I’ve lost count of how many editorials I have contributed to these
newsletters, it may not be all that many in real terms I suppose, but
it feels a lot and I have decided it’s time to park my pen in a quiet
place and get on with a few things such as doing a bit more painting. Been
an interesting few years, though. However, around Taplow things have
been rather quiet of late and this leaves an old pessimist like me
wondering what is brewing in the minds of our planners and developers.
It is sometimes said that the only constant thing in life is change and I
think we are in for a period of it over the next few years. The Bishop
Centre proposals which your Chairman, Karl, will be updating you on in
this issue is still coming up to the boil, especially since there are the
odd rumours that Tesco, with their first year of reduced profit in twenty
years, may be getting cold feet about building another major store so
close to a competitor. We shall shortly see. That old perennial, The Mill
Lane site, may see some activity in the next six months (this is reading
like Old Moore’s Almanac!) particularly since the design brief has
been published by SBDC and it doesn’t look too bad from our viewpoint.
However, I doubt that Barratts will want to give up their dream of 300
houses on that site. Interesting times lie ahead for your Society. In
my own contribution in this issue I have a little bleat about what seems
to be a plague of raptors decimating our songbirds. Hopefully your new
editor will be a little more upbeat in future issues. The main upbeats
in this issue however are the contributions Taplow volunteers have made
to the Olympic games, the marvellous Jubilee torchlight procession,
and the raft race, which by all accounts was tremendous fun, echoing
last year’s go-cart race in the village.
My grateful thanks to all the present and past members of your Committee
who have been such a great support over the years; my special thanks to
Andrew Findlay for his wonderful cover photographs and for the superb
job of putting the whole thing together for printing. Extra-special
thanks however are due to the many, many people who contributed their
time and thoughts expressed in articles, which made the newsletter such
an interesting job for the editor and, I hope, an interesting read for
you all. So, it’s goodbye from the editor and goodbye from me
Fred Russell
