We (SWAG/Residents 4 Newmarket/Supporters Trust) learned of the RW letter before it went on the planning portal, as it was an appendix of Barton Willmore's evidence. We actually even heard about this prior to learning that Tesco had pulled out of negotiations with Opus for WR. We discussed the letter at length and we all agreed that, even though we were unhappy & disappointed with RW actions, it was not appropriate to bring this to anyone's attention at this time because it served no positive purpose to do so and our sole aim is to get Newmarket through the PI, & not criticise RW unless the letter was used 'against' Newmarket.
We did think that it might come up and we said that if it did, we would have no choice but to comment & of course condemn RW's actions (we were all very clear that we condemn RW only, as we did not know whether he had sought the opinion of the Cas board or not prior to writing the letter). It seems that we gave much more thought to RW's letter than he seemed to do before writing & sending it... which is a genuine shame!
So, bigalf, you clearly knew about it before the news came 'out' in the PI, I could tell from a couple of cryptic posts... so why didn't you say anything? I suspect you thought about it too and realised no good would come of bringing this to Cas fans attention prior to the PI, just like we did... seems all our integrities remain intact!!!
When I learned that Tesco had pulled out of negotiations with Opus for WR, again, I thought carefully about it, but only for a short time! I quickly knew that, in actual fact, it was none of my bloody business and that it seemed to have (at that time!) zero bearing on the Newmarket PI. As such, and also knowing that someone would find out sooner or later and post the news anyway, that this was best kept to myself and it was not until the rumours started to break and people contacted me, to see if I had heard, that I spoke to anyone about it. The only person I discussed WR with was you, and that was a couple of weeks prior and, as you know, this was about flooding issues and the rumour that negotiations between Opus & Tesco might be breaking down because of this.
So, there you go! I suspect that this post will get me accused of lots of things both here and on Cas forum, and I think the only thing I have not been accused of, mind only by a small minority of posters, is assassinating Princess Di! I would like to state for the record I was actually throwing a party at the time and as such there were lots of witnesses, albeit generally very drunk ones, who can vouch for my whereabouts... & it was not Paris!
