Letter to National Daily Newspapers

Exeter City Council has been destroying the Summerway Junior LTC over several years, either wilfully or through gross ignorance, and will not consult the Club.  It is trying to bully the Club by insisting on the imposition of inappropriate terms, and will not listen to the Club’s wider concerns, nor consult to determine the full situation.  Consequently, efforts are being made to find a listening ear from anyone who cares about the children and their families, and is concerned about the level of vandalism currently experienced in our City.

It would have been good if the Club had received support and accurate publicity from the local press, but the two articles published some while ago sent the wrong message by the way matters were reported and false impressions created. Consequently, a feeler has been extended to see whether any of the National Newspapers are interested in Summerway.

The letter below, later confirmed by email in five of the cases, was sent to the Times, the Independent, the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Daily Mail and the Daily Express during the week beginning 4th June 2007.

Dear Editor,

Exeter City Council  vs.  The Welfare of City Children

(This is not a contribution for publication, but an appeal for serious

journalistic investigation into an instance of democratic failure)

British soldiers are risking and losing their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Among the stated reasons the Government is asking this of them is to reduce the threat of terrorism to innocent citizens across the world, and to ensure weapons of mass destruction are not used by tyrannical regimes against others, including factions of their own populations.  There is also the promotion of democracy, to ‘free’ the people from oppressive and totalitarian government.  This is a worthy object only if democracy works, and is more than a utopian ideal.

Britain is supposed to be governed democratically, yet there are worrying signs of a trend towards the decline of real democracy.

See  http://www.jh.eclipse.co.uk/nochnrvc9xo1hq6.html  and click on the ‘this query’ link towards the bottom of the page.

Of course there are the big national issues like the economy, education, health, security, and so on, but there is one which is vital to the quality of life which is being overlooked.  It is the matter of ‘community’.  While it is being given lip service, in reality it is being destroyed at local level.  At least, it certainly is here in Exeter.  We are losing our local libraries, post offices, and even our lovely small businesses as the Exeter City Council (ECC) hands over the City centre to the giants at greatly increased rents.  Devon County Council (DCC) has given away the control of school premises under a PFI, causing a continuous stream of headaches published almost daily in the local press, and making the use of school premises prohibitively expensive to many clubs and voluntary organisations.

For over twenty-five years I have been part of a remarkably successful children’s facility, the Summerway Junior Lawn Tennis Club, which was founded a decade before my daughter joined in 1981.  It was a superb concept – a partnership between Local Government which provided and maintained the premises, and Volunteers entirely responsible for the management of the Club.  A true example of power in the hands of the people!  Real community, too, because while the children were the playing members, the adults of every family were involved and played a part in the Club’s administration.  Over the life of the Club, maintenance has cost the public purse on average something less than £1,000 annually, while the services donated to the Community by the Volunteers were worth something in excess of £10,000 annually if they had to be purchased.  For much of the time, Summerway Tennis has been oversubscribed with a significant waiting list for places, flagging up a persistent need in the community.

The courts and clubhouse were originally leased to the Club by ECC, but were transferred to DCC in 1974.  In 1978, DCC granted the Club a twenty-eight year lease which expired in 2006.  With membership bursting at the seams for many years, the Club presented plans for expansion to DCC in 1999 which were buried.  Exeter’s MP obtained responses from DCC and ECC this year which threw some light on the situation undisclosed to the Club over the intervening time.  The Club had raised the issue of the lease in 1999, and had been trying to arrange a renewal or extension ever since.  We now know that ECC has not only prevented the expansion, but has been attempting to turn the Club into a cash cow to swell its own coffers.  This is totally inappropriate.  ECC clearly hasn’t the faintest idea, or is deliberately trying to destroy the Club to acquire vacant possession of the site to fulfil an unrevealed agenda of its own.

The Club has been ‘constructively evicted’ from the premises recently, and ownership has been transferred from DCC back to ECC.  The City Council has announced its intention to demolish the clubhouse (pavilion) imminently using funds which it has identified.  The loss of the Club to the Community is absolutely huge, but this doesn’t seem to bother those at the Civic Centre.  The situation is rather complex, as the ECC’s words and actions contradict, and actions speak louder than words.  I have built a website which ECC either hasn’t studied or hasn’t the wit to understand.  While this is about principles and not personalities, ECC refuse to deal with me.  The reason for this requires examination.

Community is losing out in Exeter, and democracy isn’t working.  The local press is popular and interesting, but is not up to dealing with a Council which says it supports the Club while sticking a knife in its back.  This situation calls for serious investigative journalism, where searching questions are asked of a public body to reveal the truth behind its assertions.

The only protection the people have against total domination by those who govern and are obsessed with their own power is a free and active press which discourages manipulation by reporting it openly, and speaking against it.  As things stand, this brilliant children’s facility is going to sink, against stated national government policy, without even causing a further ripple on the disturbed surface of society.  Accordingly, I am contacting newspapers capable of the sort of journalism required, in the hope that someone will recognise the importance of what is happening to ‘community’, is willing to stand up for the children, and pursue matters in the public interest.

The website  www.summerway.org  gives some idea of the situation and principles involved, even though it is of comparatively recent origin and has much to be added.  The major issues, which are accessible from

http://www.jh.eclipse.co.uk/isspgshub3cdki03.html  are worth noting.  The Club is extremely well documented, and its worth easily demonstrated.  I would be very happy to meet with anyone interested in taking up this story, so relevant to today’s society and its problems.

Yours sincerely,

Jim Harle.

(Summerway JLTC Membership Secretary)

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