SIR: I fear some readers may misunderstand your point about stealth in last week’s Editorial Comment. The WCC plan was indeed perfectly evident, but I think members of the public talking about “stealth” may be prompted by the council’s apparent urgency to get the plan passed no matter what, particularly when it is clearly controversial on several counts.

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The plan seemed to appear abruptly some time ago as the only option to be publicly pursued. Apart from a substantial lack of detail on technical and legal matters, any option appraisal which considered public views was at best perfunctory. Councillor Learney may be right that there has been much consultation with the public in recent years, but this has been about the city as a whole, mainly the centre, as her remarks at the meeting acknowledged. Any consultation about the leisure centre site itself has been brief and recent, indeed it was specifically excluded from public engagement events about the future of the River Park as a whole.

The degree of outrage on the part of members of the public at the meeting was extraordinary. But the Cabinet chair and members simply didn’t seem to be listening, with what acknowledgement of public feeling that they made seeming rather patronising. They casually admitted to not having measured the area to be included, and hence proportion of the recreation ground to be lost to the general public.They seemed determined to make their preferred decision without delay, and even continued with the meeting apparently despite police advice to reschedule for another day. There was no substantial debate, or vote taken. I suggest this haste may be what is prompting allegations of “stealth”, with the shortage of space for members of the general public at the meeting perhaps seeming to be consistent with this.

I have heard it suggested that the urgency is driven by the need to avoid purdah leading up to the local elections in May. Might the outcome have otherwise affected the plan or its implementation perhaps?

Steve Marper,

Monks Road,

Hyde

 

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