Retail reporting

Attended the City Centre Retail Partnership board met this morning. We listened to reports about Christmas trading and heard about slow trading early in the month with a last minute burst of activity, a pattern reported across the country. Internet retailing accounts for a larger share of the market year after year, but when it gets to last minute buying and uncertainties over deliveries of mail, real shopping centres still attract customers needing to spend. The overall volume of trade less diminished than might have been the case. The media publicity campaign seems to have been successful in this respect, and despite the lousy November-December weather the ice rink and Santa's grotto attractions still did very well indeed. A positive outcome to a lot of very hard work in keeping Cardiff a desirable place to visit, but definite signs of the economic slow-down, to make everyone wonder what coming years will bring.

We hear news that the redvelopment is well on schedule, such that the John Lewis store and the new library bulding, which had its top-out ceremony last week, will be handed over by the construction companies for fitting out, towards the end of this year. The ground floor of the library will have three swanky restaurants, and these could well be open first, maybe in time for Christmas 2008. We'll see.

At the end of the meeting I had the opportunity to report on Cardiff Business Safe, and the changeover of security radio systems occasioned by the final collapse of Cardiff Chamber of Commerce whose entry into receivership was announced as I was going on holiday. The difficulties we've had in managing the affairs of CBSLtd. are all tied in with the demise of the Chamber, and with the inability of the City government officials to recognise that CBS would also need support, as it's impossible for any organisation to exist in a vacuum.

To my horror I found that the solicitors we asked to regularise our position with Companies House had only done half a job, leaving me to chase for signatures and make another, hopefully final visit to complete the unfinished business of 2006, before getting 2007 affairs up to speed after this meeting. Thankfully, CBSLtd. is not a big organisation, not too complex to cope with once things are unravelled and in order. The down side, as with any small organisation, is access to the expertise and resources needed to ensure success in detail. I fund it very worrying that basic administrative support for an organisation that arranges security communication for the city centre ended up neglected and disregarded. It was important to appraise the Retail Partnership of the problems and reassure them of the prospect of better things to come.

Church as work place

While I was away work started on the redecoration of St John's church interior, starting with the south aisles and choir vestry. This entails sealing off the organ and organ chamber to prevent the ingress of dust, and then the covering of all internal furnishings and floors with a robust protective cover before erecting two storeys of scaffolding necessary to access the highest sections of wall and windows. It's such a complex task that inevitably preparation over-ran, so we were not able to open the church for a Eucharist yesterday. But today was business as usual.

Not only was the Tea-Room carrying on as usual, but the rest of the nave was open for tourists and candle-lighters alike. When I entered for the service I was impressed to see that the builders had erected a chipboard tunnel through the works area to link the south porch and vestry block with the nave, so that people can pass safely through the area where work is being done.

I couldn't have asked for more to ensure that the church stays faithful to its commitment to be open to visitors as far as it possibly can, even under most difficult circumstances. The best touch of all, to my mind, is that the outermost layer of protection is a screening of transparent plastic filling each of the southern arches of the nave from floor to ceiling.

It's a good way to enhance site security, since it would be possible to spot anyone hiding in there and up to no good. More importanly from my point of view it means that the entire work site is visible from the nave, offering a subject of interest to visitors, saving a lot of additional explanations, in a way bringing the world of everyday physical labour right into the place where prayer is offered for the life and work of the city.

I would relish having a large screen in church where we could display the SD2 webcam images for visitors of what is going on down the street, just out of sight from church.

There were half the usual number for the service. This is understandable given that the church has been closed for the preparation work this week, and the weather has been very poor, but I'm sure it won't take long for things to get back to normal, with all our regulars taking an interest in work in progress.

I spent the afternoon over at Southgate House with members of the city centre management team, getting up to speed on developments in the city centre since I went on holiday, and catching up on matters concerning Cardiff Business Safe as preparations are made for an all new security radio network to be put into place at the end of this month, hopefully embracing both day and night-time economies in future.

