Westmount resident not denied access to meeting, says minister

New hospital access road protestor on Wesmount hill, Tamara Vanmeggelen Picture: ROB CURRIE

Senator Lyndon Farnham – political lead for the Our Hospital programme – said that the engagement process was continuing and the opportunity for Westmount residents to raise issues had not passed.

Tamara Vanmeggelen, who lives close to the Overdale site, said she was ‘disappointed’ to not have received an invitation from Soundings – the company conducting community engagement for the £800 million project – to an initial meeting on Tuesday for the Community Liaison Group, that will be discussing and incorporating the views of residents and stakeholders into the design process.

However, Senator Farnham said that the Community Liaison Group was simply having an ‘interim meeting’ to agree the process with interested parties, and that he expected Ms Vanmeggelen would probably be appointed as a member in due course.

‘The bottom line is of course she is welcome to attend on the 23rd – she’s not excluded. We are still forming the group, there is a process to go through but she is very welcome to come to the meeting,’ he said. ‘They will be inviting representatives of the Overdale Neighbourhood Forum to join the Community Liaison Group – it just so happens that the neighbourhood meeting is just two days after the inaugural Community Liaison Group meeting.’

In the meantime, Ms Vanmeggelen says, she has been ‘relegated’ to the Overdale Neighbourhood Forum, a separate group that she believes has less of an input into the consultation proceedings. She described it as a ‘deliberate attempt’ to exclude her voice as an outspoken Westmount resident with an interest in the project.

‘I knew that Soundings was setting up various groups as they had mentioned it at previous meetings – but I didn’t hear anything further,’ she said. ‘I’m in contact with a lot of people who are interested in the hospital project and someone sent me their invitation to the Community Liaison Group.

‘I wrote to them [Soundings] saying please sign me up and I was shocked to
get a response that said they had sent out 50 invitations and I wasn’t one of them. It’s really disappointing because Soundings is another expensive UK consultant that is being retained by the government supposedly for communication.’

Senator Farnham said that the Community Liaison Group was undergoing ‘opening proceedings’ and that membership for the group was still being finalised.

‘They are putting the group together and I very much think Tamara will be on the group – so that was all, it was just the sequencing,’ he said.

Ms Vanmeggelen also believed that Soundings was deliberately excluding her from the initial meeting because information on potential planning applications might be discussed. Senator Farnham said this was not the case and that the meeting was merely an introductory session.

‘There’s going to be many more meetings and lots of work to do with all of the interested parties between now and the planning application going in,’ he said. ‘I want to reiterate that the process will be as inclusive as possible for all stakeholders, neighbours, community groups etcetera. We are not going to exclude anybody.’

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