Make the punishment fit the crime

WEYMOUTH has recently had to endure another attack by Neanderthals on one of its cemeteries.

Much has been made about how such vandals don’t seem to have the mentality to realise the anguish their damage is causing to the relatives and friends of those whose graves they attack, but I take a different view.

I feel these people just don’t have any mental grasp of life full stop.

You don’t need to attend a Government training course to learn that smashing up graves is inherently wrong. It should be self-evident.

Take that a step further and, if vandals can’t grasp that grave bashing is wrong, why should we expect them to be able to grasp and appreciate the distress felt by those who visit and tend those graves? They just don’t care. Only the buzz of destruction matters, not side issues such as people’s feelings.

Accordingly I suggest that we don’t turn the other cheek as perhaps Christianity demands because nearly 40 years as a journalist has taught me that such scum will merely slap that one as well.

No, let’s fight fire with fire. A man in America was given seven years for defiling 57 graves in a Jewish cemetery while one in New Zealand escaped jail for spraying swastikas on Jewish graves only because the Jewish community forgave him.

Another vandal escaped with probation for taking a sledgehammer to gravestones because a woman wouldn’t go out on a date with him.

Perhaps the single most graphic incident which supports my stance happened in Scotland where three teenage vandals who wrecked nearly 90 graves were given three months, two months and two months respectively in a young offender institution.

The Sheriff told them they were “fortunate my powers of sentencing are restricted to a maximum of three months” and this is my point.

Make the punishment fit the crime. I am not saying we should go to the extremes of American sentencing, but justice demands that such vandals receive more than a slapped wrist, more than a token community sentence, more than “you’ve been a bad boy. Don’t do it again”.

Overhaul the law. Allow judges and courts to impose jail sentences which reflect the severity of the incident because, until there is a real deterrent, this sort of unsavoury crime will continue.

Who would want to celebrate celery day?

EASTER eggs are now with us from glutinous cream concoctions to: “Mummy, I want that one. It’s the biggest!”

To read this you’d think chocolate delights were just starting to make their appearances, but the industry has been touting its wares since October.

This column has commented before on the blurring of the seasons with Christmas on sale in the summer and nothing seems to have changed.

Someone very kindly bought me six cream eggs as a “get well soon” after my recent hospital exploits so, because my appetite is still trying to recover, my children were only too happy to help me polish them off.

But I had to draw the line at going out for “refills” because I want to stay away from doctors for a long, long time.

It did, however, spark a thought that these splurges are always for things which aren’t really good for you. You never seem to see a celery day or a cucumber festival. 

Just as well too. A stick of celery is the last thing I want after a mouthful of cream egg.

Has it been raining?

WELL, what a surprise that was! Last month has been so wet that Weymouth has set a new January record for rainfall since records began in 1886.

Little hints such as gardens turned into lakes, roads left underwater and traffic wardens forced to swim to give submerged cars a parking ticket were all signs that January was going to be an exceptional month for rainfall.

I spent most of it in hospital in Slough, but the journey home to Weymouth was like watching excerpts from Waterworld.

One section of road had water on both sides as far as the eye could see, we saw livestock cropping a few square yards of grass completely surrounded by water and I lost count of the “Flood” or “Road Closed” signs we saw along the way.

Back in soggy Weymouth, my garden was like a giant earth-coloured bowl of porridge while the Radipole and Lodmoor reserves looked like inland seas.

It has all proved too much for some people whose properties have been battered about so much that they have stopped trying to repair them.

One home, its wooden panel fence torn apart, had solved the problem of what to do next by simply leaning two stricken panels up against each other and nailing one central point to the remains of a post!

So, as we all try to dry out, I offer this thought to console you all with. How long will it be before the first drought story of the year?

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Continuing a fine tradition

COASTAL damage during the storms prompts a couple of thoughts. What insight into the forces of nature, what skill in design and construction those builders of the Cobb had centuries ago! 

