Progress …………… or Bremer’s first law?
Jerry Bremer’s first law, having been President Bush’s Ambassador to
Iraq for some fourteen months, was “If you think that you are making
progress, you don’t know all the facts”! Bremer’s law has hit us.
Having taken professional advice, it is clear that it is not viable for
Matt and Sarah Allen to offer their garage as a site to build the
Village Stores. Since they moved in, we have worked together to try and
house the shop in its original position. We thank them for all their
co-operation and help over the last eighteen months. The shop premises,
as we reported, turned out to be too expensive to bring up to 21st
century standards; next we looked at the garage plot and this was the
option that was put to the village in September 2007. Sadly, this
solution has now also been deemed uneconomic. The Allens and the
steering group are disappointed by this news, but it is fortunate, and
we are grateful that the decision has been made before we committed any
money to the project.
On a positive note
The village has shown an amazing amount of enthusiasm and a great deal
of momentum has built up to restore a shop to Brightwell-cum-Sotwell and
we are determined to proceed. We have already received our first
donation from the WI for which we are really grateful and which is an
enormous boost – and challenge. Planning regulations have developed
since we last looked at other sites in the village and we are examining
them and others to see what is now a practical way forward. The
fundraisers have met and will be on full stream when we have found an
alternative site. We are visiting other village shops to find out their
experiences – good and bad!
One step back but we still intend to restore a shop to the village.
Hopefully, by the next edition of The Villager, we will have further
news. Brightwell-cum-Sotwell is not Iraq and here we aim to prove
Bremer wrong!
Much is happening. Watch this space.
Jim Sanger
