I do not know how long it has been since we had a story on the front page about the independent retail sector. Certainly a long time since there was one that was potentially good news.

But what will the few thousand independent retailers who remain make of the attempts to bring them together under one umbrella for their greater good?

At first glance Christine Fisher's credentials seem to fit the bill: ad agency, marketing and market research experience gained over a long career in the blue-chip manufacturing sector, matched with a recent foray into independent retail with a home-delivery service.

Greengrocers' Campaigner believes that unless the remaining independents come under a single umbrella soon they will go altogether.

Fisher's project could just be arriving at the right time: farmers' markets are springing up as a trendy alternative for some to the supermarkets, and so the time might be right for a rejuvenation of traditional independent or specialist outlets such as greengrocers.

Some of the six ideas the body has already expressed about linking in with the DoH 5-a-day initiative and portion selling, as well as collaborating on stock to diminish wastage may have mileage.

But now it is up to the independents themselves to come up with their own ideas and make Campaigner, or a joint effort along those lines with the FPC really work.

Funds permitting, Greengrocers' Campaigner is mailing out nation-wide starting with England before covering the rest of the UK. If nothing comes of it, then independents will have made their views known by their silence: for independent read insular.