Making Great Yarmouth a Fairtrade Borough

 

by Yvonne Hill

 

On Wednesday 29^th April a meeting took place at Christchurch to complete the final step to establish Great Yarmouth as a Fairtrade borough. The Lord Mayor (Councillor Terry Easter) and two other councillors were present to take part in the signing of the document.

 

The Chairman of the Steering Group, Mark Llewelyn, welcomed everyone and thanked the members of the Steering Group for all their hard work. Special commendation went to the Co-op as they have done much to promote Fairtrade with a wine tasting evening and by making products available to the general public.  Starbucks were thanked for promoting Fairtrade through their coffee shops and their products and for donating coffee and raffle tickets at the meeting. Every Sunday the jazz band ‘Lounge’ play outside Starbucks in the afternoon. Mark thanked them for playing at this meeting and also for sending a representative.

 

Jenny Livingstone spoke on behalf of Tony Wright who was unable to be there due to his work at Westminster. She pointed out that Fairtrade would always be very close to Tony’s heart and he will still be involved but to a lesser extent. She thanked Mark for his work as Chairman and told him that he was doing a fantastic job. 

                                                             Mark LLewlyn

  

Ruth McGinley gave an informative talk about Fairtrade and about their aims which is to enable Fair Trading in the world and to prevent undercutting of prices and job losses. She said that we are part of a system that keeps people poor, Fairtrade offers the right for people to work themselves out of poverty so that they can become self sufficient. All products with the Fairtrade label have been traded fairly and we can enjoy a cup of tea or coffee without conscience or without anyone having to suffer poor working conditions and poor pay. 

 

 

The Bible speaks of God’s special concern for the poorest and condemns trade which exploits people and the earth. Ruth said that she was amazed at how shops were taking Fairtrade seriously and promoting the products, Tesco, ASDA, Marks & Spencer and many more.

 

Mark thanked the Lord Mayor and the two councillors for coming and then all parties signed the document .The Mayor also signed his name and he took the document with him to present before the council for them to pass a resolution and approval.

 

After the meeting everyone adjourned to the café to look at the different products as well as taste the excellent variety of home baked cakes, biscuits and treats washed down by a cup of tea or coffee, Fairtrade of course! There were a couple of stalls displaying a range of non-food products such as belts, handbags, scarves etc. Christian Aid had a small display which was managed by Jean Fisher.                                                       Ruth McGinley

 

I enquired how to go about registering a church and was told that it was necessary to fill in a form and send it off to the address on the form. I have scanned this form so that it can be printed out if anyone wishes to register their church  (see bottom of page)

 

 

                        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos supplied by Roger Hill