Museum specialists The Benbow Group in partnership with designers Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA) and Exeter City Council have won the prestigious 2012 National Association of Shopfitters (NAS) Design Partnership award for the stunning displays at Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM).

The award recognises excellence in interior design and shopfitting contracting with emphasis on the special partnership between designer/architect and contractor that high quality contracts such as these demand. The museum partnership won the Non-retail category.

Newton Abbot based shopfitters The Benbow Group won the museum contract in the face of stiff international competition. Their first involvement with RAMM was during the 1999 redevelopment of its World Cultures galleries. Since then they have won major contracts including the Tower of London, Victoria and Albert Museum, the Islamic Arts Museum in Doha, Qatar, and are currently working on the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth. Bespoke museum fit-out work now makes up 20% of their business. This is their first award in this category.

Over 175,000 people have visited the RAMM since it reopened in December, a huge number for a city of 120,000. It has been shortlisted for the Art Fund’s Museum of the Year Award, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) 2012 awards and the Museums & Heritage 2012 awards. Ghostwriter, RAMM’s new digital art by award-winning Blast Theory, has received an honourable mention from the judges of the prestigious American Association of Museums Muse Awards.

The NAS Design Partnership winners were announced at an Award Ceremony at the London Film Museum in London on Thursday 17 May 2012. The judges said “The refurbishment of this beautiful Victorian museum in order to make its collections more accessible, understandable and enjoyable is a great success and a joy to experience. This project could have only been built with the client, design and fit-out team working on a level plain with full understanding of each other’s goals and practices. The metal and glass cabinetry is exacting, the interpretation creative and the visitor experience dynamic – a feature often missing in this type of project. The priceless geological, ethnographic and natural history collections are only enhanced by the protective cabinets that surround them which appear almost unnoticeable yet somehow elevate the status of the exhibits on show. The younger visitors are the acid test in these types of museums, and I didn’t see one that wasn’t entirely captivated by the experience they were having in the space.”

Visitors to the café at Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum can now enjoy a vibrant display of children’s artwork while enjoying their drinks, snacks and meals.

The new exhibition of colourful artwork from RAMM’s family activity days and three local schools will run until September.
Greg Sheldon, Lead Councillor for Environment and Leisure said: “This exhibition is a wonderful display of individual creativity and teamwork. It is a credit to the young artists, their parents and teachers and will add zest to a museum visit.”

All the artworks were inspired by the museum’s collections and displays. They include a stripy metallic painting and a massive cloth mosaic produced at RAMM’s family activity days and completed by St David’s Primary School; portraits of Gerald, RAMM’s iconic giraffe, from St Sidwell’s Primary; dancing giraffes from St Leonard’s Primary and pots inspired by RAMM’s honey coloured sgraffito pottery in the Making History Gallery made by pre-school children at Westexe Children’s Centre.

Supported by Dartmoor Kitchens, the Museums Libraries and Archives Renaissance programme and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

People who drop litter in Exeter could be fined and if necessary prosecuted, the City Council has warned.

The warning comes hard on the heels of the latest batch of prosecutions by the local authority. Those caught in the act are having to fork out, on average, £355 per person, taking into account the fine and court costs.

Cllr Greg Sheldon, Lead Councillor for Environment and Leisure, said: "The message is clear - please take responsibility for your own litter but if you don't we will fine you! Most people in Exeter care about the appearance of their city and wouldn't dream of dropping litter but there is a small minority who don't believe it is their responsibility and couldn't care less.

"Everyone likes to see Exeter's streets and parks clean and tidy, and no one likes to picnic on litter-strewn grass. It takes very little effort to dispose of your litter responsibly, but if you are a litter-bug it will cause you a great deal of time and expense if we have to take you to court!"

The Public and Commercial Services union has pledged "outright opposition" to the government's plans for regional or local pay at its annual conference in Brighton.

Speaking in a debate about pay, delegates from across the UK expressed anger at proposals that could see some in the civil service put into local pay bands as early as this year.

The move would institutionalise low pay in already depressed local economies that are desperately in need of investment, delegates said, merely impoverishing these communities further.

Reports at the weekend that the Cabinet Office has drawn up a map that shows all of Wales and most of England - including the south west, the south coast, and most of the midlands and the north - in the lowest pay zone added fuel to the debate.

Delegates voted to launch a campaign of "outright opposition to any government local pay policy", and pledged to help build a "strong alliances with other public sector unions, local communities, academics and other civic groups".

The vote also restated the union's opposition to the current public sector pay freeze and cap - which has been exacerbated by the imposed increase in pensions contributions - and reaffirmed PCS's policy to campaign for the restoration of a national civil service pay system.

Earlier in the day, delegates voted to hold a further joint-union national strike at the end of June against cuts to pensions, pay and jobs.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "Our local economies that are already suffering from the government's cuts are crying out for investment, not more cuts.

