Holding Stakes

Cronies and Others.

(Are all Consultations Like This?)

Further to the previous post about CPRE `(Campaign to Protect Rural England), a problem which surfaced early on in the Blacka Moor ‘consultation’ was the cosy nature of relations between certain people taking part. Some of these have been designated as ‘stakeholders’. Why do some folk qualify as stakeholders while all the others are dismissable as also rans? Maybe all consulations are prone to this discrimination. When local people who walked daily on Blacka found out about the Reserve Advisory Group, claimed by SWT to be open to everybody to attend, the group had already been established and important decisions taken. The meetings had been scheduled for the 'convenient' time of 2 pm on a weekday afternoon. No notices had been displayed on the moor at any access points by SWT or by the council. Who then constituted the ‘public’ who were allegedly being consulted? There were representatives of various groups. Among these was CPRE and Ramblers, also English Nature as it was then. It was interesting that the man representing CPRE sometimes introduced himself as representing Peak and Northern Footpaths, but we later discovered he was on the board of SWT. Later he was replaced with a new man from CPRE who turned out to have a personal connection with the SWT Reserves manager. The level of questioning and scrutiny from these people left much to be desired and this was not helped by those chosen to represent local residents being distinctly sleepy. None of these people in 30 years of walking on Blacka have I ever seen there.

By the time Blacka Blogger and one ally had got the group to agree to posting meeting notices on the moor and holding them at 7 pm, when more people could get to them, the 5 year management plan had been written and all was sown up.