Letter to Exeter’s MP about Demolition
ECC’s Leisure Manager sent a letter dated 9th May 2007 to the Club Treasurer stating the Council’s intention to demolish the clubhouse. This was passed to Jim for distribution. He felt an Open Letter/Email to Ben Bradshaw, Exeter’s MP, was the proper response, and the text of this is reproduced below. The email was sent and the letter posted on 18th May 2007.
Dear Ben,
Summerway Junior LTC – ECC to Demolish Pavilion
This is an Open Letter/Email rather than being personal or confidential. I apologise for not writing in bullet points, but I don’t belong to the sound bite and ‘scan it and act on impressions’ culture.
My training makes me thorough and humble. I acknowledge that I don’t know everything, and am always willing to learn and be corrected when I am wrong. Like everyone else, I can and do make mistakes. You may think from my many emails that I have an awful lot to say for myself, but please don’t get the wrong idea. I do infinitely more listening than I do spouting, the former being a characteristic which I think we both share.
I have made no secret of my admiration for the way in which you engage with your constituents. I have heard folk describe you as a publicity seeker, but in my book you are doing exactly what an MP should be doing. How can you represent your constituents if you don’t listen to them? You not only listen to everyone who seeks your advice or assistance – you act on their behalf wherever their case is reasonable. In my view, you truly represent the people of Exeter.
Similarly, I have been representing the Summerway Junior LTC. Please don’t misunderstand our reasons for my doing so as an individual rather than as an official negotiator. I listen to everyone with an interest in the Club, and am willingly subject to all decisions of the Club’s AGMs, SGMs and the Committee. ECC incorrectly believe me to be unrepresentative of the Club as a whole. To see how grossly this is in error, simply compare what I have been saying with the resolutions passed at the Club’s SGM on 20th January 2007.
http://www.jh.eclipse.co.uk/sgmresmins268y27.html
Ben, you serve and represent the views of the citizens of Exeter, and I serve and represent the views of the Club. In stark contrast, ECC seems to be impervious to the views of the public, and appears to be serving its own ends.
I am writing chiefly because ECC’s haste and alacrity to demolish the pavilion appears
to be full confirmation of the Club’s suspicion that the Council has had its own
undisclosed agenda for the site for many years. This action seems to be a direct
attempt to alienate the Club from the site permanently. As the Council is attempting
to replace a fully structured and supervised community service by empty facility,
ignoring the Club’s request for a moratorium, it needs to be authoritatively challenged
to account for its high-
I am also writing out of concern for the welfare of ECC’s Leisure Manager. I think he may be caught between a rock and a hard place. If he has complete freedom to negotiate with the Club, this concern is misjudged. If, however, the parameters for negotiations are being set by higher authority, it is that source which is responsible for the virtual destruction of the Club. We, as mere members of the public, are unable to determine who is pulling the strings. Judging from what he has written, it is clear to me that the Leisure Manager’s boss, the Head of Leisure & Museums, has a very weak understanding of the realities of the situation regarding the Club. Also, I detect a whiff of arrogance in his correspondence which may not be justified. There is also the possibility that Councillors may be setting the parameters, but how are we supposed to know whether that is the case?
I think we may be fast approaching the time when it will be appropriate to involve the Local Government Ombudsman. My fear is that the Ombudsman’s terms of reference may be too specific to resolve the wider issues. The heart of the problem lies in the Council’s absolute discretion to do what it likes without proper consultation with those involved and affected by their decisions. Hence, some of its decisions appear perverse to those of us in the general public, and are a source of grief when we are unable to determine whether such decisions are justified or simply arbitrary. This problem is compounded when actions contradict words, and when consultations and negotiations are said to have taken place when they were ‘either perfunctory or meaningless’, to use the Club’s terminology.
