Transfer of Assets - Public opinion to be gathered at a later stage?

At Mondays town council meeting the Town Council voted to proceed with the transfer of Assets from South Hams District Council without further consultation with the community.

Our earlier report was based on the December meeting where the commitment to some sort of public consultation was made.

The video below is a complete record of the Council meeting held in December (courtesy of the Dartmouth Chronicle). The debate on Transfer of Assets takes place after about 1 hour.

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7 Comments

  1. Paul. the recording you have produced is not of Monday’s meeting. As far as I know no one recorded that meeting - or at least admitted to it. I think what you have posted for whatever reason is the December meeting.

    Excellent quality control!

  2. Agreed Stuart but at Decembers meeting Cllr Fyson proposed that the working party would seek ways of consulting informed people in the community. This was the result of pressure from residents. My survey of 50 business people showed a 74% against vote!

    • Paul,
      My experience tells me that polls are extremely unreliable especially when the person taking it is famously totally against the topic being voted on. I do not doubt that your figures are correct but I think that if someone in favour of the assets - without the quote marks - was with you when you were taking the poll to give the other side of the story then the result would not have been 74% against. The vast majority of the council is totally for the transfer of our once beautiful parks and gardens from SHDC to DTC and each one of those in favour can recite their own polls and each and every one of them is very much for the transfer. Can we know the number of people you polled please? I appreciate that 74% sounds a very high figure, but 74% of four people really doesn’t mean much, especially if they are friends of yours. What does stand out to me is that after all the continuous adverse newspaper publicity over the past 18 months or more, there have been very few comments to the council and the majority of those comments have been for the transfer. We always know when Dartmouth residents or businesspeople don’t like a council proposal. Look at the reaction to the BID, for instance, we were left in no doubt of the views in town about that. So apart from the usual suspects that are pulled out of hibernation because they can be relied on for a negative comment or two, there has not been any real opposition to it and I expect that the residents that have or soon will be employed to get Dartmouth back to its former glory are very happy about it!

      • Gina, I agree that people tend to get support from people who share their views. However my poll was of 50 business people in Dartmouth and should have been enough to convince Councillors, who understand the concept of serving their community, that a consultation would be a wise move. Sadly that opportunity has now gone but the result will be a stronger backlash if this council fails to deliver its promise of a well maintained landscape.Good luck I hope you can deliver but I suspect you have not fully understood the scale of the task you are taking on.

        • Paul,
          Agreed that 50 reluctant businesspeople is a fair figure to take into consideration. However, as you say, it is going to happen and thank you for your good wishes. Luckily, we have a great team, with great determination, that it will be successful.

  3. Dangerous to ask only those who are deemed to be “informed”. For instance, who makes the decision about who should be included or excluded. Only way to truly consult is to present the pros and cons fairly, then organise debates for and against. Then have a referendum. But, overall, l doubt most residents would be interested in taking part.

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