News Magazine Article
It may not be accepted for publication, but the following article was submitted, with photos, for the May edition of a glossy freebie news magazine called “The Voice of Exeter”, circulated to 20,000 households throughout the City.
Hopefully, whether it was or wasn’t printed will be duly reported in Summerway Update 2009 No.3 (not yet written), which should be posted on this website in the normal course of events. Any links on this page have been inserted for the convenience of site visitors.
Spark of Life comes to Barren Courts
Let’s hope the recent spell of sunny April days wasn’t the whole of this year’s summer. The good weather drew us, as members of the public, to the Summerway tennis courts. Until the City Council ‘constructively evicted’ the children’s club and demolished their clubhouse, toilets, security, etc. these were by far the two busiest municipal courts in Exeter. They now stand as stark evidence of local government incompetence.
You need more than tennis rackets and balls to enjoy a game on them these days. We arrived one fine evening to find the courts unusable and dangerous because of broken glass. A local mum told us it had been there all day, and kindly lent us a broom to sweep it up.
Should you wish to play, you will also need to bring your own set of posts and a net. To give them their due, council officials have tried to provide them for the public, but have failed miserably to protect them from vandals. Our net was soon in place, and a game started. We played until 8 o’clock, by which time the number of children had doubled from those shown in the photo.
How Exeter City Council arrives at its decisions is as clear as mud. Incomprehensibly, a deciduous tree has been newly planted four metres from the fencing around the courts. I have listed eight possibilities for this action on our www.summerway.org website on a page called ‘The Tree’. You can read about it if you have access to the internet, and even compare it with the Wonford ‘desecration’.
Eddie Ostrich has a great deal to answer for, depriving so many youngsters of role models and the only ongoing affordable tennis in the City. Little wonder we are plagued with so many vandals.
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