News Magazine Article
Jim wrote to HRH Prince Charles on 12th March 2009, feeling a strongly shared opinion regarding the vital importance of supervised children’s activities and adult role models.
The article below was published, duly edited, in the April edition of ‘The Voice
of Exeter’ on page 11, under the title which was supplied by the editor. A mock-
Let’s Learn from Charles
“Charles At 60: The Passionate Prince.” Did you catch this revealing programme on BBC1 last November? Jim Harle did, and was surprised and impressed by the enormous benefit children and youths receive through the Prince’s Trust.
Certain popular impressions suggest Prince Charles might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but Jim admired a privileged person who is also immensely dutiful and diligent. His considerable influence is used to serve others, especially young people who are the nation’s future.
Back in August, the Trust published its ‘Culture of Youth Communities’ report. A key finding was, “... young people are creating their own ‘youth communities’ and gangs in search of the influences that could once have been found in traditional communities.” More than half of those surveyed cited friends and peers as role models.
Jim has just written to Prince Charles saying, “Our elitist and remote City Council has been wiping out children’s supervised facilities in our locality and replacing them by expensive unsupervised play areas. Displaced volunteers are being lost and discouraged, and a rift between adults and children fostered. No wonder we endure such vandalism.”
A long history of harmonious cooperation between Jim and the Council counted for nothing when senior officers, blindly supported by councillors, decided the brilliantly successful children’s tennis club was in the way of their ivory tower plans. Refusing to deal with him and in defiance of the club, “the Council ‘constructively evicted’ the club from the premises, made the courts public and bulldozed the clubhouse. This has proved a total disaster ...” explained Jim in his letter.
John, who provided free group tennis coaching to the children for decades, was a gifted and superb role model. He has also been discarded along with other volunteers, and no longer coaches. Everyone loses.
Jim wrote, “The value of role models is hard to overemphasise. When a youngster,
I was able to benefit from one-
Prince Charles clearly understands the importance of adult role models and healthy activities for the young, giving immense practical support. In complete contrast, Exeter City Council bullies them out of existence, preferring instead to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds in support of those with money and on highbrow public art. What kind of role models are they being? Councillors and officers are so out of touch that not one of them has ever got properly to grips with Summerway Tennis issues. Most heads are so deeply buried as to be virtually unaware of the Summerway Campaign, never having viewed its four YouTube videos.
Prince Charles obviously has a warm heart. Is the City Council’s made of stone?
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