The latest round of consultation on a stalled community centre project in Lichfield contains “unnecessary bias”, according to residents fighting the plans.
Lichfield City Council is proposing to build a community hall on Darwin Park using Section 106 funds secured from the developer behind the estate. But plans for the building at Cathedral Walk have attracted fierce opposition from people living on the estate, many of whom have complained that the hall would be too close to houses and block views of Lichfield Cathedral.
After more than five years of trying to get the project off the ground the council has issued questionnaires seeking the views of every resident on Darwin Park and the Chesterfield Road estate in a last-ditch attempt to get things moving.
Steve Wilcox, of Lawrence Way, is one a group of residents campaigning against the proposed site at Cathedral Walk who are claiming the questionnaire shows a “clear bias” in favour of the hall being built there.
According to Mr Wilcox, a leaflet sent out with it contains only background information that supports the hall going ahead, and doesn’t include facts illustrating the other side of the argument.
The group has drawn up a pro-forma letter in response and is encouraging residents to send copies to the council.
But the council said the leaflet was factually accurate. Clerk Peter Young said: “The objectors complaints are not about what it says, but about what it omits. There are some things that the objectors have committed as well.
“The city council has been seeking to build a community hall on the site for several years, and the leaflet explains the reasons behind this.”
If no hall is built on the earmarked land by March 2010, both the land and £386,000 in Section 106 contributions will have to be returned to the developer.
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