Charge of miniscule and meaningless statistics
A local consultation programme by Taylor-Wimpey for its proposed development at ‘Three Farms Meadows’, the former Wisley airfield, has been dismissed as a “wafer thin cosmetic veneer of community liaison”.
In a letter to Antonis Pazourou, Taylor-Wimpey [TW] project manager, the Wisley Action Group [WAG] criticises the company’s ‘Headline Figures’ –resulting from a series of ‘on-line surveys’ and published in a recent TW promotional leaflet circulated in the area.
“While described by your company as an “extensive community consultation programme”, the reality is that a grand total of just 47 people responded during the designated months of July and August – as confirmed by your PR executive this week,” says Tony Edwards, WAG communications manager, in the letter.
He goes on to point out that when TW revealed that, under the sub heading of Transport, for example, 54% of respondents agreed with plans to give transport priority, it meant that no more than 25 people had indicated their support.
“I would venture to suggest that such statistics are both miniscule and meaningless when the community has been looking for the ‘open and transparent approach’ you had promised.
“Instead, therefore, of focussing your ‘community liaison programme’ on quizzing a handful of residents about what are, at this juncture, innocuous questions about incidental issues, might we suggest that a catalogue of meaningful information regarding the company’s long-term plans and ambitions should immediately start to flow from Taylor-Wimpey.
“Accordingly we urge you to dispense with the PR flim flam and focus on the facts so that a worthwhile dialogue can begin,” Edwards concludes.
WAG previously criticised a TW leaflet which described the open farmland at the former airfield as ‘disused’ when the historically green belt land had been farmed for generations.
