Redbridge officials have responded to a complaint about how it handled the consultation over introducing permanent market stalls on Wanstead High Street by saying they went ‘above and beyond’ what was necessary.
Just 80 responses came from the borough-wide consultation last year, and yet the change in policy was introduced by the council cabinet. As has been reported, the consulation consisted of notices published in a newspaper which is no longer printed, and hidden behind opaque Facebook ads.
In a response to former Wanstead Society committee member Geoff Horsnell, officials have defended their consultation, and said they didn’t involve the Wanstead Society in it because they were ‘not aware’ of it. Even if officials had been aware of it, they said, they had been under no obligation to consult it.
This is an excerpt of the response:
The response will no doubt raise eyebrows among the Wanstead residents who had little or no idea such a significant change to the character of the Wanstead Conservation Zone was being introduced.
Eyebrows well and truly …stratospheric!
Absolutely!
‘Designed very carefully’ to avoid all stakeholders, except the ones making money…
sO WHAT DOES
So what does it mean – Wlll they go ahead or not
Yes. They are going ahead.
Taking a leaf from the Donald Trump book of truth….
Why were none of the shops told about this last October? They didn’t know about it until the middle of August this year quite by chance! Is that Democracy or Autocracy?
You might have hoped the local councilors would be in touch with the likely view in the majority of Wanstead rather than tone deaf to their electorate? I have no idea how good or bad the consultation was as the communications were underhand to avoid responses so I and most people never saw it.? The ‘we did not need to consult you but did’ is such a high handed attitude. Big brother knows best? Not sure our local rep earned her £26,000 (2023 figures) as our representative? Most people are against the stalls a few are for, but no one believes the consultation was good enough. Originally the council published applicants names on the website , this has now been removed….. maybe they are worried we may spot links between councilors and the applicants?
Why wasn’t it put up on lamp post in the high street, like planning and Licencing applications? Simple remedy to get out to the majority…..
The stalls will destroy the the vibe of the high street which makes Wanstead so special. I suggest that if we cannot overturn the decision of redbridge, we should boycott the stalls. We should not buy anything from them even if they are a bit cheaper. This is the price we will have to pay for trying to keep our high street as it is.