Ioan y Ffin
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You can’t compare a child’s nursery/ child care business with a community arts and events centre. There are plenty of people earning a living running children’s nurseries (or just about as the government keep changing the rules) where the only privately run art galleries that make a profit are either in the centre of our big cities or in tourist hotspots and none of the latter actually host exhibitions, stage events, offer workshops and encourage people to get involved in the arts. Most council services don’t wash their face: schools, refuse collection, adult social care, social services for children, libraries, museums, parks etc etc. None of those services charge a commercial rate to their customers, they are paid for out of taxation and unless you are in the 40% tax bracket then you shouldn’t be complaining as you are getting a good deal.
Greggs have two other outlets in the town, as well as rivals Chatwins, Poundbakery, Gerrards etc etc. There are only so many pasties and sausage rolls a town of Wrexham’s size can manage to consume.
Same applies to Starbucks – one down and one to go. People who like a proper coffee are already choosing elsewhere in the town – Blank Canvas, Lot 11, Courtyard Cafe, Vasco da Gama etc….
Good riddance to Poundworld! Imported scr*p that worsens our balance of payments and does even worse for its customers.
Perhaps Eagles’ Meadow will manage to attract some more interesting tenants than the above three. Here’s hoping.Rowan Moore was commenting on the architecture of the building and Ty Pawb’s potential. No more and no less. He has a reputation for writing well-informed articles. I am sure somebody could find a critic to praise or decry what happens in the place, but he is an architecture critic, not an arts or business one. The People’s Market was grim claustrophobic low-ceilinged hole with all the appeal of a rarely cleaned municipal toilet bloc. If Rowan Moore had experienced what was there before, he would have found even more to praise in its rebirth as Ty Pawb.
It’s great news that Glyndwr is being ambitious and the new building looks like a piece of statement architecture that has the potential to match the quality of the original 1950s main building. However, there won’t be much room to ‘expand’or quality on these new housing estates that will be built on the land off Holt Road. Even at this stage, the architects’ drawings reveal that the new occupants will be packed in like sardines – just compare the density of housing on the planned estates with their neighbours, you won’t be able to swing a cat inside or even in your garden! Usually architects’ drawings have some artistic license, so the reality could be even more cramped as the developers squeeze every bit of profit out of the land at the expense of future residents.
It’s not so easy to challenge landlords (who are probably pension funds, investment trusts, private equity groups and other financial institutions based elsewhere, if not outside the UK) who work through property management companies who are also based elsewhere when the council has little power to actually force such landlords to change their behaviour. Any losses in Wrexham can be put against profits made elsewhere. Business rates are set nationally. Compulsory purchase is hardly an option these days. Probably the only landlord in the town, apart from private individuals e.g. the proprietors of the Fat Boar, Lot 11, the Bank and one or two others, to actually look after and invest in their property is the council. You need to redirect your fire elsewhere.
When there was more money about at least the council used to power wash the streets every year or so, but the age of austerity has seen that confined to the history books sadly because it has to come out of everyday spending i.e. council tax along with schools, social services,refuse collection etc etc and you won’t get any help from the welsh government for that.
Artgrad is correct. Creating a new brand for an organization is a big job and requires more than just being a designer or an artist. There will probably be a small team of people working on the rebranding as this is a major project for Wrexham. Choosing a good name & building a brand takes knowledge and understanding of what the new Arts Hub will be doing. A public poll would probably result in another ‘Boaty McBoatface’ which while very entertaining was a waste of everyone’s time. More importantly students at the college will want to know that they can make a career in art & design, rather than the design part of projects be done on the cheap. Overall, how would you feel if you turned up at the hospital, the dentist or the solicitor’s to be told – I am afraid it costs too much to afford a qualified person, but we have got someone on a work placement keen to do the operation, give you a filling or sort out your will. No one has complained about the architects, the electricians or the builders not being students. No one expects them to work for free or peanuts.
