An Update on our Postcard Criticism

Earlier today I published an opinion piece on the postcard sent by someone at Devizes Town Council to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, for the Town of Culture Award. Please read this first for relevance to this update…..

This isn’t an apology. I reserve my right to scrutinise and be a cheeky monkey, especially when the subject affects the public of the town, which this surely does.

Though not without satire, my point was that I felt it would have been better, fairer and most importantly, more effective, to have consulted the entire council and possibly the public too, before going ahead with it. We have since learned this was not the case. Not all Devizes Town Councillors were made aware of the postcard. 

Since publishing it, councillors have contacted us to say they hadn’t seen it, let alone approved it. If so, this surely only opens a wider Pandora’s box as to why things are being passed through the council without the knowledge of all councillors; surely that’s the point of having a council?!

It remains concerning, in my opinion, for issues of greater importance if a similar pattern is occurring. But that’s for another day.

I stand by my reasoning, the postcard was poorly written, which for the most part, the majority of comments on our social media shares and ones on the Devizes Town Council post shares reflects a similar opinion. We have since learned some “talented writers were asked,” but it was excused by a short deadline of one day. I know only too well the pitfalls of a short deadline, and therefore I will apologise to those who wrote it. As I did state, the idea itself wasn’t necessarily a bad one.

It has also come to light that the postcard was apparently not a bid for the Town of Culture Award, rather for a “minor exhibition,” though the information from the Devizes Town Council Facebook post reads thus:

“𝐖𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐊 𝐓𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟖!

In celebration of our town’s culture and heritage, we have submitted a digital postcard to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). Here is our entry.”

If there is something I missed here I apologise, but the detail here suggests quite clearly, it was for the bid.

The article was not negative of the postcard project, simply critical of the wording in the final product. 

Still the notion remains, that if such a project is to go ahead, it would be best if our resources were better pulled in, and those skilled at the tools needed were asked to help. There was a meeting some months ago I was aware of, but for personal reasons I couldn’t attend it. No further correspondence has been received by us on the project, despite our offers to help in any way we can.

We wish the Town Council all the best and remain hopeful for the project, and we are grateful to them for their efforts. Constructive criticism from time to time is necessary, I believe, in order to put forth the best bid we càn for this award.