Thank You, Andrew

 

We are extraordinarily lucky in Eastington to have a few very special people who devote a large part of their lives to the community as a whole.  Andrew is without doubt one of these.  Chairman of the Parish Council for many years, he has always worked hard to promote harmony and to defend our village from the ravages of inappropriate development.  

Over 25 years ago, when the Parish was first threatened with a huge new development, Andrew together with some like-minded people, became concerned that residents often did not know what was going on - no internet in those days, remember!  So they began to publish the Eastington Community News.  The objective was to keep the whole community in touch both with what the District and Parish councils were doing and what the community as a whole was thinking.

Alas, 25 years on, we are faced with the reality of such a development despite so many people having fought against it so hard for so long.  They say that you “can’t buck City Hall” - but we did for a very long time -  and now as a  well informed and connected community we are, hopefully,  well placed to minimise the damage to our way of life.

The initial concept of ECN was very ambitious -  a free delivery to every home in the parish, no less  - but the need at the time was pressing.  It is a great tribute to Andrew’s passion, determination and sheer hard work that this ambitious concept has been sustained for a quarter of a century and is still going strong.

Perhaps, for some these days, a bi-monthly publication does not compete with other media for instant news. Perhaps the emphasis has shifted somewhat towards a celebration of what makes us US.  This is no less valuable  - most of us enjoy the real spirit of community that we have in Eastington, and keeping in touch with our traditions, our institutions, our people, services and general ‘goings on’  is all a part of that.

So we thank you, Andrew, for  helping to start this publication, for helping to produce it when things were a lot trickier than they are now and for editing it so skillfully over all those years.  Also, we hope, for continuing to mentor this

on-going provision of technology-free information and celebratory reflection of all things Eastington.

Jan Low

on behalf of the  ECN editorial team

After many devoted years Andrew Niblett is retiring from his editorial role with the ECN.  Happily, he remains in an advisory role, but his editorial contributions to the magazine will be greatly missed.