Matt
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
[quote quote=147169]I wonder if anyone in the Council contracting team even thought about putting in penalty clauses for non-completion of work by due handover date..[/quote]
Judging on how the Council contracting team allowed Virgin Media to run roughshod over digging up roads etc… to lay down some fibre optic cables, get it wrong and then be forced to dig it up again causing further disruption.
I very much doubt there is anyone of any kind of calibre or clout to implement punitive measures against contractors within WCBC. The very idea of competence or excellence within the local council infrastructure is Beggar Belief.
Something that gets continuously mentioned and compared to Ty Pawb is the success that the Altrincham Market has had in turning things around for a town centre. However, what I wasn’t previously aware of was the fact that the Altrincham refurbishment project cost £175,000 vs Ty Pawb’s £4.5m. If it’s possible to improve a space at a significantly lower cost, how on earth can Ty Pawb have cost that much to refurbish with so little in terms of value being currently shown?
[quote]
Fireworks for 250 people to watch….£10 k well spent. Thanks Wxm council[/quote]If that was the case we’re talking about £40 a head! That would buy all of them a 3 course meal in the Fat Boar along with a bottle of wine! I know what most of them would have preferred.
To be fair Rob does allow us to make our share of comments on Ty Pawb on here – such a massively discussed topic. Google has to list an aggregate of all the relevant threads from Wrexham.com when you search Ty Pawb – it comes up as the 4th hit.
Nigel Lewis on the other hand (he was mentioned in the other thread as a key Ty Pawb promoter and I mention his name as he’s group admin) on Wrexham Town Matters has completely lost the plot. He is becoming increasingly irritated by the non praise singing posts on his Ty Pawb photos. He’s stating he is deleting any posts that include swearing (fair enough) and any that mention political parties (why?). What he is allowing is personal attacks on members of the public who criticise Ty Pawb. I mentioned it in the other thread but it’s getting worse.
Because people are seeing that organisers and Nigel are having a go at the Ty Pawb critics other group members think that it’s completely acceptable to hurl insults and abuse about. It’s got to the point where earlier (I’m not sure if it has been removed now) someone who stated they were a wheelchair user expressed reservations amongst other concerns about whether or not they’d be able to use the venue okay so weren’t sure about visiting only to get a complete stranger tell them their depressing type were better off staying indoors and not coming to Ty Pawb as they clearly had no idea about enjoying life. Now I’m not sure if that was specifically discriminatory remarks aimed at someone disabled but reading the multi-post exchange, I felt like it was a bit close to the mark and uncomfortable as it was definitely a personal attack, an ad-hominem, when the original comment was aimed at a building and not a person.
There’s just something in the water at the moment, I’ve seen enough nonsense in the mainstream media every day in terms of personal attacks. Now the default stance seems for people to be utterly vitriolic online, when quite frankly they wouldn’t say boo to a church mouse physically in person.
Thanks Alun, I think they should take heed of what you have to say both positive or negative seeing how long you have been trading in the town – you’ve seen it all come and go. From what I’ve read in terms of what you have had to say about Ty Pawb and the town markets in general is constructive & objective. It’s ultimately the case that increased footfall from Ty Pawb, Techniquest & other new projects in town will benefit all other retailers, so they should be wanting to work with other local traders to set-up some kind of cross-promotional goodwill and not against them.
You get the impression that they are very scared of failure after the level of investment and there’s too much at stake for anything to go wrong, otherwise attitudes wouldn’t be quite so snappy against critics.
Another few interesting points for the day were that:
i) Just Desserts were unable to open and lost a major day’s trading due to the unit not being plumbed in yet. I mean really? They’ve known the launch date for several months now & plumbing is a vital infrastructure activity.
ii) The Ty Pawb website is not up and ready yet. So people were complaining that there’s no list of stalls/vendors anywhere to find out what’s actually in there and also no list of special events/upcoming activities. Both of these things would actually draw people. It’s not bloody hard to knock up a website – I’d be able to do a pretty decent one for them in a few days & probably at significantly less cost than what they are probably being charged at the moment for something not even ready on launch – Epic Fail!
iii) Wrexham Lager the Town’s famous pride and flagship drink was forced to have a stand outside in the rain rather than in the venue itself. What? Why? Did Alex Jones have exclusive alcohol rights indoors or something?
iv) Apparently nobody was really aware (poorly circulated) that there was free parking at the car park at Ty Pawb until someone made an announcement online mid afternoon. A few annoyed people had paid for parking elsewhere to visit.
v) Apparently the fireworks were so loud that a number of pet owners in town complained that their animals were hugely distressed. I’m not anti-fireworks but with the publicity trainwreck so far alienating another set of people seems like a bad move. People can just about cope with them being set off twice a year on Bonfire night and new year.
The postmortem of this whole thing is mad. I have just been going round reading and gathering stories of people’s stories & there’s an unusually large number of negative issues coming out.
