++ Parking Decision - deferred to Full Council ++

Good news for Anglesey's beleaguered small towncentre shops and businesses -- following Cllr Bryan Owen's swift action in 'calling-in' the controversial parking changes on Anglesey, the Scrutiny Committee has this morning resolved to send the Pay-and-Display decision to debate and vote at the next meeting of the Full Council.

The ruling Plaid Cymru/Labour coalition tried to impose these new parking fees without consultation and 'under the radar' -- however if they now want to drive it through they will have to vote for it openly in the Council Chamber on December 9th. You can be sure that this blog will record exactly how each councillor decides to vote.

Parking Madness: A Question of priorities... (Update)

Its already widely known that Bryan Owen, leader of the Original Independents and county councillor for the Llangefni Tudur ward, has "called in" for further scrutiny the controversial parking changes in an attempt to stop them. He deserves great praise for leading the fight for common sense and for Anglesey's small businesses.

However the Druid is somewhat surprised that nothing so far has been heard from the member of the ruling group who also happens to chair the Anglesey chapter of the Federation of Small Businesses. I can't imagine that the FSB is in favour of these parking changes which will hit Anglesey's already struggling small retailers particularly hard. I would appeal to that councillor to put the interests of the small businesses he represents above those of the ruling coalition of which he is a part. This policy is seriously flawed and needs to be stopped before further damage is wantonly inflicted on Anglesey's town centre shops and businesses.

UPDATE 16 Nov: The councillor alluded to above, Cllr Selwyn Williams, did indeed speak out against the pay-and-display changes today and voted to send the decision to the Full Council. Well done him.

Pay and Display Madness (updated)

Please,  no more.

On the very same day that Gwynedd County Council announced that they would make all council car parks free during the Christmas period to help local businesses, Anglesey County Council decided to instead announce that the following free car parks will henceforth become pay and display sites:

• Village car park, Cemaes
• Library car park, Benllech
• The Square car park, Benllech
• Stanley Crescent car park, Holyhead 
• Railway Stores car park, Llangefni (short stay)
• Library car park, Rhosneigr (seasonal)
• Church Bay car park (seasonal)
• Beach car park, Rhoscolyn (seasonal)

Why? Apparently so as to provide a consistent policy throughout the island. Currently some towns and villages have pay and display car parks and some don't -- therefore the Council has decided that all locales must suffer equally.

According to council documents these new car parks will generate approximately £30,000 a year in income -- the same documents do not detail how much these changes might translate into loss of income for local businesses. I also note that there is no mention of such a policy in the ruling coalition's recently released "manifesto".

As far as I am concerned this is sheer madness. Anglesey is on its knees following the closure of many of its largest employers and the loss of over 2,100 private sector jobs in a very short period of time. Our town centres are already struggling because of the increase in out-of-town and edge-of-town supermarkets and the general inconvenience of parking. The Council should be doing everything in its power to protect and promote Anglesey's existing small businesses, not adding to their problems for the sake of a paltry £30,000 a year in extra income -- income which would probably otherwise found its way to the very same small retailers which will now suffer from these new paid car-parks. Unlike Gwynedd County Council, Anglesey Council doesn't seem to realise that the best way to sustainably increase their own income over the long-term is to support healthy and thriving local businesses. Madness.

You can see the council documents below: IoACC Car Parking documents

UPDATE:  In a bid to help the council identify savings which would allow the currently free car parks to remain free car parks, Cllr Durkin has now officially called on Anglesey County Council to cut councillors allowanced by half in order to save £360K per annum:
B Durkin press release

Adam Price is right -- and I can prove it.

As far as I'm concerned Adam Price, the ex-Plaid Cymru MP and leadership contender, hit the nail squarely on the head when he told a BBC Wales programme yesterday that:

"a lack of skills amongst [Welsh Assembly] politicians is making it difficult to tackle big economic challenges".

