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For every ying there is a yang; darkness will follow daylight and damned be anyone that gets in the way of the GOOD NEWS story that is The Cook’s Shipyard Newsletter, December 2011 issue.

Which is all a bit of a Tale of Two Sides, in more ways than one. The day after Wivenhoe Town Council distributed its newsletter, informing residents that:

“Your Town Council have been negotiating, with professional legal advice, the legal terms of the [Cook's] lease. WTC is obliged to sign those leases but some terms were totally unacceptable…”

…it’s only the reverse ferret from Taylor Wimpey and the GOOD NEWS that inevitably comes out of all corporate communication. Opposites certainly don’t attract - especially so when the financial power of a developer appears to hold all control over a community.

All communication is good however, no matter how bad the good news is, if you see what I mean. Credit to Simon Brown, the Managing Director of Taylor Wimpey East London, for whacking out the seasonal cheer to keep Wivenhoe residents informed.

The tale of two sides continues in print. The front page is the GOOD NEWS of Taylor Wimpey sponsoring Wivenhoe Town Football Club U-9′s to the tune of £500. This is indeed GOOD NEWS - the kids get a new kit, and of course the corporate orgaisation gets to flash its fancy logo all over the front of the tops.

It’s not quite a “let them eat cake” moment, but once again, the GOOD NEWS that Taylor Wimpey is going to splash out on some mince pies during the Big Wivenhoe Turn On at St Mary’s, is a decent gesture.

But speak to the residents of Valley Road and the surrounds, and indeed flip over the Cook’s Shipyard Newsletter, and the GOOD NEWS goes a little wonky.

The corporate friendly football sponsorship and the mince pie to appease the locals gives way to:

Minimising Disruption

“We’re continuing to take action to ensure our neighbours [eh?] experience as little inconvenience as possible during construction work. This includes taking special measures to migate the impact of certain activity, and responding to issues raised by the local community.”

But what came first, the chicken or the egg? The issues raised by the local community or the developer’s own plans to make sure that none of this disruption would occur in the first place?

Or how about simply the folly of building a whole new community - lovely though the Shipyard folk are - without any thought given to the basic infrastructure of road access, schools, health care etc..

But that’s a ying that is out of the yang of the developer.

“We continue to fill in potholes as and when they appear on access road used by our construction traffic. We addressed the issues of dust during dry spells by watering the access route along Anglesea Road when necessary.”

Which isn’t quite the experience that the residents of Valley Road have been encountering of late.

A group of locals met up with Simon Brown over the summer, to put forward the reality of living along the narrow route that is being used as the only access point to build the new homes.

What came out of the meeting was slightly different to the GOOD NEWS of the Cook’s Shipyard Newsletter. Out of the 94 new homes being built as part of Phase 3, only two will be for sale as social housing. Thirty homes are on the flood plain and have skirting boards painted on both sides, waist high electrical sockets and flood protective doors.

It’s not just local residents that are experiencing a different view to the GOOD NEWS of the newsletter either. The developer states:

Regenerating the Docks

“Taylor Wimpey’s regeneration of the former dockland at Cook’s Shipyard has moved on, with a key community project nearing completion - and work on another about to begin. The fisherman’s store at the wet dock is set to be finished before Christmas… work on a dinghy park was on course to start in the final week of November and is due for completion in February.”

And so a slight delay, and another slight shifting of the yings and yangs when it comes to the experience of Wivenhoe Town Council. Legal advice has been obtained by WTC, which felt that pressure was put on the council to sing the leases to manage these facilities. The fear was that they might inflict a long-lasting financial legacy.

It appears that a compromise, of sorts, has been reached. Which is often the way with developers.

A genuine Well Done You to Taylor Wimpey for supporting the football kids and for forking out for the mince pies. Building a community is one thing. Sustaining it is another matter.

Ying, yang, yikes.