HCC: digging in.

This just in from HCC:

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Dear Mr Stead

Thank you for your message regarding a planned public meeting about the A34 junction with Nuns Walk at Whitchurch.

I would be grateful if you could contact the officers involved and let them know the objectives of the public meeting and the issues you wish to raise.  The County Council can then judge the appropriate response.  If the issues raised are relatively simple and can be resolved through the County Council's routine work then attendance at a public meeting would not be needed and a written statement would be adequate.  I should add that a meeting with representatives from Whitchurch Town Council and the local County Councillor, rather than a public meeting, would usually be the most appropriate method for discussing more complex matters where it is easier for an officer to discuss possible solutions in person.

...

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...in other words, no. We don't want to meet you.

What makes me cross is making out they don't know what the meeting will be about. I'm sure HCC officers aren't that dumb, that all the emails and many blog posts, with diagrams, photos etc, don't clearly spell out the problem.

It's now back with them, to clarify whether the HCC Exec has the power to force officials to attend. We shall see.

UPDATE: Cllr Tom Thacker has confirmed his attendance at the meeting on the 19th, which is great news. Here's hoping we can get the HCC and HA technical officers along as well. They know the ins & outs of all this, we will get much quicker understandings and resolution if they talk instead of relying on thousands of emails.