Chairman says stadium process is "corrupted" (From Bucks Free Press)

Lane End Parish Council chairman says stadium process is "corrupted"

4:47pm Wednesday 12th January 2011 in High Wycombe By Rebecca Cain

Chairman says stadium process is "corrupted"

THE CHAIRMAN of Lane End Parish Council has accused the stadium consultation process of being “corrupted”, at a meeting last night.

Cllr Graeme Coulter spoke about the results of the public consultation on the Wycombe Community Stadium which were published last week by Wycombe District Council.

It showed a majority were in favour of the stadium and sports village and in favour of the stadium at Wycombe Air Park in Booker.

Speaking to councillors at the meeting on Tuesday he said: “Voting patterns raise serious questions about the extent to which the consultation process has been corrupted. I won't call it corrupt but corrupted. I don't think it reflects in any way public opinion.”

Cllr Coulter said “we are all aware” Wycombe Wanderers' Football club, Wasps and the university encouraged voting in the consistencies within their influence.

He said a Freedom of Information request was made for full list of responses made by individuals which WDC co-operated with and those individual responses are being looked at.

The parish council has also requested a copy of the electoral register to see if they can relate the individual responses with the register but WDC has refused to make the register available, although it did say it could have the register for the Lane End Parish.

Spokesman for WDC Catherine Spalton said: “We had a request for a copy of the electoral register for the whole district from the clerk of the Parish Council. They were told that parish councillors are entitled to a copy of the electoral register for their parish only and that this request should be made directly to the Democratic Services Team Leader. (For reference, district councillors are only entitled to a copy of the electoral register for their ward.)

“A copy of the full register is available for inspection, on request, at our offices.”

Cllr Mike Detsiny said polls on the Bucks Free Press website showed a very different response than the consultation received, as did the survey carried out by Wycombe District councillors Jean Teesdale and Ian McEnnis in Lane End, which showed about 90 per cent wanted the stadium to stay at Adams Park.

The results of the consultation will go to full cabinet meeting on Monday when the next stage will be discussed.