Devious

Let’s tell it simply rather than ponder over what gets into people that behave this way. We’ll just put it down to ‘culture’.
At the 21st April Sheffield Moors Partnership Feedback Meeting I asked a serious question. Would there be meaningful discussion on aspects of the management which obviously concerned many people who had expressed different opinions? I voiced concern that the consultation when it happened must not be superficial. One of the reasons was that the question of management of the uplands needed public debate especially after Natural England had withdrawn its Vital Uplands policy amid some controversy and that there was no consensus on the way forward. I also wrote to SMP members afterwards including this:

The question of public debate and discussion seems to me to be central. For a 15 year plan to have strong support there needs to be a lot of opportunity for interaction between those with differing views and it’s not clear how this is to be engineered or if it is even to be encouraged at all. Once you look at the wide divergences in view on the most strategic element – landscape and land management - it’s clear that consensus will not easily be obtained but one has to give it a chance by examining the assumptions and conceptions/misconceptions around. If large amounts of public money are to go into management then that’s the least that should be expected.

I was given assurances that my comments would be discussed at the coming Steering Group meeting two weeks later.
The minutes of that meeting have only now been published on SMP’s website 3 months later and there is no reference to my request.

This means either that discussion did happen but was not minuted or that these publicly employed officers had quiet off-the-record talks so they could not later be held accountable for their views. The letter I received from Nick Sellwood shortly afterwards was therefore not based on discussions shared within that meeting. It claimed that my comments ..

......have been discussed by the partner representative’s within the Sheffield Moors Partnership – Sheffield City Council, National Trust, Natural England, Sheffield Wildlife Trust, RSPB, and the Peak District National Park Authority.

But they did not discuss them at that meeting so when did they discuss them?

The fact is that they will go to any lengths to avoid acknowledging that this whole project deserves to get a proper public consultation rather than a flimsy one heavily disguised with reams of paperwork to give the appearance of being more weighty than it is. The deviousness is something learned when you are employed by groups including Sheffield City Council whose officers have a poor opinion of their citizens. They are not used to their assumptions being challenged or even vaguely scrutinised. A culture just as dangerous as that which led to national scandals in banking, MP's expenses and newspapers. The solution is total transparency.