Its encircling arm hasn’t always stood firm to save Lyme from a battering, but it has protected the town pretty well over the years. Bruised by the latest onslaught, it did the job - we still have a harbour.

And how well their successors today continue that engineering excellence. Other cliffs, beaches and coastal towns have suffered severely; Lyme less so. The Marine Theatre, Buddle Bridge and Cobb Gate still stand, thanks to Phase I of the protection scheme. Phase II has again proved its worth, the shingle moved and reshaped but absorbing the sea’s destructive energy; the Cart Road and Marine Parade survive.

Even the work-in-progress on Phase IV escaped lightly. Contract supervisor Clive Evans is phlegmatic in describing how the haul road for machine access has to be re-made after storms. Work has been rescheduled due to landslipping above the east end of the seawall construction: “When the rain stops, we’ll be back in there.”

The photograph shows the new wall doing its job in high seas, throwing back the waves and minimising “over-topping” in exactly the way predicted by the wave tank modelling.   

Despite the weather, Phase IV will open to public access by the end of July, with work finished on constructing the seawall, creating ramps and steps for access, making a turning area (complete with decorative ammonite!) at the east end for emergency vehicles, and building the promenade with rear splash wall along the top. 

Draining and consolidating the land above, reinstating the allotments, and establishing the footpath from Charmouth Road car park with viewing area at the top, will have been completed. Only landscaping and planting will remain for the late summer.

It’s not just for protecting Lyme that the schemes since 1995 are so important. Together, they create a wonderful seaview walk between Charmouth Road Car Park and Monmouth Beach - potentially re-orientating the town to face confidently and proudly seawards, rather than having to turn a shoulder to huddle nervously inwards. The new walkway will be another front door to Lyme (will someone have the sense to signpost the Tourist Information centre from below Theatre Square for visitors approaching this way?).

Behind the big machines and cheerfully muddy people on site lies an equally impressive, if less obvious, brilliance. West Dorset District Council’s long-term advance planning phased the work meticulously. How many of us recall, for example, that the roadway below Theatre Square, above the sewage “cavern”, was built with sufficient strength to carry the heavy machinery now needed it for Phase IV almost 20 years later?  

Research and analysis of the physical forces at work on the town’s sea frontage, detailed design and planning, environmental constraints, the political and bureaucratic challenges of gathering in the funding before time ran out, public liaison, devising working methods that minimise disruption to the life of the town - all this and more is intellectually complex and technically demanding. 

We owe them a lot: the WDDC team led by Nick Browning, main contractors Dean & Dyball with project manager Chris Hill, Clive with supervising engineers Halcrow. These modest and earthy engineers with their charts and calculations, and the workforce with their strong machines and skillful hands, are worthy successors of the old Cobb builders. They well justify the opening of their Royal Charter: “The profession of a Civil Engineer, being the art of directing the great sources of power in Nature...”. They’ve certainly done some magnificent directing here.

I love engineers. They’re logical, methodical, businesslike and attentive to detail - for physical and material forces are unforgiving of sloppiness, and one small technical error in an engineering project can be catastrophic. There’s no ego and no waffle; they calmly analyse, plan, and do it. Yet they’re also imaginative and adaptable as circumstances change, and easy to work with. 

What a shame it is that, as a country, we tend in our public life not to promote the values and qualities of the engineer. How lucky we are that in Lyme they’ve done us proud. 

And now, on to Phase V - the Cobb, where it all began...

CHRIS Boothroyd is donating his fee for this monthly column to Amnesty International

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60 SECOND INTERVIEW: Margaret Morrissey

MANY, in and around the Dorchester area, will know of, or have met Margaret Morrissey, OBE. Editor of the parish magazine, active with the church, a former lay schools inspector and chair of the Poundbury Residents Association, Mrs Morrissey is also often quoted in the national press and regional and national broadcasters for her views on education and parenting. After years as chair and then spokesperson for National Confederation of Parent Teachers Association she founded her own organisation, Parents Outloud, when she ‘retired’ several years ago. And apart from all this Mrs Morrissey is more than active with her seven grandchildren, five of which live locally, and can often be seen being ferried around in a car which would otherwise be far too big for her and retired hotelier and publican, husband Patrick.

