Ted Chapman

Sad news. Ted Chapman, who spent the majority of his life – passionate and active – on behalf of Cornwall, the Environment, and Social Justice, died at his home in Falmouth early on the 13th October.

The funeral will take place on Saturday 23rd October at 11.00 a.m. at Penmount Crematorium, Truro and afterwards at Truro Rugby Club, St Clements Hill, Truro TR1 1NY. Family Flowers only, Cornish dress welcome.

Ted had been ill for some years but never stopped campaigning and informing, as well as documenting Cornish and environmental events on film.

He was at the Transition Falmouth 10/10/10 event at Trevone on the Sunday before he died and while there produced a 20 min video of the land and the projects.

Ted filmed and produced an excellent video of Roberto Perez’s talk for Transition Falmouth in September 2008, as well as filming two Transition Cornwall Network events in dialogue with Cornwall Council at County Hall, and producing a short video of Falmouth’s Community Alive Event in May this year.

He also produced the video clips of the Footsteps to Copenhagen events last November – see here on this site – also on his You Tube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/golowva along with many other community videos, and on the video pages on the Gorsedh Kernow website.

There are several handsome tributes to Ted on the Cornish Green Party’s website.

He will be fondly remembered and greatly missed.

From a personal perspective, Ted’s (very dry) sense of humour is one of his many wonderful qualities I’ll always remember him for, alongside his kindness of heart, gentleness, and unwavering commitment to Cornwall and the environment.

He did a great job managing the Gorsedh Kernow website – initially from 2001 with Helen Banks until Ted asked if I’d take it on in 2004. I had first met Ted in 1994 when he was running a Free Tibet stall alongside our Falmouth LETS stall in Falmouth’s Market on the Moor, so happily took it on, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know him better, and working with him on it till he decided to pass it on to Pat Miller due to deteriorating health in September last year.

I last saw him in town the afternoon before he died, and still find it hard to believe he’s gone.

Rob Follett

Save Our Poly Campaign

Link to petition is:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saveourpoly/

Info given on the site by the petition organiser(s) is as follows:

Quote:
Save Our Poly is a campaign to keep The Poly (formerly Falmouth Arts Centre) in business and for it continue to offer a wonderful programme of films, theatre and art exhibitions to the community of Falmouth.

Sign this petition to show your support.

What’s happened?

As of 11/01/10, The Poly has been closed and forced into immediate insolvency with administrators being appointed to wind up the business.

Why should I support this?

The Poly is a wonderful and intimate arts centre that brings so much to the town. It offers young people an opportunity to perform in a 200-seat theatre, shows a diverse selection of excellent films, brings an exciting range of live music to Falmouth and gives young and local artists the opportunity to have their work exhibited in a great gallery space in the centre of one of Cornwall’s busiest towns.

The thought of Falmouth without an arts centre, is a fairly bleak one, so please show your support.

Why sign this petition?
The purpose of this petition is to gather visible evidence of support from the many who really don’t want to see this venue close. There is talk of approaching the council, funding bodies etc. in the near future, this petition will help to demonstrate that people are passionate about saving the Poly, and give an indication of the support the venue will have in the future.

There is a Facebook site set up which has attracted over 2000 members within 24 hrs of the news breaking. Many people don’t use Facebook, so the petition also offers those people a way to indicate their support.

Petitions also offer a more familiar way of presenting information to those not familiar with social networking sites.

Thank you for your support.