On 24/04/07 12:31 David Chamberlin wrote: > I was at the Parish Meeting last night, and was pleased to see the large > turnout. It does continue to demonstrate to SCDC the strength of feeling on > this matter in the village. I was, however, a little disappointed that, > despite the considerable publicity about the nature of the problem we face, > not least at www.savemiltoncountrypark.com, and the patient explanations > given by Simon McIntosh at the meeting, several people don't seem to have > grasped the basic facts. Perhaps that's just human nature, and people will > tend to hear what suits them, and filter out facts that counter their own > position. Yup. I noticed that at least one of the people who complained about the length of Simon's very necessary introduction was one of those who clearly had decided the facts beforehand judging by his attacks on Simon and SCDC during the question period. > Having said that, I think it was a very helpful meeting, and Simon > is to be commended for the very fair and balanced approach he took, and for > his good humour in the face of some quite hostile questioning. He did well. He remarked afterwards that it was relatively easy going compared to some he's had to do. "Travellers?" I asked. "Oh yes," he said "there was a meeting at Cottenham ...". > I came away > from the meeting feeling moderately encouraged about the future of the park, > and I think if Vicky Ford can bring her clearly considerable reserves of > energy (!) to bear on her fellow councillors, we might be in a better > position in twelve months time that we had dared to hope. Yup. She really didn't need to drag herself over to Milton on Monday: she'd been advised by officers not to come and if she had any sense she would be out campaigning locally in her ward as her fellow Tory is up for election this time but for all her faults (not least her rather cavalier attitude to electoral law) she is *very* keen at the moment. She's only been on SCDC for a year and when she's not doing that she's dashing around the country trying to get appointed as candidate for safe Tory seat (she's number 31 on Cameron's A list - young, female, just the sort of candidate he wants to see - problem is that the local associations don't). -- Paul