Unitary Status Disgrace
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From: Jim Harle
To: reviews@boundarycommittee.org.uk
Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 9:32 PM
Subject: Boundary Committee Discovered to be a Sham
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Dear Review Manager
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Unitary Status Options Within Devon
Were All Submissions from the Public Unread Like Mine?
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I have discovered that the Boundary Committee is a sham. I wasted a great deal of time and effort presenting my arguments regarding unitary status options within Devon. Not only did the Committee fail to examine my submission, IT DID NOT EVEN READ IT. I strongly suspect the same is true for other members of the public who took the trouble to respond.
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I alerted you to the fact that my original submission was not examined in my email of 12th May 2009. Presumably, that received the same lack of attention. The original was resubmitted two minutes later. I hope to post full details of this shameful deceit on the Summerway Campaign’s www.summerway.org website before the end of this month.
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This whole review seems to be a confidence trick played on the public by government. We were given the impression of a democratic process, when it seems minds were already made up before public consultation. This would explain ministerial impatience and inadequate timescales. Surely, the professional approach would be to gather and properly assess all the arguments affecting decisions, and to sift them down to a properly balanced recommendation. How is this possible without even looking at submissions from the public?
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I am the sole author of my submissions, which contained unique hyperlinks to my own material on the Web. Those links, incorporated in more than one email, were not accessed. They worked perfectly at the time the emails were sent, and after the Boundary Committee made its recommendation in favour of a single unitary authority for Devon. Apart from my testing, these links have not appeared in my website statistics, exposing the Boundary Committee’s inadequacy and lack of rigour.
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What did happen to my submissions? I guess they were copied to the www.electoralcommission.org.uk website, roughly scanned for a conclusion, a tick added to one or other of the recommendations, and then discounted. Copying to the website gives the false impression that the public’s views and arguments are considered. I know for certain that mine were not. Perhaps the views of Councils and other power brokers were taken into account, but as far as I am concerned the Boundary Committee’s recommendation lacks legitimacy. This is particularly true because the public were not allowed to support the status quo, indicating government was bent on change, however irrelevant or disruptive. I suppose it regards change as jobs for the boys.
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The Summerway Campaign exists because so-
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The Boundary Committee has shown similar disdain for public opinion as Exeter City Council did in the case of the Heavitree Arch. With little expectation that you will thoroughly examine this issue, I offer the following hyperlink:
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Wishing to strongly protest about your disregard of my submissions, I will try to publicise my experience widely and call it to the attention of those who should be concerned. It is small beer compared with the way our lost and inept government has snubbed the electorate over the Lisbon Treaty and national sovereignty, mismanaged the economy and with other horrendous breaches of national importance. I doubt, therefore, the Boundary Committee’s impropriety will make the press, although I consider it is a matter of real public concern.
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Finally, I wish to state my opinion that the Boundary Committee’s recommendation
is damaging to democracy. Exeter City Council wants Unitary Status, as does Devon
County Council, but I believe, after much research, the widespread opinion of the
public is for the maintenance of the status quo at this point in time. We seek genuine
democratic government, which is being denied us by the power hungry privileged, who
show themselves to be self-
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A copy of this email will be forwarded to numerous interested parties. It will also be submitted with appropriate comment to the Department for Communities and Local Government.
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Yours sincerely
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Jim Harle
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The Boundary Committee is
Discovered to be a Sham
(Sent 7th January 2010)