Letter: Bike Skills Park skips public process

Assuming that Rick Kasper was quoted correctly in the March 13 Sooke News Mirror...

Assuming that Rick Kasper was quoted correctly in the March 13 Sooke News Mirror (Public will have say on Bike Skills Park) as saying about a public hearing on the Bike Skills Park, that “he did not want council to appear to pre-judge the public process,” did this not already occur when council handed out $3,600 of our money to “draw up plans” for it?

As pointed out in a previous “Letters” (News Mirror, Nov. 21, 2012), the bike park was not the first instance in which council and staff have made up their minds well before any pro-forma hearings were held. Granted, such a plug is commonly used by higher levels of government to give the appearance of public input when the course of action has already been decided, but must we be so-duped at the local level as well?

Incidentally, I don’t much care about the actual outcome of this proposal, although it does seem that there are other suitable locations available for the Bike Skills Park; but I lost interest in the fate of the John Phillips Memorial Golf Course long ago, when a previous administration turned over a large chunk of it to developers.

Dick

Momsen

Sooke

Sooke News Mirror