INVERELL Shire councillors either shrugged off a challenge put forward by the Inverell Concerned Ratepayer’s Associat-ion during their open forum session on Wednesday, or they stood their ground. It depends on which side of the Town Centre Renewal Plan (TCRP) debate you stand.
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It seems to be a debate that will not go away, and it fired up again at this month’s meeting after two former councillors addressed the meeting.
While Larry Cameron laid down the challenge of further community consultation and a community vote on aspects the plan, Bob Bensley bolstered the council’s reputation and said that process had already been done.
At the June council meeting, Mr Cameron and others voiced their opposition to aspects of the TCRP.
“I think we wasted our time doing that because councillors had already made up their mind before the meeting had even started,” Mr Cameron said.
“I should have realised that councillors rarely, if ever, take any notice of anybody who stands at this podium and speaks to them.
“We challenge council to hold another public meeting and let the ratepayers have a vote. We challenge you to let them vote on whether they want a central median in the two main streets of this town, and whether they want the Plane trees ripped out or not.”
Mr Bensley said he was speaking to council because of his dismay and disappointment at the tone and number of the letters to the editor of the Inverell Times at the beginning of the month about the TCRP.
“According to the letters you are a divided council, you act like Dad’s Army; you are rude and weak and you all have giant egos,” Mr Bensley said.
“An interesting description when it is considered this is the same council which recently received a glowing report from council’s auditor, has been in great shape financially and comparing favourably with other councils in the region.
“When you peel all the skin off the banana, this whole ongoing protest is a furphy.”
Mr Bensley praised the TCRP, council staff and council procedure. He said in many cases people who were against the plan had not gone to the trouble to check the facts, and others had limited vision.
He said the problem was that some people would never accept a democratically-arrived-at decision.
“Why am I here? Purely and simply to encourage council to proceed with the TCRP as planned. I want each of you to look back at a good decision,” Mr Bensley said.