I joined this forum just over 2 years ago and on a number of occasions (148 apparently!) have been moved to post contributions on topics of interest to me as an ex-Pen lad who grew up in a thriving quarry town cum holiday resort 'twixt mountains and sea'.
Occasionally, as recently, the forum has warmed up when frustrations with 'the system' have been aired and considerable anger expressed over some local issues, e.g. Egniol or Pencae Welsh streaming. By the way, what did happen about that last issue?
A forum is a good place to find out whether anyone else shares your views but it is no place to expect a problem to be resolved. Although this forum has many regular and active members I doubt whether the majority of Penmaenmawr residents join in and if I were a local councillor I would never be drawn into a discussion on it.
To me fora (that's more than one forum if you weren't force-fed Latin at school) have become an easy option to seeking out the proper and more productive ways of obtaining satisfaction over local issues of concern, but seldom do they produce results. For the purpose of obtaining satisfaction they are as futile as 'writing to the Times' or 'having your say' on the BBC website, particularly if the poster hides behind a pseudonym! If you want an even better example just look at Gordon Brown's petitions website at
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ and draw your own conclusions.
It seems to me that we expect too much from electronic means of communication with those who rule our lives. The airwaves are alive with twittering, blogging and texting politicians trying to look as though they are in touch with the masses but in reality it is all mere window-dressing. Never have the residents of Pen had so many representatives at all levels of government between Pant-yr-Afon and Brussels. Parish Councillors, Borough Councillors, County Councillors, a Welsh Assembly Member, a Westminster MP and an MEP, all paid for by you and I; have I missed any? So it shouldn't be difficult to get something done, should it?
Looking at some of the issues raised on this forum I do wonder why your local Parish Councillor was not contacted in the first instance, and so on up the chain if nothing is done. You can write letters which have to be answered, attend council meetings to make sure that topics are discussed and meet with your MP at a 'clinic'. It all takes more effort than posting on a forum but in the final analysis it depends on whether you think the cause is worth it.
Regarding the Egniol issue, the cause would certainly seem to be worth the effort, but who is going to organise it, and do the leg-work?
For what it's worth I would start way back when the building ceased to become the National School: Who owned it at that time? How many times has it been sold on? What planning and change of use permissions were obtained at each change and were they met? What grants were provided to each legal owner, from where and with what stipulations? The place to start regarding ownership and planning permissions etc. is the Planning Office at Conwy Borough Council. Also, if a legal owner of the building has gone into liquidation then any organisation providing a grant could be a creditor where the conditions of the grant have not been met.
It does appear that the Parish Council should now be, and should have been all along, much more pro-active in this saga but they will need to be kick-started into action by presenting them with the hard facts of the case obtained independently by someone prepared to make the effort. Good luck.
Want to know how to complain? Check this out:
http://www.howtocomplain.com/PS 09 March. Having tried to use the above link in my efforts to get a response from BT about my broadband service - they ask for far too much personal information in order to sign you up. This they sell on to other organisations. I've followed my own advice and written to their head office.
