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| Suffolk Preservation Society donations are on the right! |
The number of little green tokens given by customers to each of the month's good causes often shows that some charities attract a lot more support than others despite appearing on the face of it to be equally worthy. Anything to do with animals seems to fill the box to overflowing in a few days, as is the case for charities which support servicemen, whether retired or active.
I have been quite surprised (and pleased) this month to see the Suffolk Preservation Society streaking ahead in the green token stakes, against what I would have imagined would be stiff competition from other causes. I feel to some extent that this vindicates my continuing struggle to ensure that economic growth is not the dominant driver behind Babergh's planning policy. It is quite clear to me that what many of the residents of Babergh want is to preserve our wonderful natural and built, and this is further evidence of this.
Of course it has to be admitted that the customers of Waitrose are not really a random sample of the population. It is a relatively expensive place to shop, and is not the supermarket of choice for many.
Nonetheless I do not think that the clear opinion of its customers should be ignored.
Back at the office (SALC) we have been working on a Participatory Budgeting Project. We would like to encourage local councils to consider involving their communities in grant making to local community groups. Waitrose use this method in the a similar way, voting by communities could be by balls in a tube or by electronic voting methods!
ReplyDeleteNice to see such strong local support of SPS.