Sirs,
The letter from Tony Millett (1 February) “Wiltshire Council’s cuts to Day Centres and Luncheon Clubs”, rightly deploring cuts to services such as The New Road and Jubilee Centres and the inequality of spending in Marlborough as compared to other communities in Wiltshire, raises a number of questions.
One cannot help wondering whether there is an assumption that because Marlborough is known for its famous Public School, Marlborough College which naturally only attracts the offspring of the extremely wealthy, therefore the community of Marlborough is wealthy. This could not be further from the truth as one is aware from the work of Marlborough Poverty Action Group, the local Food Banks, the Jubilee Centre among others. And inevitably with the current desperate rise in inflation, food, gas and electricity prices, the impact on the poorest member of the community will be immense.
Secondly, the excellent research that Tony Millett has carried out in publishing his letter makes one wonder what has been the role of the Marlborough Town Council in lobbying Wiltshire Council about these cuts and its spending to improve our town?
And it raises the question of the wider role of the Town Council in supporting the development of the community. What strategy has the Council developed for a) tackling climate change b) improving the lives of its citizens over, say, the next ten to fifteen years? And on what basis has it produced that strategy? “Development” comes from the French “De enveloper” or “opening the envelope”. That is, removing the constraints imposed by for example poverty and bringing citizens new freedoms.
It calls to my mind a study undertaken in 1997 in Marlborough’s linked community of Gunjur in The Gambia entitled a “Participatory Rural Appraisal”. This study divided the community into its eight wards and in each ward the members were again divided into four separated groups – Old Men, Young Girls, Old Women, Young Boys who met independently of each other. This was to ensure that the young were not inhibited in speaking out in front of the old, or women speaking out in front of men.
Each group – via a facilitator and in a session lasting 2-3 hours – was asked “What do you see as the most important change that needs to take place in the community to ensure its proper development for the benefit of all”?
Having recorded the answers from the different groups the facilitator then brought together all the groups and presented the answers he/she had heard.
This provided the background to the development of a five year strategy for tackling problems facing the community among them provision of caps over open wells to ensure clean water was available, early childhood education, a women’s literacy programme, small loans to enable people to set up small businesses etc.
Would it not be interesting to hear from a wide range of representatives of the community of Marlborough what they consider to be the needs of our community?
While on the subject of the needs of Marlborough, I cannot help but refer to the lack of publicity for the community by the Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. Reading what is published as the Marlborough and Pewsey edition of the paper it is rare that Marlborough gets any significant coverage of events taking place in the community. But who could successfully lobby the G&H’s owners and editors to provide significant news and information about the Marlborough community?
Yours,
Dr Nick Maurice
Marlborough
Jubilee Centre to have funding cut? Hopefully not
