Direct mail to Bury Meadow area

I've received assurances from the City Council that signage is due to be erected in Bury Meadow Park that will, among other things, highlight that the park is part of an Alcohol-Free Zone.

The content of the letter reads:

Dear St James Resident

Re: Bury Meadow Park and the Alcohol-Free Zone

At the recent Partners and Communities Together, many local residents expressed concern that the Alcohol-Free Zone operating in Bury Meadow Park was not sufficient advertised.

I heard these concerns and immediately raised them with the Leader of Labour-led City Council. I have been informed that new signage highlighting the fact that the Park is designated as an Alcohol-Free Zone will be erected in the next 3-4 weeks.

I hope that you will understand that I can only act in this way if you let me know of your concerns. Tell me about the issues that concern YOU.

I believe that it is time for a change in St. James. I promise positive action and pledge to consult, to listen and to act in the interests of all the residents of St James and Exeter.

As a sound engineer I spend my working life actively listening. If elected in May, I would be a councillor who actively listens to what you have to say.

Working together, residents and Labour Councillors can make a real difference.

This time last year, the Exeter Labour Party made some 52 specific pledges. All of these pledges have either been successfully implemented during the past year, or will be completed in the coming year. This year, we made 63 pledges – and we are as confident that these can be achieved during the next year. Follow the link to the Exeter City Council 2008 manifesto at
http://www.exeter-labour.org.uk

If you have any questions, want to raise a local issue, or have ideas to improve
St. James Ward, please contact me – by phone, by letter, or by e-mail.

Help me be that listening voice. I am ready to listen.

Vote LABOUR on 1st May

Paul Bull
The Labour and Co-operative Party Candidate

Printed by Exeter Labour Party. Promoted by Eddie Lopez on behalf of Paul Bull, all of 26b Clifton Hill, Exeter, EX1 2DJ.

Introducting Paul Bull

We've been out delivering the Spring 2008 issue of the St James Rose - Introducing Paul Bull

Braving the elements

Even though the rain is pouring down, I decide to go ahead with the planned Voter ID (canvassing).

So many plaudits to my brave band of 8 seasoned campaigners - including candidates, organisers and Ben Bradshaw, the local MP.

Over the coming weeks our spirits can't get any damper than our bodies did today.

About Exeter City Council...and Devon County Council

When I'm out and about meeting residents I try and focus on local City Council-related issues, although many people are influenced by National issues.

This a lot of confusion about which services are delivered by Exeter City Council and which are the responsibilty of Devon County Council.

Exeter City Council is responsible for services in the city including:

• Collecting council tax and business rates
• Providing housing and council tax benefits
• Managing elections
• Providing council housing
• Providing a range of environmental health services such as dog wardens, pest control, food safety
• Providing parks, leisure facilities and museums
• Providing markets and halls
• Collecting refuse
• Sweeping the streets
• Providing recycling facilities
• Providing car parks and residents parking
• Deciding planning applications
• Managing the council's commercial properties
• Promoting the city for tourism and business
• Providing a wide ranging events programme
• Supporting the arts
  
  Devon County Council is responsible for services across the county including some in the city such as:

• Running schools
• Providing social services
• Managing transport and traffic congestion
• Maintaining the highways
• Monitoring trading standards
• Disposing of waste and running the tip
• Providing recycling facilities
• Promoting the economy and tourism

About the Red Megaphone

In the early 1990s I developed as a campaigning tool the idea of using recorded loops to broadcast candidates' voices from loudspeakers, accompanied by the Labour Party's theme tune - a little ditty composed by Brahms. I called this initiative the Red Megaphone. The phrase was inspired from the title of a conference celebrating the life and work of the radical folk singer, Ewan MacColl held in Birmingham in1990.

That in turn was taken from the name that Ewan gave to an agit-prop street-performing group he founded in 1930 when he found that the founded in 1930 when he left the Workers' Theatre after finding it too pedestrian for his revolutionary consciousness. This went through several other changes until itn finally evolved into the Theatre Workshop of "Oh What A Lovely War!" fame. Joan Littlewood was one of his 3 wives.
Check out Ewan's Wikipedia biography

Another inspiration was the classic Alexander Rodchenko image seen below. It is an advertising poster for the publishing house Gosizdat, created in 1924 and featuring a portrait of the actress Lilya Brik shouting out the word "books". Although not actually using one, the Russian Cyrillic is contained with the shape of a megaphone.

About the Co-operative Party

The Co-operative Party is the Party of social justice.

It believes that people will achieve more by working together than they can by working alone.

It supports the efforts of those who seek success through that co-operative endeavour.

It believes that the only way to create a just and fair society is through power being spread evenly throughout society, and not arbitrarily based on wealth, class, gender or race.

It works to promote co-operatives and all forms of mutual organisation.

It works in partnership with the Labour Party as its sister party to achieve these ends.

There are currently 29 Labour/Co-operative MPs including Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, as well as seven other Government ministers.

About the Labour Party

"The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. It believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realise our true potential and for all of us a community in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many not the few, where the rights we enjoy reflect the duties we owe, and where we live together freely, in a spirit of solidarity, tolerance and respect."

Visit the website of the Labour Party or Exeter Labour Party for more information