RE: THE Messenger article about Neighbourhood Plans and the apparent anger of the group (August 24).

I would like to point out that the article, and seemingly the group themselves, is a little misleading.

The plan is constantly referred to as a Neighbourhood Plan, but it isn't and never was.

It is a Business Neighbourhood Plan, which is legally very different. The group in charge were at pains from the very beginning to keep this within a very small core of people.

They drew up a tight boundary which even excluded some local businesses, and wouldn't budge on this even when asked to.

Now they are complaining the boundary should be wider for all the reasons they refused to listen to at the beginning.

The general public were never involved in devising this plan, and when they were finally asked to approve it the choices on the voting form were so ludicrous as to make the result a farce. (For example: 'Cinemas, do you want more or less cinemas in Altrincham?' As we only have one cinema, who on earth would vote for less? The sensible question should have been more, less, or about right as it is, but the working group refused to do this on the grounds that it would have made the questionnaire too difficult!)

Now the group is complaining that the wider public won't get to vote on the plan, but why should they as this was a Business Neighbourhood Plan and not a Neighbourhood Plan?

They seem to have forgotten what their plan was meant to be. All along the working group had its own itinerary, refused to accept constructive criticism or any suggestions that didn't agree with their views, restricted who could be on the forum, and had no real concept of how they fitted in with the BID plan once that was unveiled.

I think you have a working group who were full of self-importance and now find themselves irrelevant, and they are desperately trying to give themselves a voice.

This was all along a Business Neighbourhood Plan, only ever intended to be voted on by town centre businesses. Pretending now that it was a Neighbourhood Plan is just confusing the issue.

Derek Emerson

via email