‘Ignore claims in leaflet’ (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

‘Ignore claims in leaflet’

8:00pm Wednesday 17th October 2012 in News

Malmesbury residents are being urged to ignore leaflets posted through doors last week about potential development sites.

The flyers claim that a preferred site for large-scale housing development has been decided and gives a date by which views can be submitted.

But Coun Simon Killane, who chairs the town’s Neighbourhood Steering Group, said in a statement: “This leaflet contains false and inaccurate content. It is not endorsed by any member of Malmesbury Neighbour-hood Steering group.

“We did not consent to having our names or contact details published on this leaflet. “It is a tall order for me to accept that someone can print my details and those of other steering group members in such a way so that it looks as if we created it.

“The deadline date is clearly there to make people feel that they have little or no time to make their views known. “It also falsely gives the impression that we have chosen the site even though we have went to extreme efforts make sure that people are fully involved in helping to shape whatever proposals finally go to referendum.

“If you really care about what we are trying to do then you will tell every Malmesbury person you know to shred this leaflet into tiny pieces and make sure that they are totally aware that this sort of underhanded dirty tactic has no place in our community.”

A Wiltshire Public Relations company, E=MC2, has written to Coun Killane informing him of their involvement with delivery of the leaflet.

A spokesperson said: “My client wishes to remain anonymous and, in the interests of client confidentiality, I must respect this.”