Two former Castletown MHKs are calling a public meeting following the decision by Castletown Commissioners to permanently pedestrianise Market Square.
Richard Ronan and Tony Brown say they have tried to meet with the local authority to find out why they're making the move - they believe there are 'no justifications' for it.
The meeting, which the commissioners have been invited to, is planned for Thursday 28 November 2024 at 7.30pm in Morton Hall.
Local Democracy Reporter Emma Draper has been speaking to them:
Hello, I'm local democracy reporter Emma Draper, and I've been speaking to former castle town image case Tony Brown and Richard Ronan about a public meeting they've organised. The pedestrianisation of Market Square has been controversial, but they hope the meeting will bring concerns forward. Yes, Richard Ronan, former image cane chairman of Castle Town Commissioners. Tony Brown, Castle Town. I would say that we didn't want a public meeting to start with. I think what we wanted initially was to talk and have a conversation with the Commissioners. Unfortunately, that wasn't for coming, which has now led us to the situation where we've had to call a public meeting to try and get people's opinion, business's opinion, about the closure of the Market Square during the winter months. And I think also, I mean I think you have to take the point, we did try very much to get a meeting with the Commissioners to get an understanding of what's going on, why they feel this is the way to do it, and importantly to say explain what you're doing and what you see is the way forward, and they've consistently refused to do that to with traders. They've consistently refused to consult with the public and we endeavoured to get a meeting so we could in depth discuss with them how they got to where they are and what can be done and maybe how we can help, both have experience in dealing with these issues. And we both were involved in the regeneration of Castle Town. I was the first chairman of the regeneration committee and then when I retired from politics Richard took over the regeneration committee of Castle Town, in those committees we had all parties represented traders, M&H Commissioners, the Harbors, the Highways so that there was a collective of a view which then resulted in a decision which hopefully was in the best interest of the town, and that is missing in this. And I think the difficulty that we have and the public have, certainly the majority of the public, is understanding how they've come to this decision and why and how are they going to make it work for the benefit of the whole town and that seems to be missing, which is why we got together and said let's see if we can find out what's going on and how can we help and being rebuffed all the time for any meetings we find quite hard to understand. I think it's fair to say as well that we're not opposed to the commissioners making decisions to shut in the winter. What we want to understand is why these decisions have been made. Is there a plan? How have you come about it, who have you consulted with, and as Tony just said as part of the regeneration committees that this was the whole ethos of the committees was about consultation and about compromise and the square as it's built now was an absolute compromise. Being led by people who are going to be influenced by a new square being formed and that's how it was made. It was made to be a flexible approach for the summer for the winter, to be able to shut the square at ease. I appreciate and I said this recently as well in the interview, trading conditions have changed in the last 10 years. To make the decision the commissioners have made and having the lack of consultation and meetings with the relevant bodies is such a shame. I think now where we are there's obviously a disconnect. I would urge the commissioners now to seriously think about suspending this winter which is a temporary closure to march and draw up plans because I know there isn't any plans. It's an idea from within the commissioner's office and that idea hasn't really any substance of why. In the day I'm a builder you know and if I want to build an extension or one of my clients wants to build an extension they can't just go to the planners and say I want to build an extension. They've got to produce detailed plans of why and there's no difference with this. What people or what the commission's maybe misunderstanding is the square does not stand alone and you just make a decision about the square you have to consider what are the implications for parking for people coming into the town not just to sit in the square but to go shopping. What are the benefits of keeping it closed during the winter months? Whether can be to put it mildly very inclement on most occasions and the loss of 17 car parking spaces right in the centre short term shopping and there's no reasoning or justification coming out that helps people including us understand how they've reached that decision. It's not a light decision that shouldn't be taken lightly and I think there's a disappointment certainly from a self who wrote in an object to the original order that the Department of Infrastructure issued an object to it and set out the reasons why I didn't think it was appropriate that in fact they haven't required consultation they've just seemed to accept well this is what Castle Town Commission's want that'll happen but the point is the permanent order was then put aside or whatever taking its time and they then brought in under legislation a road closure and that has a different format you don't have to consult on a road closure but you do on a permanent order and they've still got the result that the squares closed off and continued now right through there was a lot of criticism because the commissioners and highways closed the square off from the 1st of March and then it wasn't really used until we got into end of April early May that's had no impact at all on anybody's considerations and we've now had it continue to be closed and to be blunt the square virtualize empty all day so they need to consider how is this benefiting our town once they can demonstrate that I think people would say that's great but they're not answering the questions they're refusing to consult with anyone they're refusing to talk towards how can that be