Don't Ditch our Lodes
The Cambridgeshire Lodes' supporters are still urged to obtain more
signatures for the 'Don't Ditch Our Lodes!' on-line EPetition. If
you know of others who might like to sign up, please copy or forward this
message to them so that they can click on the website, which is to be found at
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http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/OurLODES/
The E-Petition reads as follows:
"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to ensure that the Cambridgeshire Lodes don't get ditched!
Some 30 years ago, a successful campaign was waged to save The Cambridgeshire Lodes, ancient canals of probable Roman origin - principally Bottisham, Swaffham Bulbeck, Reach, Burwell and Wicken Lodes - which were threatened by the then authorities. A decision was made to maintain and to preserve The Lodes. Such is the situation today: The Lodes have been maintained and preserved. But new documents indicate that The Environment Agency has commissioned a 'scoping report' costing some £200,000 and that it is looking critically at The Lodes, an option again being that of converting all or some of them into ditches. The old campaign slogan - 'Don't Ditch Our Lodes!' - is just as relevant now as it was in the 1970s. A new factor is The National Trust's plans to buy up and partially to flood some 10,000 acres of rich fen land and the Trust says that 'lowering' some of The Lodes would be 'acceptable.' Lowering is much the same as ditching. The Swaffham Internal Drainage Board and Swaffham Prior Parish Council support The Lodes being maintained. But the Philistines could be triumphant if their opponents are inactive. So, this is a call to those with influence to use it!"
I conclude this message with the following, which may be apt at this point:
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
(Winston S. Churchill, the Prime Minister, speaking at the Lord Mayor's Luncheon, held at The Mansion House, London, following the British victory at El Alamein in North Africa, 10th November, 1942).