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Outrage follows Extraordinary Council Meeting
Following the 22nd June 2010 Extraordinary Council Meeting held in Springwood to discuss the continuing Springwood Town Centre project, S.O.S. Chairperson, Chris Taylor issued the following statement:
Residents attended the Council Meeting on Tuesday night in expectation of a debate on the Springwood Town Centre Project.
They expected to participate in community democracy. They were very quickly and very brutally disillusioned.
The crowd left the meeting, bruised, shocked and distraught. The council-sponsored phone poll and survey demonstrated that after almost three years the community still rejects a supermarket/retail complex. The community will have no part of private funding to finance upgrades.
And yet seven councillors defied the community and voted for option 2 which will invite developers back into the process. Mayor Adam Searle voted in support.
However it was when Councillors Myles, McLaren, Greenhill, Creed, Hamilton and Van Der Kley refused to speak and explain their decision the crowd gave voice to their outrage, disbelief and hurt.
It was to no avail. Supported by Mayor Searle, the SEVEN sat impassive and mute.
If this was seen as a clever tactic, it was a fatal misjudgement. They have trampled on something basic and profound: the democratic values which are so deeply ingrained, so Australian, that we take them for granted.
The storm of outrage and the feeling of loss that filled the Civic Centre continue to resonate.
We thank Deputy Mayor Janet Mays, Councillors Brendan Luchetti, Eleanor Gibbs and David Clark for once again standing up for our community.
Penrith Press covers the Issue
The Penrith Press provided coverage of the meeting. You can read what they said, and also have your say by filling in their ADD YOUR COMMENT box. Click here.
Local reaction
Public sentiment in Springwood following the meeting
The following unsolicited email sent to S.O.S. by a local resident sums up the community sentiment following this meeting:
... I was devastated to witness the contempt for democratic process and the will of the people at the extraordinary meeting of the BMCC 22 June 2010 regarding the so-called "revitalisation" of Springwood. The behaviour of the councillors Van der Kley, Searle, McLaren, Hamilton, Greenhill, Myles and Creed was a disgrace to governance in that they voted against the wishes of the people then refused to address the meeting. They formed an inscrutable, contemptuous "wall" at one end of the table. It made a mockery not only of the hugely expensive rate-payer funded brochure distributed to the public in recent weeks, the hugely expensive rate-payer funded poll conducted by Iris Research but also of the meeting itself and the people attending.
The resulting decision to conduct a poll which [could result in deciding] which of the three proponents are to be given the go-ahead to develop is unacceptable, given that the majority of those already polled oppose a supermarket and a large majority support an upgrade of existing facilities which could be financed, I understand, if the council bothered to apply for grants. If this poll should go ahead, a fourth option should be included - "none of the above".
I gather from comments from others that I am not alone.
What was passed at the Meeting?
Option 2: post stage 2 of tender poll and
i. That the results of the community consultation inform the preparation of tender documentation for Request for Detailed proposals prior to any poll;
What is still to be passed?
3. That the Council choose a preferred method for conducting the poll from the following:
- a. Attendance voting (as conducted by the Electoral Commission); or
- b. Declaration postal voting of all registered on the electoral roll; or
- c. Internet voting of all registered on the electoral roll; or
- d. Phone poll of all registered on the electoral roll; or
- e. Opinion poll of 1,000 residents by phone.
What does it mean?
It means that despite the community clearly indicating that they did not want retail / supermarket complex council are progressing toward exactly that.
It also means that as council have clearly ignored the results of the IRIS-run survey, we need to ensure that the poll is conducted by the Electoral Commission.
What you can do
You can download the leaflet which S.O.S. has just produced. It gives you names and details of people you might contact if you want to take the issue further. Click here for the leaflet.
