Jump to content

What a great image of our Town!!!


Gary

Recommended Posts

Although I didn't see the secret Millionaire C4 programme the press reports I have seen since paint a very dim picture of our Town - portraying an image of filthy flea infested bed sits, 12 -year-old kids from Longford off their heads on drink and drugs and all in all a very depressing place to visit.

While I am obviously delighted for the three good causes who have received ?20,000 each for their excellent work in the local community from Pimlico Plumbing boss Charlie Mullins, a real rags to riches success story, I can't help feel this programme has actually done our town more harm than good.

http://www.realbusiness.co.uk/news/leadership/5702286/diary-of-a-secret-millionaire.thtml

Check out the coverage for yourselves - the residents of Longford have really been shown in a poor light.

How ironic all this comes out at the same time Warrington Borough Council hold their first ever Business Conference with the aim of encouraging people to do more business in Warrington!

Having said that the main feedback I picked up at the conference was that a lot of hard work still needs to be done to improve the Warrington brand - with a misconception by many outsiders that we are still a cloth cap industrial town, when in fact we are one of the top 10 places for demand for commercial property, beating Manchester and Liverpool!

You can view the full programme here

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-secret-millionaire/4od

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Having said that the main feedback I picked up at the conference was that a lot of hard work still needs to be done to improve the Warrington brand - with a misconception by many outsiders that we are still a cloth cap industrial town

 

As one not being from round here, I can totally concur. The impression friends from Scotland, and from the Midlands area where I used to work, is that Warrington is a bit grim, not I hasteen to add from any personal experience, just from what they perceive of Warrington. Ironic really as they would all say Manchester is a lovely city, despite also never (in most cases) having ever been there either.

 

The image is definetly red brick, cloth caps and whippets. Lot of work to be done for sure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did see it, and the programme itself didn't portray Warrington in a bad light. In fact, comparing it to all the other programmes in the series - that I have also seen - Warrington looked positively elegant. The focus was closely upon the three causes he chose and they were very positively represented. The only shots of Warrington that were really irritating were the ones of boarded up premises, including the public baths, without explanation or balancing shots of the new mall/town centre etc. I didn't know about the Garden Centre they featured - and I thought it was wonderful. I'll be going there!

 

Now, if they'd popped into town on a Friday night and filmed the usual shenanigans there.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Longford is an area blighted by drugs and idiots off their heads on booze. Flats full of teenagers doing what they like with no cause to worry about the consequences. Bewsey in part is the same, as are orford, latchford and a few other areas. The town is spoiled by the few of these bagheads that affect us all and whom the Police and justice system seem to want to do little or nothing to curtail.

 

I grew up in Bewsey and back then it was a bit of a place, but it didn't have areas of flats full of single kids who invite all their mates over to hang about and cause trouble and anti-social behaviour. Look how many bus shelters are vandalised, look at the graffitti and the general untidyness of the place. The town needs a clean up from top to bottom and it should start with graffitti, getting the bagheads out on the streets picking litter up and then locking up the culprits who insist on making life a pain for everyone else.

 

Other than that, it isn't all bad!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, granted Baz, but none of that was on the telly prog. Compare it to the one set in Anfield, where on his first night the millionaire left the house he'd been given and stayed in a hotel because someone had set fire to one nearby. Later in the week the entire crew left the house because the locals had realised they were a tv crew and tried to nick the gear from the car, tried to nick the car and frightened everyone into thinking they were coming back to rob or torch the place.....

 

Or the London one where the youth club the millionaire intended to visit was closed on Day One because one of the lads had been stabbed and the risk of gang warfare was too high.... and when he tried to talk to any of the local lads in the street, the only words you could pick out were ones I can't post on here!

 

Nope, Warrington looked fine by comparison!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes it did show Warrington in a rather bad light. It looked very run down and deprived. But areas of Warrington ARE like that. Like I've already said on the other topic that was started about the programme I did enjoy it and all the people who featured on it were trully deserving and absolutely wonderful.

 

However TV is all about getting the viewers by way of impact.

 

If the 'secret millionaire' was sent to an area with large detached homes, flashy cars up the drives and kids playing sports on the local well equiped park then even if the they were leading similar campaigns and were as hard working, caring and deserving as the people we have seen this week I doubt that as many people would watch. Sad but true :cry:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gary, I think that you and your business colleagues are a bit sensitive. Hopefully they are not just coming to Warrington to make a fast buck.

 

The programme highlights an area where people that do need a helping hand and if anything the business community could do well to take a leaf out of Charlie?s book and go and see for themselves.

 

The charities highlighted really did need his help and assistance (at least one was one their knees) and the people receiving the services of the charities were all worthy cases. They were just three of many who beaver away in Warrington and change people?s lives for the better.

 

Yes people from down south have a particular view of us Northerners, I had one guy who before he worked for me thought that it was only fields of cows up north!!! However after only a couple of weeks he loved the place and that was working in Manchester. If he had gone to Anfield where another episode was filmed then he would have seen what LymmParent has described.

