“I didn’t know that was happening! What a shame I missed it…”
Whenever there’s something going on it takes a lot of work to make sure everyone knows about it. The Town Council and other groups put information on social media & in the parish newsletter, put up posters, send press releases to the local papers and put it up on the Events section of this website, but still there are people that never get to hear about something they would have loved to do.
Our Mayor Andy started working a couple of years back on an electronic notice-board system that can be updated from anywhere and can be put anywhere there is a WiFi connection and a power plug. Up till recently it’s been a bit expensive but now it can be done with a second hand 1080 HD TV (an LED one to keep the power consumption down to less than an old-fashioned lightbulb) and a tiny Raspberry Pi computer. They screens can be whatever size is appropriate to their surroundings and be for internal or external viewing (though they would have to be inside, say a shop window as they are not weatherproof!). Each one costs around £120 (for a 40″).
The Valiant Soldier, The Seed, Refurnish, the Globe and the Football Club have all offered to host one as soon as we have the TVs and thanks to the kindness of Searle’s, the first trial one is now out in the wild in their shop window on Fore St.
The next step is to open up the town website events pages so anyone can post their own events, which will then be displayed on the noticeboards for everyone to see as well as on the town website.
The plan is to have these notice-boards all around – wherever people are likely to be stopped and looking at them – and to display not just upcoming events but also news and information relevant to local people and visitors.
Get in touch if you have a good spot to host one or would like to make a comment…
The content of the noticeboard can be viewed here: https://www.interxmedia.co.uk/communitynoticeboard/ (but it is designed to be viewed full-screen on HD so may not work well on your phone!)