A Monthly Publication

By John Maiden

 Scrappy New Year

The Canaries are still flying high in League One, but they are out of the FA Cup and the Johnstone's Paint Trophy. The manner of their exit from the Trophy was cruel indeed, losing to Southampton on penalties after conceding an equaliser inside the last ten seconds of added time.

              At the time of writing, the Christmas and New Year fixture list promises an opportunity for the Canaries to consolidate their place in the top three of League One, but the competition for automatic promotion will be intense and, as Norwich discovered at Yeovil, the players will have to scrap for every point, especially on their travels, or whenever they come up against one of the better teams, whether at home or away.

Update on The Green

Still on the subject of scrapping, and playing home and away, some of us who want to rescue The Green from unlawful development took our fight to Parliament on December 15th where we had a useful meeting with our MP, Henry Bellingham and officials from the Department for Transport. Henry appeared to be genuinely disappointed when he heard from us how Cllr Nick Daubney and Chief Executive, Ray Harding are still turning a deaf ear to the voice of reason when it comes to the duty of the Borough Council to manage the whole of The Green for the benefit of the inhabitants and visitors of Hunstanton.

Regular readers will know by now that an application was made in April 2009 to register The Green as a Town Green, in order to strengthen the Covenant imposed by the Le Strange Estate in July 1955.  This clearly prohibits the erection of any new building on The Green other than a Pier entrance building, occupying no more land than it did in 1855 when, of course, Hunstanton still had a fine Victorian Pier, which became the real star of the 1957 film, Barnacle Bill, the very last Ealing Comedy, later released by MGM as All at Sea. 

  `When the local press carries reports of the boost to the local economy in areas chosen for films and TV series, it makes me wonder just how many opportunities Hunstanton has missed because of the failure by successive council members and officers to ensure that all new developments in the town protect and enhanced its unique character and appearance.

  Is it too late to reverse that trend? Were we foolish enough to accept the responses coming from Mr Daubney and Mr Harding, the answer to that question might be yes, we have missed the boat, or should that be Pier? However, in the words of the popular song by Fleetwood Mac: "Don't stop thinking about tomorrow! It'll be here, better than today!"

  The first step to ensure that Hunstanton's tomorrow really will be better than today has already been taken by the Boundary Committee, which is recommending that Norfolk should be governed by a single Unitary Council. If the Government endorses this recommendation and the Town Council continues to act as sounding board for local public opinion; for the first time since 1974, local residents could have a greater say in shaping the future of the town in which the live, work, or simply spend their money. The Boundary Committee wants us to respond to the Unitary proposal before January 19th so what are we waiting for?

  If any readers think they are being well served by the current, very wasteful two-tier system of local government, perhaps they should consider the fact that Hunstanton has been starved of resources, while its council tax-payers have been subsidising ambitious regeneration schemes in King's Lynn,  including a marina project, which seems to be rapidly losing support, even from those intended to benefit from a massive investment of public money.