bridging the divide

One thing which often strikes me is the wildly different perspectives of officials and "the governed" over controversial, emotive issues.
How, I wonder, can a council or government's rationale for carrying out certain policies be so very remote from the prevailing views of those affected by those decisions?
Or to turn that on its head, how can individuals or communities fail to understand the explanations being put forward for what is happening? It's not hard to see why these questions tend to slide into bitterness.
Public mistrust of authority - and its use and abuse of power - goes back centuries. Scandals involving the elite have served to fuel the belief that power corrupts and self-interest rules. Irony aside, most decisions by official bodies in this country seem to me to be taken in good faith, although the thinking behind them can sometimes be skewed.
What I can't fathom is how to square the circle between what communities think is best and what the pen-pushers and their highly-paid consultants recommend. Money talks and more often that not it's the bureaucrats who win, which in turn breeds more mistrust.

A case in point is what's happening in the Ancoats area of inner-city Manchester, whose residents I met a while back to discuss their plight - along with that of their neighbours in New Islington, whose brand new houses are shoddy at best.
The people I spoke to from Ancoats mostly bought their ex-council houses during the 1980s and 90s but have lived in the neighbourhood all their lives. But they're in a clearance zone and are likely to be CPO-ed over the next few years, under a PFI project which will see a consortium, led by building firm Lovell, rebuild the estate and manage it for 30 years.
Locals believe it's little short of a land-grab as many of the homes coming down are adjacent to the Rochdale Canal (waterfront views are worth more) and claim, like many others in their situation, that the working-class community is being squeezed out to make way for a wealthier breed of resident.
Rightly or wrongly, this a very real fear for these people - who genuinely feel they're being left out of the process to smarten up the area.
They complain about the consultation and the apparent lack of interest from local councillors. And they stress that their homes are sturdy while others that are staying up are in poorer condition.
One said: "We all think it's to do with the canal. The whole road isn’t being knocked down, just the ones by the canal. Our community is being split in two and it's all to do with money."
Her neighbour added: "They don’t realise they are breaking people’s hearts. They’re ripping the heart out of the community . I was born on Victoria Square and have lived in Ancoats all my life.
"No one will help us. They’re knocking down good houses and building things we don’t think will last 10 years.