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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