Dear Editor
As expected, the brouhaha surrounding the piece of gravel road on private land in Congo, which the Council deemed to be public land and was therefore entitled to clear vegetation around it, has succumbed to the natural attrition of apathy and indifference.
Whilst there is no doubt in my mind that Dr Dale and Mr Sharpe of Council are chortling in concert at the easy demise of the protest movement and the issue at hand, logic dictates that the writing is on the wall in bold font regarding the Incumbent “business as usual” model that has served them well in the past.
The landowner has closed the road to the public, purportedly citing his insurer’s instructions. This effectively nullifies Council’s claim that the road is a public thoroughfare. It is further suggested that to mitigate this issue Council would need to bring the standard of this gravel road up to a level equivalent to the roads that feed it. A very big ask in anyone’s language.
So the closure of this gravel road, and I daresay it will most likely be on a permanent basis, marks the ledger in favour of the fauna and flora that formed the focus of the protests, but against the broader Congo community that used this gravel road as a viable shortcut. Not exactly what I’d call balanced accounting, but there again a certain small and very vocal group of constituents who thrive on division and derision would be slapping each other’s backs in congratulations. Sad, really.
Added to the woes of the long-suffering ratepayers was the performance of Clr. Mayne playing to the crowd, a vacuous performance which achieved nothing other than to confirm why he was never able to elicit change in the culture of the Council. What was more startling, in fact sinister, was the complete lack of engagement in this matter by any of the prospective mayoral candidates.
I know that many of these prospective candidates were approached to engage in this issue, not on a party policy basis but a pure governance basis. Yet the uptake to this golden opportunity to strut their credentials was a big fat zero!
Which brings me to wonder, will there actually be any change in Council after this election, other than different faces with the same blank stares?
Best Regards
Mervyn Sher
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