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Developers hijack protest website
15/ 4/2005
DEVELOPERS planning to build a massive housing estate have "e-jacked" an internet campaign by opponents to the scheme.
Members of the Save Spodden Valley campaign, who are opposed to plans by Countryside Properties to build 600 houses, were amazed when the company launched www.savespoddenvalley.co.uk which links to the building firm's own website.
Anyone visiting the new address is transferred directly to the Countryside Properties website which makes no mention of the controversy surrounding the proposed development of the former Turner Brothers' asbestos factory site, which many fear is contaminated.
Campaign spokesman Jason Addy believes the websites could be an internet attempt to hijack their online protest.
He said: "It may be that Countryside Properties' directors do not know about these tactics and would be appalled at this tarnishing of their company's reputation. Creating `bogus' weblinks doesn't look good for Countryside Properties."
But he added: "This may be a mistake made by an over-eager web designer that could be resolved amicably."
Dave Phillips, who lives near the Rochdale site, said he was saddened by the move.
He added: "As a father I am very concerned about what Countryside Properties appears to be doing instead of addressing our community's real and legitimate concerns about health.
"It is odd that once you log on to Countryside's website there is no information about asbestos and the Spodden Valley."
Countryside Properties admitted that it had used the website name at the centre of the row. But it denied ever planning to mislead people and said it hoped to reflect both sides of the argument on its new website.
A company spokesperson said to avoid confusion the address www.savespoddenvalley.co.uk would no longer redirect visitors to their corporate website but when the M.E.N. typed in the address we were still sent to the Countryside Properties site.
They added: "The domain name www.savespoddenvalley.co.uk is one of quite a few which were available to us to purchase which used the words Spodden Valley. In planning for our website we acquired many available addresses which included these two words.
"The link to the corporate website was a holding procedure until we could finalise the information which will eventually be posted on the new website.
"It is common practice when you are building a website, there is nothing unusual or misleading about this.
"However, to be absolutely clear about this, the Save Spodden Valley variant names will no longer continue to point to the Countryside website, to avoid confusion
"The existing website - www.spodden-valley.co.uk - is currently the only source of information online. "We believe that it is important that people are presented with the full story on this site and not just one version. As a result, we are going to offer the campaigners a link from our website and hope they will agree to link their site to ours in the public's interest.''
What do you think of the Spodden Valley plans? Have your say.
Most recent 2 of 4 user comments
17/04/2005 at 11:06
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Hijacking a campaign groups name/website does not look like the action of a reputable developer and yet again undermines their claims to be such an organisation.
However, they could redeem themselves if they at once set up a Spodden Valley a part of their own website and put on it all the information about the site starting by unequivocally accepting that the site is contmainated with asbestos and that they are absolutely committed to finding out how where it is, how much, what type; openly providing infromation on the testing they have done with analysis techniques and whether these can detect asbestos down to at least 0.001% in soil and below 0.01 fml in air which may be a clearance level but is certainly not a safe level. Once they begin to provide such infromation they can enage in an adult debate with local people about if and how the site could be developed safely. From all the evidence so far, local people have shown they know far more about the site, the hazards and risks of asbestos than Countryside and even the regulatory authorities.
It's up to Countryside Properties to behave reputably not to go round stealing other group's names and sites. Hilda Palmer
17/04/2005 at 12:53
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