Warwickshire's "Big Turn Off"

This weekend has seen Warwickshire County Council turn off 80% of it's street lights between the hours of midnight and 530am. Oh my God! Are you serious? Sadly yes, yes I am.

I run a business in Warwick town centre, and, not unlike lots of people in business locally, often struggle with decisions made by the local council. But this decision is County, covering the whole of the county. From Shipston all the way upto Bulkington and the north-shire.I speak to people all over the county daily, and the concensus seems the same.

"Why was the first I am heard about this when the lights actually went off?"

Also,

"How come my street has lights, yet my friend three streets over doesn't?"

So after an evening of these questions and more, I thought I'd see what I could see on the internet. So I googled "Warwick DC lights off", which took me to a map of the county containing every street lamp in the county, and a colour coded key as to which lights were to be turned off overnight.

 http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/partnightlighting

I posted this map on Twitter, and Facebook, within minutes was receiving messages informing me that the map was not accessible via tablet nor mobile. Super.

I then noticed in the search result the:

Communities Overview & Scrutiny Committee
19 September 2012
Report of the Street Lighting Energy

As much as I didn't want to, I had ten minutes worth of awake time left, so I had a quick read. Worst thing I have done in a while. The report takes a very simple view of a perfect world, one where statistics rule the world, where people are home by midnight, and where picking and choosing extracts from obscure reports 20 years ago actually mean something in today's society.

The most infuriating line in the whole document is

"Addressing the fear of crime
The overwhelming response from the public engagement was negative and
the majority of comments included references to a fear of crime, despite a
lack of compelling evidence."

Firstly, fear of crime, or indeed anything just not need to be justified by evidence. If the council is putting young people, one of whom turned 18 yesterday, off leaving her home because of a very real fear of the dark, or indeed what is waiting in the dark, then imagine what senior citizens are feeling. People on occasion need to leave their home after midnight, be it to get cat food, to pick up a friend in need, to go get a McDonalds, anything. Essentially by turning off these lights, and making people scared to leave their home, the council is putting people under home arrest. Sounds a tad extreme, but it's true.

I am a 35 year old man, I am as fit and as healthy as I have ever been. I carry myself with a certain level of confidence, yet last night when I returned to my business to lock up, I pulled up outside the bar, there was a car behind me with 3 blokes in it, engine running, how was I to know they were staff from Warwick Spice waiting for the screen to clear? I don't mind saying, I was scared.

I went in to the bar, locked up, bolted the gates, secured the doors, all under the flashlight app on my mobile. Walked out of our alleyway into the street, fog, pitch black from the girls school down to the junction by Robbies. Again, my heart rate increased a little. I'm now thinking I must have been mad to have been scared, because there was "no compelling evidence" that anything was going to happen to me.

See my point? Fear is in the eye of the beholder. It cannot be quantified, cannot be dismissed. If I am scared of being outside my business when I am locking up, when I wasn't a few days ago, surely there is something wrong?

I understand that money needs to be saved, but for the minor(in the grand scheme of things) saving made here, could surely be offset somewhere else? For example the £1.5m spent on implementing this new system, there is 3 years before we even see any saving.

Driving one of my staff home Friday night, Saturday morning we talked about how she gets to work, "walk usually". I always insist that the younger staff be collected, or one of the senior staff or I take them home. My staff are like family, but I know that is not the case in every bar/restaurant/nightclub. I would not be comfortable walking along Emscote Road after midnight currently, leave alone a 16 year old girl finishing work in Warwick.

As I am coming to the end of this rant, I realise I have offered no answer, nor alternative. I do not believe there is one. I do not believe that this should have ever been given the go ahead, based solely on the 'fear factor'. Being scared is very real. Whether or not 'statistically' anything worse is going to happen to me, or someone I care about, if the lights are on or off is of little consequence. Fear is not rational, and the people that made this decision should be made to realise that.

With regard to the report, I know a lot of people, and have asked on various media if anyone was asked, or indeed knew about these changes. I will report back when I hear back from people.

