Task one-
Southend Council on the verge of sealing the deal for a £20M investment to Southend Pier
The longest pleasure pier in the world is up for a £20M investment from an unnamed investor and it appears that the council of Southend-on-Sea is close to closing the deal. Though this is big news for the town of Southend, it’s not the first time planning permission and investors have tried to get their hands on doing the famous landmark some justice.
Leader of the council, Ron Woodley says that “…whilst we have been looking for an investor to revive the 1.3-mile-long pier, this is the closest we have gotten to actually sealing the deal.” Currently the council and unnamed investor are going over several things that they would not accept as any part of the deal. Despite this, the council has come forward to say that the pier would still be owned by the council under any deal offered and suggested and if any deal of the sort would fall short and fail, the council itself would step in and invest in the pier itself.
But not everyone is happy with this investment and the idea of Southend Council investing their own money into it even if the deal falls short. Last year it cost £1.4 million to maintain and uphold the pier whilst only bringing in a mere £617,000 return even despite it bringing in its best visitor numbers ever since 2005. It’s unclear whether or not this investment will make or break the pier but council officials are confident in this investment and look forward to what they can bring to the table in the coming years.
Here is a view on what Trevor Bell, a Pier Campaigner thinks about the pier and future potential investment.
Trevor Bell said – “I’m excited to see what happens with the pier, I am worried though if it will stay in the publics hands”.
“I’d also like to see an audio-visual display, something which could explain Southend’s heritage and educates children about the pier and its uses in the war.”
“I’d also like a café and restaurant on the end of it to enjoy spending time on and look out towards the sea.”
The public have also had their say in what they think about the big investment, local bricklayer and pier attendee, Scott Harvey had this to say, “Although the pier is getting an investment which I think is for the better, it has been a long time and should of came way sooner. Whether it’s too late now or not, remains to be seen...”
“…We can only be optimistic and hope for the best, supporting the town we live in and paying respect to the landmark which puts us on the map.”
Following on from that, Harry a young adult wanted to give his say in this and the whole situation. “Every summer I enjoy attending the pier and walking a long it, whilst for someone like myself this is enough, I can’t help but wonder what it’d be like if we received such an investment…”
“Personally I would add more for children, it’s very adult centric and it’d be nice to teach the children of Southend about the history of the pier and how far we’ve come. It’d make for a lot of practical lessons where the children could go on regular visits to the pier and learn with their teachers.”
All in all, the drive behind and anticipation between the public of Southend is excited to hopefully see new additions to the pier no matter if the deal or not is carried through. Though worries of whether or not it will live up to expectations and be able to create a profit later on will remain to be seen. The future is surely bright though with the addition of the Royal Pavilion hoisted onto the pier in 2013. The Pavilion features a café, a function room for things such as events and weddings as well as £500,000 in sprinklers as an attempt to prevent another pier fire.
Task two-
For task two I have been asked to find a news story online and look to see what different quotes used in the story and if they’re relevant and how important they are. My chosen story for this task will be based on the Daily Mails story on how little charities are actually spending on good causes compared to how much they get from public donations.
The full story can be found here - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3357458/One-five-UK-s-biggest-charities-spending-half-public-donations-good-causes-spend-little-ONE-CENT-charitable-work.html
Here is the first quote taken from the article, it explains the thoughts of Gina Miller, the founder of the True and Fair Foundation and what she thinks on the matter. But the question still remains is it relevant and fit for purpose?
Answer; yes. The quote fits perfectly into the story because a few different reasons. The first reason being who is saying it, the True and Fair Foundation is a foundation in which people can give their money to. Knowing 100% of it goes directly to the charities they support. Having known this, you can see now that the response given is just and it’s no wonder Gina Miller would feel this way when other charities are giving a lot less. Another reason for this quote being completely relevant is the subject matter, the full story and main subject is the fact that charities are not using the money they get from public donations as best as they could or well, the quote exemplifies this and money given from people out of the kindness of their heart is just used “to feed large charity machine” “…characterized by obscene overheads, salaries…”
The story as a whole:
What was the story about?
The story “One in five of the UK's biggest charities are 'spending less than half of public donations on good causes' (and some spend as little as ONE PER CENT on charitable work)” is about the current issue and statistics on the result of how much charities publics donations are being spent on actual good causes and charity activities to help those that they stand for. Its contents involves the thoughts of such people like Gina Miller, the founder of the True and Fair Foundation and other images of statistics which show how some charities only give as much as 1% of their money received from donations to good causes. The story also underlines and points out that big UK charities such as the British Heart Foundation for instance are under fire because of the low percentage of money which actually goes towards good causes and how much doesn’t. It’s also been made clear that although this is the case and that only 46% of donations made goes towards these causes which the British Heart Foundation support a lot of the money, 80% in fact, was spent on research as well as benefiting people lives.
To summarize and compile what this article is about, in short it’s a story on a statistics released by the True and Fair Foundation showing 17 different major charity organisations and how much they actually give to good causes from public donations and how much is earned as a whole, as well as its figures in percentage form. The story then goes on telling the responses of some of the charities shown and what they have to say in their defence as well as quotes from founders of said charities.
Did the story strengthen or weaken from the quotes used?
I think the story strengthened from the use of quotes and the thoughts of people behind the charities being expressed. It gives the reader a further look into what would just be a set of stats that a lot of people may have already had a rough idea was undergoing. The story is based on those quotes and embedding them into the story to tie it all together and benefit the readers reading experience. The quotes also project the mind-set and what happens behind closed doors in the charity, though not all is given directly to the cause the charity represents, research is being done on things like cancer all the time, and they require funding too.
Task 3-
How will I apply what I know about quotes and how I will use them?
I will use quotes to entice and draw the reader’s attention with public opinion and thought on the matter at hand in my news stories. This will also be done to offer a wide range of views other than just one, as well as an unbiased answer whilst still keeping to the requirements of a news story being informative and explanatory throughout what I write. Another good thing to take from the article I have shown and written about is to embed my quotes into my paragraphs instead of it just becoming a list of quotes, and to also make sure I explain who said what correctly.
The last thing I wish to take from researching about quote usage and using is that all the quotes I will use in my own stories should be relevant and fit for purpose on the topic I’m writing about. There’s no use in having a quote which makes little to no sense to the actual article or comes off in a bad way that it deters from subject matter so I will avoid these sorts of quotes best I can.
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