This is the inspiring general manager of Newcastle Council, rivetted by debate on Laman St.
The grey men, the usual suspects, voted to waste more millions in Laman St. Nasty pieces of work.
It’s not their money.
They seem incapable of questioning the ‘judgement’ of council officers.
Tags: Laman St
July 17, 2012 at 8:59 pm |
So they won’t replace the old figs with figs?
Also in your opinion, new planning laws – good or bad?
July 17, 2012 at 9:35 pm |
I misled you – the plan calls for Hill’s figs but the design is overpriced, uses vaults for the trees – show us the evidence, the benefit, the necessity – has an inadequate number of trees and the officers’ report on community feedback simply ‘notes’ comments made by most people eg pedestrianising the street. A majority of submissions called for this but it was ignored.
There was a lot of discussion about planning laws – were you there? Councillors noted that their (ie the councillors’) role will be reduced even further with proposed changes to planning laws and there seemed to be unanimity that the previous planning laws were really bad, but there was no optimism that proposed changes will improve the situation. People seemed to feel that the public will be alienated from the process even more in a year or so.
Everyone’s waiting for the promised reforms the LNP promised at the election, but no one is holding their breath.
On a personal note, while i’m glad (but don’t believe) that Hill’s figs have been chosen, I think there should be a recognition that the risk stuff was a lie and that the street has been destroyed and that it will probably be condemned to ordinariness forevermore. Why spend any money on it. Just use natives. And do it cheaply.
July 18, 2012 at 4:51 am
They’ll never admit they were wrong Caity, they have too much misplaced pride. It’s why they went along with it in the first time – that and their embarassing risk-averse nature. It’s the same public-servant tick-box culture that is responsible for building a metal platform over the bogey hole.
I wish Newcastle had stories as inspiring as this one, unfortunately you can’t restore a building which has been demolished, which I am afraid seems to be the direction a lot of our heritage buildings are going towards. http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/peeling-back-the-layers-to-reveal-glebes-true-history-20120717-228co.html
Did you read about Wickham PS selling for $1? I wonder if that is connected to development extension of honeysuckle? Or is it just an example of poor management of public funds/assetts on behalf of the NCC management (I’m talking about Phil Pearce Frank Cordingly and the other motley crew that ‘run’ the council).
Do you have any idea who will win Mayor? Who are all the contenders?
July 18, 2012 at 1:47 pm
I was there for most of the discussion about the $1 building. It made no sense to me that Cr Crakanthorpe said the Throsby Villages communities had fought while he was their ?chair ?president ?public officer to keep it in council hands then he gives it away. And how’s the council spin about the annual maintenance costs being half a million dollars a year by 2020 or something? Do council officers think we’re stupid? Apparently someone is because the councillors seem to have fallen for that. The officers are ideologically wedded to stripping council of its assets as far as I can tell. Not their assets to get rid of but that seems to infect every layer of government. Surely, if a charity has bought the building to save council spending a ****load of money every year to look after it, it’s an admission that either the cost is not so high or that the building will be allowed to rot away because the charity won’t be able to maintain it. And thanks for the link.
July 20, 2012 at 3:32 pm |
“GREY” in colour…………”GREY” in ‘Soul’