The report says that a notice went out with council tax demands, which given that this order passed in September, and the next round of demands is around March time, I hardly think likely. The report says that 361 people responded to whatever material was  banded around. 361 people from a county of more than 200000, well, make of that what you will.

I know this is all very negative, but I have a lot of people I care about living in this area, some who are less than able to fend for themselves, be it from alcohol on a weekend night, or the need to pop to a shop late one night in the only area they can afford to live in. Leamington is not a safe place, we all know that. I would rather between the 200000 people in the county we all pay an extra £2.50 each year to keep our counties lights on.

We all feel like we are not part of decisions made here in Warwick DC, now I feel like we don't have a voice in Warwickshire CC either.

Surely this 'lights off' could have been left until the next round of elections? But as I think Norfolk County Council say in the report, they didn't ask their public, because of the negativity regarding the plan. So they did it anyway.

Sound familiar?

It's been 10 months since I last posted....

Good lord. How can it have been 10 months. Absurd, considering I tell people frequently they should be blogging about their business!

Well, the last couple of months have been the toughest so far, the first year was tough, but nothing compared to what has been occurring lately. Too much to write in this edition! I'll get it down soon though I promise.

Watching Saturday Kitchen this morning, it was good to hear Bryn Williams talking about how tough it is running a restaurant. He observed that whilst there are lots of people out there who are willing to show you how to cook, to introduce you to wines, spirits etc, there is nobody knocking on your door to show you how to run a business. It's one of the most lonely feelings ever, sitting alone in the cellar on a Sunday night adding things up, wondering where money is coming from for this, how we are ever going to get debts paid, if it's even worth it.

Sure there are people who want to tell you where you are going wrong, almost on an hourly basis, but there is no real guide book per se. Often the people who want to tell you where you are going wrong are people who have screwed up their own business. Even before we opened someone who runs a restaurant in town offered me advice, and told me I should have gone to her for advice before even bidding on the cellar, I later found out she was bidding against me, and that most our customers are formerly patrons of the restaurant she was planning to move here.

That said, on Thursday I had a friend in, he runs a brewery, and owns quite a few pubs, which he for the most part leases out. We were talking of the ins and outs of the trade, how absurdly difficult it is at times, and how when the shit hits the fan there is no one willing to help you. Need cash for a short term fix, the bank says no. If a company that turns over as much as they do can't get help, what chance have we the little guys got? There is zero assistance from anyone it feels. Despite the tripe we hear from Westminster, small businesses are really really suffering. No help from anywhere.

Walking about town talking to people, as I am want to do of an evening, if you see me, do stop me and say hi, I talk to small business owners, the chinese by my house who only saw 2 people all night on Thursday, the chip shop who employs a lot of people, but is suffering due to lack of trade. We all know "it's September, it always quite in September in Warwick", but that doesn't help pay the bills, the staff, the rates etc.

Don't get me wrong, here at Pancho we are busier than most, except the BYOB Indian restaurants obviously. We offer something different, at a price no one else in town can match. We are in a great position, sure it's tough,  but so are we.

Got a few ideas of how to boost trade, not only for Pancho, but for all the restaurants in Warwick, the only problem is when I talked about the restaurants all working together people looked at me like I had just curse their mothers.

We shall see I guess.

The first six months

Well, here we are. 6 months of existing as Pancho Tapas. We are still afloat. Just. No thanks to lots of people who you would think would have our best intentions at their heart. No names....

We have our name out there, people are talking about Pancho both locally, and all over the country. I have friends all over the place who whenever anyone mentions somewhere within a 10 mile radius of Warwick brings up Pancho. Often people offer their thoughts on our little piece of the culinary map. Usually positive, with regard to our food, it is hard to fault, occasionally someone will find fault with the service. Almost always it is someone who has worked in the trade, and has opinions on how things should be done. It is often hard to not suggest that maybe there is a reason you don't work in the trade anymore. I have to admit to being sick of the "I used to run a restaurant...." line. The key being 'used to', why did your business fail? In this weekend's episode of the "tell Dale where he is going wrong" soap opera, a chap whose 3 months foray into the restaurant trade ended a week ago with his company going under, told me what I need to be doing. I wish I could record some of the advise I get to post a V-log.

