A consultation document sent to 48,000 homes asking for feedback on plans to build 8,000 homes in Gravesham is “fundamentally flawed”, according to one campaign group.
The eight-week consultation launched yesterday but includes a question asking residents if they want to see development on the Green Belt, a question which has caused a lot of controversy in the past few months.
The options for this question should read: ‘strongly agree, tend to agree, neither agree nor disagree, tend to disagree, or strongly disagree.’
Instead, due to a printing error, ‘strongly disagree’ has been replaced with ‘not important at all’.
Campaigners believe this is a serious error, which denies those against building on the Green Belt the opportunity to make their feelings known.
Bob Lane, a member of Gravesham Rural Residents Group, has raised this with the Council, and said: “I can only assume that this is a genuine printing error and not an attempt to mislead consultees or deny them the opportunity to strongly disagree. Whatever the reason, there is no doubt that this will cause a great deal of confusion to consultees. It would appear that the consultation questionnaire is fundamentally flawed and will need to be withdrawn.”
However, Gravesham council said the online version of the surveys and those available at its upcoming road shows are accurate.
The surveys sent out will not be withdrawn and instead it is expected ‘strongly agree’ and ‘agree’ responses will be grouped together.
Article originally published by Kent Online