This is necessitated by the news which arrived just as I went on leave that Cardiff Chamber of Commerce (which ran the night radio network) was going into receivership. For such a large professional enterprise to run out of funds is a remarkably rare occurrence, and largley due to a fatally flawed partnership made with ELWA the mismanaged quango which went bust. Finally that collapse has taken CCC with it. Discussion is now under way about what can replace it, with speculation about a South Wales CCC. But is bigger really better? It's hard enough to manage the affairs of a city, let alone a region.

Working out where we stand

The doctor was satisfied today that my blood pressure was 'normal', for a change. Whatever small adjustments I have made in my diet and lifestyle in recent months, not to mention getting back to vigorous cycling and walking, is hopefully taking effect. It doesn't alter the fact that the régime of medication he's kept me on has led to my being refused an annual travel insurance policy by Boots Travel. And, it's a preventative prescription, not just a damage limitation one. Annoying.

We had a Business Safe Board of Management meeting today, continuing to work out where we stand in relation to the city government, and how to ensure the current enforced distancing of City Centre Management employees from CBS work doesn't lead to more chaos and communication problems. Whatever was intended, it's sabotaging the situation and grievously undermining staff morale.

Add to this the chaos surrounding the enforced 'transformation' of St Mary Street into a pedestrian zone, undertaken without any consultation with the Bus Companies about how they are going to get passengers in and out of the city, either from near or far away, and you have some idea of just how old style leadership in local government is simply not fit for purpose. Officers complain that politicians interfere too much, politicians never seem to be fully in the picture, whether because they cannot understand the picture or because the vital information is being withheld - who knows?
This week, saw the resignation of Councillor Elgan Morgan, who has been overseeing city centre changes (which I know have been on the Officers' agenda since well before he was elected to the present Council), and the appointment of Simon Wakefield, a local academic with city centre knowledge and planning expertise. It's a poisoned chalice, but he has a good sense of humour, and can call a spade a spade in a way that makes people smile. That's got to be an asset in this presently grim situation.

I also learned today that Cardiff Business Safe features as the communications network for use in the City Centre's Emergency Evacuation Plan. This is good news, and re-enforces the need for CBS to secure its operational future, and its independence from the vagaries of local politics and the current back office intrigue distancing local government from CBS. There is a way forward, and it requires that we are very clear about our 'mission', and our boundaries.

Thinking about this, we had the Kidney Wales carol service at St John's this evening, with me in the role as liturgical compère, at the insistence of my good friend Roy Thomas, the charity's chairman. Now Kidney Wales is a model of clarity about its 'mission' as a charity in support of the kidney transplant service, and enables thousands of people to pull together in fund-raising and publicity education campaigns. One can say that the nature of the cause gives it a unifying focus.

The same should be true of an enterprise devoted to crime prevention, as a service to public welfare, but in reality the weakening of social concensus, moral laxity, over-tolerance of certain kinds of dysfunction, discourtesy and bad manners numb the senses. We call things 'a crime' which aren't, and overlook things which are crimes. This can lead to a blurring of the focus on crime prevention, and ambivalence to the purpose of CBS. If the church were more forthcoming about values that are an antidote to crime and disorder, maybe social concensus would be less diffuse and the focus of CBS would be consequently sharper. If only .... Why am I involved, if not for this?

Active on several fronts at once

A valuable meeting today for Ian Thomas and myself with John Winton, the Welsh Apostle of Church Tourism, as I think of him, being the prime mover and director of Churches Tourism Network Wales John came over to St John's to share his considerable knowledge with us about organisations that may be willing to fund a project to help us develop further our activities in relation to church tourists and visitors.

Now that remedial work on window stonework in the northwest aisle is near completion, our minds are set on re-decorating the church interior in the New Year, and working on ideas to open up the west end of the nave and tower entrance to make visitor access safer and user friendly. We need to do this and work on new ways to promote St John's in relation to the mediaeval history of town and castle. Ian is certainly the man to do this, with his knowledge of the tourism industry and enthusiasm for making contacts with people all over the city centre. The church is becoming better known because it has several active lay people and a priest who are interested in the people who make this city the marvellous place it is.

