What have we been doing...
March 2013
Well this month a BBC crew came to Colwyn Bay to look at the pier as they were doing a piece on the news about 'Murals and Risk'. This was shown on the BBC morning show NATIONAL. We can access the news report here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21630984
February 2013
ShoreThing and the Conwy County Borough Council submitted the fabulous shiny brand new bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund in Cardiff!! We won’t hear the results for 3 months but that gives us plenty of time to raise awareness locally and nationally that the pier is here and the local community want it to be open.
January 2013
We held an open information couple of days in the Bay View Shopping Centre, Colwyn Bay which over 300 people turned out yet again! We were signing up people to become volunteers, pier pals members and people who were interested in becoming part of the committee.
The Pioneer came down and did an interview, BBC Wales Radio came along, The North Wales weekly, The Daily Post and we even got the Chairman of ShoreThing, Charlton, doing an interview on ITV news!
It was a great couple of days and just shows still how important the pier is to the local community. Please get in contact if you would like to become a volunteer so help us at these public events or when we get the portakabin outside the pier for the summer please, please, get in touch via the contact form.
We are getting such a response it may take some time to get back to you but we are quite undermanned and NEED more people!!!
December 2012
We are thinking of holding a public open day to show people whats been going on behind the scenes this year but would been a couple of hundred people to visit us to make it viable. Maybe you could signup as a volunteer, become a member of pier pals or join our team of the specialist panel?
November 2012
The previous owners claim has been rejected by the courts which does not really affect us as Shore Thing together with CCBC are getting the finishing touches together for the HLF application that goes in early 2013, Fingers crossed!
September 2012
Our mission for the portacabin it taking it's time as we want to produce this as a semi permenant structure until the pier is refurbished. We want it to be an open froum for the community to catch up on whats going on with the project.
August 2012
Our mission is still the same. Obtain funding from the HLF to restore Victoria pier as CBCC bought the pier in April 2012. The hard work being put into the HLF application is much appreciated by the group and many of the local public who believe in the restoration of Victoria Pier.
July 2012
We are on a mission to get our hands on a portakabin which we could place near the pier to house information, volunteers and such to be a format from which we can run fundraising events and such during the few years it will ttake for the complete restoration of Victoria Pier.
June2012
The heritage Lottery Fund really liked Shorething and CBCC's application and encouraged us to reapply later on in the year which the council and Shore Thing are doing so we expect to see lots of activity around the pier in the future
May 2012
We are waiting until Shore Thing to meet with Heritage Lottery Fund and Conwy County Borough Council in Cardiff to go through the HLF bid and agree on a way for the group to push forward. We could look into ways of opening the front building to start raising funds.
April 2012
Unfortunately we did not get through the first round of the Heritage Lottery Fund. We are left with a positive note that they would like to meet with Shore Thing and CCBC sometime after the local elections.
March 2012
The Welsh Assembly Government stepped in and purchased the pier from Crown Estates and placed it in the hands of CCBC.
December 2011
The finished business plan was hand delivered directly to the Heritage Lottery Fund in Cardiff in anticipation of the ownership being clearly defined in March.
November 2011
Shore Thing needed to hold a public consultation in the Bay View shopping centre to talk to the public, show some of the ideas of the business plan and gain the local communities feelings regarding the pier. The group staffed this event for two days and the youth event afterwards.
June 2011
The decision to create an in-depth business plan for the pier was made to open the doors into the world of big money funding and grants with the Heritage Lottery Fund a priority via Shore Thing.
May 2011
We went to ‘Prom Day’ to spread the word about the troubles of the pier and what we hope to achieve as a group for the pier and Colwyn Bay. It was lovely to be able to chat away with everybody who stopped by. We think a few hundred people know a lot more about what is going on now!
April 2011
We formed a ‘Prom Day’ Committee to gather together all our information about the pier and what the group has achieved in communications and ideas over the past 15 months and make it as public as possible.
March 2011
A cross section of committee members met with Deputy Minister Jocelyn Davies and Darren Millar AM to introduce us to the Minister and update Darren Millar on our current position.
February 2011
Colwyn Bay ‘Shore Thing’ is registered at Companies House. It is a new social enterprise born from and an integral part of the Victoria Pier Pressure Group.
January 2011
The group decided to form a non-profit company to enable us to move forward as a social enterprise, five members of the committee volunteered and were voted in to become Directors. The company name was agreed on as “Colwyn Bay Shore
Thing”
We met with a Community First Co-ordinator, funded by the ‘Welsh Assembly Government’ in Colwyn Bay, facilitated by our new found recognition by the council and officers of the council as a whole. She then provided help in acquiring funding, advice and guidance as a full on group that is proactive and involves the whole community.
