Consultationed out!!

Having completed submissions on various consultations over the last weeks I do always wonder how much of them are heard - it is pleasing to see that at least some of the issues raised in Stroud District Council have got into final documents like concerns re climate change getting into their submission to the RSS (see Blog 30th August).

Having said that a submission re nuclear decommissioning seems to have been ignored on some key points - and I know many people are feeling there is too much consultation and too little real listening. In Cotswold District I heard that Fairford Parish Council are proposing a resolution to the Gloucestershire Association of Parish and Town Councils - GAPTC AGM in October. The text is -

"While accepting that consultation with the public is a worthy aspiration, the GAPTC is concerned about the large number of such exercises in which the outcome appears to be anticipated, calling into question the value of any such exercise. It therefore urges local authorities and public bodies to refrain from organising consultation exercises unless there is a reasonable chance that the outcome can be effected by the opinions canvassed."

Enough said!

Today I was at a meeting of the Safe Water Campaign for Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire which I helped set up to raise awareness about the dangers of water fluoridation. We have been involved in many local campaigns - over 1000 signed petitions in Stroud alone. At this meeting a member from Bristol suggested yet another submission.....this time to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics - should we take part in their consultation? Some members of the group expressed doubt over experiences with them re GM but we decided that if we don't make our voice heard then they can claim there is no opposition - a job for next week perhaps!