DURING 2007, I had the rare privilege of meeting and working with a group of people trying to prevent the sale of the Corn Exchange. It was their enthusiasm and dedication that eventually won the day, and we are now in the situation that St Ives will have

DURING 2007, I had the rare privilege of meeting and working with a group of people trying to prevent the sale of the Corn Exchange. It was their enthusiasm and dedication that eventually won the day, and we are now in the situation that St Ives will have a revived community centre right in the heart of the town.

Attending various council meetings concerning the issue, I was quite frankly dismayed with the way party politics had implemented the very idea of putting a much loved building/institution up for auction. The resistance against a rescue package as put forward by ACE was galling to say the least.

There is probably no staunch a Tory than I but, when it comes to the relationship between voters and the people who represent them at the real grass roots level, the town council, I am now convinced that it must be totally apolitical.

The response and feeling of the townspeople in questionnaires distributed by ACE was heart-warming and showed the strength of feeling within St Ives about such local issues. Is it any wonder that a number of its members are now standing as independents in order to revitalise local government.

I wish Ian Dobson, Nick Dibben, Martin Collier, Mike Croker, Phil Green and Jonathan Salt every success in the forthcoming elections.

As I look upon Oliver Cromwell in Market Place, I can but think of a few words that he uttered in addressing the Rump Parliament in April 1653: "You have been sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you."

JOHN TIDDY

Needingworth Road

St Ives