Simply Untrustworthy

In the light of the failure of Sheffield Wildlife Trust to hold Reserve Advisory Group meetings (last one November 2012) despite assurances in June 2013 and January 2014 that they were just about to do so. And in the light of the proposed leasing of Burbage, Houndkirk and Hathersage Moors to another NGO (NT) let's look back at a Sheffield City Council Scrutiny Board meeting of 2008. Can anyone these days be believed?

2008 Scrutiny Board Meeting Minutes.

Mr. J. Derricott, Legal and Governance, presented a joint report of the Assistant Chief Executive, Legal and Governance, Director of Parks and Countryside and the Head of Corporate Property, responding to the Board's request made at its meeting on 20th September, 2007, for a further report (a) on measures to ensure that leases relating to the disposal of land/buildings to partner organisations included mechanisms to ensure that the public had access to question the organisation concerned and influence its decisions where appropriate and (b) providing details of how the terms of leases were enforced by the Council by reference to recent examples relating to the disposal of land at Castle Dyke, Ringinglow and Blackamoor……………………………

In the case of Blackamoor, the Management Agreement which ran along side the lease, provided for public involvement through a Reserve Advisory Group which enabled Sheffield Wildlife Trust, to whom the lease of the land had been assigned, to comprehensively consult with the public and facilitate public input into the land's five year management plan. The Management Agreement also provided for the provision of a Steering Group comprising representatives of the City Council, the Peak Park, Sorby National (sic) History Society and representatives of the Access Group, which met on a quarterly basis and dealt with matters of a more strategic nature and with any items referred to them from the Trust's Reserve Advisory Groups.

The Board heard representations made by Mr. Fitzmaurice advocating the need to improve the way the City Council and its partner organisations (for example, in this case, the Sheffield Wildlife Trust) took account of the views of local people in any decisions relating to the management of green open space or the disposal of land by the Council to voluntary organisations. He suggested that there had been a lack of consultation and publicly available information on the disposal of land at Blackamoor to the Sheffield Wildlife Trust.

He also suggested that any partner organisation to whom the City Council disposed of land should, at the very least, provide access to meetings of the Management Body, as well as a transparent complaints procedure and prescribed standard of conduct in the consideration of the organisation's business.

The Chair of the Board responded that the Members of the City Council had the ultimate responsibility to ensure that the City's green open spaces were maintained and sustained to a satisfactory level ...................................................................................................................

Nigel Doar, Chief Executive, Sheffield Wildlife Trust, advised the Board that the description of arrangements for the conduct of the Trust's business through a Steering Group and Reserve Advisory Group were exactly as described in the report.

He added that the Council's current nominated member representative on the Steering Group had not yet attended a meeting, but he was circulated with agenda papers for the meeting. He added that the Trust's Steering Group considered matters which were of a strategic nature and were not open to the public. ...........
...... He emphasised that the Trust wished to involve the public in the management of Blackamoor and maximise the input of community opinion but that this should be achieved in a constructive manner. He felt that the mechanisms in the joint report before the Board were working well, although he acknowledged that there were a small number of issues still to be resolved.

In response to a question by a Member of the Board, Mr. Doar indicated that meetings of the Reserve Advisory Group were advertised on site, in "The Star" newspaper, Radio Sheffield and mailing list of over 200 interested people.

Meetings of the Group were open to anyone and they met approximately every two months.

There is only one position that any responsible citizen can take and that is to assume that nobody in the conservation sector, public body or NGO can be trusted.