Broads Stakeholders

[vanessan]

Interesting little YouTube video here which shows the Broads stakeholders..............

[Poppy]

Well, it never was a 'National Park' when set up.

It still isn't !    And why is that yacht sailing backwards ?

[JennyMorgan]

Where should I start!? I note that 'comments' are turned off, inevitable, peddling misinformation does tend to encourage and deserve comment.

[NeilB]

You can leave comments on the discussion section on their YouTube page

[YnysMon]

Well I enjoyed watching it, and didn’t think the National Park thing had much prominence, apart from a banner headline near the start, all the interviewees referred to ‘The Broads’. 
I did wonder whether it was a promotion for paddle boarding rather than about stakeholders though. If it was, it worked, ‘cos I’d now quite like to try paddle boarding out. I liked that the paddle board company interviewed were based in Coltishall, which seems a safer environment for it than busier parts of the river. 

[JennyMorgan]

1 hour ago, Poppy said:

And why is that yacht sailing backwards ?

Because its jib is backed?  

Now, getting it off my chest time. Read no further of you can't abide criticism of the Authority!

Stakeholders, that's us lot, you and me, not just the chosen, helpful few. 

Was a time when, for many years, the Authority hosted annual, public meetings. It was at one such meeting that an Authority member referred to the likes of you and me 'as the little men', since coined as 'The Little People'. The comment was neither withdrawn nor did it elicit an apology and neither has it been forgotten nor forgiven. 

That was when Dr Packman did engage with the 'real' stakeholders. Okay, so one or two meetings did end in an uproar but that was not the fault of the stakeholders. The wider public is no longer engaged with. Open debate as in an open forum, no longer exists.

There used to be the Broads Forum, no longer. Whilst it was the puppet organisation that it started as all was very fine and dandy. When it became, in part, a dissenting group, it was inevitably wound down and no longer meets. 

I have attended consultaions, sat around tables with an aligned Authority member recording comments and allegedly listening. Subsequent documentation often bearing little resemblance to the debate.

Attempts were made to disband the Navigation Committee.

Engaging with stakeholders, my rrrrrrs, as they say in Norfolk.

 

[ranworthbreeze]

I watched it all, it was a very lovey dovie form of advertising no doubt paid for by us stakeholders.

[vanessan]

I just wondered why boatyards, marinas and hire boat yards didn’t get a mention. Are they not stakeholders?

[Vaughan]

This is clearly an advert for paddle boarding sponsored by BA and the Heritage Lottery Fund, among others.

Vanessan has already noted that boatyards and hire fleets are not mentioned despite their tourist stake and the hundreds of local people that they employ.  I wouldn't actually disagree with any of it, but it has no balance.  I would definitely call this "national park" thinking.  Presumably aimed at schools?

I noted a few comments during the film :

Farms are good things because they sell farm produce in the local area.  Do we congratulate the BA for that?

What used to be a dairy farm is now doing holiday cottages and wedding events.  Best use of our natural countryside?

The paddle board company are good for local employment as they take on a couple of casual paddle board cleaners in summer.

Farmers are diversifying.  Most of them around the NDR by selling their land for housing.  Let's hope the BA will at least prevent that, in its planning area!

Finally, I loved some of the remarks made by the "tourist" that they chose, in her barn cottage :

The Broads is so flat, it's very good for the baby's pram.

She visited the Whitlingham gravel pits and Wroxham Barns, where "we saw the farm animals".

They hired a day boat and went to a pub.

She brings revenue to the area, as they paid for car parking and bought ice creams.

I am now going back into my garage to play trains.    

[floydraser]

Yep, I agree with vanessan and Vaughan but would add:

Paddleboarding has more than a little impact on the environment - the environment is starting to be destroyed as soon as someone gets in their car and starts the engine to go work to produce something totally unnecessary, then they're made using crude oil, electricity for machines, heat etc. True they don't impact the environment in actual use, unless you fart while paddling. I'm not an eco-warrior but I just see the hypocracy of claims involving the environment.

No mention of hired cruisers or private boat owners? Thanks. I thought I made a contribution via my tolls but clearly the lady with the car park ticket is more worthy of a mention.

No mention of the purpose of the video on Youtube. You can put a description so viewers know what to expect. 

Anyone can post a video on Youtube and you have 3 choces: Public - anyone can search for it and see it. Private - you can only see it if you have the right url. Unlisted - available to anyone but doesn't come up in any search.

