Combined Parishes Group Minutes October 3, 2008A meeting of the Combined Parishes Group held on Friday 3rd October 2008 at Woodgate House, County School was attended by 12 local people, chaired by Richard Haywood. Updates on various on-going issues were discussed; Letters have now been received from The Forestry Commission Chairman (Lord Clark) and the Director General (Tim Rollinson) in response to letters sent by the Group questioning the FC on their role in putting forward Bintree Woods for mineral extraction (click here for details). Not unexpectedly, the FC continue to justify the use of Bintree Woods for gravel extraction on economic grounds and that this is in the public’s best interest. It is clear that there is no intention to consider withdrawal of the site. Colin King reported success in getting an article in a recent issue of Private Eye under its “Rotten Boroughs” section highlighting the duplicity of the FC. Richard Haywood and Chris Langford have had a meeting with Rupert Read, who is the prospective Eastern Region Green Party MEP candidate. He was generally supportive, had some useful advice and would be prepared to publicly support the campaign.
It was agreed that a press release from the Group would be useful at this stage. The press release should cover; the “story so far”, the hypocrisy of the Forestry Commission and raise doubts over the need for urban development given the current economic difficulties.
It was agreed that the website should be re-launched locally and updated further and maintained as an information resource for the campaign. It was also agreed that the re-launch should involve leaflet drops within the 3 villages. This will be organised on a village by village basis.
Meeting closed, date of next meeting set for Friday 31rst October at 7.30pm 3 Watts Naval, County School. |