Letter to ECC Assistant Chief Executive
This letter, dated 10th September 2011, was written as nothing had been heard in the eight months following Jim’s seemingly encouraging meeting with Exeter City Council’s Assistant Chief Executive, Bindu Arjoon. These were very busy months for the Council. The letter was printed under the Campaign’s heading, and sent with proof of posting.
Dear Ms Arjoon
Exeter City Council’s Treatment of Summerway Tennis
I greatly appreciated our meeting of 10 January 2011 when I was given an impression of firm integrity, which remains currently unshaken. Now that we are into September, I am wondering why I haven’t heard from you. I fully realise how busy you must have been over the intervening months with so much change taking place in the Council, the economic climate being as it is and has been, but a progress report on Summerway matters would have been helpful to indicate total stagnation has not occurred.
Remembering your confidence in the theory and practice of local government, I do not envy you the task of unravelling Exeter City Council’s responsibility in the loss of Summerway Tennis. The Summerway Junior LTC ran on sound democratic principles fully open to scrutiny, unlike the City Council where events, decisions and underhand manipulations have proved democracy and openness have not functioned healthily.
Much that seems wrong and unjustified remains to be explained. Cllr Peter Edwards, Ian Cowe, Alan Caig, Hazel Ball and, to a lesser extent for her lack of support, Cllr Val Dixon all owe serious explanations for their responses, or lack of them, to the issues relating to the Club and the premises it had leased from local government for over thirty years.
In particular, explanation of the Council’s seemingly unjustified actions in making matters between the Council and Club personal, targeting the messenger (me) is owing. Cllr Edwards was a leading proponent of this policy, and it is frightening that a person so lacking in sympathy and understanding should be currently leading the Council – especially considering his clandestine efforts to deprive me of my democratic rights as a citizen.
The precipitate demolition of the clubhouse, which seems to have been used as a ploy, raises serious issues regarding the morality of all those involved. Those who brought electricity, sewerage and plumbing to the pavilion at their own and the Club’s expense did so to benefit the children. The Council may have had the legal right to unilaterally destroy this marvellous facility, but the morality of depriving the children thus is utterly abhorrent. It mustn’t be forgotten that the Club’s structural engineer was denied his request to view the clubhouse with the ECC’s surveyor. Please refresh your memory of ‘The Great Clubhouse Scandal’ page of our www.summerway.org campaign website.
I do understand the need for legality in the Council’s dealings, but the Council undermined sensible negotiation by arrogantly practising extreme legalism without adequate consideration of its effects. This needs to be properly identified and rectified. It is hugely damaging.
Summerway matters and the expanding Summerway Campaign are by no means trivial. I
understand the recent rioting reported in the national news is complex in its origins.
You are probably conversant with the ‘butterfly effect’ in chaos theory, which states
that dynamic non-
To keep this letter to a reasonable length, I will make this the penultimate point. An article headed, “Thousands on secret council blacklists” by Gerri Peev (a political correspondent) was published on page 10 of the Daily Mail dated 16 July 2011. The article was still online this evening – search for ‘council blacklist’ on the paper’s website if you wish to view it. At the time of the virtual demise of Summerway Tennis, informed opinion seemed unanimous that the City Council had closed ranks against the Club and myself. I wish to know if Exeter City Council maintains, or has maintained, any sort of blacklist. If so, was I blacklisted at any time? Am I currently blacklisted?
In view of the Council’s determination to banish the Club from the premises by burning all the boats at Summerway, amongst the $64,000 questions are, “Where do we go from here?” and “How can matters be laid to rest in a just and satisfactory manner?”. Sweeping matters under the carpet or hoping they will eventually go away are not solutions.
With thanks and best wishes for your efforts on our behalf,
Yours sincerely
Jim Harle
SJLTC Membership Secretary