 Council *MAY* Trust The Public To Choose The Design
Of A New Bench!!!
18th June 2017
by Peter Chapman
It seems that Hell may have frozen over, for Burgess Hill Town Council are considering letting the public have a say over the design of a bench to be installed in the town.
It was at the meeting of the town council's customer services key area group meeting where sole Lib Dem Councillor Janice Henwood made a suggestion completely foreign to the council - that of giving the public the choice on the design of a new bench to sit beside the raised planter where Queen Elizabeth Avenue meets London Road.
Cllr Henwood said: "We've got a website, and would it not actually be nice to involve the commuity and offer an opportunity to choose one of these benches? Is it not within the capabilities of the town council to put this choice with the pictures onto the website and for people to click to say what they like and dislike? "
The committee looked startled that they were being asked to hand over the decision making to the very people who will actually use the bench!
Cllr Wendy Agate wanted to LIMIT the choice given to the public by having the councilors narrow down the list to designs that the councillors liked the best (i.e the councillors get what they want!)
Along with decorative benches or a chance to have a despoke design, a standard wooden bench is also an option, although CEO Steve Cridland declared that HE "didn't really want that" (Your reporter doesn't recall the council voting to make constitutional changes whereby staff have an equal say on such matters at council meetings)
The proposed bench will be placed next to this raised planter.
The bench will be paid for out of the remaining funds of the Queen Elizabeth Avenue boulevard project - you know the one, where hundreds of thousands were spent on making it look ever so slightly different!
The decorative options are as follows:
1. Butterflies
2. Ladybirds
3. Doves
4. Ducks
Do you like any of these?
We don't know if or when this vote will happen, the council will probably find a way of backing out of it!
Spread the word, the council may grant the public the right to choose the design of a new bench....wow!
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 Got an opinion on this story? Leave a comment below.....
What's your reaction to the council possibly letting the public actually having a choice over something for once? - although extremely minor in the grand scheme of things.
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