I have lived in Spalding for years and, like most people, I know the town has its good points. We have some good independent businesses, pubs and restaurants such as The Ivy Wall, Cheers and Amici, and some excellent community facilities. There are plenty of people who care about the town and are trying to make it better.
But when I look around, I also see boarded-up shops, rubbish, businesses struggling and fewer things for young people to do. That is what worries me.
We seem to be very good at and spending money, but I am struggling to see the joined-up thinking behind them.
We have the £20m Government funding opportunity for Spalding. We have the £1.8m active travel project. We have the Western Relief Road, what many residents refer to as the “road to nowhere” because part of it has been built but cannot be used.
And then we have the cows and the sheep.
I know the sheep were funded through the Civic Society but when residents are walking through a town with boarded-up shops, rubbish and a shortage of bins, it is understandable that they question our priorities when they see money and attention going into things like public art while some very basic problems remain unresolved.
The cows and sheep have reportedly cost around £100,000, alongside the cost of adding plant features and removing benches.
We also have a £1.8m cycle path project. I have nothing against improving cycling provision, but we are thinking creatively enough about what Spalding actually needs? We need people who are in touch with the needs of this town, and currently we do not!
That £1.8m could have supported so many community opportunities all run by charities, community groups or other not-for-profit organisations. We have boarded-up shops and, for whatever reason, retailers are not filling these premises. If the traditional retail model is no longer working, then perhaps we need to think differently about how those buildings are used. We could have a life skill centre, council run, again non profit, for teens and adults.
Otherwise, what happens? More bookmakers, more empty shops and still no proper mental health or community centre?
We need to think outside the box rather than continuing to do things in the same way and expecting a different result.
Spalding’s aim has to be that, in ten years, we are the best town in the UK.
Yes, we may have lower budgets than other towns and start at a disadvantage, but that is where outside-the-box thinking comes in. We need to look at what we already have, use our communities, local businesses and organisations, and call on people to give something back, as well as (and most importantly) the people in charge completely changing the manner they currently work, as it’s not working.
I have added a few ideas. Whether they would actually work, I genuinely don’t know but what I do know, and what I think we all know as Spalding residents, is that what has happened over the last four or five years isn’t working.
We constantly talk about problems with young people, mental health, homelessness and community safety. Yet we have empty buildings sitting in the middle of town. Surely there has to be a way of joining those things together?
And then there is council tax. Over the last four years, my household has paid more than £280 a month. I understand that this money is divided between different authorities and services, but as a resident I am entitled to ask whether we are getting the best possible value from the money being spent.
Because when I walk around my town, I don’t just see the investment. At the same time, I see major schemes this road to nowhere being delivered, millions being announced and projects being discussed without always being able to see how they fit together into a bigger plan.
How are the people who make this decision still in jobs? Hopefully they are not.
Spalding isn’t a terrible town, we need new people running it, or people saying the plan for change publicly.
Peterborough has its issues, but the people in charge never made this amount of collated error in a small period of time.
I don’t want another response telling residents that everything is complicated or that different organisations are responsible for different things.
I want someone to stand back and ask:
What do we actually want Spalding to look and feel like in five or ten years?
How are we going to bring empty buildings back into use?
How are we going to give children and young people somewhere positive to go?
How are we going to support the businesses that are still here?
How are we going to make the town cleaner and more attractive?
And how are we going to make sure the significant amount of public money coming into Spalding produces improvements that residents can actually see?
Spalding has the people, businesses, community groups and opportunities to be a really good town.
I just don’t want us to look back in another five or ten years and realise that we spent millions of pounds without actually fixing the things residents could see every day.
Steven Leivers
Spalding