DO YOU have a problem saying ‘no’?

I agreed to do this interview, so yes! It is one of my problems – I often see something which needs sorting out and end up getting involved.

WHEN did you first come to Dorset?

About 1980 when Patrick took over the Worgret Manor Hotel at Wareham. We had met in Weybridge where he was a hotel manager, but he had always wanted to branch out on his own. We later moved to Poole and then came to Dorchester in 1990 at the Junction Hotel. I hated Dorset at first, after living in London, but I soon grew to love it.

AND what did you do before starting a family?

I trained as a nurse, did some agency work and also worked for Securicor for while. I was at Queen Charlotte Hospital working on the unit where they pioneered changing a baby’s blood, which was very exciting and very cutting edge at the time. Our first child was born at Barts which technically makes her a cockney and gives her the right to drive sheep over Westminster Bridge, although she hasn’t tried it yet.

HOW did you get involved in educational matters?

The head at the nursery heard me complaining about a zebra crossing and told me I was just the person she needed. Before I knew it I was a school governor and on the PTA…that was the start of it and I never looked back from there. Her name was Mrs Grubb, I won’t forget her, my husband says she has a lot to answer for. I used to go along to the Inner London Education Authority and speak up on a number of issues.

AND how did your involvement continue in Dorset?

At the Worgret Manor some of the local persuaded me to stand for the town council in Wareham. Later David Jacob’s came to Swanage to broadcast “Any Questions” from the Mowlem Theatre. I put in a question about the teachers strike affecting my daughter’s education and he made a quip that with a mother like me, she ought to do just fine. The next day the phone didn’t stop ringing and myself and a few others called a meeting at the Purbeck School and started the All Dorset Parents Action Group. We used to hold breakfast meetings and ran a number of campaigns which often led to us going to London to lobby MPs and the Minister. Eventually we became the Dorset group of the National Confederation of Parent Teachers Association and I became involved nationally with the organisation as chair and later as spokesperson.

AND did you get to know many of the key players nationally?

Yes, but it’s a sad indictment that in 30 years or so of meeting with secretaries of state for education there was only one, John MacGregor, who seemed to genuinely care about children, and he only lasted a few months in the post. David Blunkett was very nice and used to phone me quite often until he became a Minister and then all I would get in response were letters addressed to Mrs Morrissey. John Patten even described me as a ‘Neanderthal’. Luckily I bit my lip and thought about my response when I was asked by the press what I thought about his comments on me. I also got to know all of the national paper journalists who write about education and many from the TV and radio, some of which still phone me today for my comments.

I GUESS you were quite academic at school?

Far from it, but I used to run church services, was the sports captain and was busy with lots of other things. Somehow I think everyone, including me, forgot about my education. There used to be a time when bits of paper weren’t that important but if I had my time again I might have made more effort. It certainly true now that you won’t even get a job interview for most things without the paper to prove you can pass an exam. 

HAS the church always played an important part in your life?

Yes, I started going to church as a child. It would be Sunday School in the morning and church in the evening. I’m not even really sure if I’m a believer, but I do believe in insurance.

AND apart from the church and Patrick what else is there that fills your time now you are retired?

The parish magazine takes quite a lot of time, there’s ten editions a year and the deadlines come around remarkably quickly. I do try and be organised and put items aside as I go along, but the biggest thing in my life is the grandchildren, all seven of them varying in age from four to sixteen. At the weekend I had all five of them and was exhausted when they went home, but I just love it.

ANY hobbies?

Knitting, but I’m reaching the point where the grandchildren tell me they’ve got enough cardigans! I also like reading poetry and gardening but I don’t really read novels or listen to music.

SO WAS your mother the biggest influence on your life?

