Final word from Campaign stalwart Dr Alan James: How excellent to hear that reason prevailed and both the Inspector and the Secretary of State rejected completely the appeals of Multiplex to allow Mereham. I want to say a huge thank you to all those wh

Final word from Campaign stalwart Dr Alan James:

"How excellent to hear that reason prevailed and both the Inspector and the Secretary of State rejected completely the appeals of Multiplex to allow Mereham.

I want to say a huge 'thank you' to all those who took part in the anti-Mereham campaign. I cannot list them all individually but here are some key groupings:

* the 10,060 people who signed the Mereham petitions,

* the team who gave up their spare time to collect the Mereham petitions,

* the 74 people who spoke out at the Public Inquiry,

* the professionals from our Councils who prepared and presented the formal case against Mereham at the Public Enquiry,

* all those who wrote to the Secretary of State, including the 84 who objected to the changed A10 proposals,

* those of our elected councillors, county, district and parish who took the time and trouble to involve themselves in the case against Mereham,

* the local press, particularly the Ely Standard, and local radio and television,

* the core team of individuals who took on the Multiplex professionals, researched and presented opposing cases, were cross examined by the Multiplex barrister and themselves cross questioned every one of the Multiplex witnesses to expose the weaknesses of the Multiplex arguments.

The Mereham campaign has been an exemplar of local democracy in action all the main political parties laying aside their differences in favour of a common cause.

Above all I want to say thank you to Cllr Bill Hunt who, through sheer will power and determination as well as colourful rhetoric, kept this issue burning in the public eye for so long and in doing so, galvanised the rest of us into action.