Below is the Statement intended to be read by KPS prior to the emergency Council meeting at 6.45 on Thursday 11 October 2018. The Meeting was called to vote through the Local Plan (the plan which isn’t a plan, apparently, because it needs amending and updating continuously). The statement was read to the public in the foyer at the end of the Council meeting very much against the wishes of councillors who threatened to have public attendees ejected from the Town Hall.
KPS Statement:
I am going to make a statement before your meeting officially starts. by the Council chamber and KPS Spokesman ma
I speak on behalf of 2,000 plus residents of Eden District who have signed our petition to say no to
EDC’s Masterplan. No doubt you will again threaten throw me out.
If you do I will simply wait outside until BBC Radio and the reporters from the Herald are free, and
then read my statement to them, so it can be recorded. I will give them both a written copy. I
suggest, however uncomfortable it may be, that you listen to our statement.
Let me remind all Councillors of three true Cumbrian mottos
Firstly the motto of the whole County, translated from Latin.
‘I will lift mine eyes unto the hills’
For Carlisle our county town
‘Be just and fear not’
And locally the motto of our own great lady Lady Anne Clifford
‘Retain your loyalty. Preserve your rights’
This has always been the land of plain speaking.
So let me speak plainly.
Tonight our Councillors have been summoned, at short notice, to approve the local plan
This meeting for the same purpose, was listed to be considered in November until a week ago.
So why the rush?
Well we all know the answer, except it’s put in anything but plain English, by the master draftsman
employed by your Council
The Reality is is, that the Cabal who control this Council want to bounce the people of Eden to a
process by which the adoption of the masterplan will become irreversible
Keep Penrith Special refer to this Cabal as the ‘Masters of the Masterplan’.
Our Masters want to adopt this local plan so they can change the local plan, almost as soon as the
ink is dry, by the insertion of the Masterplan into the local plan using their powers.
Instead of this Local plan being the main business of your meeting on 8th November, this Cabal has
decided to put an application for Garden Village money to the Government before you on 8th
November as the business of your next Council meeting . Given their devious behaviour you may
not even be given that debate.
Our suspicion is that this application may have been submitted long before your meeting.
As surely you must know, the truth has been finally admitted by the Executive that Council
employees are working up such an application. That the whole purpose of the Beacon Villages
Consultation is and was to provide the necessary evidence of public engagement. This of course was
never mentioned in the Beacon Villages Consultation documents by the devious Cabal who run this
Council.
The final date for submission of such an application is the day after your Council meeting, that is the
9th November. The criteria for such an application is to be found in a document dated August 2018
by the Ministry of Housing, Local Government and Communities in paragraph 12 it says ‘proposals
should set out how the local community is being or will be engaged and involved at an early stage
and strategies for continued engagement and involvement’.
Now we know that the Cabal who run the Council say they are going to continue with this
consultation or engagement beyond the original date of November 2nd, except for one crucial part
, that is the biased survey monkey questionnaire. This biased questionnaire, Mr Neal has confirmed
can be used however the Cabal decide as evidence of public opinion. It is almost impossible to
answer that questionnaire if you want to say no to the masterplan as so many of us do.
So what do the people in Eden really think? This masterplan is widely opposed, I am quite sure that
the overwhelming majority of the people of this District want to say ‘no’. 2,000 people have signed
our petition to say no, 2,000 have watched our video which shows them the true horror story of this
masterplan. The feedback from the pop up shops was overwhelmingly opposed, but this Cabal
continues impervious
Now why is that?
Well it is because EDC have employed LandUse Lowther’s consultants
LandUse explain their role on their website.
They have an entire Strategic Planning and Assessment Team
This team crows about its success in securing the approval of deeply unpopular wind Farm projects
and other developments. They explain their role is ‘help provide private and public sector
developers to achieve their aims throughout the planning process’.
Basically they work out how to ensure consultations produce the right outcomes, they dress up a
sows ear as a silk purse.
A cycle lane here, some sandstone cladding there, some green space under pylons here, some
waffle there, some misinformation here, some obfuscation there, some tried and tested ways of
misrepresenting public opinion, like the survey monkey questionnaire.
But we are not stupid people in Cumbria
We have found the truth out
We will preserve our rights, we are not afraid, and when we look to the hills they will be pristine and not covered with housing.
Any plain speaking Cumbrian would vote to defer the adoption of this Masterplan. Then after that
vote, we the people of Eden could easily separate the sheep who just vote for their party from folk
like us.
https://keeppenrithspecial.org/2018/10/11/lobby-your-councillors/
https://keeppenrithspecial.org/sign-the-petition-say-no-to-masterplan/
