ABOUT

The ECHO7250 team acknowledges the First Peoples – the Traditional Owners of the lands where we live and work, and recognise their continuing connection to land, water and community. We pay respect to Elders – past, present and emerging – and acknowledge the important role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to play within local cultural landscapes. ECHO7250 is a not-for-profit community enterprise publishing news, letters, photographs and feature articles relevant to kanamalukaTAMAR 'placedness'. Contributions welcomed!

Wednesday, 1 June 2022

LOCAL GOVERNANCE LITMUS TEST IN LAUNCESTON


There comes a time when it is back to the drawing board. Is the City of Launceston Council dysfunctional or is it Local Governance with its 1993 Act drawn up in the DARKages that is functioning below credible performance indicators. Whatever, in another time and in another place it was said "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark".

Today, well it will be something more than a 'litmus test' when at the JUNE 2 CoL MEETING – "9.1 DA0722/2021 - 41-55 Paterson Street Launceston - General Retail and Hire - Construction of a New Mixed Use Building Including Retail, Vehicle Car Parking and Residential" is deliberated upon. 

In so many ways this agenda item will be a test in regard to just how broken Local Governance in Tasmania/Launceston actually is and who will speak up for ratepayers and 'citizens'? And, that isn't a rhetorical question!

Anyone living in Launceston would be quite aware of ructions going on at Town Hall with  lawyers wrangling over who owns what, who can do what, who can have what and whose pipe dream gets to be supported in regard to this project. It has been an unholy debacle and an unproductive war of wills. Who knows who at Town Hall has got what 'skin in the game'.

AND, zilch public consultation is in evidence. If you have DEEMINGpowers, and you feel that 'community consultation' fails the expediency test, why consult? Why waist time? Why waste a big opportunity? All this needs to be investigated and seriously.

Watch this space to see just how deeply embedded the recalcitrance is. Abraham Lincoln was a firm believer in the people. saying that if you give them the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts and there is a lot of wisdom about just like that.


As is the ECHOway we are developing this post out in
the open and if you have something to say or add please use the
COMMENT SECTION BELOW

No comments:

Post a Comment