 

What the programme didn?t have time to do was describe the work in both these areas that was being done to tackle some of the issues. Having worked under the Capital of Culture umbrella for a community centre in Anfield there is a lot going on to change things but it such a massive amount that is required and will take years of hard work. The programme doesn?t always put things in perspective.

 

It is up to us and big business of Warrington to change people?s perceptions of the Town. Warrington has experienced many bad things over recent years, the headlines appearing on the national media have often been grim.

 

On the brighter side as highlighted by the programme there are groups who are not putting up with things as they are in ceratin areas and are trying to make changes but there is a long way to go and they need our help and assistance no matter how little that is, it will be appreciated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did see it, and the programme itself didn't portray Warrington in a bad light. In fact, comparing it to all the other programmes in the series - that I have also seen - Warrington looked positively elegant. The focus was closely upon the three causes he chose and they were very positively represented. The only shots of Warrington that were really irritating were the ones of boarded up premises, including the public baths, without explanation or balancing shots of the new mall/town centre etc. I didn't know about the Garden Centre they featured - and I thought it was wonderful. I'll be going there!

 

Now, if they'd popped into town on a Friday night and filmed the usual shenanigans there.....

 

I saw it to and totally agree with lymmparent.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gary, I think that you and your business colleagues are a bit sensitive. Hopefully they are not just coming to Warrington to make a fast buck.

 

Not sensitive as I realise there is a good and bad in every town- I suppose my main disappointment was that some of the press reports focused more on the negatives than the positives! :roll:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

if anything the business community could do well to take a leaf out of Charlie?s book and go and see for themselves.

 

 

Geoff,

 

I find that statement a little annoying to be honest..... not every business in the country is a multimillion pound organisation with a cockney wide boy at the helm. Some of us don't have the time to go wandering around the country like Robin Hood; but then again not all of us have PA's Accounts staff, HR staff and managers and other to delegate to.

 

What Charlie did was a good thing but he is in a pretty unique position when it comes to business owners. Most of us spend as much time sorting tax, VAT, Companies House filing etc. as we do running our business. If I didn't have all this government red tape and nonsense to deal with, I could work a 60 hour week every so often!! :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I quote you Charles Dickens. "A Christmas Carol":

 

"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob" faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.

 

"Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business."

 

And you know how that story goes on, Baz......... :shock::lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Okay I take your points and I don't want to get into an argument but what I would say is that:

 

1) Some of our press do like to stir it up and find fault to make a story sell.

2) I was very fortunate to work for a local company that did encourage it?s staff to do voluntary work, they allowed me time off for work as a school governor, projects in association with the Capital of Culture and some conservation projects ? in total maybe one or two days a year. Having said this it was often up to my managers discretion, some where very supportive whilst at least one nearly read the riot act for helping out one morning in Warrington with the Tsunami project at Christmas 2004 so it?s not always plain sailing.

 

Surely the main point of the programme is that if you have some spare time, no matter how little, then you there are plenty of organisations where what might seem a small task for you is a big contribution. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Size shouldn't matter nor should the type of organisation be it public or private.

 

I have worked for different types and sizes and I have found that those with a community ethos are usually approachable and willing to help.

 

Obviously if a firm is struggling with it's back against the wall then they have to get themselves sorted before they can even begin to thinking of being philanthropic :) and that is one of the realities of running your own business.

 

I was grateful for example to the many small businesses in Warrington who helped me stage several running events and in turn enabled people to gain funds through sponsorship. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

if anything the business community could do well to take a leaf out of Charlie?s book and go and see for themselves.

 

 

Geoff,

 

I find that statement a little annoying to be honest..... not every business in the country is a multimillion pound organisation with a cockney wide boy at the helm. Some of us don't have the time to go wandering around the country like Robin Hood; but then again not all of us have PA's Accounts staff, HR staff and managers and other to delegate to.

 

What Charlie did was a good thing but he is in a pretty unique position when it comes to business owners. Most of us spend as much time sorting tax, VAT, Companies House filing etc. as we do running our business. If I didn't have all this government red tape and nonsense to deal with, I could work a 60 hour week every so often!! :lol:

 

I hadn't spotted that line Geoff - as the topic starter I do hope that was not a dig at me or my business :?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was a statement that I hope that the businesses you are talking care about their local community and try put back something into it.

 

I hope that those attending the conference you metioned are not simply looking at their bottom line.

 

I have just come back from an open day at Keele University where I heard a talk by the Business Management department. They are certainly producing students who will be thinking along these lines and considering their impact on all of their stakeholders.

 

If you want to be hyper-sensitive about what I have written then that's up to you. I didn't mention you by name nor did I imply anthing of the sort about your organisation, you should know me better than that by now.

 

On a positive note I went on to Stoke where Warrington's Independance dominated the National Street Cheer Championships as they did at Blackpool. Now they are sponsored by a company who do put a great deal back into the community.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...