Yes, she was a dressmaker and worked hard but she was always there when I got home from school. She was the nearest thing, in my eyes, to being a saint. It would have broken my heart to know that I had upset her, so I didn’t.

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The code that says you must behave!

TONIGHT town councillors in Lyme Regis will vote on a new code of conduct. Not before time.

Clearly a huge amount of work has gone in from the town clerk’s office to make sure every possible angle has been covered.

The point is, however, will they adhere to it?

The year 2013 will go down as one to forget for Lyme Regis Town Council.  A year in which the Mayor Sally Holman and town clerk John Wright had to publicly reprimand councillors for their unacceptable behaviour in the council chamber. 

I cannot remember that ever happening before.

In fact, if Lyme Regis Town Council had been a school it would have been put into special measures. 

Some of the behaviour - particulary the lack of respect for those with differing  opinions - was shameful.

Democracy is about opinions and there have always been disagreements and grudges in the Lyme council chamber. But there has never been such a lack of respect between the warring factions.

But that is behind us. After tonight’s meeting, the councillors will know exactly where they stand - what they can do and what they can’t.

Now if there is a case to answer when a councillor steps out of line, and West Dorset District Council decides a breach has occurred, the matter will be referred back to the town council for action. The council will then be able to impose sanctions limited to censure, an apology, training and a reprimand.

Further voluntary sanctions can be imposed which includes suspending a member who is deemed to be in breach of the code for up to six months.

By voluntary I assume the offending councillor will have to agree to the suspension.

In an ideal world, of course, none of this will ne necessary because all councillors will engage in robust debate but accept the majority decision of members and move on. 

This current council has 14 months to put their “annus horribilis” behind them and pledge to act in the manner in which the electorate expects and deserves.

There have been a few spats between councillors and council staff this past year. Again, nothing new but in the past these have always been handled in house without becoming  a public spectacle. A new protocol will be put in place tonight to eliminate a repeat of such scenes.

There is little doubt that the new codes will be adopted by the council and they can then go about their business of running Lyme Regis - hopefully in a new spirit of co-operation.

Or am I being naive?

It was James Cagney who entertained the GIs

LAST week I wrote about the excellent programme of events, led by the town council and fronted by Royal British Legion stalwart David Manners to commemorate the 70th anniversary ofthe D-Day landings.

I referred to the relationship that was established between the people of Lyme Regis and the US 16th Infantry Regiment based in the town in the run-up to the invasion, many of whom lost their lives. 

I also mentioned the big names appearing at the Marine Theatre these days, including comedians Jo Brand and Alan Carr, and commented that they would be following in the fotsteps of some big names, making particular reference to Hollywood star Mickey Rooney entertaining the GIs at the Marine Theatre when it was the Drill Hall. 

But of course it wasn’t Micky  Rooney - it was James Cagney - and a number of you wasted no time in letting me know. My apologies for such an elementary error.

Among the first to do so was local historian Ken Gollop whose legion of fans will soon be queuing up at the Woodmead Halls for another installment of his wonderful “Under Shady Tree” talks on Sunday, March 2nd when he will be throwing the spotlight on the Cobb Gate area.

I THINK I wrote my first story on the possibility of Lyme Regis getting a skatepark in the early 1970s after local sports enthusaist Royston Davies suggested to the old Borough Council that the Anning Road playing field would make an ideal location.

Here we are 40 years later and at last tenders are being sought for the construction of a skatepark in the Charmouth Road car park. 

The project is going ahead after countless sites were rejected and much debate and argument in the council chamber. It is being made possible by the generosity of Lyme Regis Town Council who have committed £150,000 towards the cost and the energetic Cheryl Reynolds, who has fronted a fundraising campaign which has brought in £11,000 in the last year. There’s still the planning process to go through but a skatepark in Lyme Regis in now virtually a certainty. Hurrah!

New skateparks are also being built in neighbouring towns. Axminster has launched an appeal to raise £160,000 to replace the existing facility at Cloakham Lawn and a £90,000 project is underway in Honiton.

