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RICHMOND WATCHDOG OPEN FORUM
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| Subject: An insult to public consultation. |
Author: George Wiseman
Date: 10/4/2001 3:07 pm WEDT
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I followed with some amazement the extraordinary antics of Mr Robert Hancock, Richmond's controversial and soon to be gone, Strategic Director, during the recent Twickenham Riverside "Public consultations". There were very serious matters at stake here. An insolvent borough like Richmond needs all the cash it can get, so why is it giving this public land free to commercial developers? Do local people really want flats there or do they want a public amenity which the council originally purchased the site for in 1926? Do we need a swimming pool in Twickenham or not?
Mr Hancock should not have chaired this meeting. He is a senior officer of the council who own the land, and as such is not impartial. Mr Hancock has manipulated the situation so the only question the public were consulted on was "Do you want a triple arts cinema or a discovery centre?" You might wonder, as I did, what that has to do with it, and the answer is absolutely nothing whatsoever.
A triple arts cinema cannot possibly work on commercial grounds, many have now testified to this, a discovery centre - although appealing, would be a temporary structure that could be cleared away in a week and so has no relevance to the development. What the people wanted to vote on was - Do we want tower blocks of luxury (3/4 million pound) flats on Twickenham Riverside? Do we want to pay a million pounds to a health club so our kids can use the private pool on Saturday mornings? Do we want to pay a million pounds to demolish a shop in King Street so people can walk through? Do we want to pay half a million to move the public toilets 100 yards? Do we want to dig into our flood plain against all Environment Agency guidance? Do we want to give away (free) a 12 million pound borough asset to an unknown company? All those consultation questions were reduced by Mr Hancock to Arts Cinema or Discovery centre with not even the third option of neither.
So this was Public Consultation at Richmond upon Thames. What a joke. The council that talks so much about Public Consultation and e-democracy really needs to look again at their practices. The whole thing stinks and one is left wondering who is getting the cash-back.
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An insult to public consultation. |
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George Wiseman |
10/4/2001 3:07 pm WEDT |
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Anthony P Berend |
10/5/2001 12:43 am WEDT |
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Trevor Clarke |
10/5/2001 2:50 pm WEDT |
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R H |
10/6/2001 8:46 am WEDT |
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R H |
10/6/2001 8:33 am WEDT |
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Laurence Mann |
10/8/2001 9:43 am WEDT |
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Trevor Clarke |
10/8/2001 10:58 am WEDT |
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Anthony P Berend |
10/8/2001 12:38 am WEDT |
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Cllr Laurence Mann |
10/8/2001 8:06 pm WEDT |
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R H |
10/9/2001 12:33 am WEDT |
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R H |
10/9/2001 12:36 am WEDT |
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