Call for criminal probe into fake comments
SABOTAGE BID A ‘DISASTER FOR CONSULTATION’
A SENIOR councillor has called for a criminal investigation into an attempt to hijack a public consultation on the controversial closure of five Newcastle bridges with thousands of fake comments.
It was announced on Thursday that Newcastle City Council deleted more than 7,000 responses to an online feedback service about its divisive ‘low traffic neighbourhood’ plans, after a surge in comments opposing the vehicle bans last weekend was pinned on almost 1,900 fraudulent accounts traced back to one server.
The sabotage bid has stoked the flames of what had already been a fierce and often unpleasant debate, and it is feared that public trust in the legitimacy of the exercise and the validity of the remaining comments has been badly damaged.
Nick Cott, leader of Newcastle’s Liberal Democrat opposition, said there should be an “urgent investigation” into whether any criminal acts could have been committed and that the incident “raises questions about the security of the council’s consultation processes”.
He added: “Residents will feel that the confidence in the whole process has been undermined. We want to see an internal review of the process looking at the contract arrangements and the safeguards put in place.
“This consultation has been running for months, and it is unclear how this problem has only been noted at a late stage. We are pleased that the council says it has taken measures to remove the fake accounts, but what process has been put in place to guarantee that the responses are now a fair reflection of the genuine public views? We don’t want to prejudice any criminal investigation, but the general public will need some early reassurances from the council.”
The city council said that it believes all remaining 10,000 comments on the Commonplace consultation website are genuine and it is “fully confident we have weeded out those who tried to disrupt this process”, but declined to comment on whether it would refer the incident to police.
Traffic has been blocked from using Salters Bridge in Gosforth, Castle Farm Road next to Jesmond Dene, Haldane Bridge in Jesmond, the Argyle Street Bridge near Manors Metro station, and Stoneyhurst Bridge in South Gosforth since last August in an effort to reduce alleged rat-running.
Lib Dem councillor Wendy Taylor, who has two of the bridges in her Dene and South Gosforth ward, called the hijacking a “complete mess and a disaster for the consultation”.
Coun Taylor said she feared that the incident could simply deepen the bitter divides over the closures, if those in favour of the closures sought to “make the most of the fraudulent comments” and those opposed believed that their genuine concerns were being removed.
She added: “I am really sad about this because I wanted it to be a genuine consultation from which we could come to a reasonable conclusion, but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen now.
“We need the council to make it clear that this is a genuine consultation and all the views will be taken into account so that we can come up with a solution – preferably some sort of compromise.”
Sally Watson, of the Newcastle Cycling Campaign and pro-closure Safer Stoneyhurst group, said she found it “depressing” that someone would resort to creating the 1,894 fake accounts in order to skew the results of the six-month consultation, which closed on Monday.
She added: “It has been hard enough to have a proper discussion and get around all the abusive comments before this happened. It is really important that the consultation is conducted properly and everyone has their views heard, whatever their opinion is.”
The administrators of the Room For Us All group, which has opposed the Stoneyhurst Bridge closure, were also left “angry and frustrated”.
They said: “We have always called for the process to be conducted publicly and fairly. In the case of Stoneyhurst Road it looks like most of the genuine comments were against the closure, so there was no reason to do this.
“All it has achieved is to stir up ill feeling between anti and pro-closure groups. We have previously asked for all communications to be respectful, regardless whether individuals are for or against the closure.”
Coun Arlene Ainsley, Labour’s cabinet member for transport and air quality said the council was being “fully transparent” about the sabotage.
She added: “This failed attempt occurred in the closing days of the consultation. This generated unusual activity and triggered an investigation. Through data analysis, this revealed a large number of fake profiles having been created, creating numerous comments about multiple bridges and were all linked to one identified server. The fact that this was spotted so quickly, and swift action taken, clearly shows just how secure this process is.
“We are fully confident we have weeded out those who tried to disrupt this process. The remaining 10,000 genuine comments on the independent consultation site, in addition to correspondence directly to the council, will be used to shape the long-term decision on the bridges.”
SHOULD Britain have “vaccination passports”?
The passport, if it existed, would be an official document which confirmed you had been vaccinated. If you needed proof you’d received the jab, you’d get out your passport and show it to someone.
Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi has said the Government will not introduce a vaccines passport – at least, not one that would be used within the UK.
But Prime Minister Boris Johnson hasn’t been quite to unequivocal. Asked about the idea last week, he said: “We will look at everything”.
As Mr Zahawi has hinted, some sort of vaccine documentation is probably inevitable for international travel. Countries such as Greece have suggested they may institute a policy of only admitting tourists who can prove they have received a Covid vaccine.
The UK Government is hardly likely to prevent its citizens obtaining documents they need to go on holiday. And it will be able to argue that other countries have made this necessary.
The question that remains is whether vaccine passports should be used here in the UK. It’s been suggested people might have to show proof they have been vaccinated in order to enter a pub, restaurant, gym or bookmakers, for example.
This might allow those venues to re-open sooner. And it could help to keep staff and customers safe.
While the Government is very reluctant to countenance the idea, it’s hard to see a downside.
One of the reasons coronavirus spreads so quickly is because you can catch it, and pass it on to others even if you don’t become ill – and don’t even know you have it. This is known as asymptomatic transmission.
The vaccines help to deal with this problem. Of course, their main benefit is that they prevent you becoming seriously ill if you catch Covid. It means that even if you become infected, you won’t die (or the chances of death are drastically reduced).
But there’s also growing evidence that vaccines make it less likely you’ll catch Covid in the first place. On top of that, they ensure that even if you do catch it, you are less infectious.
In other words, the vaccine doesn’t just protect you. It protects the people around you.
And that being the case, is it wrong to ask people to stay away from crowded indoor areas if they refuse to take the vaccines?
You’d need a system to ensure people who genuinely cannot be vaccinated, perhaps because of an allergy, are not discriminated against. Perhaps they could receive a passport too. The passport scheme would actually protect them, however, by giving them confidence that the people around them had received a jab.
And yes, it would mean that younger people, who have to wait longer for a vaccination, would also have to wait longer before they could enjoy a night out.
But in the longer term, it would make everyone safer. And if it put pressure on those who refuse the vaccine to change their minds, that would be no bad thing.