As Oxhey residents enjoy the recent heatwave and families prepare for their summer holidays, I felt I had to follow up on my letter dated just before the local elections in May.

In this letter I suggested that the local councillors were not making the results of the Oxhey Parking Survey available for fear of impacting their results at the ballet box. Councillor Sharpe responded by saying this was due to election rules which may or may not be true. However, Councillor Sharpe also stated that the results would be made public in late May/early June.

The reason I felt compelled to write again, is that the promised results have now been made available, with letters and a new consultation being sent to residents, dated 18th July with responses due back on the 2nd September.

Not only have the councillors delayed the results being made public, they have chosen to issue a new consultation to only those areas that raised a positive response (i.e. those who replied to an emotive question without facts) saying that the majority of people are in favour and excluding the rest of the community which will no doubt be impacted should permits be implemented. Taking this approach, the council will then by stealth will be able to revisit these areas at a later date to implement phase 2, 3, 4 of their parking zone strategy.

By not involving the whole community the councillors are feeding the fire of division when this topic is divisive enough as it is. Why are the facts not being made available, the costs, the impact, instead relying on residents to visit the council website to “find” them? What are the councillors afraid of? Do they know that if they take an inclusive, fully democratic approach, where the facts are made available, and all those who appear on the electoral roll are asked their views, their project will not have the results they want?

To help inform residents who have not received the latest consultation, there are 3 drop-in sessions at St Mathews Church on Eastbury Rd, 29th July, 16th August and 30th August between 5pm and 8pm.

This is such an important topic, it should be approached in a fully transparent manner.

William Carre

By email