November 2010
Meet with Darren Millar AM to make him aware of our group and our aims and objectives.
September 2010
Met informally with councillor Brian Cossey Chairman of the Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee of the County Council, this gave the group the opportunity to explain to a councillor who, what and why we are.
October 2010
After a period of being isolated as a group, Councillor Brian Cossey invited us to attend a presentation in Bodlondeb of the surveyors report with the task and finish group, Darty’s and Royce Peeling Green.
As a group, we met with a Wales Co-operative representative to discuss our options and how to go ahead to make us a charity, trust, not for profit company or a social enterprise etc.
After further contact from Chris Wyatt, web master of the National Piers Society he offered help with guidance on our way forward and his and the societies support.
July 2010
We received contact from with Adrian Hancox who was heavily involved in restoring The Grand Pier in Weston super Mare. He provided ideas and support.
Met with David Jones MP to make him aware of what we had done already on our own as a group and what assistance we needed from his office, such as contact details for the other members of the steering committee.
June 2010
Met informally with Royce Peeling Green to discuss options and find their point of view about the pier.
May 2010
Group opened a bank account with a kind donation from a local small business.
April 2010
Invited Mr Steve Hunt to meet the group and inform him of our aims and objectives, namely to ensure that we as a group intend to see that the Victoria Pier is fully restored and opened to the public. We will do this by any “legal”
means and work with any given person, government body, charity, trust or funding body to do this.
March 2010
We all met for the first time to band together and form the Victoria Pier Pressure Group before the second public meeting.
We approached Conwy Voluntary Service for advice on becoming a recognised community group and began the process.
The group then attended the second public meeting at St Paul’s Church and each group member stood up and was voted in as volunteers for the ‘steering group’ arranged by David Jones MP along with several other members of the public.
Despite the elections coming up we held the second Victoria Pier Pressure Group meeting hoping to get the ball rolling and to attempt to track down the rest of the ‘steering committee’ to amalgamate the two groups unfortunately this proved problematic at the time!
We formed a full committee with voted in Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer and such. The constitution began to take shape enabling us to register with the Conwy Voluntary Service.
February 2010
Following the first public meeting at the Council Chambers which attracted over 400 members of the public the first three members of what has become Victoria Pier Pressure Group track each other down for a chat and decide a fresh new group with its own constitution is the best way to raise awareness and protect our Pier.
We began chasing people who were like-minded in trying to save Victoria Pier to join the new group.
Well this month a BBC crew came to Colwyn Bay to look at the pier as they were doing a piece on the news about 'Murals and Risk'. This was shown on the BBC morning show NATIONAL. We can access the news report here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21630984
February 2013
ShoreThing and the Conwy County Borough Council submitted the fabulous shiny brand new bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund in Cardiff!! We won’t hear the results for 3 months but that gives us plenty of time to raise awareness locally and nationally that the pier is here and the local community want it to be open.
January 2013
We held an open information couple of days in the Bay View Shopping Centre, Colwyn Bay which over 300 people turned out yet again! We were signing up people to become volunteers, pier pals members and people who were interested in becoming part of the committee.
The Pioneer came down and did an interview, BBC Wales Radio came along, The North Wales weekly, The Daily Post and we even got the Chairman of ShoreThing, Charlton, doing an interview on ITV news!
It was a great couple of days and just shows still how important the pier is to the local community. Please get in contact if you would like to become a volunteer so help us at these public events or when we get the portakabin outside the pier for the summer please, please, get in touch via the contact form.
We are getting such a response it may take some time to get back to you but we are quite undermanned and NEED more people!!!
December 2012
We are thinking of holding a public open day to show people whats been going on behind the scenes this year but would been a couple of hundred people to visit us to make it viable. Maybe you could signup as a volunteer, become a member of pier pals or join our team of the specialist panel?
November 2012
The previous owners claim has been rejected by the courts which does not really affect us as Shore Thing together with CCBC are getting the finishing touches together for the HLF application that goes in early 2013, Fingers crossed!
September 2012
Our mission for the portacabin it taking it's time as we want to produce this as a semi permenant structure until the pier is refurbished. We want it to be an open froum for the community to catch up on whats going on with the project.
August 2012
Our mission is still the same. Obtain funding from the HLF to restore Victoria pier as CBCC bought the pier in April 2012. The hard work being put into the HLF application is much appreciated by the group and many of the local public who believe in the restoration of Victoria Pier.
July 2012
We are on a mission to get our hands on a portakabin which we could place near the pier to house information, volunteers and such to be a format from which we can run fundraising events and such during the few years it will ttake for the complete restoration of Victoria Pier.
