01/10/2012….Neighbourhood Plan Consultation process ‘undemocratic’ ?

DEAR Editor, on 25/09/2012, I sent the following letter to Thame Town Councillors. To date I have not received any replies:

Dear Councillor,

I?m writing about a matter that gives me real concern.
On Wednesday 19/09/2012, I attended an open meeting at the Town Hall where it was established that a vital part of the consultation process for the Thame Town Plan (the Plan) was not an open and democratic process. Decisions were made at closed, unpublicised meetings where only a few selected groups were invited and all other groups who also had an interest in the Plan were excluded from this crucial process. Not even the minutes of these meetings could be found openly on the Thame Town Council website.

This was to me a shocking revelation.

Part of the excuse for spending thousands of pounds of Thame rate payers? money on consultant?s fees was that the SODC?s plan for our area was not arrived at via a democratic process. Ironically we now have a plan presented to us as ?Thame?s preferred option? which has been devised under even less democratic circumstances than SODC?s plan.

What I found even more disappointing was that of the six or seven councillors and representatives of the council present, not one could defend this underhand and undemocratic process nor offer an apology to the citizens of Thame, or to those present at the meeting, for TTC?s shortcomings.

I now call on you and your fellow councillors to find a way to put this injustice to rights.

I await your response.

Yours sincerely
Oliver Dyroff

PS The above text was sent to each individual councillor via the TTC website?s Contact Form. However this method of contacting our Councillors seems to have failed on a grand scale.