Week 37 2013

Tendring Topics…….on Line

Syria – Pope Francis’ plea to all humanity.

The following message from Pope Francis, addressed to all humanity, believers and nonbelievers alike, was sent to all Roman Catholic Churches throughout the world declaring 7^th September to be a day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria, for Roman Catholics worldwide.  ‘Churches Together’ in Clacton circulated the message to all the town’s Christian churches.  It was read and welcomed at our Quaker Meeting for Worship on Sunday 8^th September, and Syria was indeed especially in our thoughts and prayers  on that morning, and has been subsequently.

           

I appeal strongly for peace, an appeal which arises from deep within me.

How much suffering, how much devastation, how much pain has the use of arms carried in its wake in that martyred country, especially among civilians and the unarmed!  Never has the use of violence brought peace in its wake. War begets war, violence begets violence.

I make a forceful and urgent call to the entire Catholic Church, and also to every Christian of other confessions, as well as to followers of every religion  and to those brothers and sisters who do not believe: peace is a good which overcomes every barrier, because it belongs to all of humanity!

I repeat forcefully: it is neither a culture of confrontation nor a culture of conflict which builds harmony within and between peoples, but rather a culture of encounter and a culture of dialogue; this is the only way to peace.  To this end, brothers and sisters, I have decided to proclaim for the whole Church on 7 September next, a day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria, the Middle East, and throughout the world.

On 7 September, in Saint Peter’s Square, here, from 19:00 until 24:00, we will gather in prayer and in a spirit of penance, invoking God’s great gift of peace upon the beloved nation of Syria and upon each situation of conflict and violence around the world.

Humanity needs to see these gestures of peace and to hear words of hope and peace!

I ask all the local churches, in addition to fasting, that they gather to pray for this intention.

Pope Francis,

           

Changing the Image.

          Clacton has had some pretty bad publicity recently.  Readers of the sensational press may know it as the town that reverses the national, and indeed the Essex, trend of steadily reducing rates of crime!  Robberies have increased here of late and there have been one or two well publicised murders, including one of an off-duty policeman.  It is also a town to which economic migrants make their way with the result that its centre is a ‘benefits ghetto’. Clacton-on-Sea (with Hastings and Blackpool) is one of those run-down seaside resorts that the government is trying hard to revive, and and the Brooklands Estate in Jaywick, its western suburb, is officially the United Kingdom’s most deprived area.   It conjures up an image of a town to be avoided at all costs, full of thieves and beggars, where the natives are probably surly and rude, the shops that are still open are the prey of thieves and vandals, and from which visitors are lucky to escape with their goods intact, perhaps even lucky to escape with their lives!

            We natives and the thousands of people who actually visit our town every year know that Clacton  isn’t in reality a bit like that.  We know that Clacton is one of the most attractive towns in south-east England in which to live or to visit.  My childhood home was in Ipswich and I used to look forward to occasional trips (Sunday school outings and the like!) to Clacton’s pier and sandy beaches as the highlight of my summer holidays in the late 1920s and the ‘30s.  I have lived here, in the same bungalow in Clacton’s Dudley Road since 1956.  I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.

            For bathers or paddlers Clacton’s beaches are sandy and gently sloping – far better and safer for instance than those at either Hastings or Brighton or, in the other direction, Felixstowe. There are beautiful cliff-top gardens and a range of lively attractions on the pier – and there’s certainly no shortage of cafés, restaurants and seaside pubs.  Clacton is now the only holiday resort on the East Anglian Coast that has an annual air show.  It brings thousands of visitors to the town’.  It is likely that not one of them will have seen any evidence of either deprivation or criminal activity.

            Clacton, and the nearby resorts of Dovercourt, Frinton, Walton-on-the-Naze and Brightlingsea are also blest with the lowest average rainfall in the United Kingdom.   The actual driest spot in the whole country is said to be the historic village of St. Osyth about three miles as the crow flies from my front door!  When I was a keen gardener that was a somewhat mixed blessing but nowadays I’m happy to enjoy the summer sunshine as I listen to the low hum of the solar-activated electric pump supplying me with free hot water from the solar panel on my bungalow’s roof!

