Off Topic Hull City Centre Public Realm Strategy

Is Acun running the councils as well?

 

Was reported in HDM 2 days ago.

 

Without getting political, the West is bust. City councils, regional councils, county councils, countries big and small are all spending more than their income.
There are one or two exceptions like Norway but that's it.

 

Spending it on ****e mostly.

 

Most of our true genuine earning power has gone to the far east they make it cheaper and quicker and ‘export’ - you can’t export numbers on a screen.

 

And yet the wealthiest are getting wealthier in real terms as well as percentage terms.

There’s money around in the West alright, but perhaps not in the right place (whether it’s enough money I’m not sure, and I am sure there is money wasted that could be spent better, but dealing with wealth inequality certainly wouldn’t do any harm)

 

Pretty meaningless out of context. Typical facebook ****.

I'm sure one of the accountants will explain whether it is good or bad, but the draft accounts are published on the hcc website to look at for 2024/25

There is definitely a lot of debt but a lot of assets too. It seems to me that building up debt to buy assets, say, property, would have been an extremely good thing to do over the past 20 years. No clue if propert acquisition is the debt driver though. It could be, say, for Queens garden which is a less saleable asset.

 

Need to look at the BIG picture, take amazon and their new warehouse out near Melton, yes it creates some jobs mainly low skill low wage with a few exceptions, some of those workers will claim top up benefits, moving traffic into areas that don't have the infrastructure to cope and any profits are whisked off abroad to make a rich bloke even richer.
On the other hand it's killing the high streets, shops closing, less rent and rates income for the local authority, removing the flexibility of working hours that local shops can offer, adding to the general decline of the high Street.

 

My understanding of council assets, when sold have to be put back into infrastructure projects. Not used to balance the books.

 

I had the misfortune of visiting town last week, walked from Spring Bank junction, down Prospect Street to Victoria Square, then down Whitefriargate to High Street, and what a bag of ****. If you want to do some shopping, it seems there is absolutely zero reason to go down any of those streets.

Some of the pubs are decent, but it seems to be getting increasingly difficult to get a pint of craft beer

 

I remember Fri/Sat night round Hull centre in the early 80,s. Always packed and loads of shopping during the day.
We now have on line shopping, shopping in other cities, working from home which effects local shops and pubs. No interest in nightclubs, expensive beer in fact a different mentality to going out.

 

Good thing imo.

 

Thank **** for that!

 

Couldn’t agree more.
And the fact that some workers will need to claim benefits as well, because they aren’t paid enough is effectively tax payers money getting funnelled to Jeff Bezo’s yacht buying.
It’s a disgrace

 

Hull City Council, Labour or Liberal couldn't run a bath between them. Sure someone can magic up how much is owned in council tax in this city? It was millions years ago and the mugs actually paying it are in the minority.
Even the 'little' things make my blood boil....handing £750,000 to a national company who already have millions to open up a bar in Princes Quay, which didn't see the year out, £250,000 to the people who own Pappa's fish and chip shops to open up a......burger takeaway on Jameseon Street for example.#ledbydonkeys.

 

I agree with your point, but you have chosen a route that deliberately avoids the more vibrant parts of the city centre! It’s not entirely doom and gloom is it?

 

I have some sympathy for the Council on this one, because it was actually Dept of Levelling Up () money, and it was that Govt department that decided who got it.
All the Council did, as far as I’m aware, was successfully apply for the overall grant (which overall was a good thing because it was £19.5m and the rest of it went on things like redoing the old Burtons building and some small businesses as well as the big ones) and pass on the money as an intermediary
Having said that where I don’t have sympathy for them is that when it was first announced, and they thought it was going to be a great success, they released press releases that very much sounded like it was HCC funding being handed out. That’s difficult to back track on regardless of the facts.

Who in Govt is auditing what their money went on I don’t know but you’d think that would be an important thing for them to get underneath.

 

The giant Amazon warehouse at Melton is expected to employ upto 2K staff, better here than on the southbank or out at Goole where most of the new factories are. The infrastructure at Melton and Brough has been improved and is in place. I went to South Hunsley and the local factories in those days were Blackies(BAe), Cappers and Earles cement, nowt else except low wage greenhouses, infrastructure then was traffic lights on the A63 and leaving the factory at Brough was like the whacky races 4K all trying to get over the tiny level crossing on Skillings Lane before a train came, they opened the new Railway Bridge at Brough the year after manufacturing ended! The employment opportunities at Melton West and Brough Enterprise Park most be higher than the heyday of BAe now with Smith and Nephew opening soon. Whatever you think of Amazon they are still growing and I'd prefer we had their jobs locally than down the M62 in West Yorkshire.

 

Yeah probably wasn’t a good idea getting people hooked on handouts

 

Quickest route from where I was, to where I needed to be. Scrote Central though, ****ing hell

But no, there are clearly better points for shopping, which seem mostly towards the station nowadays.