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Part of the story is now published at Louth Eye, but, of course there's much more to it. Some of it may be marginally more interesting than watching paint dry to those with a fascination with the machinations of local public life. Now that some of the story is in the public domain I'd better make available what I know. Drop me an e-mail if you want to know the rest but here are a few bits that follow directly from the Louth Eye piece.
The copyright issue is a secondary problem. After the Partnership Board decided to remove a lot of my content such, as that relating to the Environment, the Directory of Artists, the Board Meeting Minutes and some news items. They also removed my access with admin status to the site. I pointed out that there was a great deal of my copyright material which I had been happy to share so long as I had control over it, but now that my control was removed the material would also have to be removed. This has not been done so the Partnership are currently in breach of my copyright.
Of course I've no wish to deprive the good folk of Louth any of this material and I have found some of it in cached form here.
Not quite the same formatting and pictures as the originals but the words are there and the important links seem to work. There is other material that I have not found copies of on the Internet, including the Board Meeting minutes.
Here's a link to the Louth Community Food Garden and the Louth Festival of the Bees.Biff. 18/12/2012
With the Festive Season over it is time to take stock of developments. There have been none. I have received no response from Johnathan Burgess, the ELDC officer dealing with the Louth Town Partnership nor from Robert Palmer, my ELDC ward member on ELDC. I have only had a brief note from Doreen Stephenson, Leader of ELDC, disclaiming responsibility for the Partnership. This is despite the fact that the Partnership was set up by ELDC, is funded by ELDC and whose Town Coordinator is an employee of ELDC with her salary being paid for by ELDC.
The website seems to have been abandoned. Minutes of Partnership Board meetings have been removed, no recent news items have been added, no events have been listed on the calendar, many of the links remain broken where material relating to several Louth organisations has been removed, and yet much of my material remains without my permission in breach of copyright. These actions taken on the website amount to nothing less than vandalism. The website acted as the Town Noticeboard, listing forthcoming events and providing local news of community organisations with at least one, the Louth and District Seniors Forum, relying on the website as their main on-line presence; and it has been comprehensively trashed. Several thousands of pounds of public money has been spent on creating this website and its abandonment amounts to maladministration in public office.
I have tried to engage in discussion of the affair with the Board and with ELDC but little has come of it. In the interests of public accountability, transparency and honesty, having exhausted all other means, I now make public the e-mail correspondence. It can be downloaded as an MSWord document by clicking on this link: E-mails
It will make most sense if the reader starts at the bottom with the oldest e-mail and moves up the document. If you would like any further explanation please get in touch via the e-mail link below.
Biff Vernon 7th January 2013
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