Pevensey Town Trust to launch dynamic new ‘graphic design led’ web platform
After a number of years of criticism levelled at the Pevensey Town Trust over their failure to deliver a credible website to the community to profile our most precious asset in the community, the Pevensey Court House and Museum, news of a turnaround today (July 26). In a lively discussion with Robert Slater, Chair of the Trust, who explained that ‘we will be seeing a new website soon.’
Criticisms have come from a significant number of residents in both Pevensey and Pevensey Bay, centred on the ‘unaccountability” of the body.
Criticisms reached a head at the beginning of July, with the revelation that whoever had created their static webpage in the latest iteration had mis-spelled the name of the village on their banner.
The court house and museum is the main reference point online to visitors to the historic village that represents the work of the Trust.
The body holds the stewardship of our most precious community asset in their gift on behalf of us all. The words ‘own goal’ came to mind, rather than ‘own gaol’, as the mistake was reported.
“Not quite clear which is worse”, we suggested, “the fact that the name of the village was mis-spelled, or the fact that for a month, no-one noticed because no-one goes to the webpage”.
We pointed to the fact that with £23,000 accruing to the body on a yearly basis, with £21,000 from the sum, coming from the Cattle Market car park meters, that however much a volunteer structure is presented as the basis of the Trust, a business is a business.
With those kinds of sums available, what has been unclear for many years is why a small sum has not been invested in a properly delivered web platform, the most basic of online tools to support the promotion of a small museum.
The contextualisation of the body is as a ‘well meaning set of volunteers that meet every eight weeks’.
The significant sums of monies that accrue to the Trust just by standing still , are suggestive to many people in the community that like any other organisation responsible for a car park in this context, that what we have here is a business, and that a business dynamic injected into the organisation could have a transformative effect.
These arguments are well rehearsed. We did not broach the subject in our lively round table al fresco discussion in the baking heat of the left bank Cafe Society sun at the Bay Side Diner.
Robert simply suggested, “we will have to agree to disagree on that one”.
What seems likely is that this discussion may form the basis of a Big Story in a coming edition of the Pevensey Bay Journal, with an opportunity for the Trust to present their point of view.
The news that there is to be a new web platform for the work of the Pevensey Town Turust and the promotion of the Court House, Museum and Gaol, was delivered smiling, with obvious relief, “I am sorry about the website banner, that really was embarrassing’, Robert suggested.
The new web platform is to be a dynamic iteration. We are promised, as Robert explained ” a visual graphic design approach”.
Bay Life believes that we might be seeing a ground breaking moment in the story of the Pevensey Town Trust.
By working with online tools through a dynamic new web platform, there will be an opportunity to reach a significant number of new people with all the small precious historic jewels that the Court House has to offer to a national and international day visitor audience.
You have bought the castle, now go directly to gaol, might be an interesting theme to explore as an encouragement to visit the Court House.. given out like a monopoly card.
The Pevensey Gazette, a day visitor destination print and digital newspaper is to launch this August Bank Holiday.
The newspaper is to be set up under the umbrella of the Centre for Community Journalism, in Cardiff. As one of the members of ICNN (the Independent Community News Network), the Pevensey Gazette looks set to benefit from a decision by Google this week.
In a media release by the Centre for Community Journalism (23 July) they explain, Cardiff University’s Centre for Community Journalism (C4CJ) is delighted to announce it has secured €250,000 (approx. £223,000) of funding from the Google Digital News Innovation Fund to create new revenue streams for the community and hyperlocal news sector.
“The project, Value My News (VMN), will develop an innovative suite of tools enabling community and hyperlocal news publishers to make money from, and track the sale of, hyperlocal stories, while at the same time copyright existing content.
“This is a ground-breaking response to the issues of sustainability in the sector and the new forms of funding it provides will deliver a much-needed boost to small independent publishers across the UK.
In collaboration with the Media Innovation Studio (MIS) at the University of Central Lancashire, VMN will enable publishers to easily access, buy and republish high quality editorial content from community and hyperlocal news organisations across the UK.
“News, produced at the grassroots level, has value farther up the news food chain. By surfacing the best and most important stories, VMN will ensure that content producers receive a fair share of the revenue generated from their work”.
In the case of the Pevensey Gazette, there will be an opportunity for writers from local historians, to the staff of the Pevensey Town Trust to publish their work through the Google Digital News Innovation Fund, presenting their work, tracking their stories and copywriting existing content. The content will be made available to 87 local hyerlocal newspapers across the country, attracting the potentail on some basis, for an extended reach to the audience for the articles.
Robert Slater, on behalf of the Pevensey Town Town Trust. is to be given an opportunity to view the draft content and visual ID of the Pevensey Gazette. with a view to contributing to the content.
The promotion of the Pevensey Court House Museum and Gaol is to feature as a focal point in the Pevensey Gazette, which is to be edited by local Tourism officer, Jayne Howard.
The new web platform engineered by the Pevensey Town Trust is to promoted in the newspaper in each edition.
Robert Slater is also to be invited to become the next person featured in the Pevensey Bay Journal in our Five Alive feature about local charity work.
His ghost walks and new history trail talks are also to feature in the new Pevensey Gazette.
There would be no surprise to see that the Peveney Gazette and the new web platform engineered by the Pevensey Town Trust launch simultaneously on Saturday 25 August Back Holiday.
The potential for part of the £223,000 Google Digital News Innovation Fund to become embedded as a profiling tool in Pevensey with the Gazette establishes a number of new possibilities for the historic village,.
Both Simon Montgomery and Robert Slater simultaneously agreed today that Pevensey, as the historian Michael Wood explained, “is the place where The Great British Story: A People’s History, began”.
As we ended our ad hoc discussion, Robert explained he would be happy to look at an early draft stage of The Pevensey Gazette with a view to consideration of some contribution.
Like the final scene in Ric’s cafe in the film Casablanca, Simon commented, “Robert, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”.
