ELY SAVED
AT A time when there is much — justifi- able — criticism of the United States, it is very pleasant to record a new debt that we owe to certain individual Americans. The scheme to build houses immediately to the east of Ely Cathedral — which we had occasion to condemn last year — has now been averted, thanks to a grant from the J. Paul Getty Junior Charitable Trust to- wards the restoration of the mediaeval ca pitular buildings. This grant has been given with the condition that the gardens on which the Dean and Chapter proposed to build should now remain open for at least another 99 years. Another American has also been instrumental in securing this happy conclusion to a long running con- troversy: Mrs Mary Edwards of the Ely Friends of the Earth who sought construc- tive alternatives. What is exraordinary is that the setting of one of our greatest cathedrals has been preserved owing to the generosity and pertinacity of these Amer- icans. Indeed, the Englishmen in question — two successive Secretaries of State for the Environment, the members of East `Geordie gets a job and lives happily ever after.' Cambridgeshire District Council and, above all, the Dean and Chapter of Ely, emerge from this affair with no credit whatever. Thank you, Mr Getty and Mrs Edwards.
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