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What Were They Thinking?
May 29th, 2010
What Were They Thinking?
I shouldn’t need to say this as it’s in my information page here. But the views expressed by me in my blog are my personal views only. They do not represent the views of the party to which I belong, nor the views of the Cambridgeshire County Council nor any other body or person other than me. Since I’m about to be controversial, its important that this is clear. This is personal comment only.
Re: Wisbech Market Place. I don’t get it. I’m trying to get it - but I just don’t.
What is the point in having an extended debate that goes on for years, a public consultation and then a joint meeting (the AJC – Area Joint Committee) between bodies involved to come to a final and informed decision – if a couple of months later the whole thing is going to be overruled by cabinet?
I try to always make meetings. I believe in doing the work I was elected to take part in. It would be a slap in the face of the good people who were kind enough to vote for me if I then failed to turn up to meetings where I am supposed to be their representative. But then I look at this sort of situation. A situation where common sense had finally prevailed, where sensible middle ground had been found between the wishes of the different parties concerned. A situation which had taken a great deal of time to resolve – but rightly so because it was a decision which had to be right. A situation where we spent time and money consulting the shopping public, blue badge holders, traders and property owners. Where we debated, at great length and with great passion, how best to serve the wishes and needs of everybody involved. And I have to ask myself – why did I go to this meeting? What value did my participation have if the decision I (and many others) helped make has no value whatsoever?
Cllr. Alan Melton is a passionate, intelligent and strong leader who has surrounded himself with folk who are fast becoming real shakers and movers for Fenland. The last thing I want to do is criticise them, because they’re friends, colleagues and a dedicated team. But being a real friend sometimes means being a critical friend and so, with some trepidation - what were they thinking?
If you are a shopper or a pedestrian and as long as you are reasonably able-bodied, chances are you probably quite like the idea of a fully-pedestrianised market. After all, Cllr. Kit Owen’s whimsical dream of an olde worlde pedestrianised public area full of little bistros, sprawling cafes, elegant wine bars and (no doubt) some guy on stilts and a mime artist who looks exactly like a statue - is really quite attractive. It might be more realistic if it would stop raining once in a while and if new cafes were beating at Wisbech’s door for access to our lucrative fine-dining market, but let’s not get sidetracked by clumsy observations.
Meanwhile the traders in the market square, pretty much unanimously by all accounts, are absolutely terrified. Go ask them! They will explain how the recession has meant that they are struggling to survive. They will tell you how valuable an asset the current situation is, how people can park and shop conveniently in a way that gives them at least some chance of competing with the likes of Asda and Tesco. They will tell you that blue badge holders find it incredibly useful to be able to come and go without worry and hassle. They will tell you that right now, in the middle of an economic maelstrom, this is not the time to be trying some grand continental experiment with the town of Wisbech as the hapless case study. Maybe if the country was booming…
The Wisbech Standard this week tells us:-
Councillor Kit Owen, who presented the report to Cabinet, described it as a “contentious issue for too many years” but insisted that the council should work for the absolute benefit of shoppers.
He felt the move to pedestrianisation would “encourage vitality and vibrancy of the market place”. He also suggested that it would allow cafeterias to create outside dining and alfresco style.
Well, maybe Kit is right. His clever comment that we should: “work for the absolute benefit of the shoppers” is a wonderful soundbite. I remain unconvinced that crippling local business is precisely in the best interests of shoppers but I can acknowledge adept communications when I see them.
I want to be fair. Maybe Cllr. Kit Owen’s democratic experience has provided him with more insight about the effects of this project than everybody else on the Area Joint Committee in which his arguments were previously debated (and failed to win support.)
Maybe Cllr. Kit Owen’s business experience means he is better equipped to make a judgement than every single trader and business person who works or owns property in the market square.
Maybe Cllr. Kit Owen’s extensive political experience means that his opinion should hold more weight than the entire unanimous Wisbech Town Council, almost every single Wisbech District councillor, the Wisbech Chamber of Commerce and half the respondents from the published results of the public consultation earlier this year. It’s possible.
