What a lot of excuses Council has come up with to refuse a referendum (requested by the Chairman of the GSBGA / Friends of Parkside Gardens in a recent letter to Council ) on the important principle of giving the community a say in the protection of Parkside Gardens
(the International Village site)

They have trotted out ;

• their Risk Management excuse,
• their Financial excuse,
• their Policy excuse,
• their Best Values Principles excuse,
• their Legal excuse
• and finally their 'We have consulted widely' excuse.

This final excuse is a real 'you beaut', as at every stage of the formal planning processes the local community has opposed the loss of parkland and heritage for a housing estate.

The Council calculates that the 442 written objections ( it was over 470 last time we counted them in the panel hearing documents) represented only 1.1% of the voters.

We ask the Council now to calculate the percentage of those voters who wrote submissions supporting the development: the whole 3 of them.

Every time the Council has consulted they have received the same message:
people want the site retained.

With the right political will, a referendum could be conducted. The money would be well spent because, as we predict, the people in this municipality would vote to protect their heritage.

Now that's a genuine consultation process, but its one which might give this Council the answer it doesn't want to hear.