This may look like a storm in a teacup within the larger order of things, but make
no mistake -
What, then, is this all about?
Exeter City Council’s failure to engage meaningfully with the Club damages community, and deprives families of valuable free services which they have enjoyed for some decades. Volunteers are a huge resource to society which is now being spurned. A remote ECC appears to understand only control, and not partnership. The Club bears no malice towards Local Government, and will forgive ECC’s implacable animosity, lethal as it is. Compare that with the ECC’s uncompromising and injurious attitude towards the Club. Why blacklist Jim? The real reason for this needs to be uncovered, as the one given is ludicrous. Jim has no knowledge of an “obvious breakdown in the relationship” between himself and Local Government. This appears to be just an excuse for ECC’s withdrawal from negotiations, and an inability to answer Jim’s queries. Is ECC right to attempt to split the Summerway Committee to achieve its own ends?
