Odd Shots of Swansea

Night-time in Swansea and the museum looks amazing. With a large selection of local artifacts this is certainly the place to visit to look back at the city's history.

Early Saturday morning at Singleton Hospital and it's car boot sale time.

"Salbrious Passage!" The words swill around your mouth like a good whisky. Sitting at the end of Wind Street it's the entrance to the weekend night-life.

Karting comes to Swansea

Skidz isSwansea's only indoor karting track. With karts for all ages and abilities and tracks to challenge all types of drivers - they know you'll have a great time karting with them!

From arrive and drive to corporate events, they can do it all - have a look at the Event Types page and get in touch with any questions.

*For arrive & drive, please call first so they can advise on available time slots throughout the day.

Every driver is provided with a helmet, overalls, gloves and a detailed safety briefing. Drivers will have to make a one time purchase of a balaclava for hygiene reasons - but they're only £1.50 and its yours to keep and bring back next time!

Along with 2 great tracks, there's also a big games room with driving simulators, a pool table, air hockey table, and a cafe serving light refreshments.

If you're looking for a different venue for a conference or party, there is a great party/conference room for hire too - just contact us for further information.

If you're looking for a birthday or special gift idea, then why not buy a Skidz Karting gift voucher. They'll make a great gift and can be used as part or full payment for any type of session offered.

Carrie is Coming

Watch out for Carrie.

Born to save you money and introduce you to new shops, new ideas and a brighter Swansea.

We shall be giving out 10,000 free Carrie keyfobs over the coming weeks so apply for yours. Look out for me in shop windows, pop in and pick me up straight away. You'll then get a weekly voucher sheet with exciting new offers from across the City. Print off and put them in your purse or pocket. 

And you can have an extra service. For just £5 we'll give you two years lost and returned key service. Lose your keys and we''ll pay out a reward when they are found. Simple and another great idea. 

Watch out for the forthcoming buskers. Here to entertain you. Here to bring a bit of live entertainment to the City Centre.

Just Chugging along

I mentioned that charity collectors are allowed to work the city centre free of charge. I totally agree that charities should be allowed to collect without being charged a fee by Swansea Council but the charity collectors, after referred to as chuggers, are paid and they can be intimidating. There have been nummerous articles about them right across the UK. 

It is understood that they might earn a basic pay of around £7 per hour but can be on bonuses giving them considerably more. If they are agency employees then the agency apparently earns a percentage of the direct debit that the giver signs on the street with the charity collector.

It will be interesting to see what it costs some of these charities to have collectors on the streets. In Scotland it is understood that Shelter pay out some £3m to chuggers and gather in £11m. That is a pretty high cost and just consider how many donations they may be losing where people find themselves offended by being accosted. I'm not saying that this might be the case in Swansea but it does leave a question mark. 

I see that the Evening Post posted my article last Thursday about the comparative cost of distributing leaflets in the city centre compared to other cities such as Cardiff and Newport. The council spokesman said that a fee waas charged to cover costs of controlling this activity.

Here is my response in a letter I have sent to the Evening Post. I hope they publish it.

"I do agree that it is necessary to have some control over the distribution of leaflets but why should there be such a high cost? I mentioned in my interview that both Cardiff and Newport do not charge local businesses and encourage them to advertise freely.

It is worth noting that both cities do control leaflet distribution and have guide-lines and application forms to complete. Neither charge as they told me that they consider this a valuable service to local businesses: one that they feel they should support.

Swansea council seem to seek ways to stealth tax local businesses wherever possible, and this hasn’t just applied during the recent cuts in their budgets. The charge for leaflet distribution goes back several years. I note that the Swansea spokesman claimed that charges start from £36 but this was not mentioned when I contacted the City Centre management team asking about charges. They only mentioned that charities can canvass free of charge (although I understand the canvassers are paid a commission) and certain bodies who claim freedom of speech such as political parties. It is also interesting to note that the Big Issue sellers do not pay. I was told that there is a maximum of 4 but it does sometimes feel that there is one on every street corner! I have nothing against Big Issue sellers and in fact after being around 40 years getting people on the first rung of the jobs ladder, they do a good job, but with a small city centre footprint more than two sees overkill.

