Your Local Press - Campaigning in the 21st Century
... from keeping local magistrates courts to community hospitals
This article is an abridged version of the talk by Sean Duggan, Editor of the Surrey Comet, at our AGM in March.
In 1854 a local printer, Thomas Philpott, founded the Surrey Comet. A deeply religious man, he believed God had called him to launch a newspaper "to expose the bad and promote the good". One hundred and fifty two years later the paper, now the oldest surviving newspaper in Surrey, is still going and still holds true to its founding father's campaigning principles.
Mr Philpott's Surbiton connections are
well-known as he started the newspaper
there, and he is buried there in St Mark's
Church, but throughout the 1840s he lived
in the Salt Box in Thames Ditton - which
still exists (see photo).
He married Mary, who came from
Esher, and they had four children while in
Thames Ditton. At the time he was an
overseer at the Seeley print works in
Weston Green and during his day off he
preached and ran a Sunday school in
Claygate which, at the time, had no
church. In fact it was largely through his
efforts that the village finally got a church.
For Mr Philpott a newspaper was not something which simply reflected what was happening in society. He saw it as a powerful tool for helping society progress. He railed against the inhuman sweeps who illegally employed local boys, some just five years old, to clean chimneys. He also campaigned to improve the unsanitary conditions that existed in Kingston at the time. He wrote: "When the air is impregnated with filthy smells, when the houses of the poor are crowded with unwashed human beings, often not less than six in a room to eat in, to lie in, to die in, there will be diseases ever raging."
The strain of running the paper singlehandedly no doubt contributed to his early demise. But his commitment to campaigning did not die with him. A century and a half later the paper still takes up cudgels against those in authority when it sees something in local life that needs to be changed. One recent example was last autumn when the paper organised a 7,000 signature petition against plans to winddown Surbiton Hospital. The campaign was so successful that the local primary care trust, desperate to save money at all costs like so many others around the country, has been forced to start a public consultation on how to improve the hospital to meet the needs of the 21st century.
Last month (May) the paper was able to announce victory in its campaign to save Magic Roundabout, a unique project in Kingston providing advice to teenagers about a wide range of issues. Another battle honour on the paper's standard is Kingston Magistrates Court. When the now defunct Greater London Magistrates Court Association decided it wanted to rationalise the local court out of existence the Comet begged to differ. It helped organise a powerful lobby against the plan - based on the long held concept of local justice for local people. In a town with both a crown court and a county court, and where the magistrates court is located right next to the police station, it made no sense - except to a faceless and distant bureaucrat with no understanding of the local community.
Another successful campaign was to save Alfriston Day Centre in Surbiton. Even when all the authorities and political parties had written the centre off as a lost cause, the Comet battled on. And thanks to an unlikely alliance with the Kaleidoscope drug and alcohol project in Kingston the day centre was saved - to the joy and relief of its elderly users.
Sometimes campaigns stretch out over a number of years. When the paper learned that a taxi driver in Surbiton had convictions for violence it launched a campaign to get minicabs in London licensed. Despite publicising the details of the taxi driver widely the man was subsequently employed by other taxi firms and went on to kill a woman whose body was found in woods near Wisley. It took years to achieve, but now all mini cab drivers in the capital have to be licensed - which involves police checks on criminal records. In addition their vehicles have to be roadworthy.
On top of these campaigns the paper has been involved in many fundraising appeals. Current ones include raising money to build a new cancer unit at Kingston Hospital, fundraising to create a psychological rehabilitation centre for victims of the Pakistani earthquake and raising £10,000 for the Maple Children's Centre which works with children with disabilities in this area.
As the current editor of the Surrey Comet I am very proud to walk in the footsteps of Thomas Philpott and of the fact that his newspaper is still serving this community.
Sean Duggan - Editor, Surrey Comet