Most ratepayers would never know this (or even be interested if they did know) but Noosa Council has a monthly meeting cycle which includes four meetings, sometimes five, that are open to the public.
In order of appearance, they are
- the Planning and Environment Committee
- the Services and Organisation Committee
- the General Committee
- and then the final Ordinary Meeting of Council.
There are also occasional Special Meetings, often on important matters the urgency of which dictates that business can’t wait for one of the other meetings to pop up.
It’s probably also worth noting here that there are plenty of informal meetings, workshops, briefings and forums (probably more than 100 a year) the public isn’t allowed into.
This column looks at two of the lesser public meetings that occurred in the past week and which feed information and recommendations into the Ordinary Meeting or to the General Committee – which is what I consider the most important meeting in the cycle because it has the most debate and is a real decision-making arena.
Planning & Environment Committee
The Planning & Environment Committee has as its members Councillors Brian Stockwell, Ingrid Jackson, Jess Glasgow and Tony Wellington. CEO Brett de Chastel sits in.
On this occasion, the batting was opened by a complaint against a development application to approve the construction of six rural cabins at Pinbarren. The complainant, who breeds horses, thought the cabins were located too close to the beasts, who can get easily spooked
Cr Jackson – expressing support for both projects – believed win-win solutions could be found.
Cr Stockwell was particularly dismissive of Cr Jackson’s concerns and I thought to myself after the meeting that his outburst against Cr Jackson, the only woman on council, looked like a premeditated bullying tactic.
There’s been tension there ever since a complaint against Cr Stockwell for breaching the councillor code of conduct was upheld on 16 March. Cr Stockwell was reprimanded by the mayor for “engaging in personal criticisms of a fellow councillor”. No name was mentioned but I wonder if the target of this “inappropriate conduct” might have been Cr Jackson. I suppose time will tell.
The next item related to the establishment of a paintball facility at Cooroy which the staff wanted to refuse because of parking and traffic concerns (there were also a number of public submissions against the proposal). Councillors unanimously agreed with the staff on this one.
The council is back to being very appealing – there were no less than four appeals canvassed at the meetings I attended.
One concerns the Noosa airfield where the owner says he’s allowed to rebuild and rehabilitate roadways and the council says he needs development approval for landfill. My information is that the owner believes he’s legally correct in his actions and strongly denies the validity of the Noosa Airport Enforcement Order. This appeal looks like being an expensive exercise.
It also seems that Woolworths will go to court to appeal an earlier council decision to reject some signage at the Noosa Village Shopping Centre. The council will defend its decision.
Cr Jackson had been the only councillor willing to allow the signage at the earlier meeting but lost that argument. She is the Lone Ranger but said she would respect the council decision.
My own view is that the Woolworths and other signage was appropriate and inoffensive, so the proposal had merit. I simply could not understand why every councillor but one knocked it back.
Services & Organisation Committee
Let me move now to the second of the week’s meetings, that of the Services & Organisation Committee starring Councillors Joe Jurisevic, Frank Pardon and Frank Wilkie with the CEO again at the table.
There’s an old bridge on Gumtree Drive at Cooroy, long since closed to vehicles but which had been downgraded to a pedestrian bridge. Then even this was closed completely after storm and flood damage in 2014.
However, people being what they are, locals pushed aside the wire barrier and informally continued to use it. Council staff want to remove the bridge altogether much to the disgust of its human traffic and to former councillor Ray Kelly.
He told me outside the meeting he had made enquiries and reckoned he could find a cheap replacement bridge for $60,000. Ray, who takes an active interest in Cooroy affairs, was particularly critical of the council’s engineering department.
On a related matter, it’s evident the asset management plan is far from complete. This important assessment process is vital for depreciation and asset sustainability ratios. We know there are drains and bridges requiring urgent maintenance and wonder about the seriousness of this problem. It is further evidence that the council is under-resourced and struggling to maintain its capital works program.
It’s not something we hear much about these days but I am presuming there’s a crack team within council beavering away at the new town plan. I don’t think ratepayers fully understand the consequences of this new plan and the council, seeming to believe an under-informed public is easier to deal with, doesn’t seem enthusiastic about parting with any detail.
I understand the plan is under wraps pending the completion of some State review but surely it would be possible to let the community know how the process is going. After all, it’s our future. And, let’s face it, the new town plan will be pivotal. We have to get that balance right between community, business and environmental needs.
I don’t believe we do at present and I’m concerned that the NBRF and Tourism Noosa, operating on council (that is ratepayers’) money, are now contemplating UNESCO world heritage listing when NBRF hasn’t (after 10 years) managed to even get the management of the UNESCO biosphere reserve on track.
There were of course many other issues discussed at these standing committees. By and large, this time they were pretty quiet affairs but they did, yet again, reveal a council struggling with its finances and, increasingly, struggling in its relations with the community, especially the business community.
