People have asked us why we aren't running a traditional style paper petition for the "Save Milton Country Park" campaign, the sort where people just sign their names in a long list. The reason is that we want to do more than count up the number of signatures we get.

When supporters sign up, either online or using our petition form we obtain valuable (and legible) information including your address and postcode. We can use this to show how geographically widespread the support is for Milton Country Park - we have supporters from all over South Cambridgeshire and much further afield.

We also want to know how people use the Park and your answers to the questionnaire are providing us with a fascinating insight into the many and varied ways in which people enjoy time in the Park, from regular dog-walking, to special and significant times for remembrance with family and friends [you can read some of those here]. This in turn gives us real influence when we discuss the importance of the Park with councillors.

It's also useful to know your age range, if you don't mind telling us, as this lends weight to the argument that people of all ages are using the Park.

Finally we're thinking long-term. If we do manage to save the Park, it is likely that we will need to set up a charitable trust to run it. That trust will need active members and (unless you ticked the box asking us not to) we would like to write to you in due course to inform you about the trust and our plans.

All of this means that we are encouraging people to sign up online wherever possible as it saves us a lot of work entering your information. You can do that online at www.SaveMiltonCountryPark.com.

If you do not have access to the Internet then use the petition form. You can use one form per household and please write very clearly, so we can input your information accurately. If you want more copies ask a friend to download a the petition form from the website and print off copies for you, friends and relatives. Copies are available at the Visitor Centre in the Country Park.

[This article was written for the February edition of "Milton Village View", each one of which included a copy of our paper petition, but we thought it worth putting up here too]

Written: 12/02/07

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