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Town Centre issues

 

Its the decisions that count, not the decor - Conservatives slam costly Civic Centre refurbishments

Article from the Sentinel 22nd December 2004

Opposition councillors are outraged by plans to spend almost quarter of a million pounds refurbishing their civic suite. Proposals to spruce up Newcastle Borough Council's chamber and committee rooms were first suggested in May sparking criticism from traders who said the money would be better spent elsewhere.
The scrutiny committee backed plans to spend £220,000 to bring the Merrial Street premises up to scratch with the Disability Discrimination Act, but asked for further investigation into the £319,000 needed for "high priority" work to upgrade the ageing civic suite.
Cabinet members approved that funding in their capital programme in September and now officers are recommending full council agrees to spend £245,000 on the first phase of the work.
The borough's Conservative group leader Simon Tagg said: "The decor in the civic offices maybe outdated and the upholstery a little worn but at the end of the day it's the quality of the decisions that are taken there that is important to the people of the borough, not the decor"
 

 

Labour dominated Scrutiny Committee disown Newcastle's historic Queen Victoria Statue

On Sept 15th the Labour dominated Scrutiny Committee rejected a Conservative motion to include the renovation of the Queen Victoria statue in the towns Public Realm Project.

The Conservative Group had 'called in' the Labour Cabinets decision to effectively disown the hundred year old statue by decided to take no further action after the Civic Society had requested that the Council help fund the work to return the statue to its former glory.

The statue of Queen Victoria has grade II listed status and dates from 1903 and was re-sited into the Queens gardens in 2001. The council owned statue requires work to restore it to its original rich bronze/brown colour.

Conservative Group Leader Simon Tagg said "After a request from the Civic Society for the council to carry out the proposed refurbishment at a cost of £14,600. The cabinet of 18th of August decided to take no further action. We proposed that the works to restore the statue be included in phase one of the Town Centre Public Realm Project. We believe this would be money well spent - when compared with Cabinets desire to spend a vast sums on gateway art - and the statue should also be illuminated at night as a focal point for the Queens Gardens which is a  gateway into our town centre"

Cllr Tagg went on to attack the leader of the council for his attitude towards the towns heritage he said "Cllr Leech spoke in support of the controversial modern gateway art to be situated at the Knutton Lane roundabout at the cost of £85,000 but seemed to 'sneer' at requests by the Civic Society for the council pay £14,600 to return Queen Victoria to her former glory"

The Lib Dem Group failed to support the Conservative proposals to preserve and enhance this symbol of towns heritage.

 

Baths move delay angers Councillors

Article from the Sentinel 09th Sept 2004.

Councillors are demanding action over the future of a town centre swimming baths. Newcastle's Jubilee Baths was deemed in need of a £1 million upgrade following a structural study in 1997.
In February The Sentinel reported how more than £30,000 worth of alterations are needed to bring the facility into line with the Disability Discrimination Act by next month But despite years of discussion over the site, a decision has yet to be made on the future of the Nelson Place baths.
In June 2002 councillors backed plans to create a new multi-million pound leisure centre to replace the crumbling Jubilee pool at a cost of up to £3.7 million, while selling the existing site for redevelopment.
Newcastle Borough Council's cabinet asked for discussions to begin with educational organisations such as colleges and schools and National Lottery officials to try to secure funding for the complex.
Discussions have taken place about the possibility of the authority leasing the building next door, which is owned by Cannons fitness group and has lain empty since the company said in April last year it was considering scrapping its plans for a £2.5 million health complex and may rent it out to another company.
But no decision has been made by the borough council and now the opposing Conservative party is pushing for a solution before the October deadline for the necessary alterations.
Councillor Simon Tagg, leader of the Tory party, says a decision is long overdue. He said reserve money - left over by an aborted land reclamation scheme - which the Labour party recently fed into the main budget, should be kept aside for one-off projects such as the new baths.
He said: "We felt this money should have been used for one-off projects like CCTV or a new fitness and leisure facility, but they decided to use it for general spending The existing baths are not good really, the building's falling apart. The place next to it would have been ideal but I don't know what's happening with that now."

A spokesperson for Newcastle Borough Council said: "We are considering a number of options. "We are looking at working with partners and the situation is under review. "The spokesman would not comment on what the options were, how much the project was expected to cost or when a decision would be made.

 

Closing subways will bring traffic to a standstill

Article from the Sentinel 04th Sept 2004.

Plans to close subways in Newcastle town centre will bring the town's road network grinding to a halt, according to opposition councillors. The multi-million pound revamp which is aimed at breathing new life into the town centre includes plans for public art to emphasise gateways into the centre and turn High Street south into a Cafe Quarter.
Conservative group leader Simon Tagg says the plans approved by the borough council's cabinet are incoherent, following their decision to ignore comments made by the cross-party scrutiny committee on proposals for the town centre. Councillor Tagg has branded plans to shut the town's subways as "shortsighted" and added: "Labour are proposing to close all but four of the subways in Newcastle and replace them with pedestrian crossings, which is a crazy idea.
"The roads around the town centre, especially the A34, Barracks Road and Ryecroft, are already very busy. To put pedestrian crossings there instead of subways would bring traffic to a standstill. This idea quite clearly hasn't been thought out properly.
"The subways do need to be made safe, cleaned up and have much better lighting. We believe from a highway safety point of view it's safer for pedestrians to go under instead of over. Other areas have improved subways by better lighting and CCTV, diminishing the fear of crime. Newcastle should do the same, instead of spending money on gateway features we should spend it on keeping traffic flowing around our town."
The scheme is the brainchild of urban design consultant Taylor Young, which carried out a Townscape Appraisal Study of the town centre in March. The study concentrated on particular areas, including the market, traffic management and approaches to the town centre. Taylor Young came up with a number of recommendations costing more than £6.6 million, which the council is planning to prioritise by initially spending £4.3 million on phase one over four years starting in 2005.
The opposition have also accused the cabinet of ignoring some of the town's best features, such as the statue of Queen Victoria in the Queen's Gardens.
Conservative deputy leader Andrew Fear said: "The Civic Society have provided the Council with an estimate of how much it would cost to renovate the statue, giving it a good clean-up.The Labour cabinet, however, have not even offered to put any money towards this project."
"This statue should be the pride and joy of our town, but Labour are happy for Queen Victoria to become tarnished and eventually mothballed. This is a civic disgrace."
"Queen Victoria should be cleaned up and then returned to the Queen's Gardens which is a nature gateway into our market town, and illuminated at night so everyone can see and admire her.
"Instead the Labour councillors would rather spend money on fancy gateways into the town. When this was tried in the past residents complained that someone had fly-tipped on roundabouts.We want the renovation of the statue included in the Town Centre Realm project. The work on the statue can be done for one third of the cost of one of the proposed gateway features. We should be preserving our town's heritage, not watching it crumble away"

 
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Simon Tagg  2009