DerekJackson
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
So according to the Wrexham Leader today Clr Pritchard Leader of Wrexham Council has issued a challenge to AMs and MPS to debate the merger with Flintshire — he still has not said he would even have a discussion with Aaron Shotton Leader of Flintshire CC-
Why will he not meet with Aaron, what is he sacred of? Surely the starting point is a discussion with the other County that is the named partner in the WG documents.
I am also astonished how so many of those that have been polled on the Leader website have opted to stay separate when the facts have not even been put in the public domain– there is a real danger that this issue will be determined by emotion rather than facts.The one good thing about web casting is you can watch from the comfort of your home sitting through a meeting of over 4 hours would be horrendous which is probably why so many non Executive members seem to have left before the end.
It is right to say that very large numbers of visitors to the existing gallery are primarily going to the library. Like any venue though the number of visitors is proportionate to the type of attraction. What will they have in the new gallery that will attract ‘non arty’ people to the venue.
In response to the question from Clr Davies about establishing an Arts Trust Clr Jones replied that this will be done once all the work has been completed. Surely if a Trust is to be formed they should be in at the beginning helping design and more importantly encourage existing arts orgs to ‘buy in’ to the concept. Why is he afraid of bringing in members from the community to assist in the project at concept and development — is he afraid that their knowledge base will be to great.I hope Wrexham.com does not follow the Wrexham Leader by conducting a Poll on whether Wrexham and Flintshire should merge. Certainly not until all of the information is available to give people the FULL picture on this issue. t present most people who vote on such a poll will do so based on emotional attachment to a name rather than the hard facts.
The ind of information that would clearly influence a decision would be how a merger or how remaining separate will effect the individual Community Charge, or how the frequency of refuse collection could change, or the position of the respective authorities are in the various service league tables.If you have people with the right ability in these 3 , 4 , 5 positions then there is no need for the consultants.
I don’t know but perhaps the ability of the top tier management in Flintshire CC is far superior to Wrexham CBC hence the reason why they din’t even want to talk. It could be that at both Member and Officer level they are so far out of their depth in Wrexham they are drowning and the consultants are the life raft.
Remember the captain on the Titanic did not realize there was a problem till it was too late and it started sinking — it unfortunately feels like in Wrexham we are at the sinking stage and going under very rapidly.I am sorry to keep on about the Sell2Wales site and the £1 million pound but this is the fee value that is stated- PW is now saying £100k why then is this figure nit in the report for Tuesday?
You are criticizing the WG for not giving WCBC sufficient time – this is a disgraceful distraction the austerity measures hit English LAs 4 years ago why on earth did anyone in Wales think it would nit affect Wales. The fact that WG effectively delayed the cuts by two years means the LAs in Wales had got far more time to prepare and plan. Many LAs in Wales have used that extra time and been phasing their cuts over the past 3/4 years and are now not in the panic mode WCBC Council Members and Officers find themselves in now.
Only one thing comes to mind Gross Mismanagement and quite clearly non of the Council Members or Executive Officers will get a job as a consultant with PcW.Wrexview you have missed the point of the allotments it is actually part of the income stream to keep the place open!!
You will also be able to go to the open air cinema and sit to look at the moon and stars whilst the wind whips round your ears.
You will be able to share your food – with the other tables – as your food blows from one table to another- it will be best to sit next to a table with plenty of food you could eat free!
Seriously though when I went to the ‘exhibition’ in Chester Street and asked the consultant was the concept modeled on anywhere else in the UK — his response was that there was a similar example in New York.It is so sad that this whole concept has been driven by the use of property rather than actual demand.
The Council can gain income from the Police for having them in the Arts Gallery – the Peoples Market needs a revamp so link it to an arts project that has grant funding.
It would be interesting to know how much of the footfall in the existing Gallery is from people just visiting the Gallery and how much is actually due to people who have gone to the library as the primary visit and just happen to pop into the gallery.
Finding the use of a building is easy — finding funding to keep it open is not so easy particularly for an activity such as an arts and culture space which is generally regarded as free is nit going to be easy.
The Council report on Tuesday is working on the assumption that they will reduce their own contribution and the Welsh Arts Council will increase their share. How realistic is this? The Council are proposing many cuts to front line services that are not statutory how long will it be before their contribution for this type of project will be NIL.
The Council want to pass the project over to a Community Trust — why don’t they pass the overall project over at this stage so that any potential management in the future are part of the development – or not if the project does not stack up.
At the level of detail available to the public at this stage this project does not stack up and the Arts and Culture Community in Wrexham need to make sure they are nit sucked into a project that could be doomed. The indication of the Councils contribution is significantly less than they have been subsiding the Stwit in Rhos for many years which is a substantially smaller complex.If the Sell2Wales site is inaccurate — who put the information on it? Tendering for work is governed by very strict European regulations on procurement – As the PwC contract was procured through a Tender notification on Sell2Wales in October 2013 this was open to any potential providers all of whom can legally request details of the result of the process. To mislead anyone through this process could be open to a legal challenge so Clr Wynn needs to be very careful what he has now released into the Public domain.
I cannot see that anyone on this thread has questioned the ability of PcW to identify savings ( even if this does mean taken the identified cuts that existing WCBC managers have identified and rebadge under a larger budget cut proposal)what is being questioned is why are WCBC paying for senior executive officers and managers if they can’t do this themselves. Yes PcW have been involved with a vast range of Local Authority projects and have a proven track record — they have not however been used by them ALL. Many are going through Lean Mangement and Budget Cutting by using their own internal resources. As the decision to employ PcW in the time of the Labor administration and retained by the new administration does this not actually show there is a total lack of Confidence in the management team in the Council which is now being perpetuated and should be tackled as a capability issue through the appropriate employment process. The basis of this would be how many of the categories in the PcW contract are actually in the contracts for the Senior Executive management within the Council- there are bound to be significant similarities- that being the case why are Clr Wynn and co not dealing with the issue or ironically is this part of the PcW report – I doubt this will be the case as the report will be signed of by the said Executive Managers before it goes to Council Members.On the Sell to Wales site the £1m contract awarded in July appears to be a flat fee to FIND the efficiencies but not to deliver them — The Executive report for Tuesday of 10:1 seems to apply only on the discussion you will have on Tuesday which is whether to continue the contract to the implementation stage.
On a 10:1 ratio on the original contract the consultants should have already delivered £10 million of savings. This clearly is not the case as Managers had already carried out this work for the 2014/15 financial year before the consultants arrived.
It appears that in your response you are accepting the first £1 million cost with no return value
