The last few weeks has seen the true extent that a small tightly focussed, inward looking, bigoted groups of people can exert undue influence. The museums attempt to replace old, tired, dilapidated chicken sheds with a new environmentally friendly building has provoked much vocal, hectoring abuse. If it wasn’t so serious some of the comments would be hilarious. One idiot suggested that the site could be used for ferrying passengers to Gatwick by helicopter. Jumping like a flea jumping over the fence presumably! Another called the exhibits “scruffy”, of course they are you dipstick, that’s why we want them inside! The fact that someone is prepared to invest £8,000,000 in a local project without resorting to public funds is ignored. The centre of dissent appears to emanate from Stan Hill. This centre for NIMBYism peddles it’s lies and fantasy world scenarios without hindrance from the local authority, who contrarily seem happy to publish the propaganda on their web site.
23rd June
The competition arranged by THE STAN HILL MOB for “Muppet Letter” is hotting up nicely. Latest hilarious entries can be found on the Mole Valley web site. A couple of remarks worth reference, apparently Thorpe Park and Alton Towers are aviation museums also! It must be very difficult to read the plans, seems that most don’t bother, perhaps it doesn’t say “this way up”. Hint: the maps and diagrams clearly show the GAP is bigger NOT smaller. Pssst! Just to help, the site wasn’t in the green belt when it was purchased, not for another EIGHT years! Once upon a time there was a small zoo, quite close by actually. When they were refused planning permission ’cause they were in the green belt they were forced to close down. Oddly, permission for a new housing estate WAS approved and the estate duly built. Perhaps there is a lesson there.
30th June
Ok, the letters get more bizarre, possibly in the lead is a “gentleman” by the name of King. He’s clearly got some serious personal paranoia issues, doesn’t know the facts (no surprise there then!) Hint; check the sites approved current usage! He lauds Duxford, but clearly has no idea what’s actually there, even more important what’s not going to be there. It only a 100 miles away anyway, ideal for the lunchtime break. Actually his tone and content seem defamatory, hope his address for service is the one on the letter! His is typical of the know-nothing response from those who have not bothered to read all of the application and its support documents. Just slavishly follow the Stan Hill leaflet line, after THEY must be telling the truth, surely? Of even more concern is this statement “the application will do a lot of damage to the environment”. God knows what the actually building work will do then! They ain’t all locked up yet! Finally we have the hilarious situation where a young woman who intends to be a student using the facilities at the museum has had her own grandmother write an objection letter! Thanks gran, there’s nothing like family support and that’s NOTHING like family support.
5th July
The weekend just gone was almost a record for the numbers of visitors. Almost all of the visitors enthusiastically supporting the museums plans. One odd “gent” slid around making surreptitious notes and almost certainly declined to put his donation in the tin. We wonder what he could possibly be up to! Maybe it was the “Stan Hill Taliban” spies on their dastardly mission! Actually we’d welcome anyone, quite happy to show them the error of their ways. It’s a shame more of the people who wrote objection letters didn’t have the grace to come and find out what we had to say. If they came with an open mind it’s almost guaranteed that they’d be surprised at finding out the true facts. The development committee meets tomorrow (Weds 6th July), we can then plan the next stage whichever way the decision goes. The shame is that Mole valley has come in for quite a bit of criticism in the objection letters, almost all of the objectors have no idea what has been going on and blame Mole Valley unfairly. Perhaps we can expect fair, unbiased treatment from Mole Valley Council at the meeting, in the last 20 years they have certainly shown that they can act that way.
18th July
What happened on the:-
6th July
It’s Wednesday and the planning circus is in town!
Amongst the attractions are “how not to run a meeting” always popular and consistent.
Also featuring “Biasing, a new direction for planning?”, needs selective myopia and a slightly dodgy memory to work. May have been seriously overworked in this case.
Plus that old favourite “Let’s use incorrect facts as new information”, not original but obviously believed to still be effective that one! It seems it was in popular use 10 years ago, according to the then chairman. And he still has no idea what he is saying is wrong!
The meeting was addressed by one protester and one supporter.
The supporter was trying to convince the committee that an £8 million to £10 million investment in a local facility was a “good thing”.
The protester faction used a 50 year old Penny.
(Despite what she said, it seems that Penny may not have been in the village for all of those years, if rumour is to be believed!). Three minutes was the allotted speaking time; hmmm,perhaps no one had a watch…!
One insightful councillor queried the relevance of a 20 year old inspectors report to today’s situation. With the constant reference to old events it’s surprising that the change to the Gregorian calendar in September 1752 wasn’t quoted, surely the land was greenbelt even then!
My old mother used to say “those with the least to say, talk the most”. (Actually she didn’t, but no-one argues if you say it was your mother!). In this meeting that expression came to take its place in the legendary history of the English language.
In the big top all was not sweetness and light, the ringmaster was having some trouble controlling one or two of the performers. Sadly it appears that “the code of conduct” is a mythical creature that only comes into effect when recalcitrant noises emanate from the gallery.
As the vote approached the clowns, with their large feet firmly in theirs mouths, summed up the situation but failed to get any laughs, the position of their feet seemed to affect their balance.
The ringmaster promptly committed a code violation by declaring her intention to vote against before the vote was taken. That should have meant an immediate withdrawal and nullified her vote but rules are for “the others”, not enlightened local officials! Oddly there seemed to more players in the refusal team this time around, looks like the standby performers were pulled into the ring.
The inevitable result was that the vote was 12 to 7 to refuse the application.
Balance and fairness could not stay upright in this tilted landscape.