Featured:
ALL OF THE NEWS from around the Shire on One Page below for your convenience

The Beagle
- Jul 13, 2019
Batemans Bay bridge and CBD issues:
Open Forum – Our Bridge and Our Future July 13th
An Open Forum "Our Bridge and Our Future" will be held at the Batemans Bay Soldiers Club on Saturday 13 July 2019 at 4.00pm. Members of the community along with the local group Our Town Our Say are continuing to raise concerns around what is building to be "a very large elephant in the room" over the short term and long term consequences that the new four lane bridge, the town bypass, the isolation of the Clyde River foreshore and the proposed changes along that foreshore.

The Beagle
- Jul 4, 2019
The Con on the Clyde or the Three Card Trick
This week saw a community information session, hosted by the RMS Communication & Stakeholder Engagement Team to present and discuss the findings of Stage One of the Batemans Bay Independent Coastal Impact Assessment and the proposed method and scope for Stage Two. Harry Watson Smith of the Batemans Bay Boaters Association told the Beagle that he was given the The Independent Coastal Impact Assessment - Stage One document dated March 2019 submitted by GHD as an independent or

The Beagle
- Jul 3, 2019
Dog Right’s vs Human Right’s? or Dogs Rule in Eurobodalla
The Beagle Editor,
For the last six months I have been engaged in a battle with my neighbours (two lots of them actually) and now with the Eurobodalla Shire Council as well, trying to defend my right as a resident (and a rate-paying one at that) to a peaceful life here in Moruya Heads. So far I am losing.
Oh, and for the record, I am a human.
You’d think that might count for something, but you’d be wrong. No, in spite of the fact that I pay rates and land tax, and have

The Beagle
- Jul 3, 2019
Mayor interview with ABC Sth East: voices frustration over State Govt delays in the Rural Lands Stra
Mayor Liz Innes, in an interview with Simon Lauder of ABC South East, voiced her frustration over the delays in the State Government review of the Eurobodalla Rural Lands Strategy.
With the promise made by then Planning Minister Roberts that signing off of the Strategy would be one of the first tasks of the re-elected NSW Liberal Government the mayor advised the ABC that unfortunately there was a change in that minister and the new planning minister, Rob Stokes, "has had t

The Beagle
- Jun 30, 2019
Are Councils in breach of the law for fluoridating water - have a read of this
The Beagle Editor,
Your readers, Council and Councillors might be interested in our latest media release.
when fools rush in … In an extraordinary development in the public debate over the Fluoridation of public drinking water supplies by Australian councils, Port Macquarie-Hastings Council (PMHC) has resolved to publicly release legal advice that it is in breach of Therapeutic Goods legislation by fluoridating the shire’s drinking water supplies. The BVSRRA understands

The Beagle
- Jun 29, 2019
Council briefings: Unseen, Unheard and no witnesses (or dogs) allowed to monitor compliance
It is well known that Councillors MUST not use pre-meeting briefing sessions to debate or make preliminary decisions on items of business they are being briefed on, and any debate and decision-making MUST be left to the formal Council or committee meeting at which the item of business is to be considered.
What is however becoming more clear is that Eurobodalla Council is pretty much doing the opposite as there is very little debate and decision-making taking place in the ch

The Beagle
- Jun 28, 2019
Editorial June 28th 2019
Welcome to this week’s editorial,
Bullying, ranting, name calling, denigration, shaming, naming. We see posts made that edge on racisim, homophobia, political extremism. We see cruelty that is either physical or psychological being handed out in and once it begins we see others follow suit.
But who is real in Social Media—it is easy to hide behind fictitious accounts and profiles that are set up to establish anonymity so when it begins to get harmful on social media in ca

The Beagle
- Jun 28, 2019
A wind-up or a wrap-up
In this week's Mayoral post-council meeting social media broadcast the Mayor says "Hi, everyone, I'm just going to give to a bit of a wind-up" before introducing her account of Council's meeting. VIDEO: Eurobodalla Mayor Liz Innes talks about Council's to-do list for the next 12 months and advocacy on a Narooma road issue in this week's Council meeting wrap-up. Republished under Fair Dealing While this might appear as an unfortunate misuse of words there is a growing opinion

The Beagle
- Jun 28, 2019
A bridge too far?
The Beagle Editor,
A bridge too far? Congratulations to the Moruya Business Chamber for highlighting Council’s responsibility to proactively participate in mitigating any likely adverse impacts of the proposed Moruya by-pass prompted, we all know, by the announcements of funding by our local members in the lead up to the recent state and federal elections. The shire’s most urgent location for highway re-routing, as Blind Freddy knows, is the Narooma Bridge but, a cynic migh

The Beagle
- Jun 26, 2019
Councillors: too thick or just indifferent ?
The Council meeting this week saw Mr Jim Bright present to Council during the now Unseen and Unheard Public Forum.
Mr Bright presented on a serious topic that he hoped would advise the councilors that there was something very stinky in the way Council selects its reviewer for Codes of Conduct complaints
"Let me state categorically – at all times between June 2016 and now, the ESC was legally obliged to have had its own panel of reviewers in place – but it did not do so. A

