Still waiting for West Somerset Council to reply!

Another day has gone by and still no answer to the questions about the Vulcan Road development put by myself to:

the West Somerset Council representatives last Friday at the Vulcan Road Consultation held at 'Ceci's',

shortly afterwards to the staff at the new Council offices in Summerland Road Minehead,

then by telephone call on Friday afternoon to the officer I was told to speak to

and then finally by email to the same officer of the West Somerset Council on Friday evening. (This email has not even been acknowledged as being received.)

The questions I asked related to how more out of town retail developments at Vulcan Road would achieve the stated objectives of the West Somerset Council.

I would have thought the answer to these simple straight forward questions would be extremely well known amongst the staff of the Council since the whole issue has been grinding on for so long.

The questions were as follows:

1) Will having more out of town supermarkets at Vulcan Road directly increase pay rates locally for employed persons as per the West Somerset Councils Plan. If so, how?

2) Will having more out of town supermarkets promote small businesses in the area, bearing in mind small businesses are 86% of the employment market (10 and under employees) in the area. If so how?

3) Will having more out of town supermarkets have a beneficial effect on growing the local community in terms of creating more places for people to congregate as a community, play together and participate in community decisions and involvement. If so how?

These questions are simple and straight forward. The West Somerset Council should answer them without further delay.

My previous experiences of trying to talk to the West Somerset Council on policy issues suggests that I will not get a reply at all.

Furthermore, these are only three questions relating to the West Somerset Council and there are a host of other questions I could ask relating to the regeneration of the Exmoor and West Somerset area. Or, in particular, the lack of it.

But there is little point in widening the area of discussion when the West Somerset Council refuses to talk and also refuses to implement any sensible systems to enable them to talk to the public about policy matters.

Until the West Somerset Council do more than pay lip service to improving communication with the public, little genuine progress will be made to regenerate the area and people like myself who care about West Somerset will remain angry and frustrated.

Surely, this lack of communication is completely unacceptable. If so, it is time the Audit Commission took action.

Rob