Phantom plan has yet to be seen; My Wales.
Byline: Ivor WYNNE JONESIF COLWYN Bay is to regain its civic pride, it needs a lot more than an empty echo of raucous chatter about "regeneration" plans that are invisible except when viewed through rose-tinted spectacles.
1 2 years of "regeneration partnership", can anyone pretend there is any visible "regeneration" actually taking place in this once-elegant resort?
If there really is a town regeneration plan, where do we see it? Where do we hear it being discussed and formulated?
How do the town's 26,000 inhabitants take part in the debate?
Not so very long ago, the answers would have been simple. The modern political buzzwords "partnership" and "regeneration" would never have been uttered, for they were part of an ongoing democratic process.
There used to be a close and active cross-fertilisation of thought between residents and their autonomous borough council.
The council was accessible to everyone, with regular monthly meetings, each fed by a cycle of specialist monthly committee meetings, such as parks, highways, entertainment, finance, etc.
Those pre-1974 councillors were, of course, altruistic enthusiasts who gave their evenings to the community, without any prospect of drawing wages for the job.
If the townspeople did not like what their councillors were proposing, they wasted no time in saying so, thus helping to mould the town's destiny.
Groups of residents could initiate council business by lobbying their councillors, who would then debate the matter publicly, so that everyone became aware of the project.
That was the formula which created Colwyn Bay, out of what was Lady Erskine's green private parkland as recently as 1865.
Evidence of the elegance and healthy economy the old pioneers created is there for all to see, albeit now afflicted by a pox of "For Sale" signs, including what was once the most famous shopping street in North Wales.
Even the parish incumbent has now been driven out of his town centre vicarage by drug addicts and beggars.
The town regeneration partnership has the pompous audacity to say its critics have not shown any interest in its work. What nonsense, in a town where people ask: "What is the regeneration partnership and what does it do?"
Local civic pride vanished in the 1974 reorganisation of local government. It was a costly failure which was replaced in 1996 by the present even worse system of remote "cabinets" of well-paid councillors.
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| Title Annotation: | Columns |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Daily Post (Liverpool, England) |
| Date: | Sep 11, 2001 |
| Words: | 394 |
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