My actual expectation last week was that I’ve got this whole Ty Pawb thing massively wrong and there’d be overwhelming positive, public response on the big launch day.
On a side note, I fully plan to make a visit at some point, so I can make an overall objective & honest appraisal of the situation.
But I declare that it’s not a valid position to say “Not yet visited – have no right to an opinion”. Otherwise many people would have to remain silent on a number of issues – The US, Catalonia, Syria, Russia, disproportionate spending on Cardiff/Swansea vs North Wales etc, etc…
Thank you for bringing your honest feedback about Ty Pawb Janey.
I was planning on visiting today with a skeptical but open view to see what it was like. However, I have actually been put off going by the incredibly aggressive and personal attack stance of several individuals associated with Ty Pawb against anyone who has had criticisms on social media of the look of the interior or reservations about how much it has cost.
It’s a very forced “You will like it or else type vibe” – it’s almost like we are in North Korea or East Germany pre-Berlin wall.
There have been 4 repeat concerns mentioned online by people who have visited.
1) The look of the interior – it has been said that it looks like a very unfinished, unwelcoming, dull and depressing space with the cages making it look like a prison
2) Performance set-up – The audiovisual set-up is very cheap and of poor quality. Someone in the know has stated that the performance space is not up to par because they have cut corners and invested in an unheard of Chinese brand of speakers etc… that would unlikely be fit for purpose of most performances. Professionals would likely have to bring in their own sound equipment.
3) Disabled Access issues – There is an overall lack of accessibility for disabled users – the issues you mentioned, plus someone has expressed concerns over the colour of words for those with vision issues, also wheelchair users have expressed concerns that the whole space is not really suitable for them.
4) The cost – People quite simply feel that regardless of where the money has come from £4m was not price justified on what has been presented on opening day. The debate will go on forever as to how and what funding should have been used.
Ultimately, I have a feeling that issues 1-3 can be rectified after feedback because the space could easily be made more vibrant, sound systems can be upgraded and spaces can be improved for access. Unfortunately this will come at more cost.
The success of the whole project will live or die on whether Wrexham users flock to it on a regular basis and help it and its users generate sufficient revenue. There are lots of people who need to be won over.
I can’t help but feel like the people telling everyone to shut up or make personal attacks in the likes of the Wrexham Town Matters Facebook group against anyone who says anything negative isn’t going to win that segment over, it’s more likely to alienate them and make them slate it further. Did anyone ever hear McDonald’s tell anyone to f*ck off when they slagged off their burgers? They don’t, they engage rather than enrage by challenging perceptions and invite them to try out. But currently Ty Pawb has its own army of trolls who make Ad Hominem attacks if their precious building has any concerns pointed out.
The debate over its success or failure continues…
I can tell you one thing, looking at the comments on various Facebook posts/groups McDonald’s has significantly better PR than Ty Pawb. At least McDonald’s don’t publicly try to attack their critics, but instead try and engage with them in a positive manner. I’ve seen several people being personally criticised and discredited for making even the slightest negative comment about Ty Pawb or expressing any level of concern over the whole thing, even if it has been something very subtle and non-offensive over a pre-existing issue like “Well the People’s Market Building looks a bit ugly for an Arts Hub”.
The people attacking the detractors are people who are clearly involved in Ty Pawb, so have loads at stake in making the place a success, but completely alienating prospective local visitors by behaving fearful of any negativity and trying to discredit them is p*ss poor PR in my books. Would they rather it was like the Emperor’s New Clothes? and everyone is to scared to speak out.
At the end of the day the way to really slap us critics down and show us up would be for them to focus and concentrate all their efforts on making the place a roaring success. They wouldn’t even need to say a thing then, we’d all just end up looking mightily foolish and be forced to admit that we were wrong.
There are likely to be several drug stashes used around the town centre by the plague of dealers out on the streets. Obviously the phone box got moved as that was regularly used in deals (I mean who uses a payphone to make calls these days).
My advice would be to confidentially tip off the police and then they can monitor and catch out a live deal. Otherwise, just sharing it online will mean they might get tipped off and then change up locations.
We need to set-up a WIRE.
No more pointless AM politicians please. Let’s be realistic apart from stupid projects that no-one wants the whole WAG isn’t good for an awful lot.
I mean really if you have an issue who thinks I know I’ll write to my local AM Lesley Griffiths or Ken Skates. It’s write to your local MP every single time.
I once wrote to Lesley Griffiths about the concern over closure of Plas Madoc & even though she would have had a large number of constituents who travel to and use the leisure centre. She basically turned round and said it wasn’t in her jurisdiction and therefore not her problem. Absolute farce.
Either go the whole hog and give the WAG sufficient legislative powers to make it worth all its cost and bluster or just knock it on the head entirely. We do not need more politicians, better politicians yes. I bet the vast majority of these new AMs would conveniently mostly be from South Wales and the Cardiff area anyway – further marginalising North Wales.
