Last Council Meeting highlights policy differences between Greens and candidates for re-election, Fredericks, Steel and Comber.

Tuesday night’s debate regarding a development application for Gerringong highlighted the different policy positions of Councillors and gave some insight into the future voting patterns of prospective new Councillors. The applications sought to have variations to Council’s planning rules as set out in the Local Environment Plan and the Development Control Plan for Gerringong Town Centre.

Councillors McCarthy, Devenney, East, Wheatly, Bradley and Jones voted to maintain the standards established in the local planning rules and Councillors Fredericks, Steel and Comber argued that they should be varied to allow an effective 3 storey development in a two and a half storey zone and voted against providing a public benefit via shared access to another development site which will improve traffic flow in the area.

Kiama Greens respond to “Myths” about development

Kiama Greens have responded to myths and inaccuracies relating to their development policies and voting history by adding a page on these matters to the Kiama Greens Council Election website.

This page deals with claims that the Greens are “anti-development” and are constrained in voting by higher levels of the organisation.

The page can be found here on the Election Website.

Kiama Greens Planning and Development Policies

Kiama Greens Planning and Development policies have been released on the election website. They are detailed policies and a summary policy statement will be added later today. They refute the myth that Greens Councillors are anti-development and want to “shut down Kiama”.

The future development of Kiama LGA as expressed in the draft LEP recently sent to the Department of Planning for consideration prior to going on public exhibition meets the population growth requirements of the NSW Department of Planning and was unanimously supported by all councillors and by councillors of all political persuasions – Independent, Liberal, Labor and Green.

Further, during the course of the current council, the only developments opposed by the Greens Councillors were those which did not meet the current planning rules or which requested variations not in the interest of neighbours’ amenity or which set a bad precedent. Over 90% of developments were approved under delegation, many of those which came to council were unanimously supported by the councillors and the only ones opposed were those described above.

IT IS A MYTH THAT GREENS COUNCILLORS WANT TO SHUT DOWN KIAMA. See a previous post in this list

First set of policies for the Kiama Council Election released

The first set of Kiama Greens policies have been released on the policy page of the Kiama Greens Council Election web site. The Planning policy will be released on 22nd August.

NOTE that these policies do not bind our future Councillors in any way. They represent the matters which we feel are important for the community to consider if we are truly to Secure our Future.

Kiama Greens announce policies Monday 18th August.

Kiama Greens have been working on a range of policies specific to the 2008 Kiama Local Government Elections.

Whilst not covering all the issues likely to come before Councillors in the new Council they cover a number of important matters which include:

Are we losing the “local” in Local Government

Published in the New Bush Telegraph

What role “Local Councils”? – what role “community involvement”? – what role “a local voice”?

It is often stated that in “the good old days” local Councils and Shires dealt with ““roads, rates and rubbish””.

In more recent times Councils (and Shires) have had a somewhat more complex role. This has included land use planning, social and cultural planning, infrastructure planning, funding and maintenance and other long term “strategic” activities. At the same time a Council’s decisions are integrated with and subject to a complexity of State legislation in the areas of environment, heritage, planning, development assessment, health etc.

Stick to the Facts Neil Reilly – the community deserves more!

Letter to the Kiama Advertiser and published 6th August 2008

I hope that if elected, Neil Reilly’s contribution to the work of Kiama
Council is somewhat more fact based than is suggested by his use of the
phrase “the Greens want to lock up Kiama”. The people of the Kiama LGA
deserve a bit more than this trite antiquarian nonsense.

Parties in Local Government – response to Brian Petschler

Letter to the Editor of the Kiama Independent but not published

Brian Petschler’s comments about party politics and local government, supported in the editorial (KI 16th July) are almost the traditional opening salvo in Council Election campaigns in Kiama. His reference to the problems in neighbouring Councils however demonstrates that the problem is not political parties as such, but the abuse of power that can arise if any one group, be it a political party or even a group of like minded “conservative independents” has the power to control the policy making processes of a Council.

Kiama Showground Pavilion Redevelopment

Letter to the editor of Kiama Independent but not published

It is good to see the beginning of what will no doubt be a more and more active letters page as September 13th approaches and the community debates the nature of the new Council that it will elect. In that regard, recent letters from Dennis Koks and Geoff Wilson raise matters worthy of further investigation.

Welcome to the Kiama Greens Blog

Welcome to Kiama Greens commentary on the 2008 Local Government Election campaign.

This site will feature press releases, letters to the editor and other articles produced during the campaign.

The full Kiama Greens Election Website can be found here

Kiama Greens General Website can be found here.