LAST week the charge of apathy was being levelledat the people of Stokesley. Spectator wonders if that is quite fair.

The group in question doing the pointing had spent two years labouring toward producing a Stokesley design statement, a sort of blueprint of what the town is and what it needs to be in the future. The group, which must undoubtedly have worked hard, has decided it cannot complete the task and has called a meeting in the hope a new team will finish off the job.

The alternative is to accept what the group described as insufficient interest among the community and simply lodge the work done so far in the parish archives.

The population of Stokesley is about 5,000. In compiling its report so far, the group consulted 35 societies in the town.

Accustomed as Spectator is to noting the amount of volunteer work that keeps so much afloat, this was an impressive number of organisations for the size of the town.

In fact, this a town in which apathy plainly does not rule and there can be no doubt that Monday's public meeting will bring forth men and women with the will and energy to take up this project.

Stokesley has a distinctive flavour and problems no worse than other towns; now is the time to match vision to realities.

A natural beauty

Hambleton branch of the Council for the Protection of Rural England held its agm last Friday.

Along with the usual business, members heard a talk entitled "What it means to be an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty" by the Howardian Hills ANOB officer, the most appropriately named Susan Bragg. Spectator trusts she was not too modest.