After a couple of days wait, we have now had feedback from Wrexham council. Our feedback was split into two blocks, generic feedback, and board specific feedback.

In general:

• Characters cannot talk or have names – due to language barriers.
• Designs need to look more vibrant – to appeal to young people
• Must work in welsh as well as English -  as both languages are spoken widely
• Flash games etc may not be able to go on to the website – due to complications*
• Monuments/installations where a nice idea, but shop fronts may be awkward – due to leases on local buildings etc
• They also require the costing if the project were to be actioned – this will allow them to evaluate our solution overall.

*Glyndwr university/NWSAD will be looking at alternative hosting solutions.

Our specific feedback from Adam and Dan was that the council maybe didn’t understand our concept fully, and were worried about the logistics of making an iPhone application, however they did like the concept. They also commented that is was a nice alternative to using the website. Further positive comments were in addition made regarding the professionalism which our board demonstrated.

After speaking with adam and dan, we have decided to stick with the orginal iphone concept and already we have started developing a character.

What a disaster! We have just received the following email from Martin Howorth (parks, countryside and rights of way manager)

“Dear Vicky and Suzie

The route is walked by the judges on the day, but it is not part of a promoted route for the general public, we are showcasing on the day what Wrexham and the community have achieved during the year as part of Wrexham in Bloom. We will stop to look at various areas, such as some residents front gardens, Ty Mawr Country Park, Cefn Juniors, etc. We won’t vary the route we have now agreed with the local community unless there is a very strong reason to do so. The aim as is as above, to showcase what the community have done in improving their local community – in terms of litter, environmental improvement, shrub/hanging basket improvements. Hope this answers your questions.

Martin Howorth, parks, countryside and rights of way manager “ 

This means in reality, the actual advertising of a route is nonexistent despite their original brief where it featured heavily. In some respects I feel quite disappointed as our concept was both strong and viable, and I feel time may have been wasted whilst the goal posts where being moved so to speak. This in itself has taught us to have a constant dialogue with the client, as things may happen on their side which may affect the project. In retrospect, we should have maybe asked more questions both when we visited the recycling centre and during clairs presentation.

Due to our concerns over the route, and that our project relies so heavily on the map, we have decided to contact Clair with the following email:

“Hi Clair,

We are students from Glyndwr who have been set the Wrexham in Bloom project.

We are interested in the trail element of the project and wondered if you could answer a few questions we have. We have been given a map of the trail but we find certain aspects of it a little confusing.

We understand that this is the trail the judges walk along but do you also want us to promote this particular trail for the general public? Or, are there key points on this trail which you would like people to visit?

Are some points more important than others?
Is it possible for the trail to be varied?
What is the aim of the trail?

Kind regards,

Vicky & Suzie�

We instantly had a response from Clair passing on our email to the “parks, countryside and rights of way manager� as Clair did not know the answers to our email. We await their response.

Today, both myself and Suzie have received a copy of the route for the heritage walk aspect. See below. As neither of us could understand it, we have decided to google map it here:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=106860212783392730696.00048184487f545d5d0d2

However, we are both concerned that the map is not entirely correct as instructions such as ‘meet Sonia at the crown’ has been left on the map – this leads us to believe that the route may be for the judges, and not for the public. We are also concerned that the walk is actually not a walk, as both a barge and a car to complete the route. From this we are considering looking at smaller routes within the route which may make the route more achievable for young families and elderly alike.