Axminster is not expecting to take 40 years to deliver their skatepark. With support from East Devon District Council and the appropriate grant making bodies, they say it will be open in 18 months with approval but no financial input from Axminster Town Council.

NEXT week this column will be handed over to Chris Boothroyd, who last year wrote two brilliantly pieces for the View from Lyme Regis. Once a month Chris will be offering “Another View” and has been given a free reign over content.

You will not be disappointed.

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Music vandalism brings tears to my eyes!

WHEN I heard this yarn it almost brought a tear to my eye at the tragic music loss involved.

I was certainly prompted to check my own store of old 78 records almost for reassurance that they were still there because this is a tale of playfulness and the cost involved for a few seconds of fun.

The scene is Littlemoor in Weymouth some years ago and a bunch of feisty kids out in the countryside.

There were no such things as Frisbees in those days but similar inventiveness was richly available and the youngsters had simply grabbed a few handfuls of old 78s and gone out to skim them across the fields with the inevitable smashing results.

SMASH! went one of Glen Miller’s finest, CRASH! went Elvis and BASH! went Frank Sinatra, recordings which now must be worth considerable sums of money.

So you might think the youngsters committing this music vandalism had no sense of value, no appreciation for music… but you’d be wrong.

One of those children - now a 56-year-old - said they did keep a single 78 “because we were kids and we didn’t want anything to happen to it”. The recording in question was Sparky’s Magic Piano. Well, they were kids!

Islanders furious at precept proposal… and so they should be

IF Portlanders needed something to stir them up then suggesting their council tax precept should go up by 1,000 per cent was bound to provoke a strong reaction.

Already firmly convinced that Portland doesn’t get the same crack of the whip that Weymouth does, islanders are furious at the precept proposals to boost coffers even if the money is destined for island use.

When all is said and done I can understand their feelings because paying £32 for a pint of beer, £70 for a taxi in to town or £60 for a simple haircut is only the same style increase as that being proposed for the precept, up from £14 to £150.

A town council meeting tonight must sort this one out, but islanders are seething and a few hangings in effigy can be expected not to mention some very vocal offerings at the meeting.

Not for the first time, the way this concept has been carried out has seen councillors come in for heavy criticism and surely those in power have to wake up sooner or later to the fact that the way they sometimes carry things out is flawed and needs changing.

Lack of communication has been at the root of many past complaints and it has reared its head again over the precept. Something has to be done to rectify so simple a failing but I’m not holding my breath.

I think tonight’s people power may drive the point home and it seems likely that proposals for just a two per cent precept increase may win the day.

Anyone for nuts?

ANYONE for peanuts? Surely someone out there must want some?

Well, to be honest, someone out there doesn’t want peanuts because they’re throwing them out to feed squirrels who need no second invitation to boost their winter food stores.

Unfortunately squirrels are also notorious for burying their snacks ready to be retrieved when winter times get hard.

We watched in disbelief as one squirrel came into our garden and right up to the window, bold as brass, where it inspected our pots of flower displays before selecting one to bury its peanut in.

A couple of indignant bangs on the glass sent it hastily packing, but this is just one squirrel we happened to spot. How many more of them are there out there that we’ve missed seeing burying peanuts in our garden?

I know it happens because last summer, busily weeding the vegetable patch, I pulled up a plant I hadn’t seen before to discover it had sprouted from a squirrel’s buried peanut. 

Thank God they don’t have sequoia seeds at their disposal!

Marmalade or chutney?

PREGNANT women have been known to crave weird dishes such as fish cakes and custard and finicky children can sometimes be coaxed into having something to eat using unusual ingredients.

But I’ve never come close myself to being served one of these concoctions… until now.

I’m currently recovering at home from a cancer operation and one of my diet requirements is to eat small and varied portions for my meals so surgical wounds in my stomach are not strained by too large amounts of food.

All had been going well until a breakfast incident made me openly laugh, not a good idea as it provokes certain bodily reactions we won’t go in to here.

