The Llandudno West Shore model boating lake is no longer under threat, the planning application has been withdrawn and a council working party is developing other solutions.
When we first spoke to town councillors about their proposal their answer was blunt:- "You are just a few old men, big boys playing with big toys and there is nothing you can do."
It is always a good omen when the other side don't recognise their opponent's abilities.
The few are not just Colwyn Bay MBC, but the worldwide model boating community. The old each have 168 hours a week to commit to a project and us big boys happily spent months researching the smallest details for their next big toy build.
In any worldwide community there are members with many different useful talents and professions and in our's such people are happy to step up to the plate and work for our common good.
Within a week, an architect member of the MYA had, pro bono, submitted fully developed plans and schemes that protected the lake while giving any reasonable applicant a number of schemes to save the statue.
The constant claim from the Planning Office was that there was no evidence that the lake was ever intended for model boating use, nor proof of regular model sailing there.
An historian member of the MYA and the Vintage Model Yacht Group readily proved that model boats had been sailed there for over 120 years. He eventually went on to discover that the National Library had a newspaper article dated 1888 about Llandudno Model Yacht Club's first AGM that read “ A cordial vote of thanks was then passed to the Chairman and Committee of the “Unemployed Relief Fund” in consideration of their having come to the aid of the club by having Penmorfa Pool cleared, embanked, and otherwise improved, and so rendering it fit for sailing purposes. ”
Numerous objections were sent in from all over the world and the Planning Officer recommended rejecting the Proposal, which was then withdrawn.
It is very pleasing that the local, national and international model boating community has sufficient interest in our hobby that they can successfully fight for our heritage.
I would like to thank everyone, everywhere who helped save an important part of model boating's history.