Tywyn views

"We went looking for an estate agent. The first one we found featured uninterrupted views of
well-embedded weeds displayed randomly around the front door and along the shop front...
unswept doorway... peeling paintwork - what might it be like inside?
Forget it, we did something different."

Tywyn Tourist Information closed over Easter 2009.

Gwynedd Council, who operate out of North Wales (a long hike from Tywyn, as are the bureaucrats in Cardiff, South Wales, which is also a long way away, just as irrelevant, out of touch, divisive and agenda seeking for personal fame and gain) want to close the Tourist Information Centre permanently. Its Chief Finance Officer stated in March that the annual net saving, by not employing staff at Tywyn Tourist Information Centre, will be £4,650 plus the rent saved for the Council.

He needn't have bothered. According to "Cambrian News" on April 16th, they couldn't find anybody who wanted the job, despite unemployment in Gwynedd and across Britain, and a saving was made (perhaps to cover purchase and distribution of the little brown plastic bins they seem to think people want in their kitchens, or for fuel and expenses to send a crew out with a hefty padlock to permanantly close the doors on the public toilet - a useful and necessary facility frequented by "the public" - that Gwynedd Council also want to shut for good).

There were tourists in town, including overseas visitors, over Easter. Actually it's not true that nobody was available to do the job. There were plenty who would happily have got stuck-in selling car stickers, offering advice and confirming accommodation - qualified people. A local councillor or two might have been persuaded, with time to spare and a keen interest in various people's wellbeing, or even others who might not have needed a salary (or had the dignity) as they would have done it from the kindness of their heart or just out of personal interest; nobody could be expected to survive solely on the pittance paid. Incredibly, Gwynedd Council demand that staff speak Welsh. So this left nobody.

Close scrutiny suggests that Gwynedd have a peculiar way of promoting a policy to encourage tourism.

The service is closed and the employment is refused on the grounds that the applicant does not have Welsh as a language.

Although all school students in town get Welsh whilst at school (it's their business what they do outside school, of course, this does inflate the statistics in case anybody enquires), and despite the alleged search high and low, for anybody who could start almost immediately, nobody could be found linguistically qualified to do the job in terms which would suit the immensely popular Gwynedd Council (someone, somewhere elected their policy makers). No other skills or qualifications were mentioned, and the Welsh that is demanded does not seem to require literacy. Which leads to questions being asked, not only by the residents (full and part time) of Tywyn, but also by some foreign tourists who may have spotted "Dim" signs (taxpayers' money might alternatively have been saved by maintaining signs with internationalised pictures, which work quite well elsewhere).

Where else would this type of anti-people policy predominate (think)? A deaf or dumb person could do this job whatever their first or only language, even if they spoke no English? But you have to speak Welsh to get that job and no Welsh speaker could be found to do it. Some might suggest needing to speak English in an important Tourist Information Office might be important - in Tywyn, Towyn, Tyneside or Timbuktu and to the visitors from those places. Will you forget your first efforts when visiting abroad, or meeting someone on the street from another linguistic background, or having your first natter with an overseas student? It's worth having a go. Some tourists (not many) wandered down over Easter from North Gwynedd to see what the place has, but they probably won't be back as it's a long way, the drive is dreadful and the toilet will be locked. Regrettably too, the office wasn't open to advise them the way. The point is, most people may not take this or any job with this Council. Dignity works many ways. If there is nobody available who speaks Welsh it is hardly rational to close the place. Supposing somebody extended the crazy philosophy to every shop and service in town, hospital and surgery, air ambulance helicopter and the lifeboat... are they different? It does not matter when somebody provides help that they speak this language or that, although one might prefer they speak one's own language and speak it well rather than poorly, but better somebody than the Grim Reaper. It would be an interesting day if Gwynedd Council HQ did not open it doors because no minion were found to accept low wages for being keyholder and speak Welsh! Positive discrimination can be a useful tool if used wisely, but making trouble in the pursuit of narrow nationalist and regional petit-bourgeois agendas, masquerading behind the illusion that all things English are the cause of people's woes and blaming everything on the English, rather than declaring class interests is out of date, but the effect is clear when you see the slogans on t-shirts, letters in the local press, saluting of flags in schools and attacks on the street.

There are no figures available which might suggest there is an overwhelming number of tourists visiting who require Welsh to be spoken when visiting the tourist office. There are no figures because it is the contrary which prevails, but even if there were...? According to the Council's efforts, advertising and veiled threats, it seems that people don't in great masses seem to do or want to do Welsh, not even as an interesting hobby any more, and this must be their business and democratic decision - however the regime presently running this Council also makes it theirs! Notwithstanding, there are some children in North Wales who are brought up with no English language at all.

About those toilets.... good toilet facilities adjacent to the beach are a requirement for a Blue Flag (The number of toilet facilities available at the beach should be adequate to meet the needs of beach users even at peak times), but don't mention the dog poo, dilapidated groins, dangerous rusty ironwork and crumbling concrete or the life guard facilities which were strangely directed for summer 2008 to be positioned to face away from the beach, leading to a life being saved as a result of quick wittedness on the part of an observant building worker whilst the lifesavers remained oblivious, according to Cambrian News. Why was that, then? The Good Beach Guide 2009 reports Tywyn with: "Good family facilities including toilets, cafes and a paddling pool on the promenade. There is a slipway and a first aid post." It goes on to mention the Tourist Information in the High Street!