The reason for my laughter was that my wife, heroically caring for me and fighting life on all fronts practically on her own, is well known for not being at her best in the early morning.

So this morning in question she had brought me my toast and marmalade….but she had to turn round, take it back and produce another lot for me.

Why? Well she’d been on bleary auto pilot and it was only as she brought the toast in to me that she realised that the jar of marmalade she’d used had actually been a jar of pungent chutney!

If I’d consumed that I’d have had no problem going to the loo for a while!

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Town rises to the occasion once again

LYME Regis never needs an excuse to let its hair down and the coming year will be no exception with new festivals and attractions being announced almost weekly.

This week we report on attempts to stage a “Jaunt With Jane” weekend to bring to the town Jane Austen afficianados in a bid to ultimately compete with Bath’s annual homage paid to the author who fell in love with Lyme.

One of the highlights in 2014, however, will not be a celebration but a commemoration as the initial plans for “D-Day+70 - The Lyme Regis Salute” are announced. The town council, with deputy town clerk Mark Tredwin taking the lead, has set up a special committee to commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day - the biggest invasion force the world had ever seen - with Royal British Legion vice-chairman and events organiser David Manners in the chair. 

Our town played its part in the run-up to D-Day - June 6th 1944 - by playing host to the 16th Infantry Regiment of the 1st US Infantry Division, who were based in Lyme prior to the invasion.

An estimated 200 men of that regiment lost their lives in the subsequent conflict and it is only fitting that those young men who made the supreme scarifice to liberate Europe, who lived among the people of Lyme, will be foremost in the commemoration programme.

The week following the D-Day commemorations will see members of Lyme Regis Football Club travelling to their twin club Creully in Normandy which was liberated by the Royal Dragoon Guards on D-Day plus one. I hope to be among them.

We were fortunate to have been in Creully for the 60th anniversary of D-Day when we met up with members of the Royal Dragoon Guards Regimental Association. We gave a commitment to always place a wreath on their memorial when we visited the village and we have done so ever since.

Royal British Legion member David Humphry has carried out extensive research on how and when those men of Lyme whose names appear on our War Memorial lost their lives.  

A number of them fell and are buried near Creully and it will be our intention to visit each of their graves to lay a remembrance cross on behalf of the Lyme branch of the Royal British Legion.

David Manners and his committee are to be congratulated on their efforts and I am sure the town,  as always, will turn out in force to support the commemoration of such an important part of our history

YOU had to be quick off the mark when tickets went on sale to see A-list comedian Alan Carr appear at the Marine Theatre.

Tickets for his stand-up show on March 7th went on sale for Theatre Friends on Wednesday of last week, followed by general sale the following morning. They all went in ten minutes flat - the quickest any show at the Marine has sold out.

I even heard that some people were offering to become Theatre Friends for the £15  fee so that they could take advantage of the priority booking system.

One person, apparently, managed to get two £13 tickets and then put them up for sale for £50 each, causing a furious row on social networking sites.

Under normal circumstances such a popular act as Alan Carr would not appear in a 200-seat theatre. But some comedians like to try out their material before a tour of the main venues - so I imagine this was one such case.

In recent years we have seen Michael McIntyre and Jo Brand, who both attract sell-out tours at the big theatres, appearing at the Marine.

Of course, they follow in the footsteps of some big names from the past. During the war, Hollywood star Mickey Rooney appeared on the Marine stage to entertain the American GIs stationed in the town before D-Day.

EVENT OF THE WEEK . . . 

LAST week I wrote about the View’s accounts manager Anita Routley’s highly inventive fundraising event for our adopted charity - Water Survival Box.

This week we are publishing a four-page supplement on her attempt to visit all 270 underground stations in London in 48 hours in all our 15 local newspapers in West Dorset, East Devon and South Somerset, which have a combined distribution of more than 42,000 copies a week.

Anita is attempting to get all 270 tube stations sponsored for £5 and, at the time of writing, she is up to 185 thanks to the generous support of our advertisers.

