Still planning my Party on the Green in Hunstanton
In his latest Turnstone column, Hunstanton columnist John Maiden discusses his summer plans…
Further to the Turnstone that appeared in the Lynn News two weeks ago, I sent the following email and the relevant column to the personal assistant for the leader and the CEO at West Norfolk Council.
"I had hoped the Leader or CEO would have found time to get back to me, but it is now two months since your last email, in which you said that you would forward my email to colleagues as requested. They are probably slow readers because I have heard nothing from anyone since January. However, while updating my file on The Green, I discovered a very significant email from a legal executive, which prompted me to submit the attached column to the Lynn News.
“Last week's column is attached, but in case it contains too many facts for your colleagues to digest, please let them know that several very important people will be invited to my Party on The Green, which is intended to challenge the council on its deliberate failure to respect the very important covenant imposed by the le Strange Estate on July 20 1955. If the council disagrees with the legal executive's legal opinion in 2004, as a long suffering beneficiary of the covenant, I challenge the council's current legal executive to say why he/she disagrees with the 2004 legal opinion."
On March 26, I received the following reply: "Thank you for your email for which I acknowledge receipt. I have passed your communication to colleagues to note."
Since I have not received a response from either one in the past, I am not holding my breath this time.
Instead I am devoting my time to drawing up a list of people to invite to my party on The Green. Possibly, because I enjoyed listening to the final instalment in the fourth series of his ‘Imaginary Sandwich Bar’ on BBC Radio 4 last week, I think Alexei Sayle would find himself very much at home imagining a miniature railway journey along Hunstanton's imaginary pier.
It just so happens that a photo of the very real railway, on an equally real pier, was chosen by the Hunstanton Society to celebrate the month of June on its 2025 Heritage Calendar. I do not believe it possible that any of these remarkable calendars remain unsold, but it might be worth asking at ‘By the Book’ in the High Street.
The calendar in front of me is a reminder that July 20 is on Sunday this year, so I will have to find out what else is planned for that date. Perhaps I could have a stall selling T shirts with the covenant printed on one side and 'Iron Maiden' or 'The Stranglers' on the other. If anyone thinks a petition to save the Green might do the trick, I will simply ask the council to fish out the one with thousands of signatures on it, which I handed in at a council meeting more than two decades ago.
It is hard to believe now, that it took me less than three years after launching the SAFE - Soccer as Family Entertainment - Project in 1983 to open the very first family enclosure at Wembley Stadium, for the Freight Rover Trophy Final. It probably helped having the FA and Football League behind me, not to mention Roy of The Rovers, who invited me to become an imaginary character in his comic for my visit to Mel Park.
Finally, although the origins of the Recreation Ground on the landward side of town, are described on a neglected plaque at the entrance, surely it is high time for a similar, much better maintained plaque to be erected on the site of the historic drinking fountain on The Green.
