I had a phone call from Mark Branigan of the Yorkshire Post yesterday. He said he had called the Friends of Thornborough to ask what they thought about TimeWatch. He said that they were not happy that we had decided to create a dedicated campaign for Thornborough and effectively said that only they were allowed to campaign regarding the issue.
My comments were to the effect that the membership of FoT, which I still regard myself as, had not been consulted when FoT decided to stop campaigning and had instead decided to dedicate their time to working with the council behind closed doors.
As far as I and many others are concerned, without HA's Thornborough Campaign, the henges would be in a far more serious position than they are today.
Regarding the working group, very little information has been made public regarding its activities although I understand that they are working with English Heritage in order to create a conservation plan, which could well be a good thing, but we don't know that yet.
Tarmac are also on the working group, and only a couple of weeks ago FoT made an angry statement in the press saying that Tarmac were deliberately dragging their heels in order that the conservation plan would not be available until the Ladybridge application had been determined.
I'm therefore still at a loss to understand how the conservation plan will save Ladybridge. Furthermore, as I understand it, Tarmac are in charge of the management team for the creation of the conservation plan. This says to me that Tarmac could well end up being a long term player - entrenched in the conservation plan. I'm sure they would not do this if they thought that quarrying in the area was going to stop.
I notice that Tarmac are still trying to hide the fact that we are dealing with a monument complex as opposed to three individual monuments. They are implying that there is no archaeology on Ladybridge when their own research and that of Jan Harding suggests exactly the opposite. This is the greatest threat .