"On top of the pay freeze, this would mean pay permafrost for hundreds of thousands of public servants across the UK. We will resist this crude, but calculated plan to drive down wages when all the evidence is showing that austerity isn't working and what communities most need is investment."

Delegates at the Public and Commercial Services union's annual conference voted in favour of further joint-union national strike action at the end of June against cuts to pensions, pay and jobs.

The move follows the walkout on 10 May by members of PCS, Unite, Nipsa, the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union, University and College Union, and the Prison Officers' Association.

While the focus in the last year has been on pensions, delegates agreed to step up opposition to job cuts and the public sector pay freeze.

As well as organising joint national strikes, the union will hold co-ordinated targeted industrial action in employer groups and sectors, and other protests and political campaigns.

The conference noted that unions representing the majority of staff in the civil service, health and education have now refused the government's latest 'final offer' on pensions and agreed to:

 

- press the Trades Union Congress for closer co-ordination of unions on campaigning and industrial action, and to demand that the government negotiates on the core pensions issues of paying more and working longer for less in retirement.

- to continue to build a new joint union campaign, called '68 is too late', in opposition to increases in the state pension age.

- to fully support the TUC demonstration against austerity planned for the autumn.

- to fully support community campaigns, protests and peaceful civil disobedience against the cuts by groups such as UK Uncut, Occupy, welfare campaigners and those campaigning against the inequality of cuts.

 

In a national consultation ballot of PCS members which ended on 16 March, 90.5% of respondents rejected the proposals for a new pension scheme and, in the largest vote for action in any national ballot the union has held, 72.1% said they supported further industrial action alongside other unions.

Speaking after the vote PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "We continue to oppose the government's plans to force public servants to pay more and work longer for a worse pension, and will work with other unions on a rolling programme of co-ordinated industrial action.

"Despite ministers' wild claims late last year, unions representing the majority of workers in the civil service, health and education have now rejected the government's crude and unnecessary attempt to make them pay off debts racked up by the greed and recklessness of wealthy bankers.

"We have again called on the government to return to the talks with a genuine will to negotiate on the core pensions issues, but we will continue to build the widest possible alliance against these cuts if it refuses to do so."

Exeter continues to reduce the amount of household waste sent to landfill, new figures have revealed.

The latest figures for 2011/12 show the amount of household waste collected dropped by 2.39% to 301kg per person.

Cllr Greg Sheldon, Lead Councillor for Environment and Leisure, said: "This is good news for Exeter – people in the city are doing a terrific job in cutting down the amount of household waste going to landfill.

"Waste minimisation is so important. There are environmental benefits and cost savings to be had from reducing the total amount of waste produced, whether it is recycled or sent to landfill. The best option is always not to produce the waste in the first place!"

One of the aspects of waste minimisation that has been highlighted recently is the issue of food waste. The rising cost of food, along with the nationwide ‘Love Food Hate Waste’ campaign, which promotes only buying food that is needed and the use of leftovers may well have had an impact on the reduction of waste in Exeter.

Cllr Sheldon added: "Another way that householders can reduce their waste is to home compost garden and kitchen waste. Home composting is the best environmental option for organic waste such as vegetable peelings - it is easy to do and saves buying compost for the garden."

People in Exeter need to look out for the new recycling banks that are coming soon to the city. These are for small electrical items such as: hairdriers, kettles, toasters, electric toothbrushes and cameras .

Recycling these items will help reduce the amount that is sent to landfill and make the plastic and valuable metals found in many electrical goods available for reprocessing.

In his opening address to the Public and Commercial Services union's annual conference on Wednesday (23), the union's general secretary Mark Serwotka will say if trade unions and communities stand together we can defeat the government's cuts.

In his keynote speech Mark will pay tribute to those on strike on 10 May in the civil service, health and education sectors, and report that after the strike he wrote again to Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude to ask for negotiations, but that the minister rejected the request.

In a direct appeal to Mr Maude, he will confirm the union's willingness to negotiate, adding. "But until you do, we will be walking out of our offices more. And we will not be alone. Because our members will not accept you robbing their future."

Referring to the increasing number of unions now rejecting the government's pensions cuts, he will say:

"There is a clear lesson here: when the government attacks public sector workers, then public sector workers must fight back. The government wants every public sector worker to work longer, pay more and get less. If we stand together, we can win.

"So our message to Mr Maude, Mr Osborne and Mr Cameron is this: Until you get around the negotiating table and talk to us about the key issues - working longer, paying more, getting less - it's not over.

"It's not over for a very simple reason: millions of workers will not accept that their pensions, their pay and even their jobs should be robbed to pay for a crisis they had nothing to do with causing."

Linking the public sector pensions dispute to the increases in the state pension age, Mark will say:

"The pensions fight is key. It matters to every member whether in the public and private sector, and not just to those involved, but to their families and their communities - because this isn’t just about cutting pensions, it's about privatisation. That’s not a conspiracy, but government policy. Treasury minister Danny Alexander told parliament the deal they're seeking to impose would make pensions 'substantially more affordable to alternative providers'.