June2012
The heritage Lottery Fund really liked Shorething and CBCC's application and encouraged us to reapply later on in the year which the council and Shore Thing are doing so we expect to see lots of activity around the pier in the future
May 2012
We are waiting until Shore Thing to meet with Heritage Lottery Fund and Conwy County Borough Council in Cardiff to go through the HLF bid and agree on a way for the group to push forward. We could look into ways of opening the front building to start raising funds.
April 2012
Unfortunately we did not get through the first round of the Heritage Lottery Fund. We are left with a positive note that they would like to meet with Shore Thing and CCBC sometime after the local elections.
March 2012
The Welsh Assembly Government stepped in and purchased the pier from Crown Estates and placed it in the hands of CCBC.
December 2011
The finished business plan was hand delivered directly to the Heritage Lottery Fund in Cardiff in anticipation of the ownership being clearly defined in March.
November 2011
Shore Thing needed to hold a public consultation in the Bay View shopping centre to talk to the public, show some of the ideas of the business plan and gain the local communities feelings regarding the pier. The group staffed this event for two days and the youth event afterwards.
June 2011
The decision to create an in-depth business plan for the pier was made to open the doors into the world of big money funding and grants with the Heritage Lottery Fund a priority via Shore Thing.
May 2011
We went to ‘Prom Day’ to spread the word about the troubles of the pier and what we hope to achieve as a group for the pier and Colwyn Bay. It was lovely to be able to chat away with everybody who stopped by. We think a few hundred people know a lot more about what is going on now!
April 2011
We formed a ‘Prom Day’ Committee to gather together all our information about the pier and what the group has achieved in communications and ideas over the past 15 months and make it as public as possible.
March 2011
A cross section of committee members met with Deputy Minister Jocelyn Davies and Darren Millar AM to introduce us to the Minister and update Darren Millar on our current position.
February 2011
Colwyn Bay ‘Shore Thing’ is registered at Companies House. It is a new social enterprise born from and an integral part of the Victoria Pier Pressure Group.
January 2011
The group decided to form a non-profit company to enable us to move forward as a social enterprise, five members of the committee volunteered and were voted in to become Directors. The company name was agreed on as “Colwyn Bay Shore
Thing”
We met with a Community First Co-ordinator, funded by the ‘Welsh Assembly Government’ in Colwyn Bay, facilitated by our new found recognition by the council and officers of the council as a whole. She then provided help in acquiring funding, advice and guidance as a full on group that is proactive and involves the whole community.
November 2010
Meet with Darren Millar AM to make him aware of our group and our aims and objectives.
September 2010
Met informally with councillor Brian Cossey Chairman of the Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee of the County Council, this gave the group the opportunity to explain to a councillor who, what and why we are.
October 2010
After a period of being isolated as a group, Councillor Brian Cossey invited us to attend a presentation in Bodlondeb of the surveyors report with the task and finish group, Darty’s and Royce Peeling Green.
As a group, we met with a Wales Co-operative representative to discuss our options and how to go ahead to make us a charity, trust, not for profit company or a social enterprise etc.
After further contact from Chris Wyatt, web master of the National Piers Society he offered help with guidance on our way forward and his and the societies support.
July 2010
We received contact from with Adrian Hancox who was heavily involved in restoring The Grand Pier in Weston super Mare. He provided ideas and support.
Met with David Jones MP to make him aware of what we had done already on our own as a group and what assistance we needed from his office, such as contact details for the other members of the steering committee.
June 2010
Met informally with Royce Peeling Green to discuss options and find their point of view about the pier.
May 2010
Group opened a bank account with a kind donation from a local small business.
April 2010
Invited Mr Steve Hunt to meet the group and inform him of our aims and objectives, namely to ensure that we as a group intend to see that the Victoria Pier is fully restored and opened to the public. We will do this by any “legal”
means and work with any given person, government body, charity, trust or funding body to do this.
March 2010
We all met for the first time to band together and form the Victoria Pier Pressure Group before the second public meeting.
We approached Conwy Voluntary Service for advice on becoming a recognised community group and began the process.
The group then attended the second public meeting at St Paul’s Church and each group member stood up and was voted in as volunteers for the ‘steering group’ arranged by David Jones MP along with several other members of the public.
Despite the elections coming up we held the second Victoria Pier Pressure Group meeting hoping to get the ball rolling and to attempt to track down the rest of the ‘steering committee’ to amalgamate the two groups unfortunately this proved problematic at the time!
We formed a full committee with voted in Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer and such. The constitution began to take shape enabling us to register with the Conwy Voluntary Service.
February 2010
Following the first public meeting at the Council Chambers which attracted over 400 members of the public the first three members of what has become Victoria Pier Pressure Group track each other down for a chat and decide a fresh new group with its own constitution is the best way to raise awareness and protect our Pier.
We began chasing people who were like-minded in trying to save Victoria Pier to join the new group.