            Clacton does have problems due to the closure in recent years of businesses employing local people (Butlins Holiday Camp, the Empire Synthetic Rubber Company in Clacton and BX Plastics in nearby Manningtree for instance) and the arrival of ‘economic refugees’ from London driven here by the soaring rental charged for  even the most basic homes in the capital. This, coupled with the government’s ‘bedroom tax’ and ‘benefit ceiling’, makes it impossible for low earners to live in London. Our relatively close proximity to the capital, that encourages Londoners to come here  for sun, sea and fun, also means that others can come here seeking cheap housing accommodation in substandard properties intended for summer holiday use only, or in former holiday guest houses converted into single room ‘lodgings’ for the poor.

            What Clacton really needs is some positive publicity, aimed at instilling in the mind of the public Clacton as a very desirable holiday and day-trip destination and a wonderful town to live in – which it is. It is sad that over the years the Tendring District Council has systematically nibbled away at Clacton Publicity in order to save money, cut the Council Tax, and please the government.

            In the late 1950s and 1960s when I was a Public Health Inspector, Clacton council had a weather observation centre with its main feature an enclosure on the green in front of the Martello Tower near Clacton Hospital.  There was a ‘Stevenson Screen’ within the enclosure with maximum and minimum, and dry and wet bulb thermometers.  In the grass nearby was a rain gauge and on the roof of the Martello Tower was a sunshine recorder giving the number of hours of bright sunshine every day.

            We three Public Health Inspectors and the Council’s cleansing superintendent  took turns, one week on, three weeks off, at recording the readings evening and morning for 365 days of the year, and phoning the figures on in the evening to an anonymous voice at the Air Ministry.   Most national dailies carry a list of weather reports from holiday resorts each day.  A typical Clacton report in July would be ten hours of sunshine, clear skies, no rainfall and a maximum temperature of 75 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade.  Not a lot, but it must have built up in many readers’ minds the fact that Clacton was a holiday destination with low rainfall and lots of sunshine.

            Nowadays you’ll look in vain for a Clacton weather report in the press.  Similarly, Clacton was very proud, and with reason, of its parks and gardens department responsible for those lovely cliff-top gardens.   The department used to exhibit in all the agricultural shows in East Anglia – and come away with the top prizes.  But that was another piece of positive publicity that got the axe soon after local government reorganisation in 1974 when Clacton Council ceased to exist and was merged with Frinton-and-Walton, Brightlingsea, Harwich and Tendring Rural District into the new Tendring District Council

            My elder son Pete, who founded his own IT consultancy serving local and other public authorities nationwide and who is a member by invitation of the Institute of Directors, feels that his home town should ‘blow its own trumpet’ a lot more loudly and a lot more widely. He says that there were once adverts for Clacton in the London ‘Evening Standard’ and on Stratford Railway Station.   The Evening Standard is now a free newspaper with a much bigger circulation than before and Stratford is an international interchange and ten times busier than in the past – but neither carries Clacton Adverts!  He urges that we should aim at the mainland European market. ‘You know from your own recent experience’ he emailed me, ‘what a good impression Clacton made on two German teenage girls who had never previously seen the sea’

            He also thinks that Clacton-on-Sea has great unrealised potential as a commuter town.  He says that, ‘Enfield Council actually pay the rail company to run extra trains, stopping at minor stations. Tendring Council could do the reverse to produce the same effect.  Why don’t they negotiate with the Railway Company for some express trains to stop only at Colchester and Clacton.  This would reduce journey time to just over an hour with which commuters would be happy.  Then get a developer to build some luxury apartments within walking distance of both the station and the beach.  People commuting to the city have money to spend and they would spend it in local restaurants and fashion shops if they were up to standard.

            Well, the government is handing a few million pounds to deprived seaside resorts like Clacton, Blackpool and Hastings. Tendring’s Council Leader Peter Halliday says he is going to do his hardest to get Clacton its fair share.  And, if they get it, what will the Council spend it on?   They could do a lot worse than follow some of the suggestions above to restore Clacton-on-Sea’s image to the one it enjoyed in the not-so-distant past.