The Beagle
- Jun 25, 2019
Public Forum Presentation: Jude Manahan June 25th 2019
Re: Submission to Operational Plan 2019-20 Speaker: Jude Manahan, President, Moruya Business Chamber Good morning to the Mayor, Clr Liz Innes, General Manager, Catherine Dale, Eurobodalla Shire Councillors, Council staff and the general public. I am here this morning representing the Moruya Business Chamber to speak on the chamber’s submission to the Operational Plan 2019-20. The Chamber has 10 items that we have asked to be included in the Operations Plan. The first four
The Beagle
- Jun 25, 2019
Presentation to Council: Lei Parker June 25th 2019
Item GMR19/011
My name is Lei Parker, resident of Tuross and possibly an Extreme Green however this cannot be confirmed as Council’s scale of Greens has not been published.
I am neither For or Against and therefore am Neutral as I simply ask Councillors to consider their vote. I speak as a Neutral though you appear not to have such a category. Councillors, today you will be voting on whether you should grant yourselves a 2.5% increase.
It has not gone unnoticed that thi

The Beagle
- Jun 25, 2019
Presentation: Jim Bright June 25th 2019
VIDEO: Public Forum Presenter Jim Bright June 25th 2019 @ Eurobodalla Council Moruya NSW EUROBODALLA SHIRE COUNCIL PUBLIC FORUM PRESENTATION – 25 JUNE 2019 AGENDA ITEM CCS19/025 - 'CONDUCT REVIEWERS PANEL' My name is Jim Bright. I'm a resident of Narooma. I'm here today to speak about the agenda item relating to the proposal to approve a panel of code of conduct complaint reviewers. At least some of you will not be surprised to hear that I'm highly in favour of councillors

The Beagle
- Jun 23, 2019
What happens when a publicly elected Mayor becomes unpopular mid term?
The Beagle Editor The Eurobodalla Council has now had three publicly elected mayors.
The publicly or popularly elected mayors are the result of a referendum held about sixteen years ago.
The first peoples elected mayor was about twelve years ago. Prior to that Councillors took a vote each year from within their ranks as to who should be Mayor.
To date the shires voters have elected three mayors themselves. Fergus Thomson, Lindsay Brown and Liz Innes
Since putting in p

The Beagle
- Jun 22, 2019
Ingsoc or Eurosoc : the public will now be Unseen and Unheard - welcome to the New Order
Big Brother is a fictional character and symbol in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. He is ostensibly the leader of Oceania, a totalitarian state wherein the ruling party Ingsoc wields total power "for its own sake" over the inhabitants.
What we are now witnessing in the Eurobodalla is a Council that more and more appears to wield total power "for its own sake" over the inhabitants being us, the residents and ratepayers.
Next Tuesday will have speakers presenti

The Beagle
- Jun 21, 2019
Editorial June 21st 2019
Next Tuesday Eurobodalla Councillors will be voting on whether they should grant themselves a 2.5% increase.
This decision will be made on the same day they put out the latest Fees and Charges for use of Council facilities from pools to playing fields and halls, water use, sewer use and tip fees that have all taken a hike skyward.
The vote for a Councillor and Mayor fee increase is also to be delivered in the same report that says the annual Ordinary Rates for 2019-20 are

The Beagle
- Jun 21, 2019
Could this be a Euro Vision
The Beagle Editor,
To celebrate the beginning of the new financial year and to raise more revenue to be able to afford a 2.5% Councillor wage rise, Eurobodalla councillors might consider turning their talents to the release of an album of cover songs.
Some suggestions have already been forthcoming from the various coffee charged “Tables of Knowledge” that you often find at the local cafes.
Here are just a few that come to mind. I encourage readers to convey their sugge

The Beagle
- Jun 20, 2019
How deep are our pockets : your rates are going up while the Mayor and Councillors will no doubt gra
Next Tuesday Eurobodalla Councillors will be voting on whether they should grant themselves a 2.5% increase. This decision will be made on the same day they put out the latest Fees and Charges for use of Council facilities from pools to playing fields and halls, water use, sewer use and tip fees that have all taken a hike skyward.
The vote for a fee increase is to be delivered in the same report that says the annual Ordinary Rates for 2019-20 are 2.7%.
The Environment Lev

The Beagle
- Jun 19, 2019
Pot calling the kettle black?
The Beagle Editor, Democracy - a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives; a system of government where the citizens exercise power by voting.
The Local Government NSW Policy Platform [Updated June 2019] states that Local government Councillors are democratically elected to shape, serve, support and give voice to their communities and must reflect the views of their communities on local go

The Beagle
- Jun 19, 2019
Double or nothing
The Beagle Editor, It always concerns me when I see a sign “Disabled Toilet” in an amenities block.
Recently I have observed signs “Accessible Toilets”. Great! There are few things more useless than a disabled or inaccessible toilet! The other day a friend was bemoaning the fact that children often have a problem attracting their parents’ attention away from their mobile phones. A notice on the door to the public toilet in the local Centrelink building solves both problems:
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