The table lists all the consultation meetings that we have arranged or attended. Those in yellow were public meetings open to anyone to attend. The numbers are how many people attended each one. The total is 537 people who we met with face-to-face (albeit some were online).
At each of these meetings everyone was encourage to ask questions and to express their views. Lots of questions were asked and the main topics of concern were about the housing crisis (availability and price of housing) and congestion and impacts caused by visitors.
At most of the the public meetings, a very simple system was used to collect the thoughts of people in an anonymous way, so that they felt able to express themselves as easily as possible.
Can hardly say a public consultation has been had with so few attending meetings you should of advertised them better this whole process is a Sham and those who have organised this should be ashamed of themselves
ReplyDeleteI do not want a national park in Lochaber. The public consultation has been very poor with very little appetite from residents... no one wants it that i have spoken to.
ReplyDeleteDoes fort william look like any national park you have been to?!
Never heard of any consultations. No to a National park in Lochaber.
ReplyDeleteI attended one of the meetings poorly advertised I would say! Five of us went along there was only one other member of the public six is hardly representative of our community ,in my opinion it was very pro national park and not much given to answer our questions or our concerns raised,with that said I’m pleased I attended and it’s a NO to a national park from me.
ReplyDeleteOver 15% of my community attended the well publicised meeting. It was 2 way, realistic, open and unbiased
DeleteI would disagree with you on that ,I don’t think 15% is good representation for any community!50% would have been reasonable!
DeleteI have yet to speak to one resident of Fort William who knows about this, let alone have been consulted. The comment from everyone is "why?" Afraid I cannot answer that, since I don't see a good reason, unless you are going to be on their payroll. That is, after all, where most of the budget goes.
ReplyDeleteI do NOT want Lochaber to be a national park.
What public consultation? First I and many others heard of it was through Facebook? Where and when was the public consultation advertised and held?
ReplyDeleteAt your first event at the Chamber in Fort William there was no "straw" poll to gauge attendees thoughts or feelings and this was the highest attended meeting you have held so would have given you an early idea of feeling.
ReplyDeleteThe survey you have been using was flawed from the start which you have accepted and modified. Initial responses did not ask for any form of identifier (name or email etc) so were open to abuse by anyone who wanted to flood the survey with multiple responses. Despite you recognising this those initial, potentially fraudulent, responses are still going to be counted. This is not acceptable in any shape or form. Only responses with a valid email (again it is easy to create a fake email to flood responses) should be counted so there is a "paper trail" to prove the validity of the survey. Faith in the people of Lochaber (to use your words) means nothing.
Public consulation in this initial phase has been woefully inadequate. You have no mandate at all to work on the behalf of the people of Lochaber as you have only consulted 537 people out of a population of approximately 22,000 and many of those you have consulted are against the proposal.
You do not speak for us and if you do our response is NO
So your voice is all voices. You group me in with you assuming I and all others agree with you.
DeleteWhy do we need to be a National Park? What benefit do local people have? Public consultation? If there was, it was very poorly advertised. A resounding No from me..
ReplyDeleteNo to a national Park in Lochaber
ReplyDeleteReally well publicised events. In favour presentation, but balanced and very open with questions. Thank you for this.
ReplyDeleteWhat public consultation? I hadn't even heard about it until December and the only drop in i could go to was miles away in arisaig? What i did hear did not sway me and i actually came away with the impression a np in lochaber would make all our existing issues far worse. Its a firm and emphatic NO from me.
ReplyDeleteI am totally against Lochaber becoming a national park. It would hinder life in Lochaber in many aspects. The dates for the meetings were not advertised far in advance and due to the early start time, it was difficult /impossible to get there on time. The survey questions were leading & biased.
ReplyDelete