Come on Swansea Council. Don’t be penny pinching skin-flints. I understand that you aren’t here to make money for local businesses but to ensure the infra-structure is there for businesses to succeed or fail dependant on their products, plans and management. How do you feel you are succeeding? Have you put in place that infra-structure?

A little bit of help would be most welcome by local independent businesses, particularly during these difficult trading times. You know that the high rents and business rates are crippling so here is your chance to help in a small way."

What do you think?

Why is Swansea Concil charging local businesses to give out leaflets

Leaflets are a quick effective way to promote a retailer in a city centre. You come up with an idea or have a special offer that you want to get out quickly.

It is possible today to get full colour leaflets produced digitally almost instantly at a low cost. For example 500 A5 leaflets full colour ready next day for under £50. 

And the obvious path to distribution is to hand them out in the street. I understand that yo can stand in your shop doorway and hand the out but you have to pay if you move away fro your premises. Well you have to pay if your shop is in Swansea. It looks like £115 per position per day with up to two people. Sees a lot of money! Well you lucky city retailers within the BIDS area yo get a reduction of 50%. Well done BID. That's a good saving. SWANSEA IS AT LEAST £55

Or is it? Travel down the M4 to Cardiff and its free unless you are a large multi-national outlet and then it's up to £250 a day but no restriction on the number in the team. So I understand one iof the mobile phone companies was there and they paid. Fair enough. CARDIFF IS FREE

Go further down the M4 and in Newport there is no charge. They are keen to promote the service and support local businesses. In fact the department took my phone number and I had a call back within 30 minutes and an e-mail with full details and downloadable forms just 5 minutes later. I asked if I had to provide my own litter bin, as you do in some towns and cities. "No. Our team is here to help" NEWPORT IS FREE

Keep going down the M4 to Bristol. So what is the score there I wondered. "It's free!" I was told. "You don't need a licence. Just call us and tell us when and we'll tell the City Rangers so you don't get any trouble " BRISTOL IS FREE.

One other point. I found a very positive attitude from the staff at Cardiff, Newport and Bristol. In all cases they asked if there was any other help we wanted! I'm going to try and visit these cities over the next few weeks to get some more feedback. I spoke with the Swansea City Manager to make an appointment but she has been too busy for at least two weeks. She goes off on maternity leave on Monday and now I'm told the person who is taking over (??) is going to be too busy so I'd better talk to Phil Holmes Head of Regeneration and Planning at the Council. So much for the City Management Team. What a contrast from the reception I had at Cardiff, Newport and Bristol.

So the score on cost of giving out leaflets in city centres is:

Bristol Nil - Swansea 115

Newport Nil - Swansea 115

Cardiff Nil - Swansea 115

LOOKS LIKE SWANSEA ARE IN THE PREMIERSHIP

Buskers and entertainment galore in Oxford Street, Swansea

Started the day with a healthy sized slice of luxury victoria sponge. Healthy size but not healthy for my body, but perhaps I'm past that anyway.  

 
I always spoil myself when I go to First Call Coffee  in either the Orchard Street or High Street branches. They have such a great selection, any of which are made by Tony George on-site. As a qualified barasta he's pretty good with coffee too. And a little know fact is that he was the winner of the best cup of tea in the UK Tetley Tea competition about 4 years ago.  There's a great team at both branches and I'd highly recommend a visit.

Then I walked across to Oxford Street to see Disruption presented by the Elysium Gallery in Cradock Street. 


26 Artistes presented a range of entertainment that had the town laughing and enjoying themselves.  Some are shown here and include Frances race and her Cleaning Ladies cleaning up Swansea.Ten people dressed as old fashioned stereo-type cleaning women obsessively cleaning the street, two people dusting, two with sweeping brushes, two with vacuum-cleaners, two spraying the benches, another cleaning the cash point and another picking up rubbish. 

