Welcome To Martock Online

The general thrust of the strategy has been well known for most of our existence but latterly has required formal setting out, particularly as any new Press Officer will need to know to what end they are working.

As a direct result of our adoption of the Market and Coastal Towns Initiative (MCTI) principles we have struggled to be inclusive and recognised that a wish to ensure that as a true Community body we reflected what went on in all of the parishes listed in the Constitution. Significantly we have had less effect on some of our surrounding parishes and the debate about our area of influence may change our perception of where we fit.

Be that as it may, our initial considerations led us to consider what currently existed and we concluded that there was no existing accessible media, which covered the whole area. We needed to get to every household and business and in a number of cases beyond that.

Our surveys highlighted a number of groups we did not reach well – Youth, Elderly, Housebound and those with disabilities. We believe that our Youth Group will assist with the first.

In respect of the other groups we looked at what currently circulated. Newspapers, Free papers and magazines and the Parish Newsletter, Radio and TV all had limitations. The net was available to some, and we supported the move to Broadband but it still remains a minority who have access. The Parish Newsletter whilst valuable reached only part of the parish, and was by subscription.

We decided that a quality Newsletter delivered free to all homes and businesses in our inner area made sense and in consequence despite teething troubles and financial worries, a small group ensured that the Leveller was born.

This is our main plank.

We had intended to publish our minutes and papers on the Martock website. Due to initial technical difficulties that did not happen and still remains an objective.

We have explored the use of the local Parish Council notice boards and have attempted to increase their number and usefulness. More still needs to be done.

We have conducted a number of public meetings and events and have concluded that with progress being slower than we had expected that we should reduce the number of standing public meetings to 4 a year. It was becoming evident that we were getting some diminution in audience although the bigger events still filled the School Hall.

The publication of our Bus timetables and the Business and Leisure Directory have increased our profile, but our wish for a shop front has still financially eluded us.

We still do not make enough use of Radio, TV and the newspapers and our next step is to appoint a Press Officer from this year whose role it will be to ensure that all of the relevant avenues are in use and that no-one in our area of operation has an excuse for not knowing who we are and what we do.