Update 2009 No. 1
Published 20th February 2009
Dear Summerway Friend,
I’ve been having fun. I know how serious all this is, but with the likes of Nellie and Eddie on our side, we’re bound to make an impact. Enjoy this first update of the new year.
• Nellie 2 – The Heavitree Arch. I’m getting into making movies and learning fast. My new video has just been posted on YouTube, and initial reaction has been most favourable. (view video) I googled the web with ‘nellie heavitree’ yesterday, and discovered our video was the first entry! Google has certainly picked up on the Summerway campaign. Imagine my surprise when I came across our website Summerway Updates navigation page from following Google links.
• Eddie Ostrich – Our New Logo. The Summerway Campaign was in need of a logo. Poor quality matchstick men was all I ever managed artistically, so I commissioned a logo from a talented friend. I told Sue what I was looking for, and she produced an excellent first draft. A few tweaks later, and Eddie the Ostrich was ideal. (view Eddie) I tried to pay Sue for her efforts, but the lovely lady wouldn’t accept a penny. She has donated Eddie to us, being in strong sympathy with what we are trying to achieve. Incidentally, Eddie does not stand for Edward!
• Heavitree News to The Voice of Exeter. The February 2009 Edition of the Heavitree News was the last. Martyn is launching a new freebie, The Voice of Exeter, into which the Heavitree News is subsumed. This will hopefully cover three times the area and 20,000 households. Watch out for it, because Eddie should make his debut in print in the inaugural March edition. If The Voice doesn’t publish Eddie’s full name, I’ll reveal it in a future update. Incidentally, no reporter from the Express & Echo has contacted me about the letter it would not publish.
• The Website. The last Update of 2008 (No.9) has been posted, as was ‘An Appreciation of Summerway Watchers’. My response to the Councils’ Place Survey can now be examined. (view response) I checked with Marketing Means to find how they dealt with it, and learned it was passed on to Exeter City Council in its entirety. Devon LTA matters are mentioned in the following paragraph. The website’s first page has been adjusted to include a box to click for the latest video, and Eddie given a page.
• Devon LTA AGM Minute. The proposed Minutes of the Devon LTA 2008 AGM were circulated with the Notice & Agenda for the 2009 meeting. Dave and I agreed that Minute 9.1 relating to Summerway was inaccurate and misleading, and I notified the Secretary of this by email in the week prior to this year’s AGM. Sadly, the Chair of the meeting would not allow discussion of the minute’s accuracy, and bulldozed it into the records. The issues are posted on the website. (view details) Peter Bayliss kindly offered to meet with me in a little while to discuss Summerway, but not as a matter of Devon LTA business. I look forward to that.
• Splash. The Splash Holiday Play Scheme has been providing affordable childcare during school holidays in our locality for a number of years. I attended a crisis meeting this week precipitated by Exeter City Council’s withdrawal of funding. I understand the scheme’s coordinator was an ECC employee who has been given notice due to a funding shortfall, and the scheme really needs such a person to function. Devon County Council, already committed to £38,000 p.a. towards the scheme, seems unwilling to pick up ECC’s £10,000 contribution in addition. Unless a solution is found urgently, there will be no Splash over the Easter holidays. ECC appears to be conducting a policy of denuding our deprived area of supervised children’s activities – Orchard, Summerway, and now Splash. I’ll let you know how things develop.
I would like to say a particular ‘Thank you’ this time to the super folk at the Exeter Princesshay Apple Store. I have been introduced to the Apple Mac environment, and taught some of the mysteries of GarageBand, Keynote, Final Cut Express, etc., which made our videos possible. I now have to decide what’s next on the agenda. There are so many avenues from which to choose.
Warmest regards,
Jim.