Council officers allegedly removed two homeless people from their campsite at the Windmill Hill tennis courts according to Strike It Out founder Kirsten Ritchie, which City of Launceston council disputes.
Ms Ritchie said they were removed due to health and safety issues."Just recently, we had the removal of two people up at the City of Launceston owned, unused, abandoned tennis court at Windmill Hill," she said.
Ms Ritchie said the two were told their only option to return to Royal Park where they had previously been assaulted. ... [Isn't this where 'COUNCIL' regularly moves people on to wherever?]
Ms Ritchie brought this incident to the attention of City of Launceston councillors during a recent ordinary council meeting.
[His Worship the] Mayor Danny Gibson said he was not previously aware of this situation but would speak to Ms Ritchie after the meeting. ... [Why is this so? And has His Worship the Mayor been as good as his word?]
He said he was proud of the work council officers do with the homelessness community. ... [On what grounds, on what evidence?]
"Council officers, day in day out, form meaningful relationships with members of our homeless community, support them and try hard to connect them with service providers and engage in meaningful conversations with them," [His Worship the Mayor] Cr Gibson said.
Ms Ritchie also asked why council had rented out the portable toilets rather than purchase, saying the cost to purchase would have been the same after leasing for 12 months. ... [Keeping in mind that this is the case while Council can apparently justify spending $600K on Executive End of Trip Showers at Town Hall and OH YES shower facilities were also promised but not delivered for 'the homeless'!]
The portable toilets were rolled out as a council initiative in April 2022, to provide some amenities to an increasing homeless community. ... [Goodness gracious]
Community general manager Dan Ryan said council wanted flexibility with the portable toilets. ... [Why, for what purpose on what grounds?]
"We do know it is a transient community," he said. ... [Doesn't the evidence suggest otherwise and that housing stress is ever likely to be an ongoing social issue until there is a fundamental change in 'governance'?]
"So we can bring in and drop off [portable toilets] as required so we don't have toilets sitting in a storage location that aren't being utilised at any given time." ... [Why would these toilets, and showers if they exist , need to be stored given the clear and present need for them beinf so, so obvious?]
[His Worship the Mayor] Gibson acknowledged ongoing challenge of homelessness in Launceston. ... [Yet as his undertaking at inauguration fades in people's memory 'Council's' propensity to pontificate fails to fade.]
"The City of Launceston has not moved anyone on from the Windmill Hill area," he [His Worship the Mayor] said. ... [On what evidence is this assertion made given that apparently these people suffering housing stress are no longer on this 'Council owned and abandoned site'? Who moved them on? On what pretext?]
FURTHER NEWS: Apparently the homeless taking refuge on the disused tennis courts on Windmill Hill were in fact moved on at the direction(?) of a Council officer directed at Ms Ritchie, Strike It Out's founder.
FOOTNOTE: Town Hall is apparently invoking a brand of Medieval Corporatisation for the city. The 'Mayor' is presented as "His Worship the Mayor" and presented in full 'Aldermanic Regalia' to assert 'status'. Likewise 'Councillors' despite being Councillors they are presented in 'Aldermanic garb' – SEE ELDER MAN – on the website in an apparent marketing ploy to assert their status ... ranked above the hoi polloi, the masses rather than as representative of 'the people' and one of us.
The 'rankism' is palpable albeit that is subliminal and there to be invoked to assert authority and power when the hoi polloi look for accountability and transparency.
Warren Buffett said ... "The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything." But as Eleanor Roosevelt said "Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent."
It beggars belief that Councillors in Launceston in the 21st C might want to maintain and sustain the colonial umbilical cord that connects 'the coalition of the willing' peri-colonials to the 'Motherland's Medievalism'. It is diminishing and worse still it diminishes US/THE CITY as a place!
These 'citizens' are supposed to 'represent' their constituents not LORD OVER THEM. Commonly people give up their imagined power by thinking they don't actually have any.
Interestingly, and very late in the day, Council's Draft Aboriginal Partnership Plan is compromised as it too is marked by the GUNNAdo syndrome, its half hearted reconciliation noise making and the multiple times Council just has not delivered.
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