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Back to 'Comment'
Secret survey |
| October 2002 with 2006 update |
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What is the secret information? Information on the state of the little public highways we call paths. This information was gathered by surveyors, paid out of Government funds (Countryside Agency) it contains details of the surveyor's opinions of the paths and there are also some photographs of structures like gates and of obstructions like barbed wire. Well we have been told it contains these things but we are not allowed to peep. It isn't a physical difficulty, it is all in digital database form, we could read it if given the files. But no, the publicly funded information is for private use of HCC. So what are they hiding? Probably nothing, but in the absence of information who can blame us if we see it as inept, even if not anything more sinister. We could help verify the data and update it on paths that we have an interest in. We could provide valuable background information on issues for these paths. Working together we would save money and improve our paths. What about the main HCC database? Unlike that Government funded survey database, the main database is not secret by explicit policy but in practice is virtually a closed book too. Indeed it seems to have sometimes been a closed book to rights of way officers too as County administrators try to merge information from various departments. Even for the information we have supplied we don't know whether our comments have ever been recorded. And it was admitted at County Hall in 2005 that some complaints, if not processed, were just deleted without informing even the complainants. We will never have full confidence in County Hall unless they are far more open with their public and far more efficient with their databases.
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