25 Feb 2011

Daily Echo - letter

Consultation not genuine
IN the Daily Echo report (February 19) it is reported that the Strategic Health Authority 'was not bound by the results of the public consultation'. No one who remembers that the SHA distributed pre-paid postcards so that people would agree with their intention to fluoridate our water (no other option offered) would seriously contend that their 'consultation' was genuine. An inspection of the glossy booklet sent out by the authority, padded with irrelevant material, using misleading terminology, avoiding facts of key importance and trivialising health concerns, serves but to confirm that conviction.
It is a pity that the SHA did not bear in mind the words of Judge Webster several years ago when he observed: 'In any context the essence of consultation is "the communication of a genuine invitation to give advice and a genuine consideration of that advice."
G PAYNE, Southampton

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