MOIRA Macdonald, Labour PPC for Central Devon has sent the following letter to Cllr John Hart, leader of Devon County Council after attending a meeting of Crediton Traffic Action Group on Tuesday night (March 2).
LAST night a well-attended meeting of the Crediton Traffic Action Group (CTAG) was told that its members will have no opportunity to see the latest DCC proposal - regarding which route the Crediton Industrial Link Road should take - until after the deadline for putting questions regarding that matter to be heard at your March 10 Cabinet meeting, where a decision is to be made.
This seems like perverse scheduling, especially when it is considered that the proposals were to have come to your February Cabinet meeting but were delayed.
The disjuncture between the questions deadline and CTAG's sight of the documents is open to being construed as deliberate.
Whilst I doubt very much the Council would wish to be provocative, or risk a Cabinet process appearing mal-administered, it is hard to understand why CTAG, a long-standing, patient and credible group, is faced with such a seemingly dismissive and difficulty-creating process?
Without a chance to see which route is proposed, last night's CTAG members felt forced to expect an adverse outcome (the Hill route) and to have to put forward questions on that negative basis, hoping that at least they could add supplementary questions at the Cabinet meeting.
Hardly a constructive way for a council and its residents to engage, I would have thought. It risks looking as if the Council wishes to neglect its statutory duty to consult for some reason best known to itself.
But it also means that, should the latest Link Road proposal actually be in favour of the Valley Route, CTAG members will have lost the opportunity to put forward positive, constructive questions that could prove very beneficial.
Surely the current schedule will not do?
What is the best remedy for this situation?
Moira Macdonald
Labour PPC for
Central Devon
2a Lower Hill Barton Road
Exeter
EX1 3EH