SAY 'NO' to Jerwood on the Stade | |
Hastings Borough Council spent £1600 for a two-page ad in the Hastings Observer on 7th November 2008 to answer questions that weren't being asked. Cynics might suggest that it was really to keep that newspaper onside and only report Jerwood-friendly news - commercially understandable but unhelpful if you want to find out what's going on and it's one of the reasons for this website - we feel that our views are not being fairly represented. The Advertising Standards Agency upheld our complaint that the 'feature' wasn't clearly marked as an advertisement - click here for copy of ASA's response and here (.pdf format because ASA's page is dynamic but you can follow links to 17th December - New Adjudications - Informally Resolved Complaints | |||||
A recent headline in the Hastings and St. Leonards Observer newspaper read as follows..... 'Jerwood protesters accused of racism'. In the subject article, the only reference to racism was in comments attributed to Kevin Boorman from Hastings Borough Council. We know and respect Kevin Boorman and were quite sure that regardless of what the headline implied, he was not making any such an allegation against those who oppose the Jerwood proposal on the Stade. For the sake of absolute clarity of his position, please read the following note. which we reproduce with his kind permission. "It absolutely was not, and never has been, my intention to upset anybody, certainly not the antis, as I said, I count many friends and relations amongst them. And I absolutely, categorically, did not, and never would, call them racists, that was very obviously, and only, aimed at whoever wrote the extremely offensive letter." We requested a retraction from the newspaper. This has been declined. Consequently, we have forwarded a complaint to the PCC | |||||
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Hastings vs. St. Ives Comparisons have been made between what might be achieved with a Jerwood gallery on the Stade and the situation with the Tate in St. Ives. Follow this link to The Tate at St Ives website and judge for yourself if the comparisons are realistic. For a start, the Tate building was built on the site to replace a gas holder and the circular form of the gallery building was designed to reflect the previous structure, and very well done it was too. The often cited 'benefit' to Hastings of 200,000 visitors a year to the proposed Jerwood gallery is, we believe, derived from a statement by the Tate that 2 million visitors went to the gallery in the first ten yours after it opened. 2 million divided by 10 = 200,000. We know of no other basis for the claim for the Hastings proposal Likewise the claim that the Jerwood proposal will bring a £10 million p/a spend to Hastings. Work that one out then. £10 million divided by 200,000 = £50 per head. Now does that really sound realistic, even before the present economic crisis? It should also be noted that the Tate St. Ives exhibits work by local artists. Jerwood have made it clear that their gallery will be for displaying only their own collection of 19th. & 20th. century art. We also believe that the building will provide storage facilities for exhibits not on display - essentially a warehouse facility. |
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"First they ignore you,
then they ridicule you,
then they fight you,
then you win."
-- Mahatma Gandhi
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