We are finally here! We have made it! The great day has
arrived – it’s January 1st 2020 and at last the Great 2020 Vision is
here. It’s real, and we can reach out and touch it! Remember how it started?
“The Wisbech 2020 Vision was announced in 2012. Its aim is to regenerate the town and its surrounding area - making it "a great place to work, live and visit."
“The Wisbech 2020 Vision was announced in 2012. Its aim is to regenerate the town and its surrounding area - making it "a great place to work, live and visit."
There
were lofty ambitions:
- Agreeing a deal with a local developer to re-start the Nene Waterfront scheme (2013)
- Becoming part of the national Healthy High Streets programme (2014)
- Approval of £300million investment for A47 improvements, including the Guyhirn Roundabout (2014)
- Constantine House being made wind and weather-proof (2015)
- Receipt of a £2million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to improve buildings on Wisbech High Street
- A successful devolution deal, resulting in the launch of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority
- £6.5 million towards a feasibility study of a Wisbech Garden Town which could deliver 8,000-10,000 new homes, better transport links, jobs and improved educational facilities
- £10.5 million towards Wisbech transport improvements.
What
happened? The Nene Waterfront Scheme? A busy marina, bustling with energy,
boating traffic, cafés, Wisbech open for business and saying a big “hello’ to
the world? Not exactly. The Boathouse. Over-priced and under-used. That’s it,
and that’s all.
The Healthy High Streets programme? My goodness, that worked wonders, didn’t it? Along with the £2million grant that went straight into the pockets of consultants. The only thing that has changed is the window display in Evisons. No, I’m only joking – I love the shop, but it’s still 1957.
The A47? Wow what a difference that has made! And as for the refurbished roundabout at Guyhirn, how did we ever get by in the old days?
Constantine House? A result of sorts, but not through any effort by the 2020 Vision luminaries. The building was eventually re-roofed and made watertight, largely as a result of pressure from Mike & Viginia Bucknor, with help from an active social media campaign. Other members of the Town Council did nothing other than rubbish the efforts to make the building less of an eyesore.
The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority. Now that really has made a difference. There can’t be a man woman or child in Wisbech who goes to sleep at night without whispering a silent prayer to Mayor James Palmer and his tireless work to make Wisbech a better, safer and more prosperous town.
The Garden Town? Again, another £6.5 million of taxpayers’ money diverted into the offshore bank account of Messrs Bluff, Spynne and De Ceeve – that well-known firm of consultants and creators of fatuous feasibility studies.
The Healthy High Streets programme? My goodness, that worked wonders, didn’t it? Along with the £2million grant that went straight into the pockets of consultants. The only thing that has changed is the window display in Evisons. No, I’m only joking – I love the shop, but it’s still 1957.
The A47? Wow what a difference that has made! And as for the refurbished roundabout at Guyhirn, how did we ever get by in the old days?
Constantine House? A result of sorts, but not through any effort by the 2020 Vision luminaries. The building was eventually re-roofed and made watertight, largely as a result of pressure from Mike & Viginia Bucknor, with help from an active social media campaign. Other members of the Town Council did nothing other than rubbish the efforts to make the building less of an eyesore.
The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority. Now that really has made a difference. There can’t be a man woman or child in Wisbech who goes to sleep at night without whispering a silent prayer to Mayor James Palmer and his tireless work to make Wisbech a better, safer and more prosperous town.
The Garden Town? Again, another £6.5 million of taxpayers’ money diverted into the offshore bank account of Messrs Bluff, Spynne and De Ceeve – that well-known firm of consultants and creators of fatuous feasibility studies.
Wondering
why Bluff, Spynne and De Ceeve have an offshore tax-free account? Simple – the
further payment of £10.5 million to ‘improve
Wisbech transport infrastructure’ pushed them into the top tax bracket, so what
else could they do?
Let’s
cut the satire and be plain. The High Street is the same mess it always was.
Transport links are on a par with rural Albania. The town centre is fine if all
you want is a cup of coffee, a new ‘phone or a scratch ‘n’ sniff fully
immersive experience of street drinking, urination and defecation. In short,
eight years of committees, pledges, consultations and visions have produced
precisely this, expressed perfectly as a mathematical fraction:
What a bitter contrast there is between the national mood and the state of play here in The Fens! I am delighted that we now have a proper government that can actually govern, and a Prime Minister with energy and ideas. But in Wisbech? Not so much. At county, district and town level we have apathy, complacency and a parnem et circenses approach which seeks to bamboozle the public by pushing one or two expensive vanity projects at the expense of genuine dynamism and change. What we are being offered is elaborate icing - on a cake which is made of sawdust.
