Letters / Another meaningless waste of everyone’s time?
Back at the start of September, a “consultation” was held regarding Shetland Renewables Connections.
If people couldn’t attend or had further questions, the advice was to contact the community liaison manager. So, on 6 September (and again on 21 September) I did just that.
I never received a reply to either email, however, not even a “thank you for your message and we will respond in due course”. If the message could not be delivered, I would normally get a ‘bounce’ notification, but I didn’t get that either, so I can only conclude their silence speaks for itself and the so-called consultation was another meaningless waste of everyone’s time.
The original text is below:
Given there is a large amount of cynicism in the Shetland community regarding windfarm-related “consultations” being no more than a box-ticking exercise, I would like to ask some questions, and would be grateful if you would address each one specifically and not provide a blanket statement.
- What is the purpose of the consultation and how will the results be used?
- What data will you be collecting to evidence the responses and what metrics will you use?
- Will you be enabling people to submit post-event feedback?
- How will you judge whether you should change your plans as a result of the consultation?
- If the responses show you do not have widespread community support, will you: a) commit to making the level of change required to gain wholesale support, or b) continue anyway? (Please select one of these rather than providing a vague answer)
Linda Tait
Surrey
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