Mayor of London Transport Strategy - Consultation Process - How many aware within LB Merton?

Dear Merton Borough Council,

It has become apparent that many organisations and members of the
public in LB Merton were not aware of the recent consultation into
the Draft Mayor of London Transport Strategy.

Please explain the steps that Merton Council took with TfL to make
the public aware of consultation into the Draft Mayor of London
Transport Strategy.

(1) What publicity was undertaken across LB Merton by TfL and by LB
Merton?

(2) What was published that explained the Draft Strategy and the
consultation process and how were these made available?

(3) What steps were taken to try to ensure a balanced cross-section
of the public was made aware of the process?

(4) Where were leaflets distributed, and how was this decided?
What analysis suggested this would lead to a fair and balanced
distribution across the community?

(5) What steps were taken to ensure that hard-to-reach sections of
the community, such as those who travel exclusively by private car,
were made aware of the consultation process and encouraged to
participate in it?

(6) What consultation discussions took place between LB Merton and
TfL over how this process would operate?
To what extent was the council consulted over the detail of the
consultation, and what views did it express?

(7) Is the council happy with the consultation process?
Was the council happy that the online questionnaire was so
flagrantly biased?
Was the council happy that were responders allowed to pick as many
as they chose from an uncosted wish-list?

(7) What steps were taken to inform and involve organisations
likely to have an interest?

(8) What programme of meetings was organised?
Did Merton Council ask TfL to attend meetings of the council's
Neighbourhood Partnerships, and how many did receive reports on the
consultation from TfL?

(9) How many meetings took place within LB Merton between TfL and
the council as part of the consultation process?
What about with local groups in LB Merton?

(10) What pre-consultation took place with interested parties to
ensure that the process was fair and balanced?

(11) Does the council support a MTS consultation on the Draft Mayor
of London Transport Strategy that offers so little for the driver -
private motorist or professional driver of taxi, minicab, van,
lorry or bus?
How important are private drivers in the overall use of transport
in Merton?
Has the council expressed concerns over this unfair and unbalanced
aspect of the consultation process?

(12) Does the council support a MTS in which the promotion of
cycling within the draft MTS does not also include warnings on the
dangers of this mode?
Does the council support the proposition that a mass switch to
cycling would be beneficial justified, and on what evidence?

(13) Does the council support a MTS consultation in which costings
of various suggestions were not put forward, so that the public
could see how much tax each would entail?

(14) Does the council support a MTS consultation in which there was
no question on the level of subsidy that each mode should receive?

(15) Does the council support a MTS consultation in which no
question is asked as to whether the users of a mode should bear
all, most, some or whatever proportion of the costs of providing
that mode?

(16) What representations has or will the council make regarding
the consultation process into the Draft MTS as a result of this
enquiry or otherwise?

Yours faithfully,

Ruthlyn Black

Dear ES Enquiries,

Thank you for your response.

However, this response is difficult to read and interpret as it is
an image of a DOC file then converted to a PDF.

Please provide either the original DOC response, or a direct PDF of
that response, in particular so that the text may be extracted.

As you have confirmed that LBM made a response to the MTS
consultation, please provide a copy of that response.

Yours sincerely,

Ruthlyn Black

Dear ES Enquiries,

I am disappointed that after two weeks you have not provided the
information now required in this enquiry.

Under the FOI Law, you are required to respond promptly.

You are also under §16 supposed to be helpful.

Please respond without further delay.

Yours sincerely,

Ruthlyn Black

Dear ES Enquiries,

Thank you for your reply and new useful information.

I would remind you again of the §16 duty to be helpful.
Could you please comment on the issue of its format, as per my
previous email, which you did not address.

This second reply contains useful information, but as it is an
image of a file, I cannot make use of the text, for example to
discuss with others what LB Merton thinks about transport in
London.

I could apply OCR to the PDF image files your have sent, and then
extract the text but that is a lot of unnecessary work.

In addition, the files you have sent me are large, at 391Kb and
506Kb.
If you provided the actual DOC files, or the PDF files, they would
be about 10 times smaller.

I note you say:

"^**********************************************************************^
"Reduce waste - please do not print this message unless you need
to."

Well, I agree about avoiding waste.
That applies to hard drive space and email traffic - see file size
remarks.
It also applies to making best use of time and information - see
extract text and make use of it.

Yours sincerely,

Ruthlyn Black