The comparisons to other places in Warwick are completely pointless. We have no competition in Warwick, we are not competition for anyone else in Warwick. People draw comparisons between Pancho and Catalan. We are very very different. Catalan are a Catalunyan restaurant who do tapas, Pancho is a Tapas bar. It's all we do. Pancho sends people to Catalan frequently, as we do to AquaFM, Restaurant 23 and other places locally that we rate. If someone comes to Pancho and doesn't want/understand tapas, rather are looking for a more traditional style of eating, we are more than happy to recommend other places. Thankfully the places we recommend offer something different to the norm, but together we offer a great selection, I just wish we could all work together a bit. That is for the next blog anyway.

The team at Pancho are very proud of our first 6 months, and we all feel we have made a lot of friends. We want to thanks everyone for sticking by us. It's been hard, and thankfully we have a great bunch of people around us. Our suppliers know we wouldn't be here without their understanding, and we are forever indebted. Pancho, in whatever form we take going forward look forward to taking you along for the ride.

Pancho Restaurants have some exciting plans in the offing for 2012, having already discussed further projects, we have a lot of options, and are looking at what suits next. We are going from strength to strength, and we couldn't have done it without the help of our loyal customers, patient suppliers, and without the best staff in Warwick. Bar none.

Two weeks in.....

Well, here we are! Two weeks in, we have regulars, we have already adapted the menu, and we have a new beer fridge.

From the first Friday night, when we started our learning curve, we have been listening to feedback, asking the questions, looking for the positives, and the negatives in what we are trying to achieve here at Pancho. Thankfully most of the feedback has been good, but we are still learning, and think we will continue to evolve. The minute to get complacent will be the minute your customers start going elsewhere.

Interesting to hear the thoughts of our customers, not only on Pancho, but on outlets across the town, and indeed country! We have a long list of places to visit, from Southsea, all the way upto Carlisle!!

Next weekend will be interesting, not a holiday weekend, but still expecting tourists, as well as the bookings we already have for Saturday night. Which reminds me, I really need to buy a diary..... Hoping for a nice ticking along weekend, not mental, but enough to see the staff working that little bit more pressured. Getting busier and busier each weekend so far, so as soon as we start advertising we are ready to take it!

A word on the staff, great job so far. Everyone is listening, and learning. If we continue to work together, and listen to the customers, respond to feedback, and smile, we will be doing well.

We are already upto 29th on TripAdvisor in Warwick. Which is awesome for a two week old company. If you have visited us, and enjoyed your time, do please drop us a review. Your words mean a whole lot more than any advertising possibly could.

Thanks for reading. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Dale.

Thoughts on our first two weeks!!

Hi all!

I just have a few questions on how we are going along at Pancho.

Should we keep Pancho as solely tapas, or should we go ahead and offer the "Big Plate" version of the dishes? I think people are coming to see us because of the tapas style, and the family style "sharing" dining. What do you think?

Anyone who was with us over the weekend, what did you think on the desserts? We tried out Banana and Pain au Chocolat pudding, Apple and Blueberry Granola crumble, and Tiramisu. We are planning to add to this Clotted Cream Ice Cream with warm raspberries, and warm chocolate brownie with CCIC.

Finally, we are thinking of introducing 'Para llevar', or take-away. Would you use Pancho for this? Do you think other people would?

We are always interested to hear what you enjoy from the menu, and what isn't so popular. We have already removed Pesto Mussels, due to the lack of fresh availability in Warwick.

As ever we are moving with the seasons, and added an asparagus dish this past weekend, did you try it? We loved it!

Thanks for your custom, and continued support. We do appreciate it, and are enjoying serving you.

Pancho will start a new discussion every week, and all responses will be put into a hat and drawn monthly for a bottle wine.

Thanks again, and see you real soon.

Dale.