Pump Rooms Reopen - ITV News

An ITV Central News team, were in town today to film the re-opened Tenbury Wells Pump Rooms.

They interviewed Tourism spokesman Chris Dell, District Councillor, Tony Penn and the Mayoress, Mrs Martin.

After the filming at the Pump Rooms, they went on a walk-about around town to look at some of the restoration projects still in progress. The results of all the filming were finally transmitted on Sunday night and were rather disappointing!











There was some confusion whether the restoration work at the Pump Rooms had been completed. A representative from the 'Hub' believed that internal decoration and carpeting of some of the rooms had been planned. District Councilor Tony Penn, expressed his concern and dissatisfaction about the quality of the finish applied to the floor in the 'Assembly Room' and will take this up with Ivor Pumfrey, Head of Environmental Services at MHDC.

£378,000 for MHDC. How much for Tenbury?

ADVANTAGE West Midlands is to provide Malvern Hills District Council with £178,000 to help the clean up effort after flooding in Tenbury and Upton.

MHDC will receive a further £200,000 from £6.2 million made available for 36 local authorities by the Government as part of a flood recovery package.

Perhaps with all this extra money the MHDC can reconsider allowing free parking in Tenbury Car Park whilst the on-street parking spaces are all being used by Builders,Shopfitters and other Flood Restoration companies.Last I heard the Council Spokesman said that Car Parks were a vital source of income for the Council. Well the Tenbury one does 'take' £1500 a month, but in the scope of things, the loss of this income for a few months is hardly likely to make the Council go bust!

Knowing how money grabbing MHDC are, and how they have little or no regard for Tenbury, I wonder how much of this money will reach the intended destination. I hope the Auditors will be watching!

A great letter in the Tenbury Advertiser

See it here.

Tenbury Wells is open for business.

TENBURY WELLS IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS
TENBURY NEEDS YOU AFTER THE FLOODS OF JULY 2007

The above statement has been added to the Tenbury Town Council Web Site.

Whilst I agree that we should all support our local shops and businesses, we must forget that only 50% of the shops are 'Open for Business'.

If we don't acknowledge this, people with unusual names and silly job titles in that way off Town on the Hill will decree that we don't need assistance, we don't need an extension of free parking and closing down the high street to lay a cable from the Biomass Power Station will not matter.

Tenbury Wells Market Street Toilets

As I thought the Council had planned to demolish the toilets even before they had subsided.

Their consulting engineers seem to have taken one look and said that as the back wall was unsupported (and never mind the concrete float foundation) they must come down.

It seem that no other options were considered.

The house in Alveley that had its foundations washed away to a far greater extent and had its wall collapse was saved.

I have to wonder what brief the consulting engineers were working to.

Malvern Hills District Council have wanted rid of the toilets for ages. It seems that the flood was a very convenient excuse and never mind public opinion.

I guess they will now also ignore public opinion about the Biomass Plant, much as they have about the Car Parking charges!

Tenbury Wells Car Park - End of free parking.

Sometimes I feel that I am shouting into the void that is cyber space, other times I know I'm not alone.

From http://www.bbc.co.uk/herefordandworcester/content/articles/2007/03/06/katies_blog_feature.shtml

Katie Johnson BBC Hereford & Worcester. Newsy wise, we keep pushing for free parking in Tenbury Wells and Upton on Severn as it officially comes to an end this weekend. Tried Malvern Hills District Council but couldn't get them on the programme, but lets hope they were listening as that many shops still shut or empty they need time to get back on their feet, lets have it free until the New Year please.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/herefordandworcester/content/articles/2005/09/07/katie_johnson_person_profile.shtml

Jonathan from Tenbury You're quite right about free parking Katie. In Tenbury alone, it's said that in Teme Street, 28 businesses are open, 20 are closed and 4 are vacant. Round the corner in Market Street 6 are open, 13 closed and 2 vacant. As a business myself, we have had the loss adjuster visit and they are being very supportive, but the builder reckons it will take five to six weeks to tear up the floors and walls and rebuild our little shop on Teme Street, so if this applies to all businesses, it will take until late October before things are opening again. So the parking ought to be free until October and then should stay free to encourage a boost for Christmas, so December would be better. Thank you for your support with this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/herefordandworcester/content/articles/2005/09/07/katie_johnson_person_profile.shtml

Chris from Tenbury Wells Hi Katie. Thanks for taking up the Tenbury parking issue in your Tuesday programme. MHDC's fortnightly approach isn't really working. If MHDC announced free parking until Dec 31, this could be well-publicised, which would encourage people to come to Tenbury, which is what the shops need. On another issue, loads of drains are still blocked in Tenbury.

Tenbury Wells Car Park - End of free parking.

Well done Malvern Hills District Council. (Not)

With less than 50% of the shops in Tenbury open for trade, and many of the on street parking spaces still locked up all day with the necessary contractors vehicles trying to get the shops back trading again, isn't good to see that MHDC have decided that it is more important to raise a few pounds from those people who are supporting their local shops, than to help encourage that trade by continuing to offer free parking.

I guess the next thing they will do is install Temporary Traffic signals and dig up the road for months to try to bankrupt the remaining shops!

Tenbury Wells Market Street Toilets

Malvern District Council do have some funny ideas.

Their web site states:-

Public Conveniences

The following public convenience are the responsibility of Malvern Hills District Council and are cleaned frequently.

Market Street (currently closed due to long term flood damage)– Tenbury Wells.

I think that they are a little more than Closed. Have they already forgotten that they destroyed them.

Destruction of a much loved Tenbury Wells landmark

The recently refurbished historic Victorian Toilets in Tenbury Wells were destroyed this morning.

Although they have stood for a hundred years and were completely undamaged by the recent floods, they were no match for the might of Malvern Hills District Council.

Ivor Pumfrey, Head of Environmental Services, variously commented that they were too heavy to lift (wrong) they were too damaged to save (wrong) and that they had a structural engineers report that said the only option was to demolish. This document is not yet in the public domain and I wonder how independent it is.

Demolition started early this morning, there was no prior announcement to stop public protest.

Many people watching the demolition (once news got out) were very annoyed about this obscene wanton destruction of a much loved Tenbury Landmark.

Interestingly the Police used "Crime Scene - Do Not Enter" tape to cordon off the demolition area. Very appropriate!

At least the Toilets are putting up a fight. They thought they would be finished by now, but they seem to have hit a problem, although they are not saying what