But isn’t there at least some chance that the people who actually run all those businesses have a point? After immigration, the number one issue on the doorstep in recent canvassing was: “What can be done about all those shops that are closed on the high street?” In many conversations with potential voters, strangely, nobody proposed the solution was to: “Kick the businesses where it hurts and do the one thing they are all begging us not to.” It may well be that half the shoppers who expressed a preference in the past quite like the idea of full pedestrianisation. I wonder if they’ll feel the same way, in a year or two, when those much-lauded painted facias that mask closed shops in the town centre have insidiously multiplied - a phantom reminder of better days.
Perhaps I’m being overly dramatic. I doubt that full pedestrianism will actually kill the town. Businesses tend to be more resilient than that. And I am aware that a sizeable body of people support this idea. It’s been a fifty-fifty split in public opinion, which is one of the reasons it’s taken so long to decide. But I’m concerned about the democratic message being sent here. Why aren’t the voices of all the councillors local to the issue being listened to? Why has the AJC decision been suddenly and inexplicably overruled? It just doesn’t seem right, somehow.
Council leader Alan Melton emphasised that Cabinet members had a free vote on the two options before them and he summed up the debate by saying: “The people of Wisbech deserve much better than what they’ve got now.”
Alan is right, as he often is. The people of Wisbech do deserve more than they have now. But we’re ignoring the fact that a perfectly good solution had already been chosen. The people of Wisbech deserve the option that the AJC voted for and which was democratically and properly decided. They deserve the option that their traders (and all the councillors who were actually elected in Wisbech) favour. They deserve the option that simultaneously leads to a safer and more attractive market area while protecting the access that is so vital to the ongoing business therein.
Maybe i’m missing some key information, some vital report, some change of heart that will explain all of this to me. But as it stands I remain bewildered by this surprise decision. I would very earnestly say this to the Fenland District cabinet – for whom I have nothing but respect and admiration: What were you thinking?
24 Responses to “What Were They Thinking?”
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Wikio
Lovely!
I could not have said it better.
Kit Owen is the best asset the Lib Dems have in Fenland.
Is he secretly one of them?
If so this is really a master-plan.
Its sexy when you get sarchy!! x
The shop owners are spitting mad. I was in town today and FDC name was mud all over.
Theres a solution to this.
Just elect a Lib Dem on the issue at the next byelection and they will reverse their decision.
‘For whom I have nothing but respect and admiration’.Are you kidding?Rethink your loyaltes.These people care nothing for wisbech.
The power has gone to their heads thats why
One the one hand we should be glad somebody has finally MADE a decision?!
On the other it IS the WRONG one. Typical.
This is exactly how local councillors should be representing the views of their constituents and communities: without fear or favour.
‘kin brilliant!
It is safe to say that if concillor Owen proposed it then it is a bad idea.
Next time dont read the text just the name at the top. If its Owen vote against it.
Moderator (Steve Tierney)’s Response:
I seldom take the same position as Cllr. Owen, but he is a solid councillor with strong views held for the best of reasons.
I am a proprietor in Wisbech market place and your right when you say we are scared.
I have talked with others and the feeling is nobody is listening to us and nobody cares what we think.
We thought we had finally got somewhere when the right option was chosen before and now this! Enough to make me wash my hands of the town.
I hope you take our side as nobody seems to care. All this talk about working for shoppers. We just own and work there after all so we dont matter?
Shoppers can come and go as they like. Demand a change and then go to another place anyway. Or later they dont like it and say they never wanted it in the first place.
But we are stuck with what our idiot council decide arent we?
All these people from miles away deciding what happens in Wisbech. Why are our councillors not stopping this?
Town centres are a dying breed anyway.
Close em down and build houses.
It wont be long until all shopping is done online or in massive out of town hyperstores.
Thats the future.
Moderator (Steve Tierney)’s Response:
While I accept there does seem to be a trend, your comment is an oversimplification of a complex issue. And even if you were right, which I believe and hope you are not, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to preserve the things we love. Or maybe that’s just become I’m a Conservative that I don’t automatically believe all “progress” is unstoppable – or desirable.
As a shopper I made up on the idea of full pedestrianisation. I did not know the traders were so worried about this but now you explain I can see why they might.
I agree it is not right to put the wishes of occasional customers over the needs of the people who own or use property in the area. I dont want to shop in a place where there are no shops!
The old option did see a good compromise. Everybody was happy with it that I know. I do not understand why it has been revisited TBH.
