Membership Decline - period ended 1.15.2006

Membership Decline/Real Estate Development/Friends issue invite to home plan critics/Observer/London/England/UK/12-Jan-2006//…DEVELOPMENT plans - dubbed a new "village" by critics - will be unveiled tomorrow (Friday, 13 January) at Saffron Walden's Friends' School.

Governors and trustees of the Quaker institution in Mount Pleasant Road have issued an open invitation to campaigners to examine their new home proposals before renewing opposition.

The school caused a storm of protest last year when its plans for spare land at the 12.3 hectare (30 acre) campus were first revealed.

A period of consultation then followed and a Friends' spokesman said this week it was hoped the new proposals would reflect the subsequent negotiations both with angry neighbours and Uttlesford District Council officials.

Friends', which has been based in Saffron Walden for the past 126 years, is relying on the sale of underused land to finance a raft of repairs and improvements to its co-educational facilities for youngsters aged bet-ween three and 18, with boarders from age 11. ...

Membership Decline///Farewell to Quakers after 300 years/Bridlington Free Press/Bridlington/England/UK/3-Jan-2006//... MORE than 350 years of a Quaker group in Bridlington has come to an end. ... Bridlington was visited by Quaker convert William Dewsbury of Pocklington in 1651. ...