An opportunity to make comments by writing on the pavement with chalk was taken up by many passers-by. How lucky the Elysium Galley was to have such a sunny dry day for their disruption event

Sean Puleston and Erin Rickard presented Big Enough for Both of Us?  This was a conumdrum that neither could answer but they did pose other questions.

Elena Videnova danced as she transformed into a butterfly in a representation of shedding skins, shedding cultures and re-birth It provoked the audience to see the possibilities of transformation.

Elena gave out home crafted butterflies as a momento

Yes! A giant corset. And right next to La Senza presented by 4 Queens inviting the public to participate and interact with their own feelings and ideas that they could write on cotton strips using s felt-tip pen and then hanging on the giant corset









A straightforward busker? I' not sure. Watch this space.

Walk through Swansea with Council Leader Cllr Chris Holley

Saturday morning was sunny and bright at 6am. By 10.30 it was raining!! Council Leader Chris Holley was waiting in the car park opposite the Grand Theatre, brolly open.

We started our walkabout and I stopped a young couple to introduce us and asked what they thought of the City Centre. "The Quadrant Shopping Centre is fine but walk outside and everything looks tired and tawdry" they told us. 

Moving on we entered a children's clothes shop and asked again. Immediately a woman customer told us exactly what she thought about shopping in Swansea. "Car parking should be free otherwise everyone will go to nthe out-of-town shopping centres or Trostre at Llannelli. There is a good range of shops there and parking is free and nearby."  Cllr Holley explained that there is subsidised parking at the NCP carparks for one hour and that the High Street car park offers 4 hours for £1 after 10am but this was countered by the shopper who said she'd not park down there as she thought it not too safe an area. It is a difficult situation. On one hand the local council are promoting park-and-ride to keep traffic out whilst BIDs are encouraging people to drive into town.

In the Market we spoke with a trader who explained that he thought the market had become isolated for many older people who found it difficult to walk from the market to the bus station carrying their shopping. He went on to tell us that it was only just a few years ago when the Market was just so much busier. He thought it was a combination of reasons including the fact that most people were now struggling so they didn't have the money to spend. He suggested that some buses should pass the Market and be able to set down and pick up passengers. Although there were a couple of pick up spaces by the market this was insufficient. Cllr Holley said that the Market is the jewel in the crown as far as the city is concerned and is the reason many come into Swansea.

We called at a couple more shops but as the staff were serving we moved on. We stopped off at the Ole Coffee Shop in Oxford Street and had a welcome coffee, out of the rain. Speaking to the owner, Ali,  we were told that  trading was very difficult and that council actions were not helping. Ali said that he and many others he had talked to had little faith in the council employees where one department didn't know what another was doing. A major problem for the Ole Cafe was the high business rates. Cllr Holley explained that the Council were concerned with this but that the Welsh Assembly Government were responsible and it was they who levied the rates. He realised that this was a bitter pill to swallow and that the council  had made representations to WAG.

Ali also mentioned the changes in the streets and local junctions. Oxford Street now narrows at the end so there is only one lane, thus reducing traffic flow, then turning right towards the Kingsway the lights appear out of sync so there are hold-ups.

These views support the feed-back that I've had when I've been out on my own talking to shoppers and traders. A big concern is the one-way system and the fact that traffic is usually gridlocked on Kingsway at any but the quietest times and this does deter people from visiting Swansea. The roadworks over recent months have had a real impact of visitor levels as people are help-up a few times then decide not to bother anymore, so the city has lost footfall that will be difficult to bring back or replace.

Several have thought that the Kingsway is now a health and safety hazard with half the road being one-way whilst the other (for buses and taxis) is two-way. It is confusing even for regular shoppers and must be a cause for accidents. How many have there been in the last 123 months? Before long one will be fatal. If the extra space is needed for the bendy buses then how do they manage so easily en route to the overnight parking areas?

A common comment has been that Swansea has so much to offer, both in the city centre and out of town. Whether culture or action Swansea has it all. We should concentrate on a complete package but certainly it is time to shake the city centre up.