Th, Jul 19, 2007Bogus Consultation (non) results in front of the Mayor
The Bogus Consultation that Lewisham Council has so kindly performed for the amusement of all the lovers of local politicians' knee-jerk reactions and gimmicks has now finished and a report will go to Mayor and Cabinet next week Wednesday.
As this consultation was completely fake the report of the consultants cannot draw any conclusion, nevertheless officers ask the Mayor to note its (non) results and go ahead with building a replacement for Ladywell at Loampit Vale that is mostly in the interests of the developers of the residential blocks around Lewisham Station and that, unless substantially improved, will be a serious damage to access to sport and active recreation for the local community and the users of Ladywell Pool.
Here's an extract from the document summary for the Mayor to gracefully note:
The main focus for the consultation was the telephone survey which comprised a random sample of 605 residents living within a 2 km radius of the sites. This radius is the generally accepted catchment area for a leisure centre in a heavily populated conurbation. This part of the public consultation constitutes the primary element within the programme given that it was conducted within a statistically robust random sample of local residents. The other five elements of the consultation were all included to ensure that any issues connected with this decision process could be bought to the attention of the Council...
...opinions are very balanced and there is no clear winner...
...of the respondents, two thirds (66%) never use Ladywell and only 9% use it weekly or more often.
In fact, as the 605 respondents were randomly selected within a 2 km radius from either Loampit Vale and Ladywell and at 1.6 km north of Loampit Vale there is Wavelengths pool, by asking people living in Deptford if Ladywell Pool should either close and move neared to them or be demolished and rebuilt on site is anything but a way to understand what the local community thinks should be done.
The fact that the refurbishement of Ladywell was not included as an option on the basis of an advice that is just an hypocritical string of throw away comments makes this consultation a mere insult to the intelligence of the public and an expensive red herring - £20k of public money to hide the serious shortcomings of the proposed replacement for Ladywell and the complacency of this administration that is unable to move officers to produce a result that is in the interest of the local community.
Link to the Mayor and Cabinet report with the summary of the result.
Link to the appendix to the report (the consultantants' full report)