He also went on to say:

"The gap between the problems we face in Wales and the skill-set of the people we're drawing in to politics is huge".

I couldn't agree more. In our current straightened times all politics is economics -- and accordingly we need politicians with some understanding of where wealth comes from, how to use it wisely, and, most importantly, and how to invest in skills, infrastructure, and business so as to generate more of it. Unfortunately the vast majority of our current Assembly Members are drawn exclusively from the public sector and have never had to create any wealth themselves. (Please note that I am not attacking civil servants, I am just saying that they are vastly over-represented as a group thus depriving the Assembly of other equally valuable life experiences and outlooks).

Don't believe me? Take a look at the below 'Druid Research Centre' analysis of the backgrounds of all 60 of our Assembly Members to see what life and work experience they had before becoming full-time politicians. Here are the results for the ruling coalition of Labour and Plaid Cymru Assembly Members:

Welsh Assembly Ruling Coalition AMs - Click to enlarge

Of 39 Labour and Plaid Cymru AMs, only 10 percent of them have ever had any private sector business experience. The overwhelming majority (62 percent) have worked in the public sector all their lives with the remainder coming from voluntary-sector, law, religion, media and politics backgrounds. When looked at through the lens of wealth creation - a staggering 87 percent of the Labour / Plaid coalition have never had a wealth-creating job (the Druid is using Adam Smith's definition of 'wealth creation' whereby materials, labour, land, and technology are combined in such a way as to capture a profit, i.e. excess above the cost of production). Is it really any surprise that Economic Development polices in Wales are not working when only a very tiny fraction of the government have ever had any wealth creating experience themselves? 

Here are the breakdowns by party:

LABOUR

Labour AMs - click to enlarge

PLAID CYMRU

Plaid Cymru AMs - click to enlarge

CONSERVATIVES

Conservative AMs - click to enlarge

LIB DEMS

Lib Dem AMs - click to enlarge

The Lib Dems are frankly the worse of a very bad bunch - not a single Lib Dem AM has ever been anywhere near a business, comprised as they are of four ex-teachers and two ex-civil servants. But at least they are not in power - coalition partner Plaid Cymru on the other hand is almost equally bad with just one AM (Alun Ffred Jones) ever having had any wealth creating experience. 

It is imperative for a country like Wales, struggling as it is with high unemployment and a dwindling industrial- and business-base, to have more private-sector and wealth creating experience in its national legislature. However as Adam Price correctly identifies, Welsh parties are drawing politicians "from a vanishingly small gene-pool" and really need to look deeply at themselves and ask why it is that they are attracting so few people from business backgrounds when there is such an obvious need for their skills and experience.

The Outer Hebrides outgrow Anglesey

Dylan Jones-Evans, Professor and Director of Enterprise and Innovation at the University of Wales, today continues his excellent and insightful investigation into the situation of Anglesey by taking a look at how the ten poorest areas in the UK (as measured by GVA per head) have performed relative to each other since 2001. The results can be seen in the below chart:

Relative GVA per head compared to UK Average for the UK's 10 poorest regions

As you can see, some regions have shown tremendous growth over the past seven years, whereas places like Anglesey, the valleys of South Wales, and Conway & Denbighshire have either continued to decline or stagnated. It is also worth noting that these figures presumably include the output from Anglesey Aluminium and other recently closed companies, making it certain that Anglesey's current GVA per head is even lower than shown here.

However what really stands out to me is how the Western Isles (also known as the Outer Hebrides) have transformed their position from second from the bottom to joint top over a period of just ten years. When we look at the map plotting the location of these ten poorest parts of the UK, we can see just how remarkable the performances of the Western Isles and of Caithness and Sutherland, and Ross Cromarty (i.e. the North East top of Scotland) in particular have been:

Location of the top 10 poorest regions in the UK

So, as you can see without (a) the benefit of an A55 linking it directly to the industrial cities of the Midlands; (b) a major port linking it to the capital of Ireland, or (c) even a bridge connecting it to the rest of the mainland, the Western Isles have managed to not only economically outperform us in Anglesey, but have also grown dramatically too. This map also makes it clear that simply blaming the peripheral location of Anglesey as the cause of all our problems is not enough -- most of the bottom ten regions are in relatively remote locations, yet the two most remote regions (Western Isles and the North East tip of Scotland) have somehow found a way to grow. 

