Letter: Why Ask For Confirmation of Information Already on Public Record?

Published on: 12 Oct, 2017
Updated on: 12 Oct, 2017

Cllr Reeve at the complaints hearing.

From Ben Paton

In response to: Letter: Time For Cllr Reeve to Come Clean

Isn’t it a bit odd asking a person to confirm someone else’s opinion expressed in someone else’s letter? Why doesn’t Cllr Paul Spooner ask the author of the letter, Ms Wright herself, rather than Cllr David Reeve?

If Cllr Spooner had read Cllr Reeve’s report he would already be familiar with Cllr Reeve’s assessment of the matter. Perhaps he has not read it? If he has not read it then why has he put the council through an 18 month, I think it was, process, costing thousands of pounds?

If Cllr Spooner has any doubt that the OAN (Objectively Assessed Need) is exaggerated he could compare the OANs of Guildford, Woking and Waverley relative to their populations and come to a rough and ready conclusion. He could also read the report commissioned by the Guildford Residents’ Association, that came to a similar view ie that the OAN was not soundly based.

What’s controversial about Ms Wright’s statement that:“GBC’s refusal to share these figures, with anyone, GRA, GSoc, parish councils etc, have led to independent consultants being employed to work the figures which concur with my suspicions, and those of others, that the SHMA figures and subsequent OAN [objectively assessed need] are inflated and unconstrained.”

It is a matter of public record that a number of local bodies have commissioned expert opinion on the GBC SHMA.

It is a matter of public record that the OAN is not constrained – as allowed (and expected) by the NPPF.

Anyone can confirm these facts for themselves, including Cllr Spooner. So why is he asking Cllr Reeve to confirm what everyone already knows?