When does consultation mean consultation? Mostly it's a matter of going through the motions. Organisations with no genuine commitment to transparency. openness or decision making through consensus try to put in place certain procedures and words or phrases they hope will cover their backs in the event that something will be challenged in the future.
The Sheffield Wildlife Trust application for funds from the Forestry Commission should be easy for people to read and comment on. A notice displayed on Blacka Moor indicated that those wishing to comment could do so via SWT's website through the Public Register. Leaving aside the fact that most people know nothing about the Public Register but might think in reading this that proper procedures were being followed even if they didn't follow this up themselves, in fact no link was available on SWT's site even for those who searched for half an hour. This was still the case this morning.
A persistent search through the FC's website at last revealed the documents. You need to go to the FC's Public Register here:
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-6DFKDW
and then to click on the words Register of Grant Schemes and Felling some three lines down, then click on East Midlands on the map that comes up. You should then see some half way down the words Blacka Moor. Next to that is the number 24690. On clicking on this the application should come up. You may read the case report and then make comments. Good luck.
Alternatively you might decide that nobody's going to take any notice and make a cup of tea instead. But in doing this you would be deciding that the Coalition Government's commitment to local people deciding what should happen in their area is worthless. Perish the thought.
No comments:
Post a Comment