Hoveton Great Broads Petition Update

[ranworthbreeze]

I am sure a number of you we have had this update from Sue Hines this morning.

Regards

Alan

Hoveton Great Broad Petition update

 

Sue Hines

Acle, United Kingdom

15 Nov 2015 — Despite the email with the details of the Petition having been sent to the Rt Hon John Whittingdale OBE MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on 3 November, no response or acknowledgement has been received. The email has been re-sent to Mr Whittingdale on 13 November and a local MP has also asked Mr Whittingdale for a copy of his response. We remain hopeful .....

[BroadScot]

Naughty Mr Whittingdale I am sure if no reply, a letter to the Speaker will I think speed things up! 

Iain.

[marshman]

i am equally sure it will not make the slightest difference!!!!!

[JennyMorgan]

But then you would!

[marshman]

I get your drift Peter, but what you fail to comprehend, is that I wish it would make a difference!!! Right from the outset i was against this proceeding without wider access but the trouble is, whilst i would have been happy with access being achieved perhaps, for canoes and other similar, it was always going to be a step too far, and uncontrollable, to include sailing boats and powered craft and that would never happen - yet. In the short term it would also defeat the object of the exercise which primarily, to restore the health of the habitat. Without that latter tag it would never have happened at all.

I think in these circumstances a bit by bit approach is better than none at all - what has been achieved is better than nothing - just , but petitions have proved time and time again to be a total waste of effort unless you get the 100k number and even then its of marginal benefit. To get any less than that just proves to me, and probably others, that no one is really interested apart from the very few and thats why its ignored!!

Sad  but reality i suspect.

[JennyMorgan]

Numbers are relative. A problem with the Broads is that the 'core interest' is so desperately small. As a contributor to various publications I was always up against the accusation that the Broads, on a national basis, is too small to be of general interest and that is, i think, both the reality and the problem. Packman avoided the cull of the quangos simply because his kingdom is, once again in national terms, too small to bother about. He's avoiding having elected committees quite simply because the potential electorate is too small. Not much more than a hundred miles of navigable water, the BA's area of responsibility is not much more than the area encompassing the navigation. Important to us but regretfully not to others. 

[Guest]

I fully agree with Marshman again.

It is indeed better to start with some Public access rather than none at all.

"what has been achieved is better than nothing - just", was very eloquently put, qualified as it was with the word "just".

I've always felt that petitions with comparatively few signatories do indeed act as a clear indicator that the motion has  relatively little weight behind it, and are thus easier to ignore, so is actually having the opposite effect desired.

The much disliked phrase "little people" keeps getting actually quantified.

This other recent ePetition that proposed a vote of no confidence in the BA ended with a total of 407 signatures, (out of the whole UK population of 64 million, not just the 10,000 plus toll payers and regular hirers).

https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/74305

It therefore acted as a vote of confidence in the BA's management, which even I agree is too far the other way...

 

[quo vadis]

The latest from Sue

 

4 Dec 2015 — A response has been received from Tracey Crouch MP, the Minister for Heritage. Unfortunately it does not address the demands of the petition and says nothing that we do not know already. A reply to Ms Crouch is being drafted and consideration being given to "letter bombing" her email address.

as expected

[JennyMorgan]

http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/work_on_contentious_4m_hoveton_great_broad_restoration_project_expected_to_begin_in_summer_1_4485410