Meeting Report

The agenda for Tuesdays meeting was a modest size and there were only a few items that generated much debate.-A word of explanation here , as a councillor I am not allowed to dissent with council decisions. Its the same principle that applies to cabinet decisions and the rule is there for good reason. Once council has debated and decided on a matter then that is the council position and we all( councillors ) publicly support this , even if we may privately think otherwise. To do otherwise just leads to chaos.- However I may say how I voted for a item and explain my reason. Also a councillor may ask that the names of councillors and how they voted be recorded in the minutes. So back to Tuesdays meeting first off the rank Item 9.1.1 Scheme Amendment Request - Lot 73 Mitchell St. This is a request to rezone 36 Mitchell St. from residential to commercial to extend Thorntons Hardware store. Cr Richardson-Newton moved a motion to refuse the request and this was carried 9/2 . Yours truly voted against this , not because I support the request rather I thought it better to defer as we are in the middle of formulating a new Local Planning Strategy and are scheduled to discuss with planning consultants next month the commercial/industrial component of the LPS. It is my strongly held belief that many of the contentious issues that have bedeviled Denmark in the past stem from inadequate planning and ad hoc decisions. Look at my post below for "How Big?". Past council decisions have given the nod to approximately 3500 new housing lots that will probably lead to the TRIPLING of Denmark's population. It is inevitable that the commercial area will need to expand to cater for this. LPS guide plans will show where this expansion will take place and provide certainty for residents and developers.

Next tricky item was 9.1.3 Kearsley Rd Structure Plan. There was quite a bit of debate and discussion over this. Councillor concerns centered around the adequacy of the fire plan and the preservation of the bush. The officer recommendation to publicly advertise the plan was narrowly passed 6/5 . Again yours truly did not vote in favour.

The last item that precipitated debate was item 11.1 Ward and Representation Review. We decided to leave this till next months meeting . As you may be aware the Minister for Local Government John Castrilli has announced his intention to reform local government . This will include amalgamations and reduction of councillor numbers. The minister is suggesting between 6 to 9 councillors as the optimum number. I will have more to say about this on a separate post , suffice to say it is contentious !

Thats all for now enjoy the sunshine.

Pool Feasibility Study Gets Green Light

I am very pleased to say that at last nights council meeting the officer recommendation to proceed with a feasibility study was unanimously supported by council. In fact it passed without so much as a word of debate!!
I will post a more detailed report on last nights meeting later today. Enjoy your breakfast Cyril.

Meeting 26th May

Its that time of month again. Im a bit pressed for time at the moment , so this will be brief. The agenda today contains a report on the Community Park Concept plan. As everyone knows this has been a somewhat contentious issue .. to say the least ! The recommendation is to put the plan out for public comment . I urge everyone to look at it as this has potentially major impact on the town. Note the cost estimate of $2 million. Also you will see a naming recommendation of "Kwoorabup Community Park "
Got to fly .. see you at the meeting ... or at least leave a comment!

The Pool

One of the items on the agenda for Tuesdays ( tomorrow ) council meeting is the swimming pool survey. Last August the council entered into a partnership with the Denmark Aquatic Centre Committee ( DACCI ) to examine the NEED for a sustainable indoor heated aquatic facility ( a pool ) in Denmark. A project team was established , which yours truly sat on , we engaged a consultant - the Shire and DACCI split the cost - Jill Powell & Associates to conduct a survey. To cut a long story short - you can read about it in the agenda - the report identified a need and recommends that the council moves to the next stage and undertake a feasibility study.
This will be debated and voted on tomorrow night.

Any comments??( see Baz and Brian's comments in How to Post a Comment )

How to Post a Comment

A number of people have emailed me saying they are having trouble posting a comment. I must confess the google system is not quite straight forward.
Here is how to do it.... first click on the comment tag below the post/article that you wish to write about. Then where it says "comment as" click on select profile and choose from the drop down list. The choices at the top you have to register with google/wordpress/typepad ect if you dont have and dont want one of these options then at the bottom you can click on name/url or anonymous ..... your post will have more weight if you use your name !

After you have selected your profile type your message in the box then press the preview button.. this is a important step... you will be asked to verify your post ( this stops spam ) then you press "post comment"

Easy huh !!! Get to work !!

How Big ??

Last week councillors had a two day workshop to formulate a 20 year strategic plan for Denmark. One of the first things we struggled with is a vision for Denmark and how large we want to be. It is clear from the Ratepayer Survey recently conducted by the shire that many people are concerned about this. The survey is full of comments such as " we dont want to be like Mandurah/Margaret River/Busselton ".

Bear with me now as this might get a bit tricky.The graph above - I am sorry for the poor quality - ( it is hard to post large docs. on google ) shows Denmarks population from 1976 to 2006 in the red columns - these are the official Australian Bureau of Statistics figures. The figures on the Y axis are population in thousands from 1 to 20, the X axis is years from 1976 to 2046 in 10 yr intervals. The curved lines show 1%,2% and 3% growth lines from 2006. The pink column shows what the population would be in 2046 with a 3.5% growth rate - about 18,000. The shaded area shows potential population increase that is catered for from lots already identified by the Shire in the present planning strategy.It is not a exact number but the best and latest estimate from our planning department. It should also be noted that this does not include urban infill and development on existing vacant sites. It is clear to me that we have more than ample stock to handle future growth to 2029. It should also be noted that the past 10 year growth rate has been 2% , if this continues the population will be about 7100 in 2029.

The bottom line here is how big do you want Denmark to be ? Its fair to say that there is some disagreement amongst councillors about this . It should also be noted that ultimately we dont really have any control over this as we are dictated to by State and Federal Government. Never the less I believe that we can have goals/targets in our vision and its something we should think about very carefully. There are many examples of communities that have had uncontrolled high rates of growth only to come unstuck and have to apply restrictions when its too late.

So on the right is a poll where you can say how big you would like Denmark to be , of course you can also leave a more detailed comment below. ( yes I know below only has one L ! ) I have also changed my settings so you can post a comment more easily .... please give it a go !

Elections

The photo is of the Denmark Road Board 1937/38. The board was the precursor of the shire council. You may notice some similarities with the current group of councillors - namely their age and gender imbalance ! To be fair we do have one female councillor - Jeanette Plowman , however I suspect our average age may be higher.

What has this got to do with the price of fish ? We have an election coming up in October and now is the time to start thinking about it. Elections occur every two years - its your chance to participate in local government either by standing as a candidate or having your say by voting. Please consider!

BTW the photo comes from the Historical Society - if you haven't done so already , a trip to their museum is a must do.

A New Beginning

Hello Everybody

Im back!! Sorry it has been awhile.The old site had technical problems that were completely beyond my control and sadly I have been unable to recover any of my old data and posts ... so a new beginning with Google Blogger.

For those of you who are new here the idea behind this blog is to document my experiences as a Shire of Denmark councillor plus stimulate interest in local government and provide another mechanism for people to have their say about anything concerning the Shire of Denmark.

There has been a lot happening in Denmark whilst Ive been away.The winds of change are starting to blow hard - proposed new shopping centre , caravan park developments , Karri Mia closing , royalties for regions , new Strickland streetscape plans , old hospital site developments , high density Smith St. developments , debate about number of councillors , state government pushing for reform of local government and Victorian fire disaster fallout are just some of the topics I will address over the coming weeks.

The Shire is presently engaged in developing a 20 year strategic plan for the future - Denmark 2029. This will include a vision statement of where we want to be and strategies of how to achieve this. Big picture stuff!! I would love to get some  feedback from you dear readers of your vision of Denmark's future - so over to you !