ECC has made decisions affecting the Club without proper consultation. Club representatives have met with Officers, and with Councillors and Officers, and were told of the Councils’ intentions. A tiny amount of flexibility has been offered to the Club which has been designated as ‘negotiation’, but this goes nowhere near to addressing the Club’s concerns. You will have noted in ECC’s response to your enquiry regarding the fate of the Club’s plans for expansion that ECC claims to have considered the Club’s proposals. This occurred without consultation with us, behind closed doors without our knowledge, and even without any notification to the Club of the result of the claimed consideration. It seems probable that our serious proposals, the product of much time and reflection, were simply overlooked, ignored or dismissed lightly.
ECC have stated that, “we want the club to survive and thrive ... ”. If this is a genuine statement, then there should be meaningful consultation with the Club which should have occurred years ago. If ECC really values the services formerly provided by the Club, and wishes to do the right thing, the first step is for Officers (and Councillors if they so wish) to sit down with us and discuss the Club’s 1999 proposals in detail. ECC Planning would need to be represented, as the plans for the proposed new park involve opening up a vandal route, and creating an entrance/exit on to a very busy main road with easy access to the motorway. There are serious drawbacks to both of these proposals which need to be properly addressed. Such issues emphasise the fundamental necessity for meaningful consultation.
In passing, I found ECC’s description of vandals as ‘naturally curious children’ both interesting and amusing. I leave you to your own conjectures!
There is one extremely unhappy aspect of this whole affair which I would like to ignore, but cannot. At the end of our first significant meeting many years ago, I pointed out that I am not party politically motivated. That was true, and still is at this point in time. However, you will see from my website the point I make about discrimination. http://www.jh.eclipse.co.uk/whydiscrim9yhqsxx.html . My own feeling about the Conservatives losing power to govern nationally is that they were perceived by the majority of the electorate as being uncaring and unwilling to listen. Traditionally, Labour has stood up for the common man. When New Labour came to power, I would have expected greater equity. Sadly, recent history shows a widening of the gap between rich and poor. I am seriously bothered that Exeter has a Labour dominated Council which seems to me to be behaving far worse than the Conservatives ever did. Discriminating in favour of the affluent, and acting in a manner directly contrary to national government policy regarding the welfare of children, goes entirely against traditional Labour policy. My father was as supportive of Labour as it was possible to be when I was young, and I owe my public school education to a scholarship provided by a Labour controlled London County Council which cared for working class families like ours. It hurts me to see ECC depriving the children of families which struggle to make ends meet of the services of dedicated volunteers who care passionately for the community in which they live.
One has to question whether a body so unsupportive of children and the community is worthy of Unitary Status.
Maybe I am wrong not to have party political allegiance, and should consider joining the Conservative party. Without the Summerway Club to care for, maybe I would be best able to serve my fellow citizens as a Tory activist, provided that I could encourage the party to care for community. It looks as if community is being torn apart nowadays, making the quality of life the poorer for us all. If I should join the Conservative party, I will not brook any criticism of your excellent record as a constituency MP, and will wish to promote good Conservative policy rather than denigrating the achievements and policies of other political parties. I have a strong natural tendency to build rather than demolish!
ECC has demanded that the Club should contribute thousands of pounds towards protecting Council owned property from the consequences of the changes which the Council itself has made. This whole sorry affair is the result of ECC parsimoniousness in recoiling from a commitment to maintain its own property which is historically less than £1,000 annually. Does ECC appreciate and value the services provided by the Club to the community? It would cost over £10,000 annually for the Council to purchase this provision, but the volunteers in their generosity freely donate it to those they endeavour to serve. By denying the Club its traditional use of the premises, ECC is currently depriving the community of services worth in excess of £10,000 each and every year.
I have yet to receive a list of clubs similar to Summerway from ECC. When noting the essential attributes which would characterise similarity, I omitted one of the most significant – affordability! I won’t add this to the requirements, but will feel justified in deleting any club from the supplied list which fails to meet this criterion.
I will send a hard copy of this email in letter form by post for your records (DV). Assuring you of my continued friendship and respect, whatever my future party political involvement (if any),
Yours sincerely,
Jim.