Bravery of the lone dissenter

I LOVE a good scrap at a public meeting. It’s kept this column in business for years.

So I was particularly disappointed not to have been able to attend Friday evening’s public meeting at which the Save The Three Cups as a Hotel group went back to the public to get a mandate to carry on their fight or give up.

The outcome was a foregone conclusion - the fight goes on and so it was, despite the fact that, in my view, West Dorset District Council will never compulsorily purchase the building, especially in the current economic climate.

And you have more chance of getting Ann Widdecombe to dance in time with the music than persuade the Palmer brothers to change their tack and accede to opening an hotel on the Three Cups site.

It is just not going to happen.

There were very few dissenting voices at the meeting - two in fact. One of those came from district councillor Daryl Turner who was brave enough to get up and say he admired the Palmers’ plan, which recently went on show at the Pilot Boat, and he was not convinced that the majority of people living in Lyme were in favour of the hotel solution, no matter how loud the protesters shouted.

I share Daryl’s view and I applaud him for having the courage to express his views, knowing full well he would be shouted down. It would have been easy for him to have have sat and listened to the speakers and keep his counsel. But that’s not the way Daryl does it and Lyme should be grateful that we have a district council representative not afraid to rattle a few cages.

I hear there were some very eloquent speeches and strong arguments put forward, so it is to be hoped that the lines of communication can be kept open between Palmers and the Save The Three Cups group, so ably led by John Dover. There may still be some room for manoeuvre but it seems to me that Palmers are not for turning.

MP Oliver Letwin warned of the risks of rejecting the Palmers scheme completely and pushing for an hotel.

Compromise looms large but this ruckus is not over yet.

Trust me!

Right man for the old school job

CONGRATULATIONS to my old school chum Peter Fortnam on becoming the first ex-pupil to be elected chairman of the Board of Governors at the Woodroffe School.

Not only that. He also follows in the footsteps of his late father, Alderman Douglas Fortnam, who held the prestigious position for 12 years.

Peter and I are the same age and were in the same year at what was Lyme Regis Grammar School when we started there and the Woodroffe School by the time we left.

Neither one of us can believe we are in our early sixties; it seems just like yesterday Peter was chasing all the girl boarders at Rhode Hill and I spent all my time kicking a ball around the top field.

Neither of us were great academics but Peter had a confident personality from an early age and none of us at school believed he would be anything other than a success in the wider world.

Me? I was a bit of a wimp at school, apart from on the football field, and wasn’t expected to come to much, as our headmaster at the time, the late Thornton Pearn, so kindly put it when I left.

My greatest disappointment was having to cry off being the main speaker and presenting the prizes at the school speech day when I was mayor due to work commitments. Long-serving master George Lloyd-Jones stood in for me.

Thornton, greatly unimpressed by local dignitaries, would probably have stuck to his opinion that I hadn’t come to much.

These are difficult times for the education community but I can think of no one more focussed or determined than Peter Fortnam to ensure our alma mater prospers and progresses.

As the line in the old school song says: “Oh school, may we be worthy yet of thee...”

EVENT OF THE WEEK

WHAT a diverse community with live in. On Friday night a 100 or so people attended the second public meeting over the Three Cups furore in what I was told was “a very lively” meeting. That’s a Lyme euphemism for “they tore chunks off each other,” although I understand it wasn’t that bad.

Then on Saturday, over 200 packed into the Marine Theatre to listen with intent concentration to every word spoken by one of the big names of our times in television - Sir David Attenborough.

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend Friday’s Three Cups meeting due to illness in the family. But I did make it to the Marine to listen to Sir David.

What a superb performance. He kept us spellbound for over an hour (no notes were used), waxing lyrically and informatively on the days when winged reptiles with 40 feet wingspans flew above the cliffs of Lyme Regis.

Now I have to admit that pterosaurs are not my area of expertise but you could not help being transfixed by what Sir David had to say.

How many other communities with a 3,500 population would be able to attract such a celebrity - a word that Sir David would hate - to its town?

His appearance was obviously the highlight of the Mary Anning Weekend programme, organised by Lyme Regis Museum.

Now here’s a bit of a moan about my fellow Lyme Regians. I’m always gobsmacked that so many have never set foot in the museum. Go and see it. You can’t really appreciate the town in which you were born without looking at our colourful and diverse history. It’s what has shaped us.

Back to the Mary Anning Weekend. I was clearly born 50 years too early. At school we were never taught about fossils or indeed Mary Anning. I didn’t even know the road in which I was born was named after her.

Well done to all those volunteers down at the museum who put in so much effort. And a special word of praise for curator Mary Godwin who is certainly helping to put Lyme on the map.

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