Today (26th November 2013) saw a special meeting of councillors to 'debate' the proposal to loan £90 million to lend to Queensberry Real Estate to finance the Friars Walk retail and entertainment development (quite a mouthful eh?). The plan was passed by 44 to 1. So what did we learn from sitting in the gallery watching this depressing spectacle?
It looks like Kingsway Centre 2 is going ahead, underwritten by you and I in an audacious gamble which will see libraries, community centres and other services holding their breath and praying the worst doesn't happen. These will be the first things to go if/when it does.
I refuse to call the development Friars Walk unless I have to, and have given it a more realistic name, because Kingsway Centre 2 is effectively what we'll get in the long run - a shopping centre that will last a few years before the rot sets in, the retailers move out, and the budget and charity shops move in.
I won't dwell on the reasons why, they can be found elsewhere on this blog or on the Argus website.
Debate is a generous word for what happened in the Civic Centre this evening. There was no actual debate on the matter, and worryingly, not one well reasoned argument for the loan. Instead, what we had was a sequence of councillors giving their individual personal justifications on why they think it's a good idea to take out the loan.
These reasons ranged from the banal 'We've been waiting for so long for this', to the ridiculous 'Where else will the kids go if we don't build it?' The latter - from a Labour councillor - would be funny if it wasn't so thoroughly depressing. So that's £90m for 'somewhere for the kids to go'. I trust the Labour councillors will put their hands in their pockets to give the kids some money to spend, because they sure as hell aren't going to find many proper, well paid jobs in this bright vision of the future.
Tory councillor David Fouweather let the cat out of the bag when he said he 'wanted to be part of the council that made this happen'. Sorry Dave, your ego ain't a good enough reason for borrowing £90 million mate. The inevitable photo session on Kingsway Centre 2 Grand Opening Day is your personal reward, not a justification for the loan. I'll give Fouweather some credit for at least suggesting that he was voting on behalf of his residents. Fouweather said his residents had overwhelmingly told him they wanted the development. Unfortunately my neighbours and I must have been out the day he knocked our doors, because none of us recall being asked.
If you were to summarise the most popular 'reasons' given to justify the development, it was 'what other option is there?', closely followed by 'If we don't do it, it'll leave a big hole in the city centre'.
I'm sorry, but these really are not well reasoned arguments for something as spectacularly serious and potentially dangerous as a £90 million loan! These are things average people on the street might say when asked in passing by a TV news crew. This is what shocked the most - the complete lack of anything more serious than idle soundbytes along the lines of 'we really should build it you know'. Imagine if you could get bank loans or mortgages as easily, "Why do you want to borrow £250,000 Mr Mclean?", "Well I quite fancy buying a house or a starting a business.", "Fair enough, I don't need to know any more. Here you go. Is twenties OK?"
There was nothing - nothing - that could in anyway be classed as a serious reason. Certainly nothing you could take to a bank or other financial institution. No hard and fast business case built on research or evidence. Just 'gut feeling' that this is what we should do.
The word 'job' was used just once, and that was in passing. Presumably jobs is something people would rather avoid talking about considering the majority of jobs created will be temporary, part-time and low paid. It's fair to assume that many people employed at Kingsway Centre 2 will simply be people previously made redundant from shops in Commercial Street.
Tonight proved just how dangerous the culture is at Newport City Council. I will be astonished if (m)any of the 44 councillors who voted yes have the experience or knowledge to apply to something as major as a £90 million loan. Councillors are normal everyday people like you or I. It costs nothing to stand for election to the council and anyone can do it. But tonight 44 normal people like you or I voted yes to a loan that could cripple this city and jeopardise the futures of our children and grandchildren. Their reasons were little more than soundbytes or personal vanity and a 'feeling' that a retailer won't come to town if we don't. No proof. Just a feeling worth £90 million.
We will soon be putting our collective names to £90 million to underwrite the most expensive photo session of David Fouweather and Bob Bright's careers.
The only 'reason' I have heard came from Cllr Wilcox on behalf of the 3 Gaer Councillors, who said to me in a letter on Monday that, and I quote "...there can be no clearer signal to the people of Newport that the city, its residents and their futures are at the centre of the council’s plans". Clearly the ghost of the recently departed Chartist Mural is haunting the Council these days. They want us to know that they are now focusing on us, by mortgaging our future to the hilt and threatening the very future of this city if all does not go exactly to plan.
ReplyDeleteYou couldn't make it up. They seem to stumble from one disastrous decision to another. Where's the 'Plan' for reviving the City Centre? One Debenhams, a Chiquitos and a Cineworld (and a few others!) does not an economic recovery make.