Welcome to this week’s editorial,
There is a breath of fresh air sweeping over the Shire and it found its way into a public meeting at Broulee last night where 180 members of the Broulee community gathered to raise their concerns about a proposed development in the village.
The meeting was organised by the Broulee Mossy Point Community Association following the discovery that there was a development proposal, currently on public exhibition, that quite blatantly ignores the communities agreed building height of 8.5m, as per the Eurobodalla Local Environmental Plan 2012.
The breath of fresh air that came to the meeting was via the attendance of the new Eurobodalla Council General Manager, Mr Warwick Winn.
During the reign of the previous General Manager the relationship between the Broulee community and Council became toxic, to a point of absolute distrust of anything that was discussed or agreed to between Council and the community.
Driving that distrust was the complete failure of the Council of the day to engage in open transparent communication, nor to acknowledge that failure and take responsibility for the resultant discord that began to characterise the relationship between Council and its community. Adding to the failure was the failure of the majority of the councillors of the day to step in, recognise the toxicity and take action to return faith, trust and respect to the declining public image that the Council had sadly acquired during a term of Council that is best forgotten.
Under the previous General Manager and her then councillors the community meeting of last night would have been primed with agitation, distrust, most likely placards and certainly a latent anger ready to boil to the surface as the first hint of distain or indifference. On any other occasion it would have required a brave General Manager to enter that room and stand in front of 180 people…. But that wasn’t the case last night.
The assembled dropped their guard, put aside the toxicity and distrust they had from the past and sat quietly listening to the General Manager, Warwick Winn, advise clearly on the issue at hand. He clearly advised that the Council would consider all submissions to the proposal and he carefully offered answers to questions coming from the floor in regards to Control Plans, the Local Environment Plan and the other codes that applied.
The meeting was well conducted and the one hundred and eighty who attended were treated to a very different experience, coming away informed, engaged and willing to make submissions knowing that they would be considered by councillors who had listened to their concerns.
Attending the meeting were councillors Anthony Mayne, Tanya Dannock and Tubby Harrison with the Mayor, Mat Hatcher, a last minute apology.
This engagement with the community is yet another example of the new General Manager going out to the coalface and actually siting down and listening. It will take some time to rebuild the community trust and respect that Council once had, given the toxic shroud that clouded it for several years.
But is comes down to all of Us in the end. We vote for our councillors. In turn they employ a General Manager, but their responsibility doesn’t end there. It is the councillors and the General Manager who we all hope serve to deliver for the community. If elected councillors fail to oversee then the results can be ugly.
But we, the community, need to participate in our own future as well. So write to your councillors, write to the General Manager, tell them what you want and need. Remember, They are Us and We are They.
For once it is not looking like the Us and Them situation that Mr Winn walked into.
Until next
lei
a breath of fresh air is what we all needed and it appears to have arrived
