Letter: Stray Consultation - This is not a referendum

The impression given was that this is very much a yes or no question with direct references to last year’s EU referendum: this is not the case.

The online questionnaire solicits respondents’ views all the way through to qualify the initial ‘in favour’ or ‘not in favour’ questions and indeed allows considerable space for comments.

If the comments are to be ignored, then I’m afraid the whole consultation has been a big con.

I can’t believe that HBC would pull such a trick and I am sure Coun Harrison will use your pages to confirm this is not the case and full reporting and consideration of the comments will be made before any decisions are made.

I, for one, commented that Valley Gardens needed to be treated as a separate entity to the Stray in general.

I doubt that many of your readers appreciate that what is now Valley Gardens is also covered by the Stray Act and when it was simply Bogs Field, a piece of marshy land where there were 36 different mineral wells, it probably did not need separately identifying.

Hopefully people now agree that Valley Gardens is different and should not be lumped in with any decisions made for the Stray in general.

David Mason

Chapman Square,

Harrogate