People’s Market the Arts Hub.
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Do our Council really believe that even on the most balmy of a summer evening people will sit up on the top level of the People’s Market to watch something on a big screen ? We will find out on Tuesday at the Executive Board Meeting where they will decide whether to take the idea forward. Mixing an indoor market with and Arts Centre as a concept is to say the least unusual. The Council have a dilemma, they have promised the present Arts Centre to the Police and the People’s Market , for many reasons, is far from fully let. Someone then had the bright idea of solving two problems in one go by merging an Arts Centre with the Market. Would this idea even have made it to the drawing board if the Vibrant and Viable money wasn’t available? I do hope this decision not being pushed ahead on the grounds that if the money isn’t spent soon it will be clawed back by the Assembly. Surely there are better sites within the Town for an Arts Centre rather than a concrete car park and market.
An Arts hub ffs.
That’s really going to increase footfall for the town’s retailers.
You couldn’t make it up, you really couldn’t.The Oriel Gallery we have , has been very successful and attracted some excellent exhibitions over the years. It is well situated next door to the Library and is in a central location. No wonder the police want it for a Police Station.
Art projects are a very hard sell and a bitter pill to swallow when front line services are being cut.
If the council was deploying all possible efforts towards finding and attracting industry and investment to the area that will contribute a real, hard, fiscal return, I would be all for an Arts project.
I would be desperately trying to recruit a ‘Dr Gwyn Jones’ to repeat the successes of the WDA.
Regardless of some of the controversies that surrounded the man, he really did the business for Wales.Bring in some real, inward investment to the area to spread the rates bills of the remaining, surviving Wrexham businesses and THEN spend the money on vanity projects.
An online survey produced 210 replies of which 156 were local. Online observations produced 40 comments. Two drop in sessions produced viewing figures of 116 people.
Not the greatest interest from a town of 63,000 residents.
This report has not gone before a Scrutiny Committee. Why?
It has been recommended by the Corporate Land and Buildings Strategy Group.
At the “pop in ” session in a Council owned shop in Chester Street we were shown four, A4 pages of designs / ideas. The architect was not in attendance only a representative of the consultants. They were four pages of drawings not plans. In reality they looked like they were the result of a quick brainstorming session, there was no scale or accurate perspective. Surely our Councillors will not commit such a huge amount of money , in the region of £900,000 of Vibrant and Viable money, on the basis of four pages of aspirational drawings. If they do plough on with the idea the lifts and heating system need attention first, the latter has never worked properly since the build was built.
I like the idea of an Arts Hub in Wrexham. I also like the idea of Wrexham as a Market town. Unfortunately, the marrying together of the two is unlikely to work and, medium to long term will generate considerable on-going cost. Of course, short-sighted individuals will focus on capital grants that may be available. Don’t. Cost is around the corner.
The Peoples Market remains, potentially, a useful part of the retail and tourist mix in the town. I have heard it said that it is atmosphere-less and badly located. I find the latter a strange comment because it is flanked by 2 Car Parks, is close to Wrexham’s biggest Multiple centre (which it didn’t use to be) and is on Chester Street and very close to the town’s Post Office. The atmosphere is part linked to its awful décor and part to its lack of traders/punters. The décor could be fixed by looking at comparable centres and a quick trip down to Nightingale House warehouse might lead to the import of, for example, nice pictures to display.
On the punter side, is it surprising. Since 2006 it has leaked traders and there is now a limited range of businesses on site. Personally, I would not want to go there at the moment and the lack of any sort of food retail offer makes the notion of it being a proper Market problematic.
On the trader side, it remains clear that there are problems. I came there in 2006. The place was a shambles on an organisational basis. I discovered that the rent that I paid was way out of line with other traders and that most traders were on different terms and conditions. As well as variable terms, it was clear that new traders might negotiate short term discounts whilst some long term tenants paid a higher, though variable, rent. It was also clear that the Rents and Service Charges paid were designed to provide the maximum return to Council coffers so that strategic considerations like benefits to the town’s Tourism offer were not a consideration at all. This was a mono-dimensional approach and out of step with more enlightened approaches elsewhere.
In 2008 I moved into a shop unit in the South Arcade and traded there until 2013. By 2013 it was obvious that the Peoples Market had fallen victim to a range of forces and factors, recession included. Equally, the T J Hughes closure adversely affected foot-flow patterns. This was a time when dramatic action was needed and, in fairness, some remedial actions were undertaken. Unfortunately, little was done on the fundamentals of Rental patterns. Whilst any number of short term deals were available for incoming tenants, the long term approach remained. This means that there are actually no incentives for existing tenants to remain in the Peoples Market, especially as town centre landlords have made their own responses to the current climate.
In 2013 I tried to re-negotiate my own Rental arrangement and actually add capacity to my unit. As I expected, this hit a wall. Like several other tenants, I discovered that whilst the Council’s letting authority had no real intention of being flexible, any number of town centre landlords were. Accordingly, after 7 years of Peoples Market tenancy, I joined a string of those relocating to the town. On Bank Street, where I now trade, there are 3 businesses who have relocated from the Peoples Market on preferable terms. Within the town there are many others.
I trust that people will use these comments to further reflect on the current proposals because, if the Hub idea goes through, there will be no turning back
I’d be surprised if the highways dept are happy with any reduction in car parking in the town centre and where will people go for a joint and a piss?
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.
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