Minutes of Neighbourhood Forum Convenors’ Meeting with Administrators
Date 3 March 2009

http://www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au/documents/Neighbourhood_Forum_Meeting_Minutes_030309.pdf

(Febuary minutes now posted there as well).

“Wollongong CBD parking meters on the way
BY MARIO CHRISTODOULOU, Illawarra Mercury 25/03/2009

Wollongong City Council’s three administrators approved the roll-out of 850 parking meters without a murmur from the public gallery last night.

Public, political and business opposition did little to sway administrators Col Gellatly, Robert McGregor and Gabrielle Kibble who approved the plan to roll out the parking meters on more than half of all inner city on-street spots within 12 months.

…

Before the council’s March 2008 sacking, some councillors considered an expansive parking meter roll-out to be political suicide. But free of political concerns, the administrators endorsed the plan.

Asked whether their unelected-status had freed their hand to make the decision, the three in chorus answered “yes”, during the post-meeting press conference.

Few residents were there to hear the decision, with only 15 people scattered around the chamber.”

(Full story http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/news/local/news/general/wollongong-cbd-parking-meters-on-the-way/1468483.aspx )

Dear Editor,

Firstly I would like to voice my disappointment that the Mercury has totally failed in reporting on the Draft LEP. One would have thought especially following the corruption of planning process that was exposed during the ICAC hearing that the Illawarra Mercury would have informed the community about the impact of the Draft LEP.

This Draft LEP has had no community input or consultation in its making. We have no democracy or neighbourhood forums in which to present our views and aspirations for the future.

We have had little notification and a document that is too difficult to understand even for Town Planners. Those who have tried to research the Draft LEP in order to understand its impact on their community in the future have been unable to easily access relevant studies, interactive maps, reports and other council documents. Those with planning and forensic investigation knowledge have found some disturbing corruption of planning. It would appear that the Vellar Mansions on the escarpment is not a one off and the Draft LEP could be retrospectively rezoning areas of land in order to make certain developments legal.

Is the Mercury going to report on the Questions on Notice given to the Minister of Planning concerning WCC DLEP 2009?

We Desperately seek Extra time and Community Engagement where the community is asked what are its aspirations for the future and how can Council incoporporate this in the Draft LEP so this document is a True Local Environment Plan and not a bureaucratic State Driven plan that is very open to further corruption.

I ask that the Mercury helps us in printing our concerns and helping us save our ‘Community Voice”. Help us to obtain Community Engagement at Council to empower this community and once again develop trust in Council.

I call on the Mercury to support the motion from Last nights meeting at Corrimal Library where 150 residents in attendance; “That Council extend the exhibition period for the draft LEP for 6 months following the re establishment of Neighbourhood Forums”

You have helped Save the Hawks. Now Help save our Community Voice and Engagement.

Kind regards,

Vicki Curran

WAC MEDIA RELEASE 1 March 2009

“About 150 residents and peak community groups have called for a major overhaul of the Wollongong Draft Local Environment Plan 2009 through a public hearing.

At a conference sponsored by Wollongong Against Corruption (WAC) last Saturday (28 Feb) a number of unanimous resolutions were passed calling on Wollongong City Council Administrators:

1. To order a Public Hearing under Section 68 of the Environmental and Planning Act to examine the wide-ranging concerns raised throughout this Submission and the need to re-start the planning process in order to develop a Plan for the people and that is truly based on community aspirations, health, wealth and infrastructure requirements at both local and city level rather than untested bureaucratic population growth assumptions and a ‘one-size fits all’ philosophy

2. To immediately postpone the newly announced 31 March 2009 deadline for public submissions to be made before the date fixed for the Public Hearing, for the findings to be published and the right of the community to respond to any amendments to the LEP.

3. To defer finalisation of the DLEP until after this Hearing is held, elections are conducted, and the concerns of the people detailed at this Community Engagement Conference are fully addressed.”

Full media release and Resolutions of the Draft LEP Conference 28 February 2009 at:

http://www.wollongongagainstcorruption.org.au/documents/

There is a fraud being committed against the good people of Wollongong.

Our democratically elected Councillors had their last meeting on 3 March 2008. Those ALP Councillors who had been of interest in the ICAC inquiry were not present.

The next day, the State ALP government, with scant regard for our rights to be democratically represented in our local Council, unfairly dismissed all our Councillors. There was much speculation at the time as to the ALP motives in doing this.

Over the last year we have been subject to a kind of fraud – in which the fraudsters hide behind masks of respectability and the smog of anti-corruption measures in order to pursue hidden agendas which do not originate in our communities.

The ALP NSW government installed three hand-picked State technocrats as Administrators. Together with the WCC General Manager and his staff, they have run Wollongong City Council over the last year.

These Administrators answer to their political masters in the NSW ALP government. None of these career technocrats and bureaucrats are elected by the people of Wollongong. There is an absence of local and democratic checks and balances. This is completely unhealthy.

The fraud which is directed at the people of Wollongong is that we could not have successfully run Council over the last year with elected Councillors.

Read the rest of this entry »

“Wollongong recovering from ICAC scandal, report says

BY MARIO CHRISTODOULOU
Illawarra Mercury

27/02/2009

“Wollongong City Council was well on its way to recovering from last year’s corruption scandal, the city’s administrators have told Local Government Minister Barbara Perry.

The administrators’ positive report was contained in a letter sent to the minister six months after corruption hearings, a copy of which was obtained by the Mercury.

The letter constituted the first of a series of regular reports by administrators Gabrielle Kibble, Col Gellatly and Robert McGregor which will ultimately determine when Wollongong can make a return to democracy.”

(Listen to an interview with Wollongong City Council general manager David Farmer, one year after the ICAC hearings)

Full story:

http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/news/local/news/general/wollongong-recovering-from-icac-scandal-report-says/1446289.aspx