Partner Ploys

None of the partners turned up to the ‘Roadshow’ at Blacka on Sunday. So again we couldn’t ask them questions. Absence must be good for your career.

Who are these partners anyway who are paid by the public but don’t have enough respect for the public to turn up? Let’s start with the Peak District National Park Bureaucracy Authority. The manager who is playing the part of PDNPA is Jane Chapman. So what do we know of her? I first heard her name some years ago when we were arguing with SWT about whether Blacka should become farmland and have barbed wire and cowpats visited upon us. Jane Chapman had never been to any RAG meetings nor tried to make contact with us in any way but felt authorised to send out a press release to the papers giving a bland statement that this grazing scheme would go ahead. We were so thrilled.

I’ve only met this lady once. My impression is she likes to think about "the economy". So I’m pretty sure she’s the one who got the word ‘working’ inserted at a late stage into SMP’s banner heading for the vision. “A Cherished and Working Landscape”.

At a short group session as part of the 21st April meeting it was evident she didn't like ideas that challenged her own. She chaired and scribed for a small group that I sat in on. She did a pretty rotten job, speaking very quietly so I couldn’t hear. She fixed it so the only topics that got discussed were those she felt safe with. She allowed two other ladies to ramble on, going over old ground interminably about safe subjects (signage and archaeology) leaving barely time for me to get a word in. I eventually got in a few comments about land management and the economy which were excluded from the summary notes she wrote and from the main document. They were obviously too radical a departure from her and SMP’s pre-formed agenda. Meanwhile the tame comments of the two ladies which must have been duplicated scores of times previously were faithfully recorded once again. Later on a grossly overblown document was uploaded onto SMP’s website about this rather insignificant and underpowered meeting. That document amazingly made it look much more than it actually was – inflated to look like a week-long conference in fact. With its multiple photos it’s one of the most blatantly fraudulent examples of corporate misinformation I’ve ever come across; goodness knows how many office hours it took to put it together. All was clearly planned by the partners and if they are not ashamed then there’s no hope for them.
They may never have come away from the shops without paying for goods but it would be a rash person who trusted them more than certain TV presenters.

Jane Chapman is Head of Environmental, Cultural Heritage and Recreation Strategy for the Peak District National Park. Not for the first time I'm calling for a cull of managers.