An Email of Desperation
This email was authored by The Management Committee of the Exeter (Summerway) Junior LTC and sent to all DCC and ECC Councillors. Those without email addresses received it by letter posted first class. The email was sent out in the early hours of 19th January 2006.
While the wording of this email may seem a little extreme, the context in which it
was written gives the explanation. The Club had been appealing to Local Government
from May 1999 for an extension to the 1978-
Dear Councillor,
The Exeter (Summerway) Junior Lawn Tennis Club Lease
We hereby notify Local Government that a skeleton in its cupboard is stirring, and do not wish this to catch you by surprise.
We need to use the term ‘Local Government’ to mean the Members and Officers of Devon County Council and the Exeter City Council. This has been made necessary by the existence of specific negotiations and agreements occurring behind closed doors and without our knowledge for a number of years. We hold both Councils to be responsible for the fait accompli being presented to the Exeter (Summerway) Junior LTC.
The Club has been seriously damaged both by neglect and procrastination. Putting this another way, the Club has been seriously damaged by the MONUMENTAL FAILURE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT TO SUSTAIN A WORKING PARTNERSHIP
Expressed bluntly, the Club is facing CONSTRUCTIVE EVICTION
In addition to other legitimate courses of action, the Summerway Management Committee
wishes to conduct and lead a MEDIA CAMPAIGN to highlight Local Government’s attitude
towards the Club. In particular, we will wish to contrast the support given to those
affluent enough to purchase their Tennis provision on the one hand, with the niggardly
and mean-
The descriptive terms ‘private’ and ‘closed’ have been used at times when referring to the Club. Both are extremely misleading. The facts are that we have a defined membership open to ALL children who, with their families, are willing to observe the Club’s rules and basic requirements and, like most sporting facilities, we have a finite capacity.
Currently, as things stand and after decades of exceptional service, the expiry of our lease on 31 March 2006 will leave the Club without courts. Consequently, we have been unable to issue the proper renewal invitations to last year’s Playing Membership. Instead, the Club can only prepare for a period of quiescence. Only the children will suffer by being deprived of their courts.
We call upon both Councils to rectify this appalling situation as a matter of extreme urgency, and ask you personally to play your part in ensuring that this happens. The Club needs a lease that meets its requirements for existence, and that will guarantee that the shameful harm caused to the Club by Local Government will not recur in the foreseeable future. We also request that no further action is taken, or decisions made, which impinge upon the Club without prior genuine and meaningful consultation with the Club. Local Government has clearly lost the vision it had in the late 1970s, and is effectively reneging on its commitments to the working partnership, thereby rendering it unworkable.
PLEASE ACKNOWLEDGE AND RESPOND TO THIS E-
Yours sincerely,
The Management Committee of the Exeter (Summerway) Junior LTC.
View Jim’s response to the Councillors when they failed to realize that this was the Committee’s email