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08/05/2009, 2:23 PM Sean Miller Joined on 02/10/2008 Weston-super-Mare Posts 838 Re: grand pier Will be good to get some more news on the pier... not really too interested in hearing about bestiality in Banwell and folks fighting over the Tropicana... Sean    Report

09/05/2009, 11:31 PM Sean Miller Joined on 02/10/2008 Weston-super-Mare Posts 838 Re: grand pier Any idea why the barge has been removed from the pier and moved to off Knightstone? Sean    Report

10/05/2009, 10:27 AM Flyer Joined on 17/09/2008 Posts 741 Re: grand pier The barge was moved due to forecasted impending high wind speeds towards the end of this last week. On Flat Holm Island, they have experienced wind speeds of over 50 m.p.h. this weekend. I'm sure the Pier owners would not want the barge to "take out" what's left of the Pier, otherwise it would have been suicide pills all round!    Report

12/05/2009, 6:14 AM Sean Miller Joined on 02/10/2008 Weston-super-Mare Posts 838 Re: grand pier But the winds came after the barge returned... Oh well, they obviously know what they're doing. Sean    Report

29/05/2009, 7:24 AM Sean Miller Joined on 02/10/2008 Weston-super-Mare Posts 838 Re: grand pier Nobody's mentioned the story on the front page of this week's paper, and editorial. Would the Michaels REALLY pull the plug on a £34,000,000 development for the sake of a few thousand?? Granted £150,000 is a lot more than £20,000 but it seems this amount has been going up gradually over time and this is the first we've heard of it.  That said, even £130,000 is "peanuts" compared to the total cost of the project.  And what use is a pier to them with nothing on the end of it? I smell a rat... Sean    Report

29/05/2009, 7:52 AM Andy R Joined on 08/07/2008 Banwell Posts 124 Re: grand pier nice to think Sean thinks £130000 is peanuts !! If I was quoted 20 K for a job then told it was 130K I'd be more than miffed and tell them to get stuffed too. Typical council robbers, maybe our councillors expenses were too much this year ??    Report

29/05/2009, 9:31 AM hjthorne28 Joined on 16/08/2008 Posts 21 Re: grand pier Here we go again,another TROPICANA fiasco!    Report

29/05/2009, 1:04 PM Caravan Shaker Joined on 29/05/2009 Weston-super-Mare Posts 41 Re: grand pier  Sean Miller wrote: Would the Michaels REALLY pull the plug on a £34,000,000 development for the sake of a few thousand?? Exactly, of course they wouldn't. Funny how the piling is continuing, isn't it?  Andy R wrote: nice to think Sean thinks £130000 is peanuts !! If I was quoted 20 K for a job then told it was 130K I'd be more than miffed and tell them to get stuffed too. Typical council robbers, maybe our councillors expenses were too much this year ?? Don't be so ridiculous; that's 0.4% of the project total. I'm considering spending £10,000 on building a new garage; 0.4% would buy me the handle for the door.    Report

29/05/2009, 2:26 PM dw17 Joined on 17/01/2009 Posts 68 Re: grand pier I'm glad that the local authority are keeping a check on the true costs of the re-building work for us, the (mostly uninterested) ratepayers. We shouldn't allow ourselves to be swept along on a wave of nostalgia - the pier is a private enterprise for private profit and there is no reason for local council tax payers to subsidise it. Remember that North Somerset does not only represent Weston (and tourism), but is also accountable to rest of the population of this area which has no interest (financial or otherwise) in the pier, candy floss sales, hotels, and all the other tourism related subjects which our small but vociferous minority of traders wish to promote. The renovation of Birnbeck Pier would be something to get excited about, but the Grand Pier is, and has always been, a rather unattractive amusement arcade on stilts. Letting it fall into the sea would be less of a tragedy than the demise of Birnbeck.    Report

29/05/2009, 3:10 PM AllMouthNoTrousers Joined on 21/02/2008 Weston Posts 1,012 Re: grand pier I was pretty much with you until your Birnbeck comments, dw17 - I really don't see that Birnbeck is greatly different, since it's once again something which will only be redeveloped by the private sector for massive profit. But I think your first sentence is the key one. If the local authority is keeping tabs on "the true costs" of the Grand Pier rebuilding, then good on them for protecting public interests and money - after all, it's only right that a private enterprise which will prove to be hugely profitable is charged appropriately for public authority assistance. However, if these aren't true costs - if the Michaels are right, and the council is simply behaving as a bunch of opportunists and profiteers - then that cannot be excused. I'm all for protecting the public purse, but that surely shouldn't be achieved by milking the one business which does seem genuinely intent on kickstarting the revival of Weston's decrepit seafront...    Report

