a.
Cornwall Council Governance Review
Town and Parish Councils: response form
June 2012
Name of Council: Kea Parish
OfW amf aH
On the whole, the decision making process works adequately. At times some decisions do appear bizarre, particularly those around planning or where public consultation appears to have taken place but then been ignored. It is appreciated that you can’t ‘please all the people, all of the time’ but there have been recent instances where decisions appear to have been made in advance of the consultation and the consultation itself is seen simply as an unavoidable ‘box’ in the process to ‘tick’, which can then be conveniently ignored – (examples include incinerator, Truro Union Corner development and Stadium).
On the whole the process is open and transparent, but not necessarily as ‘public’ as it should be. The information is ‘out there’, indeed is more accessible than ever before with the internet, web cast meetings and so forth. However, the battle you will always fight is that people simply don’t seem to ‘follow’ local politics until a matter directly affects them, by which time its often too late because the decision has been made.
It must keep up to date with modern communications methods, ensuring the ‘new’ generation of stakeholders are being engaged through the use of the internet and social networking via Facebook and Twitter. However, at the same time it must never lose sight of the fact that a large proportion of stakeholders still rely upon the ‘old’ methods of keeping in touch such as local newspapers, radio and TV.
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d.
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1. Less ‘mystique’ around the work and role of ‘The Cabinet’ (if it is to continue).
2. Better use of ‘social networking’ in engaging with the public.
3. Be more attuned to the views of Town and Parish Councils – your ‘ears on the ground’.
As Cornwall is not a Town or City, a ‘Mayor’ is not appropriate; however, we believe there should be a separate ‘choice’ made for the ‘Leader’. We have a preference for the old Committee system as the current system appears to place too much power in the hands of too few people.
We appreciate this is a challenge – you can put the information ‘out there’ in the media, but you can’t force people to listen or respond. However, we would say the most important thing is not to give the impression of a ‘done deal’ before going out to consultation and start from the standpoint that most people in the County don’t really know what the majority of people in the Council ‘do’, because for many, they don’t think it affects them (unless their bin doesn’t get emptied or a wind turbine goes up at the bottom of their garden).
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