To my astonishment I learn this morning that attendees at the first so-called Ealing LDF Public Consultation meeting last night were not given copies of the eight Ealing LDF September 2009 documents which I obtained on 8th September. When I walked out at 7:50pm last night I saw lots of cardboard boxes at the back of the room and one of the boxes contained document 2. (see below) in the Ealing LDF September 2009 document set.
The documents in the Ealing LDF September 2009 document set are:
1. 2026 Development Proposals: Development Strategy: Initial Proposals: September 2009. 1st September, 2009. (66 pages).
2.Developement Management: Policy Document: Issues and Options: Delivering EALING 2026: Development Strategy. 3rd September, 2009. (67 pages).
3. Backgound Paper 1: Population &Household Projections. Undated. (20 pages).
4. Backgound Paper 2: Ealing’s Economy. Undated. (9 pages).
5. Background Paper 3: Housing. Undated. (27 pages)
6. Background Paer 4. Infrastructure Planning & Delivery. Undated. (7 pages).
7. Background Paper 5. Community Consultations &Evidence Base Audit Trail. Undated. (15 pages).
8. COMMENT FORM: 4th September to 16th October 2009. (21 pages).
In order to participate in the public consultation you’ll need a legible copy of these documents. Printing out 232 pages of text and coloured maps from the Council’s web site, especially with a black and white printer, will be tedious. I recommend you go to Perceval House and search out Ian Weeks in Planning and acquire a document set from him.
The fact that the event organisers couldn’t be bothered to make up document sets for each of the attendees is extremely worrying. Wasn’t there time to do this? Possibly because the documents had only just arrived from the printers? Or perhaps staff had been instructed not to hand out the documents.
Sometimes I get the distinct impression that Ealing Council doesn’t want a rich, open debate with residents about Ealing’s future. Rather the Council wants to go through the absolute minimum of process so that it can convince the Government’s Planning Inspectorate in Bristol that it has ‘done’ public consultation.
Eric Leach
10th September, 2009