Breakthrough

Return, a photo by davidrobertsphotography on Flickr.

After several years of deadlock, Conwy Councilllors voted today to move forward with the acquisition of the semi-derelict Colwyn Bay Pier.

This has to be good news for this beleaguered structure. The Plan is for the Council to grant a Lease to a local Community Group, who can work to both obtain grant funding for renovation work, whilst also carrying out smaller jobs themselves and reopening some of the pier's facilities to the public. I wish them the best of luck.

Queen's Gardens Fountain

Queen's Gardens Fountain, a photo by davidrobertsphotography on Flickr.

Very pleasing to see a powerful new fountain in Queen's Gardens, Colwyn Bay, a replacement for a rather feeble one that rarely worked due to vandalism. Well done to CCBC's Parks & Gardens Dept for getting this sorted out.

Next on their 'To Do' List - the Cascade water feature in Happy Valley, Llandudno....

No Flats

No Flats, originally uploaded by davidrobertsphotography.

I saw this graffiti on a sign in the Pwllycrochan Conservation Area of Colwyn Bay. One wonders if the vandal may have a point, as several large Victorian houses in that area have disappeared over the past few years, to be replaced by Apartment Blocks.

Surely allowing Permission for such developments is against the whole ethos of a Conservation Area?

Dereliction

Dereliction, originally uploaded by davidrobertsphotography.

I snapped this shot of the side entrance to Colwyn Bay Pier at the weekend. Sad to see how the process of decay is accelerating.

I only hope that the Friends of the Pier are ready to hit the ground running if they are able to assume ownership of the Pier - I understand that Conwy Council will be holding a Meeting in June to decide whether they will buy the Pier and then pass it on to the Friends Group to run.

Ruddigore

Gilbert & Sullivan's Ruddigore

Rhos on Sea Savoyards are performing Ruddigore, an operetta by Gilbert & Sullivan, for 4 nights 18^th - 21^st May 2011. The Show starts at 7.30pm and it takes place at St. Paul’s Church Hall, which can be found in Rhiw Road Colwyn Bay (almost opposite the Town Hall). Tickets are only £5 for a musical show that pokes fun at both gothic horror and etiquette.

If you would like to reserve tickets, please contact Alison Smith on 07955 070885.

Rhos on Sea Savoyards is an amateur group that specialises in Gilbert and Sullivan; they’ve been around for nearly 30 years: more details on their website at www.savoyards.org.uk

Promenade Day 2011

Promenade Day 2011, originally uploaded by davidrobertsphotography.

After a rather wet start (due to the high tide, not rain!), the Promenade Day at Colwyn Bay was another big success! As with the Extravaganza at Llandudno, it was good to see so many people enjoying themselves.

Colwyn Bay Pier once more....

Return, originally uploaded by davidrobertsphotography.

News has surfaced in the local press that Conwy Council may be preparing to buy Colwyn Bay Pier from the Receivers for £35,000 and then hand it over to the Pier Pressure Group to run.

Regardless of the rights or wrongs of the various parties surrounding the ownership issue, I'm delighted by this news, because it means that the deadlock may finally be broken. The Pier has become little more than a ball to be kicked around by people with various agendas, whilst the Pier itself decays a little more every day.

Let the Pier Pressure Group have it...and let them try to harness the local community to roll their sleeves up and get stuck in with both physical work and fund-raising. It's sink or swim time for them...and I wish them the best of luck.

Blue Skies

Blue Skies, originally uploaded by davidrobertsphotography.

Lovely day yesterday, a real feeling of Summer. I grabbed this shot of Colwyn Bay Pier with a fantastic sky above.

On The Waterfront

Going, Going, Gone...Part Three, originally uploaded by davidrobertsphotography.

Very pleasing to see so much work going on at Colwyn Bay's Promenade. After a couple of decade's worth of council neglect, work has finally started to rebuild and revamp the Promenade. Even in its neglected state, the area was still busy on a Summer's day; think how busy it could be if it looked attractive and had some decent attractions...

We just need to hope that the Pier gets sorted out soon. Fingers crossed on that one!

Going, Going, Gone.

Going, Going, Gone., originally uploaded by davidrobertsphotography.

The area shown in the photo beyond the kiosk is shortly to be demolished and rebuilt, the first stage of the massive Colwyn Bay Waterfront scheme. The sea defences will be rebuilt first (and extended outwards to give more room for facilities), then a newly designed Promenade will be built. I thought it would be good to document this area before it all disappears forever.

