Miss Marple,
I apologise if we've offended you in some way. The tone of your posts towards the Marple Business Forum are overly aggressive and I'm not sure whyy.
In answer to your questions:
- The MBF does not have a 'laissez-faire attitude' towards the possible development of the Hibbert Lane site. In fact, a member of the MBF has been monitoring this situation for over 5 years since it first came to light (as can be seen from previous threads on this Forum - the first one appearing 5 years & 4 months ago).
- The MBF currently has 134 members covering a wide spectrum of business classifications and sizes. All members are listed on the MBF website.
- The MBF has not ever performed in secret. I don't know where this has come from.
- The September meeting was chosen to discuss this issue in particular for pratical reasons. The August meeting is normally poorly attented due to other commitments (holidays, staff holidays, children off school, buying periods, company year ends, etc). It was felt that a subject this important should be discussed at a time convient to as large a portion of the membership as possible. Also, by holding the meeting in September it gives time for clarifications and facts to be sort so that the debate can be held from a posistion of knowledge not rumour.
- Regarding the MBF's stance on this issue, as previously stated we are waiting until the facts are known and a debate within the organisation can be held before making a public declaration of our collective thoughts. Clearly individual members have their own positions but we are not currently able to give a collective opinion for all 134 members.
I will be suggesting at the next meeting (in August) that a representitive of the MBF sits on the group that Admin mentioned in an earlier post (Mark - I trust this would be acceptable and welcomed by the group). We can then co-operate to give a common message, strategy and course of action. Furthermore, we can throw the weight of our membership, resources and sources of information behind the group (which, without wanting to be immodest, are considerable).
There are a huge number of benefits to being an organisation with a wide variety and large numbrer of different members - unfortunately that sometimes means we can't move as quickly as someone acting alone. However, rest assured that once we are in a position to act you will be pleased by the speed, efficiency and strength that we show.
Please don't take our current position as indifference to the issue - but we must follow the rules of the organisation. We can't speak for our members without first asking our members their opinions.
