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This morning at the meeting of the Tayside Fire and Rescue Board meeting there was an attempt to suspend the ongoing consultation on Towards a Safer Tayside. The consultation proposal suggests the downgrading of Balmossie Fire Station. I will discuss the rest of the meeting in another post.
I have a lot of sympathy for the proposals put forward by Councillor Helen Oswald but I could not support her proposal to suspend the consultation today. I have made clear to anyone who has asked me that I am opposed to the proposals which affect Balmossie and Forfar. I do not see what has changed since March of last year to make me change my mind. However, I have also made clear to anyone who has asked me that I will take the time to read and consider every response which is made to the consultation.
I seconded the motion at the last board meeting seeking not to have the Balmossie and Forfar proposals included in this year’s consultation. One of my main arguments at that time was that we need to take the responses from consultations seriously. I believe that the yearly consultations on Towards a Safer Tayside are actually a major strength for the board. In my opinion suspending the consultation now would be like changing the rules after the game has started.
I have read media reports which state that record numbers are responding to this consultation. I know that some people will question the worth of some of it but we should reflect that what people signing petitions do takes longer than marking a cross on a ballot paper or even filling in numbers on a STV (Single Transferable Vote) ballot paper at council elections.
I think that it would have been premature to have made a decision on a consultation when we do not have the full facts from the consultation in front of us. We may well end up with the same answer in March, in many respects that is what I want, but we must listen to the people of Tayside by considering all the responses to the consultation.
People need to have faith in public consultations I think it would have been wrong to suspend the consultation on Balmossie today. I note that three Dundee councillors voted to suspend the standing orders today, if they had voted with the motion I seconded in November then the Balmossie and Forfar part of the consultation would have been deleted from the consultation.
I have a lot of sympathy for the proposals put forward by Councillor Helen Oswald but I could not support her proposal to suspend the consultation today. I have made clear to anyone who has asked me that I am opposed to the proposals which affect Balmossie and Forfar. I do not see what has changed since March of last year to make me change my mind. However, I have also made clear to anyone who has asked me that I will take the time to read and consider every response which is made to the consultation.
I seconded the motion at the last board meeting seeking not to have the Balmossie and Forfar proposals included in this year’s consultation. One of my main arguments at that time was that we need to take the responses from consultations seriously. I believe that the yearly consultations on Towards a Safer Tayside are actually a major strength for the board. In my opinion suspending the consultation now would be like changing the rules after the game has started.
I have read media reports which state that record numbers are responding to this consultation. I know that some people will question the worth of some of it but we should reflect that what people signing petitions do takes longer than marking a cross on a ballot paper or even filling in numbers on a STV (Single Transferable Vote) ballot paper at council elections.
I think that it would have been premature to have made a decision on a consultation when we do not have the full facts from the consultation in front of us. We may well end up with the same answer in March, in many respects that is what I want, but we must listen to the people of Tayside by considering all the responses to the consultation.
People need to have faith in public consultations I think it would have been wrong to suspend the consultation on Balmossie today. I note that three Dundee councillors voted to suspend the standing orders today, if they had voted with the motion I seconded in November then the Balmossie and Forfar part of the consultation would have been deleted from the consultation.