Letter: How Not to Engage the Public

Published on: 8 Oct, 2025
Updated on: 8 Oct, 2025

Cllr Sue Wyeth-Price

From John Ferns

In response to: How Residents Can Take Part in Talks About the Ash Neighbourhood Plan

If Cllr Sue Wyeth-Price hadn’t personally stepped in at the last minute, almost no one would have known this Ash Neighbourhood Plan meeting was happening at all.

She first posted details on Facebook on October 5, realising that such an important public meeting had not been publicised by the Parish Council. The Guildford Dragon then picked it up and — with her agreement — published the notice here to help spread the word.

Ash Parish Council’s own “publicity” amounted to a token listing on its website and a mention in Cllr Tonks’ obscure email circular. There was no promotion on the local Facebook groups where most residents now get their information — a glaring omission for such an important community meeting.

The result? Ten residents online, four parish councillors in attendance, and a perfunctory ten minutes total for public comment. A shambles by any reasonable standard.

Residents were left wondering whether this was a genuine consultation or a box-ticking exercise to keep the process moving quietly along. The Parish should have published all the Regulation 14 and statutory consultee responses before the meeting — yet none were available.

For a plan that will shape the future of Ash for years to come, this was a masterclass in how not to do public engagement. Transparency and accountability appear to exist only when one councillor takes it upon herself to insist on them.

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