Corey Mwamba

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Long games: Sheena Holland

There's a video of an advert floating around—I think I saw it through Anton Hunter—of two basketball groups, one dressed in black, the other in white. Watch it here:

The video points out that it's easy to miss what you're not looking for; a call for awareness.

Something similar happened to me yesterday as I went for an evening walk. I strolled by Sheena Holland's shop front and saw Sheena, who I hadn't spoken to for a while. I gave her the subtle nod people give to ask how you are; she raised her hands a bit—something I did not notice until after leaving the shop—and then shook her hand in the common way to indicate rocky ground. So I went in to find out why.

Had I been more aware of her raising her hands, I'd have noticed the scaffolding.

Sheena's boutique, covered with scaffold

The problem with the scaffold is that without proper signage telling people that the shop within the scaffold are open, it's very easy to think that they are not open, especially on a side of the city that is away from the main stretch.

As the city council erected the scaffold, it has a duty of care towards its impact on the businesses under it; yet Derby City Council has been slow to put up proper sign-posting or lights to indicate to people that the business is there. Sheena told me of the difficulties she's facing as an independent business; with any luck the council will see sense and help her before she has to close down. There's a petition [linked below] to urge Derby City Council to do something about it; I hope you'll sign it, and I hope they will do something about it. But it all sounds remarkably familiar.

comments (1)

Corey Mwamba

3rd Nov 2013 | 9:52am

Just in case it wasn't clear, please sign the petition.

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