Mid Devon Gazette - 2006

This is an email sent to me by an 'insider' back when the days of the Mid Devon Gazette were gloomy and the quality of the paper temporarily went downhill because of the cost cutting that was taking place. The email was sent towards the end of February 2006, a lot has happened since then!

"You might know, you might not know or you might have heard a rumour, about the radical changes taking place at the Gazette. People seem to be interested in what is happening with the paper, so maybe this blog will make a few things clearer.

Newspapers across the country are cost-cutting and streamlining their operations, and this is also happening to the Gazette and the four other titles run by Cornwall and Devon Media Ltd. Under the restructure, some of the staff here in Tiverton will be or have been made redundant, with effect from March 30 orthereabouts. From that date or before, other staff will be shifted to new offices in Barnstaple, where all the page production, sport and leisure will be done for both the Gazette and our sister paper the North Devon Journal. A three-person sports team will overlook both papers. A Gazette newsroom will remain in Tiverton but with only three reporters, and none of them will be on sport. The two photographers will stay here along with a couple of advertising staff. There will be no front counter or front office in Tiverton as of Tuesday, February 28, although those staff staying here will remain upstairs in the same building at 29 Bampton Street before, in all likelihood, a smaller office is found in the town. If you have an advertising query after February 28, you are encouraged to use the internet or telephone. If you have an editorial query, e-mail is the preferred route but as far as I understand it you can ring the doorbell just down from the main reception room and somebody will come down to see you. Alternatively you can use the postbox in the same dark blue door to leave reports, stories and photographs, etc. The wholesale changes have been in the pipeline for the past three months and, on a personal level, I am concerned at the shifting of many operations an hour up the road, the threadbare staff and the removal of a front office and town-centre presence. The Gazette remains the best performing of the five Cornwall and Devon Media Ltd papers in terms of readership (they are defying national trends by rising while the others are all about five per cent down), so in that sense it is even more disappointing that they are having to undergo these changes."

Crediton Residence and their Opinions

PEOPLE in Crediton have been giving opinions on how the town can be improved.
Joyce Huxtable, 78 from Orchard Court wants seats on both sides of the High Street for those who find it difficult getting around. She also expressed concern at the cancellation Chiddenbrook Surgery bus service.
Retired Carole Pocock is hoping that Tesco will improve shopping and that pollution where she lives on the High Street can be reduced. She also thought that there needed to be more space in town for parking.
Parking problems were also a view shared by Fifty year old Elaine Page from Churchill Road. Elaine who works in Stevie B’s Bakery said the town needed a Primark and that the arrival of Tesco should make her weekly shop cheaper.
58 year old Pete Spooner from Tebensmary continued the trend of people dissatisfied with the town’s parking facilities. “Finding a place to park is especially difficult during the weekend.” He also suggested that the Square could be improved to make it more amenable; however he hoped that the character of the town wouldn’t be lost.
Retired musician, Tony Truscott, 55 from Park Street spoke highly of Crediton after moving there from St Austell. “The streets are clean, the people are friendly. I would like to see more police officers at night and more disabled parking, but other than that it’s perfect.”
However Seb Worthington, 20 disagreed. “Crediton is on its way out. You know when a town is on the way out when you’ve got charity shops and estate agents.” Seb, a jeweller from Morchard Road suggested that the town could encourage people to visit if it promoted its history as a market town. “That way people from all over would come and spend more money and with that the town could be improved.”

Blair Breaks Bone - Neighbour Annoyed

University Student Johnny Blair spent the festive season hobbling around a flat because of a broken metatarsal. Johnny (27) who had intended getting legless at Christmas party at Bournemouth’s student nightclub – The Old Firestation – ended up barely being able to use his legs by the end of the night.

Johnny said he was attempting to retrieve an elf hat when the leg broke. “I was dressed as an elf and it was an expensive costume so when my hat go nicked I had to go and get it back, and that’s what I broke my leg because I must have tripped up.”
Although the leg was broke part way through the festive party, Blair was able to stay at the club until the end. “It was a painful experience walking from the taxi back into the house and I knew it was more than a sprain.”
Housemate and friend Jason Radford said “When he came home from the doctors the next day with crutches and a plastered foot I thought it was quite funny, I shouldn’t have but I did.”

The Public Relations student however had more worries and had to get coursework extensions all at least three pieces of coursework that were due in saying “I was quite happy really because I hadn’t made much of a start to one of the pieces.”
Johnny is due to return back to university next month however housemate Jason is concerned. “Our neighbour keeps telling us to move his car as his stuck it right outside there front and they’ve got a removals van coming. He’s starting to get quite abrupt about it.”