This post has got some considerable attention and naturally many have their opinions on the college site being turned into homes. Also naturally there’s a common thread of people who are too daft to understand how democracy works, how the law works, believe that everything’s a conspiracy, and that no-one cares about their ‘concerns’ that are being raised, not to mention apparently thinking Councillors job roles including planning housing estates.
The post is shared on the ‘Friends of Bolehall’ Facebook group, we’ve previously found this group and it’s founder to be reasonably level headed. Perhaps we were wrong after all. Especially when we see one of the Idiot factory ‘Tamworth Examiner’ Minions Mark Hopkins commenting on the post with his valuable insight.
So let’s get some things straight. Hopkins criticises by sarcastically saying ‘democracy at it’s finest’. Now what Mark doesn’t seem to understand is that if someone in government, local or otherwise, were to just dismiss this out of hand and say no, well that wouldn’t be democracy would it. It would be civil servants having more power than they already do.
Planning applications of this size thankfully can’t just be decided upon by civil servants, they have to go to a planning committee, where they are given due public scrutiny and people are given the chance to object. Similarly, the fact that a planning application has to be put in, in the first place should show that this actually isn’t a ‘done deal’ after all otherwise they’d just build it wouldn’t they? What people fail to do is actually object with any reasonable logical or lawful reasons as to why the development should not go ahead. They have an emotional knee jerk opinion and expect everyone to share their opinions, otherwise ‘corruption innit’ (it might come as a shock but not everyone has the same outlook on things as you). Quite often people fail to object at all to planning applications because they simply cannot be bothered beyond complaining on social media. This is the world we live in.
Now yes, anyone that knows Upper Gungate and the junction with Croft Street knows that it gets congested, ironically the college that causes a lot of that morning and afternoon congestion is moving. Something else people don’t take into account. We here at Debunking do agree that roads in Tamworth are pushed for capacity, but we also know that consultation takes place on these matters quite often only to be completely ignored by people in favour of, you’ve guessed it, complaining on Facebook instead. So to the world of moaners it appears that government just gets on and does what it likes, well yes it does, because if you look at responses to planning applications like this, there is rarely any meaningful public engagement beyond literal whinging or any effort to understand facts or laws.
If you watch any planning meeting, which is quite easy to do online, you will notice that Councillors do in fact challenge applications and they do bring up concerns like this. Anyone saying otherwise is making it up and believing what they would like to think happens. Like these people above. What people really do fail to understand and get their knickers in a knot about, is that everyone has to abide by the law, you know, the actual law that most of us live by to avoid society failing into catastrophic destruction (whether enough enforcement happens is a debate for another day).
Where would we be without laws? Well we wouldn’t come close to living in a democracy without them would it, it would be a free for all, and everyone (in this context) building whatever, wherever they like. So we challenge those complaining to have a word with themselves, and if they really aren’t happy, then engage and give some meaningful legally based responses to this application where it actually counts when it comes up to be considered. You don’t have to be a lawyer, you just have to have a sound enough reason as to why something shouldn’t be built. Let’s not forget that if the law isn’t followed it costs you the tax payer thousands to defend and lose on an appeal for dubious reasons against applications like this. Let’s also not forget something that seems to completely bypass Anne in the comments that this application hasn’t even been put in by the council and it has yet to even consider it. They are quite literally plans Anne, no-one has agreed to anything, but as usual with Facebook warriors she’s assumed no-one but her has thought of the implications. Given the County Council ran a consultation on the infrastructure around that area due to this application (that ended in September), we don’t think you’re actually the only one believe it or not.
As for the rest of the comments regarding making the town centre more attractive, she’s evidently been living under a rock given everything happening there at the moment. It’s very disconcerting when you realise just how little those living in this world and walking amongst you, understand or even care about what’s happening around them. They’re usually the first to complain in their social media echo chambers about everything without stopping to question whether they are actually correct or not. If we carry on like this and the plague of misinformation and wilful misunderstanding carries on, maybe we will have a catastrophic breakdown in society after all. What fun.
