Poll

What should be done with Colwyn Bay Pier?

Demolish it
Carry out basic renovation (spend up to £5m)
Carry out comprehensive renovation, including all buildings (spend up to £10m)

Author Topic: The long running saga of Colwyn Bay Pier  (Read 386424 times)

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Offline squiggle

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Re: The long running saga of Colwyn Bay Pier
« Reply #735 on: December 15, 2015, 07:07:05 pm »
Coming at this from an outsider these days...  I tend to ask myself what Colwyn Bay ever was.  Sure first time round in Wales for me, my father was the manager of Abbey National when it first opened on Penryryn Road.  Our doctors and vets were on the way in.  Later in life and only once or twice I seem to remember was it Dixies, the disco?  I've drunk in places including the Imp as sort of one offs and worked at Supra on Groes Road (used to make track rod ends, etc.... as did Quints in Mochdre...)

I guess a question I ask is what is/was/(/perpaps could be) Colwyn Bay?  Llandudno was perhaps clearly sort of defined as an old Victorian resort but I'm not convinced that works for CB.

Where's the pier sit in with all this?  I don't know but my niece and nephiew who are still resident in the three towns are a reckoned it should survive as part of the town,

Offline Hugo

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Re: The long running saga of Colwyn Bay Pier
« Reply #736 on: December 15, 2015, 10:14:16 pm »
Nothing to do with the topic, but was your father the manager of the Abbey in 1969/70?


Offline squiggle

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Re: The long running saga of Colwyn Bay Pier
« Reply #737 on: December 15, 2015, 10:39:21 pm »
I'd say so Hugo. It fits with our years.  He was assistant in Shrewsbury and was moved and promoted to open the new CB branch.  This was how we came to live in Pydew first time round and why we moved to Kent from Old Swan.

(Later, he left the Abbey to go back to Skerryvore).

A curiosity point for you that I learned many moons later was at the time of his moving, he had blazing row with the Abbey.  It seems odd now but they (who in those days gave favourable mortgages to employees) didn't consider Bryn Pydew a suitable address for a manager but maintained he and his wife (my mother) had found where they wanted to live.  The tale goes he threatened to resign over this.  Odd to think now that Pydew is Fashionable, hey?

Offline Hugo

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Re: The long running saga of Colwyn Bay Pier
« Reply #738 on: December 15, 2015, 10:52:45 pm »
The reason I asked the question was because I had my first mortgage there and it was arranged with the manager Mr F. 
I remember very clearly my wife and I going there and having a very nice chat with him.   
Mr F was a really nice guy and I saw him a few times afterwards in town and exchanged greetings with him.

Offline squiggle

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Re: The long running saga of Colwyn Bay Pier
« Reply #739 on: December 15, 2015, 11:04:23 pm »
Hugo, I am certain that was my father you dealt with.  I'll tell him you have a fond memory tomorrow.

Offline Hugo

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Re: The long running saga of Colwyn Bay Pier
« Reply #740 on: December 16, 2015, 10:55:53 am »
It's a long story squiggle but I'm forever indebted to Mr F as it helped me to get on to the property ladder when no one else was prepared to help.
I remember the appointment very well and we went upstairs to his office and all his help and sound advice was really appreciated.   The appointment was made through a Llandudno estate agent who was a very good friend of Mr F .
I had helped the estate agent with some paper work and he in turn helped me to get that appointment.   It's a true saying that one good turn deserves another.

Offline squiggle

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Re: The long running saga of Colwyn Bay Pier
« Reply #741 on: December 16, 2015, 11:43:13 am »
Thanks Hugo, I have passed this on to him.

I see no harm in saying this so.

My father had a bad stroke in the 90s. Glan Clwyd wrongly diagnosed a heart attack (pretty sure it was meniers) and he reacted badly to the streptokinase they gave him - he wound up in Walton with the combination of a bleed stroke and having been put on clot busters!

That was the main trigger for leaving Skerryvore and moving to Norfolk. My parents have quite different backgrounds, my mother being England/Wales rural borders Shropshire and my father the city of Norwich (a city of which even I have the F of) but having had many holidays on the north Norfolk coast.

He recovered from this much better than even my mother (who dealt with many stroke patients as a physio in Llandudno) expected but he's not without scars. Older and slower of course (and I guess that happens to all of us as we age) and possibly if he really put his mind to it, still capable of loosing me on crosswords - ximines and later azed were regulars for him - he was very good at that type of thing) but there are ups and downs.

Offline BMD

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Re: The long running saga of Colwyn Bay Pier
« Reply #742 on: March 04, 2016, 10:27:28 am »
A new piece in the Pioneer:

"THE local authority’s handling of Colwyn Bay pier’s proposed demolition has so angered one councillor that he is prepared to go to the ombudsman in a bid to get the answers he wants...." http://www.northwalespioneer.co.uk/news/159360/colwyn-bay-pier-stance-is-muddying-water-says-councillor.aspx

I sympathise with the councillor. I've been puzzled by the council's attitude to, and plans for, the pier for years. None of it has made much sense to me. I'd be inclined to see it as merely incompetence, except for the clear intent of some in the council to get rid of the pier - an intent which can be traced back at least 8 or 9 years, via comments made in the local press, etc, when the pier was in much better shape, with the (successful) preliminary lottery fund bid still in the future.

So, the current plan, it seems, is to demolish, but "to keep 76 of the structure’s stanchions".

Offline DaveR

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Re: The long running saga of Colwyn Bay Pier
« Reply #743 on: March 04, 2016, 10:45:17 am »
I agree. Consider CCBC's attitude with that of Hastings Council, who encouraged the charity group to take over their pier (which was burnt out and in a far worse state than Colwyn Bay) and apply for £14m of Lottery funding for repairs. Now, Hastings has a brand new pier:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-35568989

Hastings had a 'can do' attitude towards their pier, CCBC have a 'won't do' attitude!

Offline Hugo

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Re: The long running saga of Colwyn Bay Pier
« Reply #744 on: March 07, 2016, 05:03:38 pm »
I had a look at the Pier today and it's in a very sad state.  Unless a lottery grant is received then there appears to be no chance of it being restored as it will never be a viable investment for anyone.

Offline mull

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Re: The long running saga of Colwyn Bay Pier
« Reply #745 on: March 08, 2016, 09:18:31 am »
It does not look very safe.
Are the public allowed to walk underneath it ?

Offline Nemesis

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Re: The long running saga of Colwyn Bay Pier
« Reply #746 on: March 08, 2016, 09:43:14 am »
No it is fenced off now.
Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know.

Offline Hugo

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Re: The long running saga of Colwyn Bay Pier
« Reply #747 on: March 08, 2016, 12:02:01 pm »
It's fenced off all round the pier for safety reasons

Offline Hugo

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Re: The long running saga of Colwyn Bay Pier
« Reply #748 on: March 08, 2016, 04:42:33 pm »
The other side of the pier isn't a pretty sight either!

Offline Fester

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Re: The long running saga of Colwyn Bay Pier
« Reply #749 on: March 08, 2016, 04:43:25 pm »
A crying shame...  :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(
Fester...
- Semper in Excretum, Sole Profundum Variat -