in our town's best interest Castle Town is important to me and to Richard and to John Kringle and we would never have got to the stage of a public meeting except the circumstances that have been created by the commissioners after this meeting which are holding at the end of November what would be your ideal outcome at the end of this meeting or for the future of the town and the square clearly a public meeting is to give an opportunity for interested parties including the people of Castle Town the businesses and so on to have a say on something they really feel they're being ignored on and they don't happen often very rare they happen but when they do it's an opportunity for people to question the commissioners if they attend the meeting which they all been written to and asked to attend the meeting the ministers being written to and asked if he will attend the meeting with officials to explain how they've come to this decision and why things have gone the way they are and hopefully from that meeting and who knows what will happen you know nobody might turn up or we might have a full hall we don't know but importantly on the 20th of November we want to have an opportunity for the town to have a voice because they no one else is giving them that opportunity which could be avoided with consultation but that's now moved on and ultimately hopefully from that meeting there will be a resolution supported by the majority of people there or hopefully all the people there asking through the chairman of the meeting who's an independent person Paul Castain who's captain of the parish for Russian will then be asked to transmit a message on behalf of the meeting to the commissioners and to the minister hopefully seeking a way forward that is more understanding really and hopefully will build a better foundation to move towards maybe the goal that everyone's trying to achieve but the way we are now that goal is being damaged because there's so much public reaction against the decision that's been made that it's not just us the town is not happy there are people who are happy but an awful lot of people are not happy with it they think it's just awful that the squares just lying empty in a nutshell what we want here is common sense what common sense from the commissioners what we want them to listen personally having served on the board of commissioners for seven years Tony before me and many boards before that I've always had a plan a lot of commissioners published a plan and I haven't seen one from the commissioners and I think this is seriously lacking in this in this instance and I I would urge the commissioners to draw a plan up for this proposal because it's going to have such a big impact on our town our businesses our traders this is why I would call for them to to suspend this for now and adopt a common sense approach listen to the concerned people the residents the businesses and move away forward with consensus ultimately they are the decision makers of the town locally and both of us respect that but you have to go through a process to reach such a fundamental decision which is going to impact the town for many many years to come and as we mentioned before this process was followed thoroughly through the regeneration process this shouldn't be any different but ultimately you know we appreciate they are the decision makers but they need to do more work to make this come to fruition if that's what they want and what do you think the reasons behind this closure are I know you've mentioned that they've you know they've not told anybody but do you have any hunches yourself or anything you think oh maybe it's this or maybe it's that personally I think it's I think it's commissioners who think it's a good idea and I think it's as narrow as that I think it's it's a couple of commissioners who come in who got elected and think I want I want this to happen right okay that's good I think we all admire people with strong opinions and think things that will hopefully impact people's lives however this is such a fundamental decision it goes it goes beyond that you need to gather the information you need to publish your plans as I mentioned before it happens in many many other fields government private you have to follow process and that's what I would urge the commissioners to do let's have a suspension now and let's adopt a common sense approach I think what's important is that politicians local level commissioners doesn't matter what level have got to listen you learn by listening you you understand what people's concerns are and you look to see how you can overcome them having vision having good ideas is clearly what politicians about I did it Richard did it lots of us did it but then you have to go to the next stage I have an idea right how will it work I've had lots of good ideas that in the end didn't pursue them because they didn't work and this is what's missing here nobody knows what their idea is nobody knows why they're doing it nobody knows how they've considered all the implications of it and most most importantly nobody from the commissioners has said how this will benefit the town and its retailers they haven't got that issue brought forward so none of us understand what's going on and that's why we are on 40 where we are which is having a public meeting rich and I retired from politics that is he's still working but Richard and I are retired and to be honest I'm busy enough without it Richard's busy enough without it John Cringaloosey who's also involved in this as they're retired as well we're happy for the politicians to do their job but for goodness sake you represent the town you haven't been elected to dictate to the town what you do you've been elected to represent the town and its best interests and that is lacking at the moment we don't know what their best interests are we're not at war with anyone we're just saying for goodness sake please come back to what Richard said common sense listen to what's going on that's why you're over here thank you for making it to the end of the Manx Redian newscast you are obviously someone with exquisite taste may I politely suggest you might want to subscribe to this and a wide range of Manx radio podcasts at your favorite podcast provider so our best bits will magically appear on your smartphone thank you [BLANK_AUDIO]
