Latest news with #SaveOurTrees
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
‘Keep Beaufort Beaufort' is a reminder and a rallying cry for us all
'Keep Beaufort Beaufort.' What beautiful marching orders from Cynthia Jenkins, who stepped down this month as the director of the Historic Beaufort Foundation after a-14 year tenure there. You'd think this is a group that looks back in time, sometimes to an aggravating degree, and it does. But since 1947, it has looked forward by doing its best to keep Beaufort Beaufort. I hope the foundation is the first one to capitalize on the 'Keep Beaufort Beaufort' T-shirts, if they haven't done so already. But really, that is the cry of our times all over the South Carolina Lowcountry — 'Save us, dear God, from ourselves.' And we're not the only ones in the fight. The most famous municipal rallying cry is probably 'Keep Austin Weird' in Texas, but it's easy to imagine a lot of T-shirt wishes closer to home. Keep Bluffton Eccentric. Keep St. Helena Gullah. Keep Hilton Head Over There. Keep Columbia Hot. Keep Myrtle Beach Kitschy. Keep Charleston From Sinking. A real one today is 'Keep Chelsea Rural,' a grassroots reaction to the kudzu vine of growth that is now reaching beyond Bluffton and Hardeeville to overtake Highway 462 in rural Jasper County. A similar new plea is 'Save the Euhaw.' As Hilton Head Island has grown from a few thousand residents to around 40,000 while luring 3.5 million visitors a year, some people even marched in the streets trying to 'save' things. We've had: Save Our Trees. Save the Sea Pines Deer. Save the Forest Beach Chickens. Save the Tiki Hut. Have all these people over all this time been asking too much? Cynthia Jenkins was in the best position to know what it means, and understand what it will take, to keep Beaufort Beaufort. All of these grassroots wishes implore us to know who we are. What is our soul? And why would we sell it to the devil? What is our birthright? And why would we sell it for a bowl of lentil stew? 'Keeping' and 'saving' our soul implores us to know who it is that is defining who or what we are. Is it the travel brochure or the poet? The Big Mac or the shrimp burger? Trader Joe's or Harold's Country Club? Beaufort can tell her own story, if we'll but have the sense to listen. It is older than the United States of America itself, and has somehow rolled with the tides and the times under six different flags. It serves today a feast of flavor brought by the Africans, Huguenots, Spanish, English, Scots, and, yes, plenty of damn Yankees. Best-selling author Pat Conroy, who was adopted by the people of Beaufort when he was just a sniveling Marine Corps dependent, came as close as anyone to capturing the allure of Beaufort in mere words. In 'The Prince of Tides,' Conroy wrote, 'To describe our growing up in the low country of South Carolina, I would have to take you to the marsh on a spring day, flush the great blue heron from its silent occupation, scatter marsh hens as we sink to our knees in mud, open you an oyster with a pocketknife and feed it to you from the shell and say, 'There. That taste. That's the taste of my childhood.'' Countless others have savored it over 400 years. We can thank Cynthia Jenkins for her years of attention to every detail of her unique home town. But we can also thank her for reminding us how important it is to 'Keep Beaufort Beaufort.' David Lauderdale may be reached at lauderdalecolumn@
BBC News
14-02-2025
- General
- BBC News
Plans for £8m Ripon Cathedral annexe withdrawn
Plans for a new £8m annexe at Ripon Cathedral have been withdrawn after they failed to gain council proposals for the two-storey structure to be built on part of the public open space known as Minster Gardens were due to be debated by councillors later this the cathedral chapter said it had been decided to withdraw the application after the plans were not supported by Ripon City Council at a meeting in a statement, the cathedral chapter said the debate surrounding the annexe scheme had been "challenging and difficult for everyone, but especially for cathedral staff and supporters". 'Eloquent arguments' The proposals for the building, which would have contained a song school, cafe and toilets, had divided opinion within Ripon and the surrounding plans for work on the site had included the felling of 11 trees to make way for the annexe's under revised plans to be considered within weeks by North Yorkshire councillors, 12 trees would have been removed, a heritage beech tree would have been saved and 23 trees would have been planted in its statement, the cathedral chapter said its members "were saddened" the council did not support the proposed annexe in its December meeting "despite the many eloquent arguments placed before them and the amendments that had been made to retain the beech tree".According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the statement said the application had been withdrawn to "allow the further development and amendment of our plans to be discussed constructively and positively, balancing the many complex constraints and opportunities"."We now look to work constructively with North Yorkshire Council and Ripon City Council on how the essential needs of the cathedral can be met and will be asking them to share their vision for how the Cathedral Quarter will be developed," it added. 'Meaningful discussions' A spokesperson for the Save Our Trees campaign, whose members had fought the scheme, said the withdrawal of the plans was "a vindication for campaigners who have tirelessly fought for the past two years to protect the local park against a large development and developer".Meanwhile, Ripon Civic Society, which has an advisory role on local planning applications, said the move by the cathedral chapter would allow "meaningful discussions" to be held with planners, the council, Historic England and local residents."The society has never denied the cathedral's needs, and looks forward to finding a way of meeting them that heals the present divide," it the withdrawal, the cathedral chapter said it wanted to clarify that all costs for developing the annexe proposals had been covered by fundraising from to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.
