quotes one of them, David Price of Cosy Feet. His opinion of the Regional Development Agency is not high:
At the beginning of this year, Mr Price had written to project bosses to say he was interested in occupying a large piece of the former tannery site.
Within two months, he was told the RDA did not want them. Now, Mr Price says the refusal has been a blessing in disguise.
He said: "I am now rather relieved we were turned down because of the RDA's incompetence.
"Thank God we don't have to work with these muppets. No one had the courtesy to make a personal contact or visit us.
"We were told the basic infrastructure would be ready by September, then December. It would have been a disaster for us had we been accepted and believed their timetable.
"I cannot see how they can expect to find businesses to go on to that site when they have turned down major local businesses that fulfill many of their criteria. What signal does that send out?
"My advice to anyone applying for a site would be: forget it. The RDA couldn't run a whelk stall.
"They would spend a fortune on logos, business plans, projections, etc, and in the end get so exhausted by the process they would forget what it was they intended to do."
While I cannot give any informed opinion on the RDA, I can report that at the very beginning of the Morlands site saga, friends told me that the RDA had been incompetent, if not worse, in other places in the region. The derelict site also tells its own story.
One cynical person even suggested to me the other day that the proposed new big hotel near the site would chiefly be patronised by RDA officials at taxpayers' expense!
As the famous TV saying went, "You may think that, but I couldn't possibly comment!"
