Monday, April 14, 2008

11 Days to Go

...until the April 25th deadline for the South Somerset District Council consultation. Responses can be submitted online here, or through a paper questionnaire available at libraries, the council offices, or at the back of St. James Church Yeovil (spotted some there yesterday). Don't bother with the 'download this questionnaire' option on the website, unless you're planning to print it out and fill it in, it's useless and will just annoy you.

Looking at the list of respondents to the Sedgemoor consultation, just up the road, which happened last year, there were 126 responses. The SSDC online tally is currently 21, though I know of other folk who are filling in questionnaires, and I doubt that the various commercial respondents would put their responses in the public domain.

Roughly half the Sedgemoor responses are from businesses, including national and multinationals such as Tesco (profit 2.5bn last year, and who as of last month have a store in every UK postcode except Harrogate), BAE (who employ 111,000 people in the UK) Bloor homes (turnover £629m), and David Wilson homes (operating profit 2005: £203m). Some of these have a better track record on community issues than others, and answer first and foremost to shareholders rather than God or local residents. It's frustrating that you can't open the files at the Sedgemoor website to view their specific responses there. The next largest group of respondents is local charities, public sector bodies and parish councils.

I've had it said to me 'what's the point, nobody will listen'. Just imagine for a moment Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King, William Wilberforce, Jesus, Columbus, Churchill, saying 'what's the point'..... you get the point. Have your say, and don't wait until April 26th.

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