Views of ECC Leisure Manager
The Open Letter to DCC and ECC Councillors prompted a few acknowledgements, with most commenting that it was a matter for the local Councillors. Amongst these was an email from the ECC Leisure Manager which was widely distributed.
The text of this email, which was sent towards the end of the afternoon on 31st January 2007, did not attempt to address Jim’s concerns. It claims to inform the Councillors of “what has gone on.” Whether it is simply doing that, or whether it also has undertones should be ascertained by the website visitor. Please make your own judgement.
In view of Jim Harle’s latest outburst I thought Councillors may like to know what has gone on.
The club’s premises are due to be transferred from DCC to ECC as part of a land swop deal. The tennis courts used to be within a secure school playing field, but the school is now gone and the site is becoming a public open space. Change for the club is therefore inevitable, but ECC would like the club to remain at the site and to thrive. The club has a 28 year old lease from DCC, which included allowing for Summerway School to use the courts. This led to very advantageous terms for the club. That lease has now come to an end and the terms are being reviewed to bring them up to date and into line with other comparable leases.
The overall proposal is:
■ The club takes a 25 year lease on, and responsibility for, its pavilion, to which it has exclusive use (except for up to 12 occasions a year when it may be used for community use).
■ ECC takes responsibility for the courts (and so for maintenance of the nets, playing surface, line markings and fencing etc).
■ The club is granted exclusive use during all the times it has requested (<1,000 hours during the summer, equating to about 12p per court per hour at the proposed charge).
■ There is free public use for the local community (as on all of the Council’s tennis courts) at all other times.
■ The club protects its now relatively vulnerable pavilion from vandalism by erecting a secure fence, using its accumulated reserves.
Jim Harle condemns local government in his email of 31 January, but of course he only tells the tale from his own perspective, and with many of his statements misleading at best. He fails to mention:
■ The club has apparently accumulated some £10,000-
■ The current lease (with DCC) requires payment by the club of £20 per year for the 2 tennis courts and pavilion. Nearly all maintenance is done by DCC. That is not a sustainable situation.
■ The only concern expressed by the club, at the meeting in the club’s pavilion on the evening of 23 November 2006, was about the financial arrangements. The club was told at the meeting that the figures in the draft Heads of Terms would be negotiable, and in order to assess how much the club could afford the club was asked to provide its accounts (as is normal practice when assessing the level of support the Council might give). Those accounts have not yet been provided. In addition, the club was told that ECC provides 100% rent support grants to many clubs occupying premises it leases out.
■ Jim Harle complains that the club would have to fund a security fence – which he suggested be provided to protect the club’s courts and pavilion from vandalism by local youngsters now that there is open access to the adjacent site.
■ The club has been granted all of the access to the courts that it asked for, without amendment.
There’s plenty more that could be written in response to Jim’s email, but we are clearly never going to be able to reach agreement with Jim. However, you can be reassured that Local Government is happy to work sensibly with the other members of the club’s committee.
Ian Cowe
Leisure Manager
Exeter City Council
View Jim’s Comments on this Email
CAUTION!
In order to obtain a balanced view of the truth, it is essential to examine Jim’s response to this email. Reading the one without the other will only leave false impressions. It is very significant that the ECC Leisure Manager subsequently refused to respond to Jim’s points or answer his questions. Viewing a summary of the sequence of events should prove helpful.
This warning was added to this page on discovery that a Google search based on the criteria summerway ecc gave links to this website as the first result displayed. There were links to just two pages, viz. Desperate Email and Ian Cowe Views. The latter page indicated manual selection of the extract, clearly indicated by the reference to Summerway School. Due to the highly questionable nature of Ian Cowe’s email, it is the opinion of this website’s administrator that viewing just these two pages would not give the visitor a balanced view of the Summerway situation. Hence the need for a warning.