\n The Gunning Principles are a set of guidelines used in UK law to ensure that public consultations are fair and legally sound.\n<\/p>\n
\n Calderdale Cabinet councillors were challenged over the consultation issue by objectors to the potential sale to Huddersfield Giants rugby league club owner Ken Davy in Cabinet\u2019s public question time.\n<\/p>\n
\n Malcolm Walker, Gavin Butler, Richard Walsh and Sam Barnes all asked questions on aspects of the sale, including criticism about how responses to budget consultation two years ago, when the councillors first proposed disposal of The Shay \u2013 home to Halifax\u2019s professional sides, football\u2019s FC Halifax Town and rugby league\u2019s Halifax Panthers \u2013 were analysed and presented.\n<\/p>\n
\n The councillors had said the proposal was to save money in a tough financial situation.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Walker said a Freedom of Information response confirmed the council holds no records showing how consultation responses were analysed, interpreted or presented to decision-makers and \u201cno evidence Cabinet received disaggregated data distinguishing support for each disposal route\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt also confirms that free-text comments were summarised without any documented codebook or methodology,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cGiven this absence of analytical records, what evidence did Cabinet rely upon to understand the pattern of public views on each disposal option and how did it assure itself that the reported consultation findings were accurate, balanced and not misleading?\u201d he asked.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Walsh asked: \u201cOn what documented reasoning did Cabinet base its decision to exclude retention from the consultation and how did it assure itself that omitting the status quo option did not pre-determine\u00a0or bias the outcome?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Responding to Mr Walker, Cabinet member for Public Services and Communities, Coun Danielle Durrans, said the council had undertaken a \u201ccomprehensive\u201d consultation as part of its financial planning and budget-setting process.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis includes an online survey, Facebook Live question and answer session, attendances at ward forums, attendance at Youth Council and parish council liaison\u00a0meetings, aiming to reach all stakeholder groups, especially local taxpayers and service users.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe survey sought views on the principle of the proposed saving, not on the specific method of disposal, and provided opportunities for free-text on each directorate section,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Coun Durrans (Lab, Ovenden) said the consultation was conducted at a formative stage with sufficient information provided to enable \u201cintelligent consideration and adequate time for responses.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cAll feedback was conscientiously considered, including both quantitative\u00a0and qualitative data, and in line with the Gunning Principles,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Leader of the Council, Coun Jane Scullion (Lab, Luddenden Foot) said Coun Durrans\u2019 answer applied to all the questions\u00a0asked about The Shay sale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Gunning Principles are a set of guidelines used in UK law to ensure that public consultations are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-372746","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}