Core Strategy, public involvement on Wednesday night

The Christchurch and East Dorset LDF core strategy came under scrutiny at the Community Services meeting on Wednesday at CBC. Twenty residents/organisations/ interested parties booked in to speak for three minutes about key issues with the Committee and officers taking notes of ideas and criticisms resulting from the draft core strategy. What impressed me was not just the quality of the presentations but the range of subjects covered so immediately following the meeting I insigated a proceedure whereby every contribution would receive an acknowledgement and where possible a reaction to the ideas expressed. All issues would be added to the consultation file irrespective of the fact that the time line has not opened yet. I have the opinion that we should do more of this to enable interested parties to put their concerns directly to Council committees and will pursue this with some enthusiasm. East Dorset will be doing the same this coming week so I am very interested to see how their meeting goes. A lot of good points made on Wednesday night with ,I am delighted to say very little cynicism.