Bryan,

Thank you for your forthright comments about the new website.  The website has only just been delivered to us from the developers, devoid of content.  Others have promised to assist me with the content, but no contributions have yet been forthcoming.  I have limited time to work on the site.  However, a great deal of progress is being made, day by day.  There is hardly any Latin placeholder text left!

Bartlett's Solicitors have generously sponsored the development of the website as a result of the interest and involvement of one of the firm's partners who is an active cyclist and a Life Member of the Chester Cycling Campaign.  This sponsorship amounts to thousands of pounds.  The adverts will eventually be removed and the website will become the offical home of the Chester Cycling Campaign in due course.  The sponsors have given absolute editorial control to the Chester Cycling Campaign and this was one of the conditions of the sponsorship.

We are using a sophisicated content management system to develop the website, and therefore web development must be done directly on an internet-facing web server.  I do not have the time or the resources to have my own web server in my house.  

I think you will find that the ownership of the website is now extremely transparent.  I have added a number of ‘About Us’ pages which explain the background and purpose of the website, and a new ‘For Cyclists, By Cyclists!’ tagline to the home page.  I suggest that you read the content that now appears there.  If you are satisfied with what you read, then I would be grateful if you could post a further comment in the Forum.  Note that I have put all of the links in ‘Links’ and renamed the section at the bottom of the home page to ‘Forum’.  All of these little tweaks add to the usability of the site.

http://www.chestercyclecity.org/

Patience and understanding will be necessary during these early days of developing the website.  I welcome any other constructive comments you may wish to make.

I would be grateful if you could arrange for any CTC links to this new website to be restored to the CTC websites once you are satisfied that the new website is worth a visit by CTC members.

Best regards,

Craig Steeland

I have been following the debate about the Chester Cycle City website on the www.ChesterCycleCity.org site forum under “Let’s get some balance” (or something similar) at http://chestercyclecity.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=12 . 

This is an appalling mess the Campaign seems to have got itself into!  What on earth is going on?  As a long standing member I am seriously concerned about the integrity of the Campaign that this debate has raised.

There are important questions here for the Campaign hence my reason for writing this on the Campaign egroup rather than the open web forum. 

First, how come the site has gone live when apparently it is not “live” and not ready to be viewed by the general public.  I would have thought that at the very least it would be possible to host the site under a temporary name or hidden away in an obscure part of the existing Campaign site.  Can such action be taken now so that no more damage is done?  The home page notice that appeared yesterday as a result of the debate was certainly a help but then it disappeared today without explanation!  

How did the site get promoted on the local CTC site if it wasn’t intended for general viewing?  That’s where I first heard about it and no doubt others.  Incidentally I informed the CTC webmaster today that the Cycle City site wasn’t supposed to be live so that hopefully they can flag it up.

Why was the site designed to look like an official Cycle Demonstration Town site with no statement to the effect that it was a Campaign site.  It fooled me, until I read the “Let’s get some balance” thread on the forum.  How would you feel if you discovered that a site you had relied on was really a front for a completely different organisation?

This really isn’t good enough.

This sort of action generates uncertainty, gives rise to mistrust, and throws into doubt the integrity and credibility of the whole Campaign.

To be effective the Campaign needs to operate with the highest levels of integrity.  Can we get this sorted out quickly and put it behind us?

Finally can someone please reassure me that the Campaign hasn’t sold out to commercial interests and that we are not in hock to the solicitors whose prominent advertisements appear on the home page?

It seems to me that there are very real lessons to be learnt from this.

Bryan

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Bryan Wade