Potential design submissions for this are can be seen here:
www.conwy.gov.uk/doc.asp?cat=8199&doc=27652

Here's an artist's impression of one of the design entries for this area:

This is a once in a hundred years opportunity to revitalise Colwyn Bay's Promenade and increase visitor numbers. Let's hope they don't mess it up!

Launch of new Discussion Forum

After much feverish activity from both Ian and myself this week, we are pleased to launch a new discussion forum for the three towns area of Llandudno, Colwyn Bay & Conwy. The Three Towns Forum is designed to be a fresh start for discussion forums locally, free of the nonsense and problems that have plagued previous attempts.

The Three Towns Forum

Why those three towns...? Because most of us in that local area have either lived, worked or socialised in all three of the towns during our lifetime and, so, have an interest in all of them.

The Forum was born out of the old Llandudno Local forum but offers an expanded geographic coverage, together with a fresh, new design and added functionality. Everyone; whether local, visitor or just someone with an interest in Llandudno, Colwyn Bay or Conwy is welcome to read the posts and join in with their own thoughts & comments.

Signing up as a Member is free and simple - just go to www.threetownsforum.co.uk click on 'Register' at the top of the screen, enter your desired Username, Password, Email Address and your account will be created for you to start posting immediately.

We look forward to having you on board!

Flash Floods

Flash Floods in Rhos On Sea in July 2009 (Photo Credit)

Almost exactly a year after the local area was hit by flash flooding, we received another torrential deluge yesterday, with several homes and businesses being inundated by the water. There's a Daily Post report about it here.

What I found interesting was this comment from Darren Jones at the North Wales Fire & Rescue Service:

"The incidents yesterday and today are prime examples of changes to the environment, heavy rainfall causes flash flooding, this is due to the large volume of surface water rendering the drains incapable of coping.”

...which is very true, of course. However, there's a little more to it than that, I feel. The fact is that we are actively working against nature with the use of so much concrete and tarmac surfacing in our towns & villages - this prevents large volumes of rainwater from soaking away naturally into the ground and means they are instead channelled into antiquated drainage systems that cannot cope with the large flows. The trend of concreting over front gardens to form parking areas has also not helped.

Perhaps we need to take a step back and start looking at how we could work with nature to control the effects of flash flooding by using soakaways and attenuation tanks, instead of assuming (falsely, it would seem) that we can control it? I believe Planning Policy has already made strides in this direction when dealing with new developments but perhaps a wider strategy in the community is needed if we are to prevent the flash flood becoming a yearly occurrence?

Progress?

Litten Tree, Station Road, Colwyn Bay (Photo Credit)

The closure of the Litten Tree bar in Colwyn Bay's Station Road may actually mark something of a revival in the town's retail fortunes.

Far from it being reopened as yet another cheap booze bar with a new name, the premises are actually earmarked for conversion back into retail premises, specifically The Original Factory Shop. Readers with long memories will recall it was once a Tomms store, then a Poundstretcher back in the 1980/90s before conversion into a bar.

Even further back, in Colwyn Bay's heyday, it was a high class store called Daniel Allen & Sons (the name is still visible in brick on the rear roofline of the building from Station Square). Allen & Sons was founded in 1869 but did not move into their new Station Road premises until 1883. They sold 'the finest furniture, china & carpets' and, amongst other things, were the sole North Wales agents for Liberty's of London. Allens stayed in business until 1971 when, somewhat curiously, the Directors of the company decided that they could not longer provide their customers with the standard of merchandise they were happy to sell and called it a day.

Park Revival

Fountain is working again...

Queen's Gardens, the small park in the centre of Colwyn Bay, had begun to look rather tired and run-down in recent years. I was very pleased, therefore, to see the Parks Dept have been busy replanting several areas of shrubbery that line three sides of the park and, more importantly, have managed to clean out the circular pool and install a new fountain. As a result, the park is probably looking the best it has done for many years.

Well done to all concerned!

New planting in the shrub borders

Promenade Day

Another day, another event! Bank Holiday Monday was Promenade Day in Colwyn Bay (as well as the last day of the Extravaganza in Llandudno) so after having lunch with Jane, I headed over to Colwyn Bay to see what was going on. Another day of sunny skies meant the crowds were much larger than last year's event and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

(Photo Credit)


(Photo Credit)


(Photo Credit)


Sioned Terry performing on the main stage (Photo Credit)

Paving the way....

