Gloucestershire’s elected and appointed public service managers have taken a bit of a beating in recent months.
This vital planning document should be in place as the strategy against which waste processing planning applications are decided, such as the proposed Mass Burn Incinerator at Javelin Park.
The common factor between the first two of these three issues and the incinerator project is:
- The failure to consult properly and then to listen to the responses of the people to whom they are accountable
- The arrogance with which they dismiss both the natural concerns of lay people and the expert opinion of others
- The indecent haste with which they welcome the opportunity to implement government policies and cuts that impact on the most needful people.
It says something about the state of our democracy that we are dependent upon the judiciary for these public bodies to behave lawfully. Keeping tabs on them is set to get tougher with "commissioners" tendering work out to the private sector and Tory pressure for less and less democratically elected minders.
