Consultation consultation consultation (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

Consultation consultation consultation

1:31pm Friday 12th December 2008

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It's a favourite tactic of St Albans council to run consultations on unpopular issues, and then blame us for the decision.

The fact that they are our elected representatives who we have put there to get on with the job, doesn't seem to occur to them.

By all means consult, but don't JUST consult. Use the consultation to inform the decision, not to make it.

So we get a consultation on how to sort out the city centre. The council follows the results of the consultation. When the scheme goes wrong, our councillors whine that they were just following public opinion. Perhaps they should have sought expert advice instead of just stopping residents in the street.

We're probably also about to get a waste incineration plant in Hertfordshire. The county council will tell us it's because we said we liked the idea of an "energy from waste" facility. Of course they don't say that's an incinerator. They just build it and blame us.

Now the rulers of Manchester have avoided their responsibility to govern, by turning a consultation on a congestion charge into a decision-making process. Of course most people said no. It's an unpopular idea. That doesn't mean it's the wrong thing to do. It had the potential to transform the city.

It's our leaders' responsibility to take sometimes unpopular decisions that are good for us. That's how representative democracy works.

Consultations can be useful, but they are no substitute for intelligent assessment and long-term thinking.