Lots to tell you about.............. Let's start with whats happened since the public meeting. Well, first we have set up a pledge form. The idea is to give Tower supporters the chance to pledge money, time or services to The Tower on the condition that it is givewn three years to find more secure funding - more detail on the link.

Despite all the protests - the County appear to be determined to transfer the Tower to the school even without a business case from them. Councillor Thornber made the presentation of the business case one of the conditions of the consultation period - lets hope he presses for this over the next couple of weeks (see http://www.hants.gov.uk/decisions/decisions-docs/070718-execpr-R0723104816.html for his decision day document)

I have received a number of letters referring to an Ombudsman review of the process that has been undertaken. My view is that it is premature to go down this line at this stage. The key thing is to keep the pressure up on the County Council in the lead up to full council next week - so please e-mail your local county councillor urgently. You could forward any correspondence that you have previously sent to the County Council with a short cover note. I would also include your city councillor and your MP. You can find all your local representatives at an excellent web-site called http://www.writetothem.com/

Inconsistencies from the County Council

In the same decision day document (point 2.1), you can see that the prime justification of the original decision by Councillor Snaith in July was "The opening of the Discovery Centre in November 2007 and the increased programme of community involvement at the Kings' School presents an ideal opportunity to transfer most of the Tower's activities to the Discovery Centre as soon as it opens. This will bring its much valued activities to the centre of Winchester and provide the Kings' School with extra capacity for developing its community links and offer."

Now that the Felton report has clearly stated that the Discovery Centre is not appropriate for the vast majority - Councillor Snaith is now saying that it was never the main driver behind the decision. There is an interview with Councillor Snaith on Dream FM tomorrow morning where hopefully she will respond to these inconsistencies.