STOP Harlow North took full advantage of the 'your questions answered' page on Ropemaker's Harlow North website and asked some questions that are just too embarrassing even for the BP Pension Fund to answer. It seems that the prospective owners - the North Harlow Joint Venture - are just as reluctant to answer our questions, despite all their rhetoric about openness and listening to public opinion. Currently we have had no response on ten important questions:
| 1) The stakeholder pack I previously referred to
included the following commitment: "ud+m will produce accurate & impartial
written reports for each event: a copy will be given to each participant
as part of our transparency policy" When will the written reports for the
drop-in and the community forums be available and distributed to all
attendees? 2) At the recent workshops you publicly stated that around 600 people had attended the drop –in sessions but in your e-mail (10/12/09) this number has now risen to 700 people. Which number is correct? 3) The same stakeholder pack (see 1) referred to: “Creation of a ‘Peoples’ Panel’: volunteers that closely match a ‘proxy’ profile of a future community who will respond to on-going questionnaires that test & refine the ‘outcomes’ from events”. In your e-mail of 11th January you state” The panel is comprised of all the people who signed up to it at the various drop in sessions in both East Herts and Harlow. Which statement is correct? 4) On 11th January you wrote to me saying you could “confirm that your questionnaire was sent out by post along with everyone else who had registered to participate”. Some of our supporters received electronic questionnaires on 6th January. The letter sent to me was dated 6th January but the questionnaire footer contained the dated “7 January 2010”. Can you clarify your confirmation? Did you send out post-dated questionnaires to all? 5) In the minutes of a meeting of your agents with the Highways agency in October 2009 it is noted that it is “not anticipated that a bypass would form part of the proposals for the core strategy submission”. Is this still your considered position? If so, why are you asking the Peoples’ Panel for their views on this matter? 6) On 24th December Emma Cariaga wrote “we will be
inviting parishioners to meetings in January in order to display our
initial ideas and to seek further feedback.” Can you provide details of
the dates, times and venues for these meetings? 8) Emma Cariaga wrote on 24th December “We are undertaking this engagement activity to inform our submissions to the LDF process.” Is this a further purpose in the current consultation exercise? 9) Does the NHJV stand by Emma Cariaga’s comments in the Sunday Times in the context of the Building Futures Group that “We want (planning) applications to be treated fairly and judged on merit, not on the basis of instincts or political whims”? 10) Does the NHJV recognise the report of the Examination in Public held in 2006 written by the independent inspector which recommended, after listening to evidence presented by all interested parties, that plans for 10,000 houses north of Harlow should be removed from the East of England Plan? |