Call this Christian?

Such intensity of feeling brought so many Newton St Cyres residents to their Parish Hall last night that not only was there standing room only, the standing room included those who were outside the hall leaning in to listen through the open windows.

The reason?

Underneath the well-drained, fertile and

beautiful farmland of nearby Winscott Barton Farm

lie 3 million tonnes of gravel and sand

 which could be extracted and sold

to bring in money

for the Church Commissioners

who own the land.

As tennant farmers, four generations of the same family have made Winscott Barton a highly productive dairy and crop-producing farm. If the Church Commission gives them notice to quit and the gravel extraction goes ahead all this will be lost, not just for the twenty or twentyfive years it takes to sell off the gravel, but forever, because the reduced amount of farmable land that is left will drain so poorly.

Why might the Church Commissioners even entertain the idea of ruining forever a good farm - when everyone knows our country falls well short of producing all its own food?

Their investments haven't always been guided by an ethical approach as is now ensured by their Ethical Investments Advisory Board. But recently they did eventually decide to pull out of controversial dam building in India.

So if they can back off from harm in far off India,

perhaps we can persuade them to do no harm in Devon?

Please let the Secretary of the

 Ethical Investment Advisory Board 

know how you feel about the idea of

Winscott Barton Farm

becoming a gravel quarry.