To me this indicates that, all other things being equal, there must be something fundamentally wrong with the Economic Development policies being followed by successive governments in Westminster, and in particular by the Welsh Assembly Government which need to be put right as soon as possible.

A reader asks IWJ, "why does Anglesey always come last?" (updated)

Following the revelations via Dylan Jones-Evans on Monday that less than 0.1 percent of European 'JEREMIE' funding spent in Wales so far has been obtained by Anglesey-based companies, a reader of this blog emailed Ieuan Wyn Jones to ask him why:

Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2010 11:45 AM

To: Wyn Jones, Ieuan (Assembly Member) 

Subject: European Structural Funding allocated to Anglesey 

Mr Jones,

As a long term resident of Anglesey I am appalled by the continual decline in investment and employment in this island. This situation is highlighted by the latest official data which shows that in the last three years only 111 businesses on the island have been helped through European convergence funding.  In addition to this, only 102 new jobs have been created and only 18 new businesses have been set up. At the same time we have lost many large employers too well known to have to list.

I understand that Wales have access to the £150,000,000 JEREMIE fund which is providing commercial funding for small firms which face difficulties in obtaining funding.

According to figures released by the Welsh Assembly, £30 million has been spent in the whole of Wales, only £25,000 has been invested in Anglesey. This is less than 0.1% of the funding.

The figures tell us that Gwynedd has received 44 times more funding than your constituency, Conwy has received twice as much, Denbighshire 35 times more and Flintshire 77 times more. Why is this?

Are you, as either MP or AM for this island for many years, proud of this situation?

You are in a position of authority in the Welsh Assembly, why on earth do you not support the people who sent you there?

Please let me know what action you intend to take to correct this grossly unfair situation.

This morning he received a reply all the way from Cardiff Bay:

From: "Wyn Jones, Ieuan (Assembly Member)"

Date: 10 November 2010 08:26:18 GMT

Subject: Re: European Structural Funding allocated to Anglesey

I thank you for your e-mail and interest in these matters. The amount of convergence funding which Anglesey has access to is significantly higher than that quoted by you. I'll get the full figures. 

Access to the Jeremie fund is by individual companies and not allocated geographically by the government. Indeed the fund is only a small proportion of the funding requirement of small businesses. 

Anglesey has benefited significantly from a whole range of European funding streams as well as in providing funding for transport links in recent years.

I hope that you will continue to support all efforts in improving the island's economy including strengthening the economy department's role in North Wales.

Yours sincerely

Ieuan Wyn Jones

It is IWJ's reply to the issue of JEREMIE funding which is so revealing: no explanation as to why the take up on Anglesey has been so appallingly small, just a glib assertion that it is not allocated geographically. I have no doubt that that he is right -- but what is being asked of IWJ is this: has he as Anglesey's AM done done enough to ensure that businesses in his own constituency are aware that such funding is available? The figures would suggest not. Furthermore we know that Anglesey is the poorest place in the UK, we know that the island has lost over 2,000 private sector jobs over the past couple of years, therefore we need our Assembly Member to be doing everything in his power to ensure that his own constituency gets all the support it needs to return to growth. Unfortunately neither the JEREMIE funding take-up figures nor IWJ's reply above instill confidence.

UPDATE: Our correspondent replied to IWJ and has received another mail from the Minister:

Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2010 10:16 AM

To: Wyn Jones, Ieuan (Assembly Member) 

Subject: European Structural Funding allocated to Anglesey 

Dear Mr Jones,

I am in receipt of your reply to my email on the above subject.

