The Favor Parker Issue

One resident thinks apathy has a lot to do with it

To start with we have to remember that FP has been situated in the centre of Stoke Ferry for, oh I don't know, say some 50 years. And what has anyone done about it? The answer very little, and the reason, no organisation.

Before you do anything surely your first move is to prepare, and I would want to appoint a Leader, call him or her what you wish. The person who immediately comes to my mind is our Editor Ray Thompson. The last thing I would saddle our Leader with is a Committee; that's about the last thing you want. What could be worse than a vote in favour of Plan A, S to 4 in favour, you are disunited for a start.

A Leader would have total responsibility and it would be his or her job to surround him or her self with a 'Team' with no voting rights, they would take orders from the appointed Leader. How much better this is than all of those appalling Committee Meetings where everyone wants to be a Chief and no one wants to be an Indian.

Another thing you don't want is a series of Village Meetings that may well give everyone a change to air their views but invariable ends up as a verbal punch up. If you have one person in charge you know who to turn to if little or no progress is being made, again how much better than the often quoted response, 'Yes I'll put it to the Committee'.

When it comes to nominating a person who then indicates that they don't want the job, you find someone else, they are out there, but if you can't find them, well you have only one choice left, you forget it.

If you want to remove FP from the centre of Stoke Ferry, you will have a long hard fight on your hands. Let's assume you decide on some sort of legal action, who would pay for it, I can't see many people who would be prepared to put their hands in their pockets; apathy would have set in long before then.

The fight against FP should have started years ago, today you might finish up with some improvements, 'around the edges' but that's about it. Yes have a go at FP by all means, but when you have finished get your 'Team' to turn their attention to something that interests me more, only because there is a greater chance of success, and that is what I would call the' regeneration of your village'.

Les Lawrence