If this is only aimed at subscribers/members then it should be private, unless they really want to influence those outside the academy. But then with comments disabled they obviously know there would be very unfavourable comments.

I try to sit on the fence but I'm afraid this is nothing short of car crash publicity on the level of a royal/Cummings TV interview.

[JennyMorgan]

1 hour ago, floydraser said:

But then with comments disabled they obviously know there would be very unfavourable comments.

There is a long history (how long has JP been at the BA?) of excessive control amounting to media censorship by the BA's main man.   

[floydraser]

55 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

There is a long history (how long has JP been at the BA?) of excessive control amounting to media censorship by the BA's main man.   

I don't think in this case JP can be blamed too much for this, but I do think someone is trying to crawl up his.....ooh, sometimes you just can't think of the right word.

Comments disabled shows clearly that the publisher (a person at the academy) was doing nothing to keep it from the public's viewing therefore the very publication itself was provocation. "I'll do that for you Dr Packman!" or "Have you seen what I've done for you Dr Packman?"

I suspect JP could be livid; I had him down as being far too clever to support something so unbalanced.

 

[YnysMon]

I’m not against the BA promoting paddle boarding, at least responsible paddle boarding, but why promote it so heavily in a vid that is supposed to be about something else?

As I said, I enjoyed watching the vid. It did leave me with a number of questions though.

[JennyMorgan]

1 hour ago, floydraser said:

I had him down as being far too clever to support something so unbalanced.

He is clever, very clever, unaccountable too.

[eddybear]

Well I watched it from beginning to end, it wasn't what I was expecting not one mention of anything with an engine, only Sailing boats and paddle boards, oh when the lady was being interviewed about her paddle board business a motor boat went past quite noisily I think they turn the volume up purposely, obviously us Little people (power boaters) not appreciated or wanted.

[Vaughan]

11 minutes ago, eddybear said:

it wasn't what I was expecting not one mention of anything with an engine, only Sailing boats and paddle boards,

I also noticed that, whilst the interview with the BA ranger was fine in itself, he was carefully positioned on the start line of the Buckenham Sailing Club on a part of the river which has little or no boat traffic at times, with the camera angle specially arranged to show all the "national park" style pedestrian ramblers on the Wherryman's Way footpath.

We used to say "the camera never lies", but it can certainly only see what it wants to see.

[JennyMorgan]

3 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

We used to say "the camera never lies", but it can certainly only see what it wants to see.

The video is clearly aimed at children, an easy, soft target for the BNP inhouse department of propaganda and selective misinformation.  Education should be untarnished and wholly truthful. If one side of the argument is presented then so should the other. Balance is missing.

[floydraser]

I think it also reflects very badly on the academy. And before anyone plays the inevitable trump card that it was produced by a poor student with a back story, it's still publishing to the World and responsibility for that lies with the leadership.

The future output of this academy will now be monitored and if it continues to be unbalanced, funding and leadership should be called in to question.

[JennyMorgan]

Another Academy offering:

 

[Vaughan]

Oh No! Have I got to watch this as well?

All right then, I'll do it after lunch . . .  

[JennyMorgan]

7 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

Oh No! Have I got to watch this as well?

All right then, I'll do it after lunch . . .  

It's pleasantly entertaining! 

[Poppy]

What's with the obsession with SUPs ???

[JennyMorgan]

I have messaged the Academy, made contact, I wonder whether I shall receive a response!

Regarding the Broads and the so-called Broads national park. Your video's are pumping out misleading and unbalanced reports on the Broads.  You refer to the Broads as a national park, it isn't. Fact of history, it is a purely a branding exercise, it has never been granted that status.  Beyond that the Broads are Broads, not lakes.  Don't believe all that the Broads Authority tells you.  Education is about providing truth and balance, both of which are partially absent from your Broads related videos, that doesn't reflect well on the academy, in my opinion.  Regards, Peter Waller.

[JennyMorgan]

9 minutes ago, Poppy said:

What's with the obsession with SUPs ???

A couple of teachers developing a summer holiday add-on to their income? Can't see it becoming universally popular during the winter months though. 

[Poppy]

JM, your post came in as I was typing in a similar vein to the Academy in which I referenced the various legislations pertaining to the Broads and information on The Sandford Principle ( a report from the Broads Society. )