Broadland District Council attempt a consultation

Earlier in the year Broadland News advertised the Rackheath Fun Day on 22nd August and added a link to their website for further details - however no further details ever emerged on the page:



The Fun Day itself DID go ahead and was enjoyed by crowds of people. Broadland District Council chose this event to launch their consultation on the Rackheath Exemplar Project Brief which they say you can download from their website (www.broadland.gov.uk) - after a bit of searching it can be found here.

The launch was accompanied by an 18 page booklet explaining what the Exemplar is about and a 38 page questionnaire exhorting you to "have your say" and "please take some of your time to complete".

The questionnaire itself is badly designed and amateurish. If BDC used an agency they should be sacked - if it was done in house then someone needs to go on a training course. If it did actually go through an editing process then quite a few typos were missed - the favourite being on p27 - 'parages' or is this a new word coined by BDC to fit into their suggested  Rackheath Code of Sustainability?

The method of trying to force responses to questions by not including a 'don't know' or 'not applicable' option  is not generally recommended even if it means some people might take the 'easy option' - it is better to allow people the option to make a response that actually represents their views. It is also not good practice to ask respondents questions about other people's views eg "what features would you or members of your household like to see included". We could go on.....

The worst part of the questionnaire was to put the questions on overall support for the Exemplar Project right at the back of the questionnaire booklet - some people might have given up before they got there! This question should have been at the beginning and why does only this set of questions include the options of 'don't know' and 'I have no strong opinion' in its changed list of possible responses? It wasn't clever to change over the order of positive and negative responses either - surely they weren't expecting to catch people out by doing so? Were they?

If BDC were serious about this questionnaire it would have been carried out by an independent agency and would have asked whether the respondent lived in the Broadland area and more specifically Rackheath, Salhouse and the other parishes affected by BDC's plans - aren't BDC supposed to be asking the local community for their views not just anyone who attends a Fun Day.

13 comments:

  1. I haven't read the whole questionnaire as yet but only the last section that a lady from Snub pointed out to me that you could say you were against the project, I notice how they ask for example do you favour more affordable housing or another shop amongst other questions, I feel that should you tick that you may like a shop it's as though you are giving the go ahead to the whole scheme, I think people may unknowingly end up looking like they support the scheme with these smaller questions?!

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  2. What a FUN Day. Who paid for the massive Broadland Tent and all their staff. As we feared their "Consultation Questionnaire" was as always loaded towards a Yes. Only at the end could you say NO to the project. This is a Dictatorship Council and to think we as residents are paying for all the glossy brochures.

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  3. What Anonymous says describes very well just about every 'consultation' over the past decade or more, on important schemes from our local authorities. The NDR route options 'consultation' failed to provide a 'NO NDR at all' box to tick, for example. And the latest one - the GNDP JCS Focussed Changes consultation is only comprehensible by qualified planners!

    Its a joke, or it would be if it wasn't so serious. Something should be done about it. BUT, at evry local election, the same lot get elected. Broadland residents would rather have poor representation than risk their council tax going up a bit. And in any case, what's the alternative? Labour are as growth-obsessed as the Tories, and the Liberals have become the Tories. The only hope is that, one day, people will vote Green. In Broadland, going by previous elections, that seems a forlorn hope.

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  4. Why was no one from Broadland prepared to listen to our opposition yesterday. They just do not want to know anyone who objects to their crazy scheme. Be warned Rackheath that these 200 houses if they go through are just the first of THOUSANDS which will destroy us.
    NO NDR NO ECOTOWN - what a false promise that was. Can you ever trust them again

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  5. Thank goodness for SNUB yesterday to show us the true facts of what Broadland are planning. Until I visited your tent I had no idea that they are trying to destroy our village and way of life.

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  6. I have never seen a more blatant piece of propaganda than the so called "Questionnaire" handed out by the Broadland staff yesterday. Can we please have a proper consultation carried our by a independent organisation, as this paper by Broadland is cleverly designed to get the answers THEY want. Will the Council ever listen to us. Bless you SNUB.

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  7. Are there any rules about the way in which public opinion polls are conducted? Surely there must be, perhaps I will send my copy to Mori and ask them for an opinion.

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  8. How can Broadland call that a Consultation document. They should have used a proper independent organisation with the first question being are you in favour of the Exemplar or not - If yes go to question.2 or No then go to question 50. PS I was handed a FIRST CLASS pre-paid envelope. Why use FIRST class, just more of our money wasted.

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  9. Broadland DC should hand back the £10.3 million of our money so it could be used on really important items such as health, education, defence etc: and not waste it on glossy brochures and biased so called consultation meetings. When will they ever learn ?

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  10. Broadland produced the Exemplar questionnaire in-house and at speed and I do apologise for the typos that were missed in our efforts to ensure that it would indeed be ready for the Fun Day. A second edition has been produced.
    The questionnaire is intended to be a way for individuals and community groups to have their say about what they would like to see in their community in Rackheath. The questionnaires are coming back completed and people have taken their time to tell us their views about what they would like to see. As hoped people are using the open boxes for comments provided in every section of the book. The questions about the overall project are at the back because information on each topic is provided throughout the book, building to the final page where people can weigh up what their overall thoughts are. We will know if people responding are Rackheath residents as we have asked for their addresses and people have been happy to provide these. Also there are interested people who don't live in Rackheath, for example, but who work there. We will be continuing to draw the questionnaire to Rackheath residents' attention in the coming weeks. Many thanks to everyone who has completed and returned a questionnaire and many thanks to everyone who came to talk to us in the Broadland tent at the Fun Day, it was a pleasure to meet you.

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  11. Broadland produced the Exemplar questionnaire in-house and at speed and I do apologise for the typos that were missed in our efforts to ensure that it would indeed be ready for the Fun Day. A second edition has been produced.
    The questionnaire is intended to be a way for individuals and community groups to have their say about what they would like to see in their community in Rackheath. The questionnaires are coming back completed and people have taken their time to tell us their views about what they would like to see. As hoped people are using the open boxes for comments provided in every section of the book. The questions about the overall project are at the back because information on each topic is provided throughout the book, building to the final page where people can weigh up what their overall thoughts are. We will know if people responding are Rackheath residents as we have asked for their addresses and people have been happy to provide these. Also there are interested people who don't live in Rackheath, for example, but who work there. We will be continuing to draw the questionnaire to Rackheath residents' attention in the coming weeks. Many thanks to everyone who has completed and returned a questionnaire and many thanks to everyone who came to talk to us in the Broadland tent at the Fun Day, it was a pleasure to meet you.

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  12. This was a disgraceful Non-Consultation, but as we have seen Broadland DC are brilliant at propaganda to achieve their own aims and ignore all the residents. We voted for these Councillors to represent US and not the developers. Democracy is dead in Broadland.

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  13. When are Broadland Council going to give back to the Government the £10.3 million of OUR MONEY they received under false pretences. There are much more important things which need these funds. Have they no morals ?

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