Penrhyn Road, Colwyn Bay

I was pleased to see that the ongoing refurbishment of Penrhyn Road in Colwyn Bay appears to be a lot more successful than the previous attempts in both Sea View Road and Station Road. Although the same grey paving has been used, it has been limited just to the pavement areas (with the road area being resurfaced in tarmac) and the smaller area of usage looks far more acceptable. There also appears to be far more in the way of tree planting planned. Of course, the main advantage over the Station Road scheme is that traffic will continue to be able to use Penrhyn Road, creating a far busier environment - if only the planners had listened to local people/traders and reopened Station Road to limited traffic with parking down one side, it would have been far better.

Speaking of Station Road, the paving used there seems to getting very dirty already, any liquids spilt seems to stain large areas of the paving. After only a few months, it is starting to look rather tatty, sadly.

A Slight Change...

Eagle eyed readers will have noticed that the name of the blog has changed to...

The Three Towns Blog

...in recognition of the fact that I now witter on about Conwy a lot, in addition to the usual mutterings about Llandudno & Colwyn Bay. All of the URLs remain the same however, to avoid any dead links etc. Bribes, Gifts & Death Threats to the usual email address though, please:

llandudnoandcolwynblog@gmx.com

I thank you!

Prom Day Not Cancelled Due To Storm Damage!!

Great news in the North Wales Weekly News this week:

"Colwyn Bay's PROM day is still set to go-ahead despite hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage to the promenade sustained in storms which ravaged the coast.

Lashing winds caused 40ft waves to crash against Colwyn Bay and Rhos-on-Sea’s coastline ripping metal railings from the promenade and crushing the concrete road, cycle path and walkway.

But despite the damage caused by the weather raising fears the annual May Day celebrations were set to be cancelled, the fun-day is still penned in on Monday, May 3."

http://www.northwalesweeklynews.co.uk/conwy-county-news/local-conwy-news/2010/04/08/colwyn-bay-prom-day-55243-26194082/

Yep, that's excellent news...except the section of the Promenade on which the Prom Day takes place (from the Cayley in Rhos along to Marine Road) suffered no damage to the railings or tarmac whatsoever, and so there was no possibility really that the Prom Day would have to be cancelled!

Still, good news is good news...I suppose?

Storm Damage at Colwyn Bay

I thought I would have a stroll along the Prom at Colwyn Bay today to see the full extent of the storm damage. The power of nature is certainly impressive, with 30 foot sections of railings flattened, sturdy stone walls completely demolished and even a signpost pushed over down to the ground by the power of the waves. What was somewhat ironic was that the supposedly unsafe Colwyn Bay Pier survived the storm almost intact, whilst all around was a scene of devastation!

As you'd expect, I got you a few photos:

Mangled railings on Colwyn Bay promenade (Photo Credit)


Stone wall and footpath completely destroyed (Photo Credit)


30 foot section of railings completely flattened (Photo Credit)


Signpost pushed down to the ground (Photo Credit)


The Pier weathered the storm better than the Promenade (Photo Credit)


Two large sections were gouged out of the Promenade here (Photo Credit)

We Can Rebuild It

I've just been to the Colwyn Bay Regeneration Consultation that has been carried out by Consultants DPP Shape over the last few days in Colwyn Bay. As they were keen to point out to me, the Plans they had pinned up on the wall were proposals and ideas designed to stimulate local discussion, rather than a firm intention. To be fair, they seemed to have the right idea - amongst other things, it was accepted that the vast expanses of grey paving (and indeed the continued closure of Station Road to traffic) were mistakes and they seemed keen on proposals to improve access from one part of the town to another (i.e. town centre to beach, town centre to eirias park etc). 'Softening' the appearance of the streets with more trees etc was also mentioned, and that was something that I certainly welcomed.

I was also pleased to see that they viewed Eirias Park as a 'hidden gem' of the town - this is something that I've been banging on about for some time - I mentioned to them that a Cafe at the side of the remodelled lake would be a winner - a great place to sit outside and sip a coffee in the Summer. They also stressed that they felt that Colwyn Bay had a built in 'head start' in the regeneration process, due to the wonderful nature of its Victorian architecture. Overall, I felt vaguely positive after viewing the proposals.

You can give them your own thoughts here:
www.colwynbaymasterplan.info