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| Welcome to the Shoalhaven Greens website |
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 If you have any letters, articles websites etc that you feel may be suitable for this site please email to webmaster@shoalhaven.greens.org.au
Please check out Sections for more interesting reads. |
Disclaimer
| | All postings to this website, including the Councillor reports are the views of the contributor only. |
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Shoalhaven Greens Meetings
| | Northern Meeting 2nd Thursday of the month Please ring Glen on 0427371486 for details.
Southern Meeting 2nd Thursday of the month Please ring Amanda on 44541444 for details. |
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Important follow-ups on two items from the last Councillor report:
1) as a result of my complaint to the Department of Local Government regarding the apparent caucusing of Watson's Shoalhaven Independents Group before changing then adopting the Ulladulla DCP, the Department has referred my complaint to ICAC.
So now we have investigations of Shoalhaven City Council on multiple levels - a Better Practice review which we are still awaiting a report on, a departmental investigation into the Huscorp debacle, and now an ICAC inquiry.
It must only be a matter of time until a full public inquiry is initiated, although the Director-General has made it clear to me that there will be no intervention before the election.
The Department will give the electorate a chance of making regime change first.
This puts the onus on you the electors to make those changes and we will need your help on election day.
Please contact Amanda Findley <rescuethefuture@internode.on.net> 44541444 in Ward 3 (south)
and Lani Imhof lanimike@tpg.com.au 44212584 in Wards 1 & 2 (central & north)
if you can help out on election day at the booths, put signs up etc.
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Shoalhaven Greens Councillor Richard Bates announces his nomination for Mayor in the upcoming Council election.
"I am standing for Mayor to provide a Green alternative and to direct preferences to candidates with integrity.
This is the first time an endorsed Green candidate has stood for Mayor in the Shoalhaven.
If enough Shoalhaven voters would like a Green mayor then I would be happy to do the job and with my four and a half years experience as a councillor I know I would do the job well.
I am completely disenchanted with the present elected Council and have called for a public enquiry.
The Minister for Local Government is aware of my concerns and, as I believe an investigation may be already underway, I will not comment further on this other than to say it is long overdue.
Green voters already know me and everyone knows what The Greens stand for and that is what I offer:
a proper and due emphasis on the environment;
integrity, transparency and accountability in local government;
dignified behaviour appropriate to community leadership;
honesty, openness and respect for policy and process;
and a willingness, in fact an imperative, to consult with the community meaningfully - to seek direction from the whole community on our future.
If that's what the residents and ratepayers of the Shoalhaven want then they should vote Green."
Richard Bates
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Censure motion against Clr. Bates:
The first item of business at the first August meeting of Council was a proposed Censure Motion against me for "disclosure of confidential information relating to Council's negotiations with Huscorp Group P/L".
I have been outspoken against Council's negotiations with Huscorp over the Bridge Road 'hotel' site from the beginning.
On the 11th of March Council determined to sell an increased site area to Huscorp "at the increased, discounted price of $990,000."
The previous price had been $900,000 but to make their concept work Huscorp needed extra land for the hotel forecourt.
This meant that Council would lose car parking spaces for the Entertainment Centre worth $90,000 and Huscorp agreed to reimburse Council for this.
This $90,000 was then added to the purchase price to make it look like they were paying more for the extra land when in fact they were going to have to pay that for the lost carparking spaces anyway.
So in fact Council did not get one cent for the extra land.
The resolution made it look like there was an increased cost to Huscorp when in fact there wasn't.
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The second July meeting I was back for and straight away controversy was back on the agenda.
After months of campaigning in opposition to the Huscorp proposal and Council's processes concerning the Bridge Road 'hotel' site, the Department of Local Government has finally acted on our submissions and the representations of others in the community and launched an investigation.
This was the subject of a detailed complaint we made to the Best Practice Review of Council and it seems that they have taken up most of our points of concern, namely:
* Why Council accepted Huscorp's proposal when they did not lodge an expression of interest in time
* Why Council selected Huscorp as the preferred purchaser
* Why Council is selling community-owned land at a substantial discount
* Why Council is granting Huscorp an easement over Council's land without payment
* Why Council ignored its own legal advice over valuations
* Why Council did not consult with the community properly
But mainly, and against legal advice to the contrary, why Council decided to proceed with the sale despite there being significant doubt over whether the land had been classified correctly.
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What is now proved was once only imagined.
-- William Blake (1757-1827) |
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