal brutal concrete construction will actually add to the experience. The mixture of market stalls and arts will allow the centre to become much more accessible in comparison to the more enclosed Oriel at the library. We know retail provision in the town centre needs to fall, this seems to be a balanced way of re-purposing an edge of town centre building, whilst still maintaining an element of retail.
Whilst the council’s approach to this project leaves much to be desired the project costs itself actually seems pretty reasonable for what it could bring to the town centre. I was very dissapointed years ago when Wrexham managed to scrap a perfectly good theatre project at the last moment, lets hope it does not happen again.