I just found your blog BTW and have been reading old entries. You make a lot of sense and are often funny with it. Keep up the good work.~
Moderator (Steve Tierney)’s Response:
Thanks -Mike, Jan or both as applicable. Please keep visiting! The more the merrier.
I live in a town which went the pedstrianised route and it did kill the town. It has a fountain in the middle which people sit around and is a nice area but where there were dozens of shops now theres a bank and a cafe and thats it.
There are two great evils of government.
The first is the situation where the elected members are subordinate to controls by unelected officers.
The second is where the legislature are subordinate to control by the executive.
It seems your local council has moved smoothly from the first evil to the second.
If you want to lay blame then look to your backbench councillors. It is their weakness which will have allowed this to happen.
Ive seen some polite expressions of rage before but youve just written the opus for quiet fury.
It sounds like the District Council is missing a “voice of reason”. You should apply.
Moderator (Steve Tierney)’s Response:
I tried, NotA, I tried. It didn’t work out so well.
Full pedestrianisation =
Mobility scooters swarming about like birds on the wing
Skateboarders Good News! No need for skate parks now!
Cyclists – zoom zoom zoom
You wont make anything safer. You will just replace rare car incidents for regular smaller incidents. My mum had her hip broken after a collision with an old lady on her whizzy wheels so I know what im talking about.
They could bring in the police to manage the sitch. But is that different to leaving it as it is and bringing in the police as it is to manage to vehicle problems?
You are in for some good times. District council has clearly decided to cut Wisbech free and let the Liberal Democrats run it.
Am I correct in thinking that Simon King was all for the option that the traders and town council agreed on, the one that Meltons just trashed?
Prehaps this is why they didn’t see eye to eye. Melton didn’t like anyone disagreeing so kicked him out. If I were cllr king I’d be talking to the papers right away – hell be a local hero
(Last line edited out for decency)
Moderator (Steve Tierney)’s Response:
I don’t mind strong views on this blog, but your last line was an unnecessarily rude attack on a colleague and added nothing to your comment – so I’ve cut it.
There are always two sides to a story, so don’t jump and blame until you have heard the other side.
Moderator (Steve Tierney)’s Response:
I haven’t jumped in and blamed anyone. I’ve posed questions, in the same way that lots of people are currently posing questions. I’ve tried to do so in as respectful a manner as I can, while still expressing my concern at this turn of events. I’ve gone out of my way to balance my mild criticism with positive remarks.
You’ll notice that throughout my blog post at every turn I choose to pose a question rather than make a point. This was deliberate in order to keep balance and be fair. But as much as a support and admire the current cabinet’s passion, I still can’t just sit on my hands and say nothing if I think you’ve taken the wrong turn. Which I currently do. You would not respect me for that sort of cowardly position and I would not respect myself.
Com’on then Jan – gi’s us the other side of the story then.
Or Kit ! Cat got your tongue ?
Steve, you are using a particular kind of ‘But is not Brutus an honourable man?” rhetoric to get your point across here -and it is a point you are making, not a question, even though it is veiled as such. “what were they thinking?” (in italics, no less) is almost a definition of a rhetorial queation, in fact
Its a good point, though – and there is a lot of research about the way pedestrainisation works in town centres (most of it saying that it does not work unless accompanied by other measures).
For all those people enjoying their bistros with their glass of “Non alcoholic drink” of course the market place is in an area where the consumption of alcoholic beveridge is forbidden. Probably all enjoying the painted murals on the newly closed shops.
What can I say.
Seems that the views of Wisbech Town Council and the traders of Wisbech count for nothing.
Maybe the first festivity upon pedestrionising the Market place should be a wake in memory of the failed businesses in the market place!
Moderator (Steve Tierney)’s Response:
Interesting. I knew that the Conservative Wisbech Councillors mostly shared my opinion on this issue, but I didn’t know how our Liberal Democrat councillor felt. It seems, on this issue, we are all united. Good news. Thanks for your comment, Dave. Appreciated.
As a Liberal Democrat sitting on the Cambridge AJC I totally agree with how annoying it is to have decisions overruled by the County Council Cabinet!
Local decisions made at the local level is what people want – when will politicians learn??!!
Moderator (Steve Tierney)’s Response:
Touche.