Over a year ago, Council and Leeds University staff held a series of closed-door meetings to discuss anti-social behaviour on Woodhouse Moor. Councillors Jamie Matthews and Penny Ewens were at those meetings; but although reps from the Students’ Union were present, no other community groups were represented.
It was then that the scheme for a barbecue area was conceived. In December, the Leeds University Community Rep., who knew that there was to be a series of consultation meetings three months before anybody else, was drawing up letters for students to sign and give to the Council. All other sections of the community, from neighbourhood associations to the Mosque, were in the dark.
Then in March 2009, posters went up on the Moor. A large colour photo showed people basking in the Elysian sunshine. “Do you want to barbecue on Woohouse Moor (Hyde Park)?” the poster asked, without explaining that answering “Yes” to that question would approve sinking forty huge concrete blocks into the oldest public park in Leeds.
This was the first that anybody except the Students’ Union, Council Officers, and University employees had heard of the plan. Two drop-in sessions were scheduled: one of them was in the Leeds University Students’ Union.
The form made available at these drop-ins was starkly simple. Again, the question was put, “Do you want a designated barbecue area on Woodhouse Moor Park?” You could answer “Yes” or “No”. Ongoing debate was terminated. You didn’t have to put your name and address on the forms – so people could fill in as many as they liked. The consultation had no deadline.
And 10,000 of these forms were, apparently, mailed out to all houses within an 800m perimeter of the Moor. Vast swathes of the catchment area didn’t receive one.
But fear not! The Council yesterday produced a report on the conduct of this dubious farrago. It insists that asking people to vote “Yes” or “No” to a proposal is not a referendum; it’s purpose was rather to “illicit the range and balance of views on this issue” and “gauge…the respective arguments”. They gauged the range of people’s views by asking them: yes or no?
And the delivery company contracted to deliver the forms, Distribution Business Services, are glowingly exonerated. Twenty households made a formal complaint that they had not received a form. In all but one case, DBS was able to confirm delivery. Though How they were able to confirm this, the report does not explain.
One form, alas, couldn’t be delivered due to obstructed access to the property; but this was subsequently rectified. Furthermore, says the report, DBS have ISO9001:2001 accreditation!
The people of Hyde Park and Woodhouse can breathe a sigh of relief. Everybody has received a form. The seventy people at a public meeting who claimed they hadn’t got one were obviously lying.
[ To read the full report, click here.]
So, they want to ‘illicit the range and balance of views on this issue’ do they? I always thought that ‘illicit’ meant ‘illegal’. Perhaps they’re right in using that word instead of the one they probably thought they were using – ‘elicit’. The views discovered by this consultation will be ‘illiclt’ and will not be a legal basis from which to proceed, whatever the outcome! No, we did NOT get a questionnaire and neither did our neighbours, and we all thoroughly resent being called ‘liars’ by the firm who distributed them and by the council workers who organised it! Yes, we did send one in because we picked one up from one of the drop ins – in fact we picked three up – one from each meeting! This has been a flawed exercise that has done nothing for the cause of integration of residents of Hyde Park/Woodhouse. Nor has it done any good for the Council, or for the ‘worthy’ Councillors who supported it. It is a god job there wasn’t a Council Election this year or they would have lost their seats if we had anything to do with it! And meanwhile barbecues are flourishing everywhere – not only on the Moor, but also in Golden Acre, Burley Park, grass verges in Alwoodley and all over the place. As we said in the first place, there is ONLY ONE SOLUTION – BAN THEM and UPHOLD THE BYE LAWS! We are lucky that the weather has been cold recently so no-one has been barbecuing on the Moor – except that yesterday on the way home I saw, near the Skateboard Park – a big column of smoke – another barbecue – and parked near the statue of Victoria – a Police Neighbourhood van! No, they weren’t doing anything about illegal (illicit) behaviour – they were trying to elicit what the residents wanted. Unfortunately I was in the car or I would have had a word!