Councillor's frustrations
AS YOUR readers would be aware, Horsham Rural City Council moved to release a long-term Wimmera River and Central Activities District Plan at its June 24 meeting and also that I advised intention to rescind this motion at the same meeting.
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In the brief plan overview afforded to councillors, sufficient flaws and governance issues were identified to warrant a closer look prior to official release.
The placement of a civic green in the middle of the current police station realistically means that we would never see the much desired civic open space.
The council plan, ratified at the same meeting directs us to seek alternative locations for the failed multi-user sports stadium. Clearly the proposed site is not well supported by the community, has critical unresolved issues and has been the subject of information gatekeeping.
It is concerning that community and sporting groups, with a combined total of about 250 years of service, have already been told by council officers that they will be removed - before council has made any decisions.
A question is - who actually runs council?
My notice of rescission allowed those councillors who care, the opportunity to research, to reconsider and do what we are elected to do - consult with affected community groups.
Local Law 1 determines the rescission notice process, which I have followed in good faith - including specifying of the hearing date of July 22, which is our next ordinary meeting. Mayor Mark Radford has used exactly the same process in the past - without interference.
What is different in this case is that Mayor Radford and CEO Sunil Bhalla decided to compress timeframes dramatically - to July 3 - with absolutely no discussion with myself. They have failed to consider the very reason for the rescission motion and also are uncaring that I have a specialist commitment away from Horsham that I am unable to break.
So while I, and one other councillor, actually meet with affected groups and look to solutions, the mayor and the CEO are chasing another costly legal opinion to justify departing from the authorised meeting procedure - a procedure that they put in place.
Unfortunately this pattern is all too familiar. On nearly every project or proposal that I have put up on behalf of the community, and many debates I have engaged in, I have encountered illogical resistance, low grade legal opinions or have been denied procedural fairness by inconsistent rule application.
It is concerning that the only reason that this behaviour exists is that those with the power to set the standards tolerate the behaviour - by their silence.
Repeated unreasonable behaviour is bullying and bullying is unacceptable in any form - be it personal or against community groups.
Horsham Rural City Council is not operating in the best interests of the community, nor is it operating in accordance with basic governance standards mandated by the Local Government Act and expected by Local Government Minister Adem Somyurek.
I am unable to provide effective representation.
I advise that it is my intention to stand aside as a councillor of Horsham Rural City Council until this position is resolved.
It is appropriate that the community decides if it is happy with the processes and representation provided by its council and if not, seeks a remedy. This may require communication with Mr Somyurek.
John Robinson, councillor, Horsham Rural City
Clubs made investments
THE Wimmera River precinct report indicates that one-third of the tennis club's lawns are not being used.
My understanding is that they are using bay one and bay three, and two lawns out of bay two.
They say the facilities are not suitable for regionals. Well the tennis club has successfully run a regional competition there in the past.
We have run Victorian croquet regionals and Australian golf croquet championships here three times using bay one of the tennis lawns. We use bay one of the tennis club lawns for three days every year for our annual tournament.
The report says the road between the tennis club rooms and the courts is a problem. Now that the council has provided access to the playground from Firebrace Street, the road could be temporarily closed during tournaments.
Alright, if times have changed and you now need wheelchair access then that could be provided at minimal cost.
The tennis club has been there for 136 years and the croquet club for 96 years and have very successfully shared facilities between the two clubs for over 90 years.
We also share our lawns with school children.
The croquet club wasn't even spoken to by the last lot of consultants. We have 54 members, who I am assuming are supposed to be kicked out at the same time as the tennis club within five to 15 years.
Our current clubrooms were built under the Gough Whitlam's RED scheme in 1975. The croquet club paid $5821 and I assume the tennis club paid $11,642. Council paid $3000 and I assume the other $20,000 came from a federal government grant.
Horsham Croquet Club ran bingo every Monday night for 12-and-a-half years to raise money to improve our facilities.
We have spent $28,084 extending the club house, $13,014 replacing the lawns, $11,228 on erecting sheds, $9483 installing lighting, $6833 on kitchen repairs, plus asphalting the car park, building a fence and a lot of money trying to laser level our lawns.
The tennis club and croquet clubs contributed $10,000 towards the pumping station for our watering system.
We have 54 members who are not going to be happy if we are kicked out of our facilities.
Councillors are there to represent the ratepayers' interest. It is our rate money they are spending, not theirs.
How many millions of dollars do we still owe on the Horsham Town Hall refurbishment, aquatic centre, Anzac pedestrian bridge, Horsham Regional Livestock Exchange, aerodrome runway, Wimmera Intermodal Freight Hub, City Oval clubrooms, north children's precinct and others?
They already have 202 staff costing $18,500,000 a year - how many extra staff are they going to have to employ if they greatly increase the size of the gardens? How many millions of dollars are the recommendations going to cost?
Ian Rees, Horsham
Trains encourage outings
WHAT an injustice it would be to take the miniature railways from where it is now.
It seems to be in a perfect spot - close to the soundshell, river and caravan park.
How much land does it need to make an entrance to the caravan park, when there is an entrance there already?
We have taken our grandchildren to the trains on several occasions and they thoroughly enjoy it - as do a lot of other patrons.
Why take away the enjoyment for so many, when the emphasis should be to encourage families and smaller children out?