The Stadium Process 8: Informing the public or fooling the public?

Is the pen, or these days the keyboard, mightier than the sword? Decent wordsmiths now enable any project to be sold, however bizarre. Cornwall Council’s minutes of its meetings over the long run-up to the planning application for a stadium include regular references to its PR and media exercise. The minutes open a small window onto the way PR is mobilised to support wider growth agendas.

There were three elements to the Council’s PR exercise

• First, the desired message was identified and then emphasised while other parts of the project were played down

• Second, public reaction was closely managed by feeding the media press releases which were then uncritically churned out for the masses

• and finally, in this case, sympathetic interests were encouraged to make the case for them

By October 2010 the officers had ‘created the key messages’. One early message revolved around the

opportunities for growth in Truro (14 sep 2010)

However, a slight problem soon emerged with this one. It soon became clear that local people weren’t quite so keen on this as were council officers. So it tended to be replaced by briefings that, with a revealing lack of confidence, would

hopefully provide emphasis on community involvement (23 Nov 2010)

A ‘Communications and Community Engagement Group’ was wheeled out to sell this message. Which came as a surprise to the Localism officer for the Truro area who was

unaware of this group’s existence (11 Jan 2011)

Another important message, once Langarth was agreed by all, was that there was no alternative. Planning ‘consultations’ at Threemilestone were designed not actually to consult – heaven forbid – but as a

means to gather support for the project (8 Feb 2011)

Throughout, there was an awareness of the importance of managing the flow of information, being ‘proactive’ at some points and less active at others. At the time of the public consultations last February the aim was to

keep media and PR to a minimum at this stage

And earlier the Steering Board had advised the project be kept

low key while the spending review takes place

The Council’s disinformation section had clearly done sterling work as towards the end of the process they reported a

need for clear and concise information [to make up for] a lot of inaccuracies (24 Mar 2011)

And even at its last meeting the Steering Board was reiterating for the umpteenth time that it was

important to portray a clear message regarding the Stadium

A clear message that wasn't portrayed however was the role of developers and the link between the stadium and the plans to build a massive suburb on the neighbouring land. Although acres of minutes were devoted to this the PR message ignored it and preferred to focus on those elusive ‘community benefits’.

One striking success Cornwall Council’s propaganda unit had was to bring the Stadium for Cornwall group firmly on board. In December 2010 the Head of Economic Development reminded her troops of the

importance that the interest from the Supporters Group was maintained

In March 2011 the Stakeholders Group concluded that the Stadium Support Group

must have a clear role in the communications/media

Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first reduce to gibbering gullibility. In their desperate desire for a ‘national stadium’ for Cornwall (funny but that phrase appears nowhere in the Council minutes) this ‘independent group of sports enthusiasts’, which includes many prominent Cornish nationalists and language activists, have signed up lock, stock and barrel to the Council’s PR manipulation.

They are now even prepared to accept another settlement of 2,500 houses as the price for a stadium, amazingly describing this on their website as ‘houses for locals’

For those who claim to represent the Cornish nation isn't this a very depressing and sad position to end up in?