From the Far End of the Council Table - 20 September 2009
Date: 20-Sep-09
Author: Councillor James Ryan
Development and Rugby league
Well what a mix of things was last weeks Council meeting. After a lot of complaints from residents Councillor Smith and I lodged a motion calling for Council to communicate more effectively with residents who put in a Development Application.
Councillors often have complaints made to them by people who put in a DA for a shed or a house and claim that Council Staff told them one thing but then recommended something quite different in the Council report. In a recent case a person who was asking Council to change the requirements for his creek crossing claimed Council had the application for 14 months and did not inform him they needed more information before they could make a decision. Council Staff didn't agree with this version.
So after much frustration Councillor Smith and I asked that Council develop a policy which looks at having a written record (minutes) of meetings between residents and Council staff, or recording the conversations. That way if there is a dispute later as to who said what there will be a written or audio record.
I'm pleased to say the motion was unanimously supported.
Another piece of good news was the report of the Baddeley Park Committee. You might remember a month or two ago I said that Council should meet with the Cessnock Rugby League over the allegation of poor crowd behavior and offer our assistance if required with spectator management etc. You also might remember a few people got pretty shirty with me and accused me of bad mouthing Cessnock (which I wasn't). The majority of Councillors wanted to cover up the subject.
Well as a result of my motion the Council has had the discussion with Cessnock Rugby League and the outcome is on the Council webpage for all to see. You can find it by going to the Council meeting Agenda for September 16th. The report is called QS74/2009 Minutes of Baddeley Park Management Committee. The minutes report that the Cessnock Club has been found to be blameless apart from the issue of not having ground officials in fluro vests. Clr Pynsent told the Council meeting that reports of 200 drunk spectators at the ground were false and that the Newcastle Rugby league had disciplined the player who made that allegation because it was not true.
This is a good result for the whole of Cessnock. Now that the report is on the public record via the Council's agenda the question Clr Pynsent must answer is why he didn't want the Council to debate this and make it public issue in the first place? In my opinion this incident is a great example of why it is always better to be open and public with information. Whenever it looks like the Council is trying to cover things up the publics' suspicion increases and myths take over.
One of the other interesting debates was over a proposal for a 16 lot subdivision for tourist cabins along Mt View Rd at Millfield. The legal advice provided to Councillors said that it would be against the law for Council to approve the development. The Council had received a lot of objections to the development from nearby residents. The ALP Councillors had already declared last meeting that they had received a campaign donation from the developer. However because it was a donation of less than $1000 they would stay in the Chamber and vote. (If the donation had been over $1000 they would have had no choice but to leave the Chamber and not vote). Clr Hawkins declared a further conflict of interest because of his friendship with one of the objectors - he left the room. The other ALP Councillors voted for the proposal. In my last column I congratulated the Councillors for making the declaration as it is the first time I have seen the ALP Councillors declare that they had received campaign assistance from a developer.
Clr McCudden also voted for the subdivision. He said that currently the land only generated $2400 per year in rates but if
