Over the weekend, news broke that the not-for-profit company charged with running three major leisure facilities in Rhyl and Prestatyn had announced the potential loss of 77 jobs. Because Denbighshire county council announced they would issue a press release today, I refrained from writing about this pending their response. I needn't have waited.
Having had their budget cut by £50,000 (the total budget is £275,000!), Clwyd Leisure (the not for profit company involved) announced that it was just not financially viable to continue. Predictably, the council has responded with it's customary strategy of finger pointing. In addressing the announcement by Clwyd Leisure, the council cites the cuts it has had to accomodate elsewhere in it's leisure sector. If Clwyd Leisure goes in to administration, Denbighshire County Council has said it will support the redundancy threatened workers. That is a reassuring response for workers living in one of the unemployment hot spots of North Wales.
There is of course one aspect of this story which the council chose not to address. If the Clwyd Leisure administration is full of so many bad managers as the council would have us believe, why was the running of these facilities not managed by the council themselves? In their statement, the council referred to the great job they are doing with leisure centres elsewhere in Denbighshire. Why then have they selectively chosen not to assume control at the three sites in Rhyl and Prestatyn? Could it be that they knew that these facilities faced unsurmountable financial pressures?
The use of numbers to demonstrate the council arguments do not stand up to scrutiny. They refer to the £400,000 budget to run the other seven facilities within the county as against the colossal £275,000 to run the three sites in Rhyl and Prestatyn. Unless they really do believe us all to be even greener than we are cabbage looking, I feel the need to point out a few technical points. Rhyl and Prestatyn have the highest population in Denbighshire so I'm only surprised their budget has been so low. Rhyl and Prestatyn are also the main tourism draws for Denbighshire. Tourism brings in money to the county. It would be normal to invest more in these areas since they will play the biggest part in regenerating the economy of the county.
The bigger picture here is summed up by the comment of the council employee charged with the running of these facilities. "We do not fund failure" was his response. That comment is worthy of analysis. In truth, the three sites in Rhyl and Prestatyn are failing because they haven't been adequately funded. To say they don't fund failure when they have underfunded to cause the failure is actually laughable. In the private sector, such a response would not see out the day.
It is quite obvious here that the council has been harbouring a hidden agenda. Their counterparts in Wrexham have just announced the closure of two massive leisure facilities. Conveniently, they intend to replace them with one facility. That's fine but it will mean that people living on the Plas Madoc estate will be the losers since they will lose their leisure facility. This is a real shame because like the West End of Rhyl, Plas Madoc boasts one of the most socially deprived areas in the UK. Is there a theme here I wonder?
Rhyl has been systematically let down by the local council for a long time now and so the landscape on the front looks like it can look forward to another great site of dereliction in the near future. With the Rhyl Sky Tower (which can't ever be used again for health and safety reasons), the Sun Centre and Pavilion Theatre look set to augment the eye sore on the front at the West End as planners continue their interminable dithering about what to do.
Let's just stop and consider a really important point here. Why were there so many hotels and guest houses along the front in Rhyl and Prestatyn? Believe it or not, it is because they boast a long tradition of providing holidays for UK tourists. Actually, they still do although the business owners now have to contend with the decisions of the local council as well. Did I forget the Children's Village? Forgive me. If you take your young family there, prepare to be disappointed by the anticlimax and pray that you don't need to use a toilet because the local Council wants you to pay for the privilege. That's sure to have the tourists flooding in.
Rhyl and Prestatyn both continue to boast fine weather and fantastic beaches - not that you would know it from the way they are promoted by the local Council. The demise of Rhyl has broadly coincided with my life time. As a child, Rhyl was always packed with holiday makers and a vibrant town centre. The decision by the Council to allow a shopping centre with no toilet facilities just about sums up the decisions taken by the Council.
It is therefore clear that the Council will be quite happy to see the back of the Sun Centre, the Nova, The Pavilion Theatre and the North Wales Bowling Centre. My advice to the residents is to forge ahead without the Machiavellian Council. Use local fund raising. Apply for Big Lottery funding. Do what you have to do but do it without the Council because you will have a much better chance of creating something sustainable and enjoyable. I pray that the communities in these towns get together and react collectively. If they do, they will wonder why they ever came to rely on Council involvement in their affairs.
While this is a very sad day for all involved with the sites it must also be looked upon as a golden opportunity to break away from the Council whose prime function appears to be self preservation and blame.
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