After two years in the planning, the village has at last its own web site.  Born out of a suggestion made at an annual general meeting of the Curry Rivel News Group in February 2007, this ambitiously large site has already attracted favourable comments.  The two local people behind the web site are its Web Master, Debbie Wilkes, and the Web Designer, Lloyd Wilton.  The Curry Rivel News took an opportunity to interview them both about what they hope to achieve.

Debbie Wilkes has lived in the village for 20 years.  She is a self employed management consultant, specialising in leadership development and is well known for organising the Church Fête for the past 3 years.  “People are always complaining that there is not much going on here in Curry Rivel, but I always suspected that there was in fact a lot going on.” said Debbie.  “There was just no central forum that brought everyone together.  So when I heard about plans for a web site I thought this might help develop a much stronger community spirit by providing that all important focus.”

Lloyd Wilton is a relatively new comer to Curry Rivel, having moved here from Yeovil 4 years ago.  He is an account manager for ‘Circo Learning’ and travels throughout the UK advising on management software for independent schools.  Designing web sites is a secondary occupation for him.  Lloyd said “Being new, I wanted to find some way of getting involved in the community and this has been an ideal way of achieving that.”

When Debbie was selected as the Web Master 6 months ago she said that she “sat down and thought long and hard about what I would want to have on a local web site.  I think it must be interactive and updated regularly.  I see the web site being very much an extension of the Curry Rivel News, but, thanks to technology, a web site is going to be much more dynamic and up to date.  It will have more information, photographs, articles, games and a Forum where people can let us have their views on any local matter.  It won’t replace the Curry Rivel News so much as complement it.”

Originally the development of the web site was to be in several phases spread over a number of years.  Only the initial phase had been funded by the Parish Council.  But Lloyd has now gone far beyond his contractual obligations, generously donating his time and experience to the community.  The result, as Lloyd says, is that “We have now constructed a framework which can accommodate every organisation and interest in the village.  We can then expand this in the future, if we need to.”

What is important now is that the community uses its web site.  “We need people to send us material, in order to populate their areas” says Debbie.  “Once we have this information, then we will have a dynamic and informative site.  My hope is that by doing so, it will then really bring people closer together and create a much stronger community spirit.”

“So, if you haven’t seen it already, your own local web site www.curryrivel.org.uk is only a mouse click away.  Try it and see what you think, then let us know on the Forum,” adds Debbie.

The last word goes to Lloyd “It’s been good fun being involved in this project.  Our reward will be a lively and well used web site within Curry Rivel.”

November 2009

| More...