In the afternoon I attended the meeting of St John's Ambulance Chaplains, assembled at HQ down the Bay for one of its two meetings a year. A most informative and useful briefing paper on caring for people of different religious and cultural backgrounds was discussed and welcomed - very much in keeping with the inclusive spirit of the organisations which happily and thoughtfully has been welcoming Hindu, Muslim and Sikh ambulance cadets now for decades. An Order of Chivalry dedicated to care and healing, with moral and spiritual roots in multi-faith eleventh century Jerusalem could hardly be otherwise. Ancient and modern, all in one.

Later, in the evening, 250 members of the Order came to St John's for the annual carol service, complete with Cwmbach's 60 strong male voice choir, a harpist and an operatic soloist with an unpronouncable Asian name - as I discovered when I tried to read it off the sheet unrehearsed during my welcome at the beginning.

It was a good event, but my mind was largely elsewhere, thinking about the fulfilling the tasks I have undertaken as Company Secretary (pro tem) of Cardiff Business Safe, to formalise its action-driven policy and help secure its future as an organisation in the service of the public and the retailers of the city.

Since the demise of the Cardiff Initiative, Local Government has not exactly been helpful towards this key enterprise serving the welfare of the city, and made it painfully difficult for those who have seen the need and cared about securing its future operations. Whatever the reasons, I am determined it shouldn't continue like this. I got involved because I can see the bigger picture, and want to see justice done. Where there's a will there's a way.

Tidying up time

Advent so far seems to be tidying up time for me.

Lately I acquired the (hopefully temporary) role of Company Secretary to Cardiff Business Safe Limited, the organisation which addresses the problem of Business Crime in the City. It was a way to say 'thank you' for the charitable gift of a radio subscription to St John's Tea Room, to help us cope with the problem of our persistent purse thief. We all cheered when, several weeks ago now, he was again caught with evidence of his activities, and later asked for several other crimes, out of his hundreds, to be taken into consideration. One small piece of evidence that anti Business Crime networking works. I'd say it's pretty essential to everyone trying to earn a living out of retail trading in the city.

The demise of the CBS Limited sponsoring body Cardiff Initiative over a year ago, shook the foundations somewhat, and neglected some of its administrative activities in the fervent pursuit of the day to day operation of crime prevention. There was a bit of a mess, and I offered as a church representative of the Retail Partnership Board, to try and sort out the annual returns for Companies House. I'm well known in church circles as hostile to excessive administration, but none of my moaning about this for the past five years has made a jot of difference, so I comply grudgingly and as diligently as I can. But, looking at what hadn't been done for CBS Limited, I thought, I've seen this kind of admin before, as a director of St Teilo Arts Trust, school governor and as Team Rector. So why not just pitch in and give a hand, tidy things up a bit?

It hasn't taken a huge amount of time - not even a re-write of the Constitution now needed in the light of changed circumstances. Getting it adopted by stakeholders in CBS is another matter, but that's a task for the New Year. The City Council didn't what anything to do with CBS when Cardiff Initiative collapsed. It rescued the essential enterprise of City Centre Management and Cardiff Marketing by taking on their staff and paying them. This wasn't necessary for CBS, as its Business Crime Prevention Co-ordinator is paid by South Wales Police as one of their Community Support Officers, and it was generating a modest income and seemingly not vulnerable - except for the background tasks of administrative and management support. This has proved to be the Achillee's heel threatening to bring down the whole operation.

People paid a whole lot better than me didn't spot this strategic error. Moreover, the Council management insisted that its new employees distance themselves from CBS Ltd, with the excuse of 'conflict of interests'. A better comedian than I on Radio 4 would make mincemeat of the logic of that notion. If active support for an anti-business crime organisation that provides security radios for the city centre is contrary to Council employees 'interests', does this mean the Council is backed by the Mafia or something? Don't say a word ....

Now I think it will be possible for things to be sorted out properly. New Directors have got a grip on the situation and are vigorously reminding Council high-ups that there's a blind-spot, and that continuing the way it has been lately could have been catastrophic for anl outfit which has been intsrumental in tackling cime and disorder problems successfuly and ensures the city centre is a safer place. If anyone out of sight in the corridors of power was hoping CBS Ltd would fall over and die quietly, they got another think coming. Maybe even egg on their face. The Business Community knows what does it good, and what doesn't. Practical common sense will prevail.