29/05/2009, 4:34 PM Mike Bell Joined on 16/08/2007 Posts 39 Re: grand pier Broken promises and double standards. I despair. First, we have a councillors that are promising one thing in private meetings with the Michaels and then reneging on those promises later. What other explanation is there for agreeing a fair contribution from the Grand Pier owners one week only to later double it? Councillors are clearly looking at the pier as a cash cow and looking to squeeze as much as possible out of the Michaels whilst claiming to be doing "everything we can" to help the pier rebuild. It is dishonest and won't help Weston in the long run. If it was about money, the Michaels would have collected the insurance payout and flogged off the pier to the highest bidder. Thank goodness they don't operate like some councillors seem to want to do. Second, isn't it the job of the council to help to make things happen? Shouldn't they be encouraging and facilitating improvements? When T4 on the beach comes here, doesn't the council offer help to attract them? When Redrow redeveloped Knightstone, didn't the council use public money to encourage them and spread the costs? When the Weston Wheel operators or fun fairs arrive in town, doesn't the council bend over backwards to help make it happen? Of course they do and quite rightly so. Thats living in the real world, where we are in a competitive environment with other places and need to attract business and investment. But with the Grand Pier we seem to have a different approach. Instead of all possible help and assistance, the whole thing has proved a nightmare for Kerry and Michelle Michael. What a disgrace! These are local people who bought the pier to make it even better for our town. Unlike many who talk, but don't act, they've cracked on with the rebuild despite the recession. The council should be moving heaven and earth, within the law, to make it happen. Honestly. I despair at what is going on in the minds of leading councillors in the Town Hall. This is not just something that has suddenly cropped up, its been going on for months and still it is not sorted out. Some heads need banging together and fast. Mike Bell Lib Dem Prospective MP for Weston-super-Mare Find out more: http://www.mikebell.org.uk    Report

29/05/2009, 6:58 PM Sean Miller Joined on 02/10/2008 Weston-super-Mare Posts 838 Re: grand pier  Andy R wrote: nice to think Sean thinks £130000 is peanuts !! If I was quoted 20 K for a job then told it was 130K I'd be more than miffed and tell them to get stuffed too. Typical council robbers, maybe our councillors expenses were too much this year ?? I didn't mean that, and I'm sure you know I didn't!!  I was simply saying that when you consider the budget for this project (£34,000,000 or whatever) bickering in public over £100,000 or so seems rather odd. I wonder how much they've already spent on the barge, piles, labour etc.?  Seems very odd that they'd consider pulling the plug at this stage.  The only result of that will surely be lose:lose? Sean    Report

29/05/2009, 7:04 PM Sean Miller Joined on 02/10/2008 Weston-super-Mare Posts 838 Re: grand pier  Mike Bell wrote: Second, isn't it the job of the council to help to make things happen? Shouldn't they be encouraging and facilitating improvements? When T4 on the beach comes here, doesn't the council offer help to attract them? When Redrow redeveloped Knightstone, didn't the council use public money to encourage them and spread the costs? When the Weston Wheel operators or fun fairs arrive in town, doesn't the council bend over backwards to help make it happen? Of course they do and quite rightly so. Thats living in the real world, where we are in a competitive environment with other places and need to attract business and investment. But with the Grand Pier we seem to have a different approach. Instead of all possible help and assistance, the whole thing has proved a nightmare for Kerry and Michelle Michael. What a disgrace! These are local people who bought the pier to make it even better for our town. Unlike many who talk, but don't act, they've cracked on with the rebuild despite the recession. The council should be moving heaven and earth, within the law, to make it happen. I agree with you, Mike. Confuses me, though, why they've chosen to "go public" so blatantly now.  There is a part of me that thinks there's a little "public manipulation" going on here, as somebody above said.  We have allusions to agreements between certain Cabinet members and the Michaels but I think we're only hearing half the story, and when it actually comes down to it are the Michaels any more likely to halt everything now than the F1 teams ever were to not enter for 2010? [the F1 teams have now all done so, hours before the deadline]. I'm just sick of my emotions being manipulated by people and so, perhaps, am becoming cynical.  Just seems that it's very easy if you're not getting your own way and you're embarking on a project that you know has a lot of support to bash the Council and hope that the public outcry ensures you "get a better deal".  I know because I've done it when I worked for Cornhill, threatened to leave in order to get a better pay deal and solicited people to go to the management and say "if Sean left it'd be a disaster"... on a different scale but, I suspect, the same mentality. Regarding Birnbeck I am going to lose my patience with those Urban Splash folks soon and start a campaign to get the Council to buy that back... as a community I'm sure we could get something going out there, even if it is basic to start with.  It's an island, for crying out loud!!  It can't fall into the sea, though the pier out to it could if somebody doesn't get their flippin' act together. Sean    Report

29/05/2009, 8:53 PM Caravan Shaker Joined on 29/05/2009 Weston-super-Mare Posts 41 Re: grand pier As much as I think the town needs the Pier, I don't think the town needs the Pier to the point that the demands of its owners should be agreed without any consideration for the town. Part of the Pier development (the coach stop) is in the Promenade and public highway, both of which are the responsibility of the local authority who will want to ensure the best interests of the public. Kerry Michael states that the new coach stop is for anyone who wants to use it, surely correct if it's located in the public highway. A quick glance at the Pier's planning application suggests there's space for only a couple of coaches but isn't every coach visiting the town going to take a bee-line straight for it. How the hell's that going to work on a busy summer afternoon? I imagine somebody at the Council will be asking the same question. You must also consider the on-going construction of the town's new sea defences which I assume must affect the construction of the new Pier in one way or another. Does the Council suspend the construction of the sea defences to give priority to the Pier? I sincerely hope not as I live in one of the properties that would be affected by a flood, and I hope that someone in authority has thought about this and is ensuring that the sea defences go up first.    Report

29/05/2009, 11:57 PM dw17 Joined on 17/01/2009 Posts 68 Re: grand pier I'm afraid that you are getting a bit swept along by the dewy-eyed bandwagon here, Mike. When the owners hire a PR company to attack the local authority then you know that something other than philanthropy is happening.    Report

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