Be sure to listen (From Durham Times)

Be sure to listen

2:13pm Friday 22nd January 2010

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IGNORING the views of 6,000 petitioners, and another 4,000 who expressed a view online, takes some doing in a city the size of Durham, but that is what the Government has done in its decision over the Market Place statues.

Reading between the lines of the Secretary of State’s letter, the message seems to be that bureaucrats based in the West Midlands and Whitehall can’t see what the fuss is all about; after all we are only talking about moving each statue a few feet, not shipping them off to the breaker’s yard.

Further, it is understandable, if frustrating for some who might have been looking forward to “their day in court”, so to speak, that those bureaucrats could not see the justification for the time and substantial expense of a public inquiry into the matter when the issues have been aired at some length already.

The problem is the damage this process has done to the idea of consultation.

Many in Durham will feel this has devalued the concept and that is dangerous, especially when public organisations are ever more keen to consult about policies and decisions.

What is the point of expressing a view when it doesn’t appear to be acted upon?

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