An example of a species thought to have been extinct for some time was spotted at the beginning of May in Longcauseway.
This example of 'useful information' was thought to have died out shortly after the appointment of Mr Keith Ramsay as Chair of Dewsbury Town Deal Board in mid 2021. At his first meeting as Chair, Mr Ramsay personally endorsed the sentiments of the Leader of the Council at the time that creating effective communications with the community about the Town Investment Plan was the highest priority for the Town Deal Board.
While the Board itself has morphed over time into the Town Board and now into the Neighbourhood Board under the new Labour government the importance of effective communication has continued to be recognised. Yet examples of the species known as 'useful information' have been strangely absent from our streets leading to fears for its continued existence. There was much talk of communication strategies and policies and initiatives but not a lot of actually delivering any information.
And before anyone points to the pretty graphics surrounding the Arcade site lets be clear that these are not useful information. Best described as sloganeering they have a role to play but do not deliver anything about start and finish dates, the cost, what the finished article might look like and what the benefits might be. The newly arrived specimen of 'useful information' on Longcauseway suffers some similar defects but is an improvement on the complete absence of information.
The Covid pandemic had a drastic effect on regeneration projects across the country with massive construction cost inflation and Dewsbury was no exception. Projects that should have been starting in mid 2022 were delayed but the council planners redesigned and recosted the projects to keep the show on the road. So that by mid 2023 when, at a Board meeting, a member of the public asked a Question of Mr Ramsay if he would ensure that information on all the nine projects could be published on the streets of Dewsbury within 3 weeks he was able to give a simple answer of 'Yes'.
And yet.... the Fibre infrastructure was installed with noone aware of what the disruption was for.
And yet... Bond Street has been repaved and remodelled - generating many questions about what was going on - with no information available
And yet... major work on 6-10 Northgate under the Building Revival scheme caused disruption for many months with acres of contractors fencing available to carry 'useful information' - but unused
And yet... the most important project at the Market has no information visible to the Market users or traders to tell them what the latest version of the ever changing plan might be..
and so ...... the absence of information at any time or place led to growing concern about the health of the species of useful information. Was it extinct? Would we ever see useful information ever again? .
The use of the Open Air Gallery planters now seen in Longcauseway was one of several methods suggested by Board members even before Mr Ramsay's arrival in 2021. As a quick, low cost way of using existing assets it is one of the reasons that Mr Ramsay was able to give a quick, unequivocal answer of 'Yes' in July 2023. Yet a year later in mid 2024 the public were again obliged to ask why Mr Ramsay had not done anything. This time they didn't get a quick answer, they got prevarication and a further discussion , some twelve months after Mr Ramsay had committed to delivering within three weeks. The discussion led to the creation of a working group consisting of several Board members and the council marketing team.
All credit to the working group they have now revived the species known as 'useful information' and it is to be hoped that there will be more examples to come. A quick examination of the example now visible in Longcauseway will make it clear that there is nothing complicated about it.
But Mr Ramsay forgot that delivering results is more important that running meetings.
Unfortunately, he was more interested in talking than doing and he couldn't even bring himself to apologise to the Board members and the public for the delay on delivering on his promise of July 2023.
Would you buy a used car from this man?
That this sole example of useful information about the Town Investment Projects is the first and so far only example to appear
- nearly 4 years after he received clear political direction from the Leader of the council,
- 2 years after making a personal commitment to deliver within 3 weeks and;
- nearly 12 months after being reminded by the public of his broken promise
- is objective evidence of the failure of the Chair to develop effective communications with the people of Dewsbury. Whatever brownie points Mr Ramsay may have scored in other areas, building effective communications with the community as he was directed to on his first day in the chair is not one of them.