Your Letters

Favor Parker's £1.3 million profit

Dear Editor,

Favor Parker made a profit of £1.3 million last year. The village contributed to this profit in as much as we carried the environmental costs of, and health risks from, noise, smell, particle and light pollution, stresses from heavy traffic, damage to property and reduction in property values. Their continued presence is rotting the heart of the village and prevents the whole area from becoming a better place to live and work. It is time they moved out.

They will need to invest in their mill to meet forthcoming environmental standards and to improve operating efficiency. They are planning to spoil more land in the village. This is a retrograde step for them and us. They have over £10 million in reserves that have built up at the cost of the village. They employ few people from the village, so a local relocation to a non-residential site would solve the village problem without costing jobs. Favor Parker needs a new mill. The children of Stoke Ferry, and future generations, need that mill to be elsewhere.

Don't let the firm plead poverty. Alfred Duncan and Archibald Fyfe, the owners of the parent company have the money and the authority to make changes. The information below is from Companies House.

Favor Parker Ltd annual sales to 31st May 2001 were £81,221,000 with profit before tax of £1,334,000

* Directors' remuneration was £82,000

* The firm is valued at £16.4 million. The Bank of Scotland owns about 30 percent of the company. Grampian Country Foods Group Limited owns the rest.

Grampian Country Foods Group Limited annual sales to 31st May 2001 were £851 million, with a profit before tax of £16 million.

* The Highest paid director received just over £1 million for the year

* 12 directors received £3 million between them (average = £250,000)

* They have over 10,000 employees

* The firm is valued at £61 million

* The main shareholders are Alfred Duncan and Archibald Fyfe, the company pension scheme and the Bank of Scotland.

Yours sincerely

Ted and Rachel Fuller

Stoke Ferry

Dear Editor,

The total amount collected in the Children's Society Boxes this year for Stoke Ferry, Wretton and Whittington was £454.08.

This is a tremendous amount and I would like to thank everyone who has a box and supports the society throughout the year. If anyone else would like a box in their house to put any loose change in to enable the society to help deprived children please phone me on 200143.

Many thanks,

Jenny Elsey

Dear Ray,

I thought I would drop you a line to let you know the state of play. Well, I heard some of my friends talking whom I left behind in the Village where I spent the most of my life. They said that I'd made a mistake in moving to Downham Market. Well, I beg to differ. If so, why would I get involved with the Salvation Army, the Silver Threads and join the Downham Club and visit the Methodist Centre regularly? And last, but not least, why would I go on a computer course at the Priory Learning Centre and also go through to the City & Guilds side?

I heard a person talking the other day who said "I can't see him passing a degree!" Well, I may be fast approaching the big 60 but I will give it my best shot. I can only try, can't I?

Your friend as always,

John

Dear Ray,

There was a time when to lie to the House was an unforgivable sin among MP's. Starting with John Major and now with Tony Blair, however, it seems that present day PM's no longer regard it as such a serious matter when one of their Ministers is caught telling porkies. I have been reminded, by the recent problems with Stephen Byers, of a limerick that was circulating at the time of the Christine Keeler - John Profumo scandal. It went:

What have you done said ChristineYou have ruined the Party machineTo lie in the nude may simply be rudeBut to lie in the House is obscene.

Ron Watts