Consultation and the RAG

The Blacka Moor RAG (Reserve Advisory Group) was set up at the time Sheffield City Council decided to hand over Blacka to SWT who had lobbied hard with some mendacious arguments to get hold of this large area of land. It was always something of a fudge, responding to concerns that land belonging essentially to the public was being taken into control of a private organisation; there was never any clear definition of its role, membership etc. But it struggled on for some 10 years being increasingly sidelined by SWT with the council keeping a distance.

And that is the nub. The council keeps its distance. Let's not get into any tangled argument about what the council is or who they are. Let's just accept it's the officers and directors supposedly working in our interests but often, well ......

The real value for them is that this devolving of land to outside organisations is a way of evading accountability. Sadly naive people such as yours truly, believe for so long that the council independently and responsibly checks and monitors what the private outfits are doing; but they are doing nothing of the sort. These private businesses are actually designated as partners. And the officers interpret this as a cosy relationship in which ranks are closed and mouths are sealed. Scrutiny is a joke, operated on a back scratching basis. So when members of the public raise concerns about what SRWT does, council officers' first instinct is to back up the partner. The outsider in all this is the citizen who both feel the need to defend against.

The one place where some sort of holding to account happened in the form of minor questioning was at the public events known as the RAG. Some time  ago those meetings just stopped.

Now guess what? You could hardly make it up, but SRWT can because that's their particular trade - making things up:
A new forum to replace the RAG will be unveiled. But it will only be open to those who agree with SRWT's plans!!!