Welcome to the seventh (June 2007) issue of Great Baddow Online Newsletter

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Introduction

For newcomers to the site, this newsletter is circulated monthly to registered site members and friends, to supplement information on the site itself. Please forward to colleagues and other interested individuals in order to publicise the site.

If you are a recent newcomer to the site, welcome - your readership is appreciated.

Membership

As discussed in the previous (May 2007 edition) of this newsletter, because of continued abuse of the facility to join the site as a member, this functionality has been removed. Existing members are not affected and anyone wishing to join the site as a member should in future make a request direct to myself.

Recent developments

Over the past month, we have introduced the following new or amended features:

• new images around the village in an extended gallery of photos
• a list of shops available at Meadgate shopping centre
• information about Meadgate church and a link to its own website
• an additional advertisement for Spencer Doherty carpentry
• information about Jazzercise workout sessions
• information about the Weston School of Dance and performing Arts
• details of  a ladies' self protection course kindly provided by one of our site members, Jon Wade
• an update to the details of 'one' rail services from Chelmsford. These reflect the new timetables introduce on 20 May and cover first and last through trains, and typical daytime frequency to the main destinations on the Liverpool Street - Norwich main line, and branches with direct services from Chelmsford.
• details of the 'Heart and Sole' walks organised by Chelmsford council, some of which take place in Great Baddow.
• increased monitoring of site traffic (see statistics below)

Planned developments

The site as it has developed has become very textually oriented, and may be considered unexciting by some visitors.  Although there is no intention to create  a comic effect with many pictures illustrating each 'story', we do plan to start breaking up the text with more graphics and visuals.  This will make it more interesting without we hope, detracting from the ongoing development of  news and events.  However, we still need input from members and friends!

One ambitious plan is to create a more comprehensive index of local businesses within the Great Baddow area, akin to "yellow pages" elsewhere. Unfortunately, copyright restrictions mean that it is not possible to simply reproduce information from other publications, and hence the information must be derived from general, publically available information such as shop fronts etc.

The project to create a DVD of local history is in progress with a pilot study of a number of historical properties including St Mary's church, and the White Horse pub, and one other historical building. We plan to do some filming around the village early July and will continue to summarise progress on this site.

Meanwhile, if anyone has archive film - in any format including cine - and would be willing to make it available for review with a view to using some of it on the DVD, please email me with a summary of the content. We would be particularly interested in events of historical interest e.g visits by VIPs, millennium or jubilee celebrations. I will then pass on details to the project team.

Site statistics

A further update to show the visitor data for April and May 2007 is provided.  This shows that both numbers of visits and page views are increasing fairly quickly.  More importantly, the average number of page views per visitor is also increasing.  We hope the trend continues! As stated last month, we are monitoring the access made to individual pages and areas of the site and will use this information to determine ongoing development priorities.

The saga and general debate about the planned relocation of the main post office to WH Smith continues with a report in the Essex Chronicle that the relocated post office will be on the first floor. I very much doubt the common sense, consideration and organisational ability of those responsible for this move. Realistically,  if we desire a national postal service, then it should be provided without regard to profitability of individual offices, and consideration given to ease of accessibility for all members of a local community. Sadly with the development of email and electronic payment services via the Internet, demand for traditional post office services has changed; however the ongoing closure of offices and services will lead to serious disenfranchment of many older people who do not have access or understanding of electronic technology,  nor as may be the case in Chelmsford, ease of physical access to a post office counter!

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Chris Harvey
Site manager
1 June 2007

Email Chris Harvey