Anita will be attempting her underground challenge on the weekend of February 14th/16th and, if by then she manages to get all 270 stations sponsored, she will have raised £1,350 for our Water Survival Box appeal. I will be at the finish to welcome her off that last train with a big hug!

We have committed to raising £10,000 for this Rotary-backed charity over the next two years and, thanks to Anita’s efforts and other generous donations, we have already topped the £3,000 mark, enabling us to hand over our first cheque to the charity at Monday’s soup and ploughman’s lunch, organised by the Rotary Club of Lyme Regis, which raised a further £1,000 for the cause.

My staff are getting up to all sorts of other crazy fundraising ideas, including a sponsored sky dive by one of our sales girls, Jenna Wellman.

Me? I’m already in training for a sponsored origami session - and I’m pleased to hear that my life-long pal Dave Reed will be joining me. If he thinks he’s up to it!

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60 SECOND INTERVIEW: Audrey Vivian

RETIRED English teacher Audrey Vivian moved to Lyme Regis from Somerset with her husband, the Reverend Keith Vivian, a former headmaster, in the 1980s, having previously visited the town regularly for holidays. The couple immediately threw themselves into community life and Audrey has since been involved with a huge number of local organisations, most notably as a former chairman of the governors of St Michael’s Primary School and member of the Parochial Church Council. Her latest role is chairman of the Lyme Regis & District Food Bank. Audrey and Keith have been married for more than 60 years and have two children – a son who is a lawyer and a daughter who is a doctor – and five grandchildren.

WHY did you move to Lyme Regis?
We bought a flat in Broad Street and came here on holidays. We got to know a lot of people, both locals and visitors, through having a beach hut on the seafront. Our children came down for holidays, it was the best beach nearby and the family liked it.  When Keith retired, we bought our house is Sidmouth Road.

TELL us about the Lyme Regis and District Food Bank?
The food bank was set up last year by LymeForward as an emergency provider of food for people in difficulties of all ages and in all different kinds of circumstances. We’re very lucky to have it under the umbrella of LymeForward because it means we already have a base, which is not something every organisation has. We also have lots of willing volunteers and varying expertise which we can use in the food bank. It is well supported by the town council, as well as the medical centre, schools and churches, which can refer people to the bank. We are trying to pull all the relevant services together to do something really, really good. I think we’re starting to get rid of some of the misconceptions about it – it’s not just about people on benefits but it can help people in all kinds of situations, including those who have just returned from hospital and have no way of going food shopping. I think the need for food parcels is getting greater, but that may just be because they didn’t know about us before. We are always looking for volunteers and hope to offer simple cookery lessons in the future to make sure people have the knowledge needed to cook for themselves.

WHAT do you like about Lyme Regis?
That an ordinary person like myself is able to make a difference. It’s not a closed shop, you can do the things you like because there’s so much going on. You can make a difference in Lyme – we have always supported everything and our children have to.

WHAT do you think is missing from the town?
It’s very difficult to shop cheaply in Lyme. You have to be able to get out of Lyme to get to the big supermarkets and sometimes there is a lack of public transport – that’s why it’s important for our bus services to continue.

WHAT local organisations are you a member of?
As well as the governors of St Michael’s and the Parochial Church Council, the main thing I support is Action Medical Research for Children. I attend a book club, ladies lunch club, Keith is a member of Rotary and I was on the Inner Wheel when we had one, I was a trustee of the Town Mill for 13 years, I’m a member of the Lyme Regis Society, Lyme Regis Development Trust and the U3A, and I volunteer in the Jubilee Pavilion.

DURING you work with varying organisations, what achievements are you most proud of?
The two things I am most proud of in Lyme is my work with Lyme Regis Development Trust to set up a SureStart children’s centre in King’s Way and being nominated as an Honoured Citizen as part of the diamond jubilee celebrations – I was really touched by that.

To volunteer with the Lyme Regis and District Food Bank or 
for more information contact LymeForward on 01297 444387

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