Dear Friends,
Phew, I don't know how many
of you attended Folk Week, and I don't know how busy you were if you did, but I
have only just recovered!
I really enjoyed 'working the queues' for the
Ham and elsewhere and talking to all the lovely people who are interested in
saving the Drill Hall, and thank you to those who signed up for the newsletter
as a result. Many of the people we talked to were locals and only about a dozen
couples out of the ones we spoke to thought the hall should be demolished.
I
don't know how many individuals we actually reached because they were either in
couples or larger groups in the main. However I do know that we handed out more
than 1200 info cards to couples/groups who were interested, and left many more
in local shops and pubs to be handed out too.
You may also have seen the
posters that were put up, and thanks to all the shopkeepers and venues who did
that for us. Some of the leaders of dance workshops made announcements too and
John Braithwaite ( Boss of Folk Week) took some info cards to spread around. All
in all we received tremendous support. If anyone else wants to put up posters I
can let you have images to print yourself.
The only disappointing part of
the week for us was the appalling 'display' put up by EDDC on the doors to the
Drill Hall. I had been asking permission to put up a display there but I was
refused unless I agreed not to say who was putting it up!
Their rationale was
that it would give me an unfair advantage over any other Community Group. I
pointed out to them that if I was doing the work I should get an advantage and
offered to only identify myself by a small copyright on the photographs, but
that was still not acceptable.
I was told that instead EDDC would be
putting up their own display .... and what a display it was.
Photos from
2013, pictures of all the areas which need work but not of those which have
survived since it was built and are still sound, and all mounted by grey duct
tape in an interesting 'crazy paving' type arrangement. I don't know whether
they didn't care that the awful appearance reflected badly on them and/or JLL
who are marketing it; or whether they were hoping people would assume it had
been done by an incompetent Community Group. Either way it was not something
that should have occurred ..... especially when I have been slammed for bringing
Sidmouth into disrepute during Folk Week because I inform people about the Drill
Hall.
On the subject of Community Groups, some of you may have heard of a
new group Sidmouth Sunrise? This is a Community Interest Company put together by
Gillian Mitchell and two other directors and it aims to create a bid for the
Drill Hall. As it would clearly be ridiculous for us to be in competition with
each other Gillian and I are looking at ways we can work together and get the
best result for Sidmouth. You can find her on FaceBook.
I will keep you posted as things
progress.
Another interesting thing is that the results of the Sid Val
Association survey of members' attitudes towards the Drill Hall should be
completed soon. I hope that these result will encourage the SVA to support the
community in a bid for the hall, after all, saving our heritage is why they were
formed.
kind regards, Mary
PS. The automatic sign up to read the
Structural Engineer's report has been causing problems! As the pages are
automatically created by the WordPress plugin I have struggled to adapt them to
something sensible. However, I have now achieved something which is a reasonable
compromise I think. Please give it another go it you have previously given up in
frustration :-D
Structural report link |
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