"It’s also about getting fair pensions for all. That’s why we launched our ‘Fair pensions for all’ pamphlet with Unite, NUT, UCU and the National Pensioners Convention, arguing for decent state, public sector and private sector pensions."

Mark will point out that the state pension age is already rising to 67 and is scheduled to rise to 68. And that in the budget, chancellor George Osborne announced plans to link the state pension age to life expectancy, meaning someone born today would have to work until they were 75.

"Look at the contrast," he will say. "In France their pension age is 62, yet a president has just been elected pledging to reduce that back down to 60 for some workers.

"So in the run-up to 10 May we widened the argument again to say '68 is too late'. We will be fighting the rise in the pension age for everyone that will give Britain the highest pension age in Europe, combined with the lowest pension - except for Cyprus, Latvia and Estonia."

In a direct attack on the Tories in government, Mark will say:

"It's not until you get up close to this government that you realise the sense of entitlement that belies a real arrogance - an arrogance that leads to incompetence."

He will criticise the "comfortable relationships between big business, the Murdoch media and the Tory elite who share an interest in printing lies about us - and in trying to keep us divided: pitting those born here against those who have moved here, creating a false distinction between those in the public sector and those in the private sector, and between those in work and those - through no fault of their own - who are out of work."

He will close by saying: "We face a massive battle this year and for the foreseeable future. The scale of the attacks on us are like nothing any of us have faced before. But I'm confident that there is no union better equipped to meet that challenge than PCS."

Mark is due to speak from 9.40am; followed at 10am until 11.30am by the main debate about the union's ongoing campaign against cuts to pensions, pay and jobs, including plans for joint union national strike in June; and from 11.30am to 12.30pm delegates will discuss pay policy, including opposition to government plans for regional/local pay in the public sector. Other highlights on Wednesday include:

At a lunchtime fringe meeting on Wednesday, the union will launch 'Austerity isn't working' - the follow-up to PCS's widely-circulated 2010 pamphlet, 'There is an alternative: the case against cuts in public spending' - with speakers Mark Serwotka, author and columnist Owen Jones and economist Ann Pettifor.

The booklet maps the failures of the Tory-led government's programme of austerity and argues for investment; an end to tax cuts for the wealthy and the "redistribution to the 1%"; a banking system that works for people not profit; and a genuine effort to tackle tax evasion and avoidance.

Teenagers at Paignton Zoo have made their own wildlife documentary film.

 

The 18 budding programme makers are all members of the Gorilla Guerrillas, a club for 12 to 17 year olds.

 

The group made the 13 minute film, entitled Behind the Scenes at Paignton Zoo, with the help of MED Theatre, a local charitable community theatre organisation.

 

Paignton Zoo Education Officer Michelle Bales said: “They are learning all about working in conservation - MED brought broadcast-quality camera and sound equipment so the youngsters could have a go with professional kit. They also got them to write the script, edit the piece, add the voice overs and choose the music.”

 

This was a first taste of film making for 14 year old Finn Fallon-Clarke, who travels to Paignton Zoo from Halwill Junction in Mid Devon. “I loved it. I enjoyed being the director, lining up the shots and saying "cut" and really concentrating on one animal. I did the red panda which I love. I would like to work with animals, and I really enjoy finding out more about the Zoo animals - I could spend days in the Zoo.”

 

Colm Craig, aged 14 and from Totnes, has made videos for YouTube and a year ago took part in filming for the BBC News Day at school. “The experience was great fun and I learned a lot, like how to set up an artistic shot, and I had fun with friends. I enjoyed interviewing the elephant keeper, I found out I was good at this!”

 

Does he have ambitions to be a wildlife film maker? “It would be an amazing experience to get closer to the animals, and find out what it is really like in their habitats.”

 

Rhiannon Wilde, 13 and from Paignton, said: “It was really interesting. I enjoyed using the camera to get really steady films of the pandas.” 13 year old Yoran Sheppard from Totnes is very sure of the career he wants to follow: “I enjoyed doing the interviewing and presenting the most - I'd like to be a presenter, like Steve Backshall with Deadly 60.”

 

Bexley Gazzard, who is 15 and from Brixham, added: “This was my first taste in film making but I'm hoping it won't be my last. I never thought I would get the chance to do this! I’ve always wanted to work with animals ever since I can remember - my life-long dream has always been to be the next David Attenborough!”

 

Michelle: “They all had a go at everything, then some chose to do voice overs, some did editing, some picked the music and the others worked on the credits. They were guided by MED, and the experts did the last few bits of editing, but it’s all their own work. I have had such good feedback from the group that I will be doing it again next year!”

 

The film can be seen on You Tube at

 

Paignton Zoo Environmental Park is a registered charity. For more information go to www.paigntonzoo.org.uk or ring 0844 474 2222.