Several Supporters’ Trust Directors are to devote some of their time over the coming weeks leafleting the surrounding area to Perdiswell in a conscious effort to engage with residents and to ensure they have the facts on the proposal for the Community Sports Hub. Over the past few years, there have been all manner of claims, rumours and misconceptions over what the reality of the proposal would actually be, so the Trust feels it is vitally important and about time that we set the record straight so residents local to the area can make their own minds up with the information direct from the source, us.
Despite the complexities of the matter, the Trust has made a great deal of effort to be transparent and open about its plans for Perdiswell to ensure that Trust Members, City fans and arguably most significantly, the community, understand what the plan entails. Recent efforts have included the Perdiswell Timeline, the ‘Time To Be City’ report and the ‘myth-debunking’ page all available on the Trust website.
However, as new Trust Board Member Simon Copson pointed out recently, there’s still work to be done. ‘In the last couple of years, there have been significant strides forward from the Trust to communicate clearly, particularly with new Trust website and regular email updates to members, yet often their messages struggle to reach anyone other than those who already have a good understanding of what’s going on and agree with the proposal. The Trust preaches to the converted. We need to be communicating with the people of Worcester who don’t know about the Supporters’ Trust and don’t understand our plans to show them what we are all about. The monumental volume of work that has been put in over the years by the Trust has been done because we truly believe that this will be a real asset and of great benefit to the community, with Worcester City FC at the heart of it’.
Speaking about the ‘myth-debunking’ leaflet, Trust Board Member Neil Cox added ‘we understand that due to our size as an organisation, particularly as a not-for-profit, there is only so much we can do to spread our message. However, we believe it’s critically important to take this step to directly contact the Perdiswell residents introducing ourselves, our intentions and make certain they have the facts about our proposals to demonstrate we care. Although we’d love to spend thousands on professional leafleting services, it would not be a sensible use of our resources, so we’re going to deliver the leaflets ourselves instead and get a bit of exercise in the process! It’s really important to us that the residents understand who we are and what we’re about. If after reading our leaflets anyone is against our proposals then that is completely fine, people are entitled to their opinions and making their own judgements, but we’d rather they be against the proposal because of the facts rather than hearsay. We’re hoping this will help a lot more people understand what we’re proposing, both those who support it and those who don’t’.
The Supporters’ Trust aims to deliver all 2,000 leaflets by around the end of April/start of May. If any Trust members or City fans would like to assist in distributing the leaflets to help share our message please get in touch by emailing wcfcst@yahoo.com. Any help, no matter for how long, will be greatly appreciated.