Leeds Trolleybus Enquiry Begins
29 April 2014
The long expected Leeds
Trolleybus Enquiry began today. I shan't be giving a blow by blow account
of what was said as you can listen to my audio recordings of the three sessions
on my Mixcloud site.
But some lay commentary may give an impression about it.
I dare say that this kind of thing can seem rather impenetrable to many people with all the formalities. There have been so many stages of comments and objections that one can feel lost in the detail.
An
important entry point for some will be the fact that the first opportunity to
feedback on what they thought of this proposed trolleybus scheme came with the
‘Consultation Events’ of which there were about 18, held from late 2012 through
to the late summer of 2013 at community centres and church halls along the
route of the proposed trolleybus from Holt Park to Stourton.
A great deal of concern has
been generated by the refusal of NGT and Leeds City Council to release
transcripts of the several hundred comments and emails which these generated,
on what many believe are spurious grounds, as detailed by Chris Foren of the
A660 Joint Council of community associations along the northern part of the
route, to be heard at the beginning of the second recording linked above.
One rather throwaway remark
that was made to this was that those people who filled in feedback forms at
consultation events could have made formal objections if they had wanted to.
This is to almost entirely
ignore the immense and complex nature of the task involved in entering a formal
complaint into a process such as this.
One’s objection has needed to be entered a total of three times. Firstly a formal objection had to be entered
by a certain date beyond which it would be rejected. Then a detailed Statement of Case had to be returned, again by a
fixed date, this time with documents of supporting evidence for one’s
objection. Finally, a ‘Proofs of
Evidence’ case had to be returned condensing the entire case into 1,500 words,
and including printouts of all documents, each requiring four copies. Oh, and I forgot to mention that at each
stage the Secretary of State for Transport as well as the solicitors for the
Applicant (NGT) have had to be copied in.
I have run through two
printer cartridges and at least half a block of printer paper in this process,
not to mention that each bundle of documents has cost several pounds to send in
the post.
Four of my friends have
asked me to represent their cases for them because they have felt that they
didn’t have the time or expertise to engage with such a lengthy and detailed
process which required such sustained attention.
I myself have been fortunate
enough to receive a higher education at Leeds University, and yet still find
myself feeling quite overawed by the magnitude of the task of sustaining an
objection through this level of complexity.
It is no surprise to me that
many people feel hopelessly bewildered and disempowered by such a process, and
may feel that they system is institutionally geared to a form of discourse which
is impenetrable to all but a few.
My own personal feeling is
that Leeds City Council has played this game in a cynical attempt to dominate
the people of Leeds. The withholding of
the public responses is a first step to disempower the people by attempting to
silence their voice.
The refusal to allow the
Leeds City Council online streaming facilities to be used for the Public
Enquiry is a disgrace. The equipment is
hardly used in the Council Chamber even ~ there have been several occasions that
I have been aware of when planned webcasts of debates have failed to go out due
to ‘technical issues’.
When something like the
Public Enquiry comes along which really merits a webcast the bigwigs of Leeds
City Council are to be imagined sitting on their hands whistling. They don’t want the Public Consultation
responses to be in the public domain, and they don’t want the proceedings of
the Public Enquiry into the proposed NGT Trolleybus scheme to be in the public
domain either.
Excuses are made by Leeds
City Council that the documents are available in the City Library and online,
but there is no substitute for actually listening to people explain and debate
the issues. And many people find this a
much more accessible way to engage with what is quite complex material.
In the digital age audio or
even video documentation and broadcasting of events in the public domain is so
inexpensive and simple that anyone can do it.
And so we have. If Leeds City
Council and Metro will not act with honour and make the proceedings widely
available in at least an audio webcast format, then we, the Objectors will, and
already have begun to, as evidenced by the recordings of today’s sessions
linked to above. I also appreciate the
assistance of other objectors in performing the technical duties involved in
making these recordings.
The arrogant disdain with
which Leeds City Council, or at least the Executive Board and the top Civil
Servants, treat the public and the City at large is no longer to be
tolerated. We must remember that these
people are Public Servants, and they should not act as if they were our masters
who own the City. They only hold it in
trust for the people. The party whip
scandal is a further example of the way that a few have attempted to impose
their will on the entire city, even when it is known that many Councillors, of
all parties, are against the proposals.
I shan’t here go into the
moral decrepitude of Councillors who don’t have the backbone to vote on their
conscience over the largest issue of infrastructure and planning issue for
Leeds since the early seventies.
A few at the top would
impose this insane folly and attempt to get away with it by withholding
information and misleading the public as to the truth of the strength of
feeling. Divide and conquer.
A united front to these
vandals who want to destroy our beautiful city is the only way forward, and
disseminating information about it as widely as possible, which we shall
hopefully be able to continue to do in making these audiocasts of the Public
Enquiry.
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