IT was a long night at the monthly Derwent Valley Council meeting yesterday, with debate over Willow Court security and development extending over two hours. One member of the public walked out in apparent disgust over the Willow Court debates, and all but two members of the gallery left once the agenda moved on to other matters.
Councillors passed four of the nine Willow Court motions put forward by Councillor Damian Bester but his proposals for permanent security fencing were defeated, as was his move for the council to apologise for its handling of the historic site over the last decade.
The council also approved a recommendation that the public in future be excluded from council workshops after the first 30 minutes. The only concession is that the workshops will once again be advertised publicly. This was proposed by Cr Judy Bromfield, who said her objection to the presence of the public at last week's Willow Court workshop was that not all members of the public knew about it because the workshop was not advertised.
The evening wrapped up at 11pm after a closed meeting. Debate may have gone on for longer, but for two "gag motions" moved by Cr Tony Nicholson during the night.
Cr Bester's comments about the meeting have been posted on his website at damianbester.com
Other comments related to the council meeting can be read at the Save Willow Court Facebook page
Any person (councillors included) wishing to submit their own comments about any aspect of the meeting for publication here is welcome to email newnorfolknews@gmail.com
Unfortunately I was ill and missed the meeting. However, from the various reports I have seen it is obvious that the council is not interested in preserving Willow Court in any way. If they were, they would have taken action before now.
ReplyDeleteNote that the only motions passed were those that require little or no council action or expense.
The simple fact is that if we, as a community, wait for any real action from the council around Willow Court then it is doomed.
Again, if there is $750,000 available (and I would like to see some hard confirmation of that) then it should be spent now to rescue the site. It is not enough money to turn it into a tourist drawcard or whatever. It must be used to secure and preserve the site, while the council appoints someone on a full time basis to obtain other sources of funding for the work required to actually restore/preserve the site and turn it into the historic and cultural tourist asset.
One other observation: during the GFC the Federal Government was handing out buckets of money under the economic stimulus program. Did the council ask for any funding for Willow Court? I notice that other councils around Australia received grants for up to $400,000 for things like playgrounds, parks, cemetery access, etc. You can see the report here:
http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/esp/files/RLCIP_250_31082009m.pdf
I'm not begrudging any of these payments, and I do know that $400,000 is not enough to do everything required to Willow Court, but the council needs to realise that it should be applying right now for any and every available piece of funding, regardless of how small.
On the workshop open to the public aspect - how hypocritical of cnclr bromfield to claim she was only against because it wasn't advertised - she voted to stop the advertising before and then presumably she voted now to close it after 30 minutes - come off the grass, do you think we all came down in the last shower?????
ReplyDelete