e-petition on planning and the public

[Nemesis]

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/OurOpinionCounts/

After the Bath Riverside fiasco, and a number of others, this petition has been launched.

 

[Penners]

Entirely understandable sentiments, but I can't help feeling that the language of the petition is too emotional and vague to carry any real weight.

Besides which, does anyone know of any of these e-petitions that has actually achieved its aims? I know I'm an old cynic, but it seems to me that they're just a phoney nod in the direction of democracy by a Government that has no intention whatsoever of heeding their results.

 

[Nemesis]

If a number of people sign, then the Gov has to respond. I agree usually it's a brush off. I know the petition instigator is pretty devastated, as are many, at the decison this week not to call in the Bath Westerrn Riverside development approval.

But I gather there are some actively willing the WHS status of Bath be removed, as it inhibits 'progress' and makes high rise towers in the centre hard to gain planning permission.

I kid you not.

 

[Flyfisher]

I agree 100% with Penners.

 

[Penners]

If a number of people sign, then the Gov has to respond.

Yes, indeed. They'll respond.

You'll get an email from 10 Downing Street with a link to a statement, that will start:

"The Government takes the issue of blah blah blah very seriously and has every sympathy for drivel drivel drivel..."

A few sentences later, after all the meaningless spin, comes that innocent little three-letter word:

"but..."

I believe it's what they proudly refer to as "consultation".

 

[Nemesis]

It's the same with Commons Select Committees. But (I know a Permanent Under-Secretary) I think you will find it sinks in at times.

 

[Nemesis]

Another the issues of which were debated here recently:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/boilers/

 

[Penners]

Well.... I can entirely understand that some worried mother has been very well-intentioned in posting this petition. But, at the risk of sounding unkind, once again I find the wording of the petition so woolly and ill-informed that its intention is actually far from clear.

Due to many people living in an estimated 3.5 million homes with boilers and back boilers, we would like the law to be changed so that all aspects of boilers are serviced including thermostates. children are dying and getting injured and homes are destroyed when for eg thermostates break down.

we would like the law to include thermostates and all other equipment relating to boilers to be tested as standard.

 

[Nemesis]

Well - can't help the way people express themselves, maye it's the thought that counts.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/7224136.stm

I didn't have a problem with understanding the previous petition as I know where it's coming from - ie the Bath fiasco.

 

[Penners]

Well - can't help the way people express themselves, maye it's the thought that counts.

No of course not, but I can't help feeling that vagueness just gives the politicians another excuse to ignore the whole thing.

 

[ilikecobwebs]

I've signed a number of these petitions in the past, for various issues, and I do sometimes wonder whether most of them are ever read with any serious intent by the website "ministers".....based, as you say, on the brush-offs that most of them get. I am aware of some of the Bath area issues, living not all that far away from it, but I have enough on my plate watching North Somerset's proposals as well, for south-west Bristol.
I appreciate the comment that the petition is a bit vague or emotional......it is hard to get facts written down in place when one is full of despair over the matter. However, it still highlights the fact that ordinary people's views....all over the country... are being dismissed as of no importance, yet they are the ones who have to live with the resulting developments.
Maybe a petition of this nature needs to be written by several people, each inputting a mix of facts, figures and emotional drive, to really make it meaty. If a road congestion-charges petition can get over x million signatures, surely something like this other could do likewise, if strongly worded.

It does bother me how developers and unelected bodies have managed to attain such positions of power over the general populus.

 

[Penners]

If a road congestion-charges petition can get over x million signatures...

...and still get ignored.

 

[ilikecobwebs]

I wouldnt say that exactly; it rattled more than a few cages. Are you thus suggesting that we really should all simply hand over our democratic rights to complain about anything? Or maybe someone can come up with an alternative to the PM's petition website?

 

[Penners]

Are you thus suggesting that we really should all simply hand over our democratic rights to complain about anything?

Hell, no! Where did I suggest that?

I'm simply saying that, on current evidence, the PM's petition website plays no part whatsoever in our democratic rights, because it's a sham. Like so many of this Government's "communication policies" it exists purely to give the voter the illusion that politicians are listening to them.

 

[Nemesis]

This Government, the last Government, Governments from time immemorial...

Bread and circuses.

No, I have to say, it does at times give 'em some idea of what we are thinking. They live in such ivory towers, you see.

 

[Moo]

Like so many of this Government's "communication policies" it exists purely to give the voter the illusion that politicians are listening to them.

Like the police vans with "Mobile Reassurance Unit" emblazoned on their sides.?

 

[Flyfisher]

. . . or all the fine words about developing a world leadership position in renewable energy resources when, in actual fact, we are 3rd from bottom in Europe, behind Luxembourg and Malta.

 

[Penners]

That's the idea... lots of fine words, no butter on the parsnips.

 

[Penners]

This Government, the last Government, Governments from time immemorial...

Absolutely. And Governments to come, no doubt.

 

[Flyfisher]

As the saying goes; it doesn't matter who you vote for, the government always gets in.