New Portobello High School - PPAG Judicial Review

[Chas]

[Franck]

[Chas]

[wangi]

[Sceptic]

Despite everyone's best intentions, tonight WILL get heated and nasty. It is in the nature of the beast to do so. People have been going on too long and have been too involved to back down, regardless of their views. As I have said before, if the PCC had put it's foot down and shown a bit of leadership, we might have avoided this.The end result will be one side or another going off in fine temper, vowing never to return.
What will the end result be? The school will be built on the park. There is too much riding on it for it not to happen.
The sooner PPAG see this and stop tilting at windmills, the better. They will not win.

[wangi]

[Chas]

[lg1726]

[Doris]

[rmolehusband]

[seanie]

[Franck]

[Chas]

[seanie]

The PPAG deputation also tried to invoke the PCC survey as evidence that the community didn't support the proposed High School.

The figures they quoted were actually wrong. I know because I collated the survey and produced the reports.

But the deputation weren't to know that; they were simply repeating what they'd been told to say.

They were just the sewer, not the sewage.

[Sceptic]

............and this is exactly where leadership comes in. having the strength of character where the chair keeps a lid on matters, stopping the stream of points of order, cutting off the distractions and side tracks.

Regretfully, I expect it to be a shouting and bawling match, where anyone holding a contrary position to PPAG will be called traitors and betrayers of Portobello. Just as it has been on these pages. I would not call them Nazis, Stalin was just as adept at removing his critics as well. The question of "when did you stop beating your wife " springs to mind.
In other words we do not have any winners, everyone loses.

[wangi]

By my reading 4 of 126 the responses to the PCC survey were against PHS on Porty Park...

viewtopic.php?p=92477#p92477

[seanie]

Just a reminder.

Portobello Community Council’s constitution also requires the following;

“All meetings of the COMMUNITY COUNCIL and its committees (subject to 11(h), above) shall be open to members of the public.  Proper provision is to be made for the accommodation of members of the public and the opportunity should be afforded at each meeting to permit members of the public to address the COMMUNITY COUNCIL, under the guidance of the Chairperson.”   

Please also be aware that the Town Hall had been provisionally booked for use by the PCC for last Friday and Sunday. The offer of the use of the Town Hall was turned down when offered to the PCC.

[Porty Person]

[Porty]

[Porty]

Above is the PCC official response to the PHS planning application, which is being touted as a "balanced view". You will note that there are 4 supportive comments and 9 objections. At the time I wrote to John Stewart and asked why the supporting comments were in plain text when objections were highlighted in BOLD- I'm still none the wiser, as the response must have been in invisible ink.

[Makaveli]

Mrs Makaveli and her friend are going tonight (I am left with the kids!!!)- hope PPAG are well prepared with some good comebacks cos I know these two girls are not happy about the PPAG stance and have seen through all their flawed arguments over the last few years.

[Pal of Porty]

I don't think it will be a big rammy tonight - I (or Mrs PoP) have attended all the events to date and although there has been some absolute drivel spouted, every meeting has been relatively orderly. The worse part of tonight so far is coming from tonight's chair. Prior to the meeting he has:

* Declared neutrality of the PCC.
* Deemed what is and what is not being discussed/decided upon with regard to our items 1,2 and 3.
* Severely restricted times for speakers to present their case.
* Restricted the numbers allowed entry into the meeting by putting a counter on the door yet refused to hold the meeting in the Town Hall to accomodate large numbers (Yes it was available).
* Refused to have a neutral Chair for the meeting.
* etc etc

Nothing changes.

[Makaveli]

Do you know how many are going to be admitted in tonight POP?

[Pal of Porty]

John ' Neutrality' Stewart defender of the Inner Sanctum has given his counter a limit but it has not been made public.

[rmolehusband]

[Makaveli]

[gillian]

So, if we get there and are told that we are not allowed in, what do we do??

[seanie]

I'd suggest you make your feelings on the subject known to the PCC from outside the hall rather than inside.

[gillian]

This is madness, what are they hoping to achieve by not providing adequate provision for a meeting of such importance?. Of course they could have consulted the community to get an idea of how many intended attending and then planned accordingly

[seanie]

Well I personally saw to it that the Town Hall was available and provisionally booked for last weekend.

As to why the Chair and Vice-chair decided that tonight at the Community Centre was a better venue, that's really a question that would have to be directed at them.

[rmolehusband]

[gillian]

And brollies by the look of it.

[Franck]

[Doris]

[Doris]