Did anyone attend the LBH Streetspace engagement meeting two weeks ago today? I put a question to Jefferson Nwokeoma, Assistant Director of Traffic & Transport, on whether local views would be taken into account when final decisions were made about making road closures permanent – the Council’s own consultation shows that in my road (Whitestile), 85% of people are against its closure. His reply was “this is not a democracy”, and that LBH would continue with their policy regardless of public opposition. I was surprised by Mr Nwokeoma’s candour – although it’s obvious that they have no regard for the opinions of those they nominally represent, I didn’t expect this to be admitted so publicly. One wonders why LBH would bother to commission a consultation when it is clear that they will ignore the results if they don’t go the way they want – also, perhaps they need to be reminded of that thing we do every four years and that indeed this IS a democracy. Contrast this with the statement just released by Peter Mason from Ealing (link below) – “The heavy handed top-down approach being pursued by the government isn’t the right way to ensure that we can work together to deliver active travel schemes that can win popular support”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47CP8V5ao2M
Graham Thorpe ● 978d