I look forward to receiving the figures concerning the amount of convergence funding to which Anglesey has access, as promised.

How much of these funds have been applied for and how much has been received and for what purposes? I would like answers to all three points.

You say that access to the JEREMIE fund is by individual companies, what are you doing specifically to make sure that companies know about these funds and how are you helping them to obtain them? Answer please.

You also say that the fund is only a small proportion of the funding requirements of small businesses, what are you doing the help them with any shortfall? Answer please.

You say that Anglesey has benefited significantly from a whole range of European funding streams. When we look at the fact that Anglesey is the poorest area in the United Kingdom there is no apparent improvement. Why are you not pushing harder to see that this island receives its fair share of funding? We get less than any other part of Wales. Is there a good reason for this state of affairs?

With regard to the funding for transport links, are you refering to the massive subsidy to the Valley - Cardiff air link? I am sure it is of great help to some people!

You conclude by saying that you hope I will continue to support efforts to improve the island's economy, could you list some concrete examples of your achievements in this direction?

To which IWJ replied:

From: "Wyn Jones, Ieuan (Assembly Member)"

Date: 10 November 2010 12:08:45 GMT

Subject: Re: European Structural Funding allocated to Anglesey

I have made a note of your continuing concerns to which I will respond to in due course. The Jeremie fund is extensively marketed as well as other sources of funding

It is not true to say that Anglesey receives less support from government funding than other counties. The regen project Mon a Menai is one of a limited number of SRA's in the whole of Wales.

Ieuan Wyn Jones

Why does Anglesey always come last?

In his blog today, Dylan Jones-Evans reveals some very disturbing information about how Anglesey is being seriously left behind in terms of European structural funding:

"But as we know, Anglesey, as the poorest county within the whole of the UK, has the advantage of being able to access £2 billion pounds of European Structural funding in order to create jobs and new businesses to alleviate the effects of the recession.

Unfortunately, that has simply not happened.

The latest official data shows that, in the last three years, only 111 businesses on Anglesey have been helped through European convergence funding.

Worse still, only 102 new jobs have been created and just 18 new businesses set up.

Remember this is at a time when Wales was going though the worst downturn since the 1920s and hundreds of jobs were lost on Anglesey.

But that is not the whole story.

Wales is also fortunate to have access to the £150 million JEREMIE fund that is providing commercial funding solutions for small firms that face difficulties in securing funding. 

Yet, according to the latest figures released by WAG, whilst £30 million has been spent across Wales, only £25,000 has been invested on Anglesey i.e. less than 0.1 per cent of funding for entrepreneurs has gone to the poorest county in Wales."

The JEREMIE (Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises) project is very interesting in that it provides exactly the kind of support which Anglesey needs right now, i.e. loans for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that are currently facing difficulties in securing funding from banks. Considering that Anglesey has lost the majority of its larger firms over the past few years, to secure any kind of economic growth on the Island we have to strategically focus on our indigenous small firms. Yet as Dylan Jones-Evans points out, Anglesey's SMEs has been the recipient of less than 0.1 percent of the total JEREMIE funding spent in Wales to date. To put that into perspective, lets see how other Welsh regions have done compared to Anglesey:

JEREMIE investments in SMEs by region (£000s)
click to enlarge

So, our neighbour Gwynedd has received 44 times more funding than Anglesey, Conwy twice as much, Denbighshire 35 times more, and Flintshire a staggering 77 times more. 

One has to ask why so little of this funding is being accessed by Anglesey's companies? Our AM, Ieuan Wyn Jones, always manages to find time to slam the coalition government for any perceived "lack of respect" for the Welsh economy, yet strangely fails to find any time to actually ensure that his constituency's small businesses are taking full advantage of available funding options -- despite them being administered by his own department. Time to go, Ieuan...