Council is rejecting our Money!
Meeting: Sunday 19 June 2011 at 2 pm at the TP Taylor Hall.
The Issue:
- Government has awarded our Shire Council $251,000 to develop a fire refuge area in Sandy Point. It’s called a Neighbourhood Safer Place (NSP) or a Place of Last Resort (PLR) where people can seek refuge in the event of a serious bush fire.
- But Council has decided to reject the money! At a meeting of Council this coming Wednesday 22 June there is a proposal from Council to reject the offer.
Why? If you would like to know more, please come to the meeting. Documents will be on display for reading or download your own copies from the Shire website.
Go to www.southgippsland.vic.gov.au and select ‘About Council’, then select ‘Council Meetings’, then select ‘Council Agendas’, and select ‘Agenda’ for meeting number 348 (22 June, 2011) and read pages 74 to 78. You can also download the full “Neighbourhood Safer Place” document.
Council’s reasons for rejecting the money seem to be based on:
- The money is exclusively for Sandy Point. Council is afraid that people from other nearby towns, which also have a fire-risk problem, will complain because they missed out.
- There might be some uncertainty about the effectiveness of a fire refuge. So presumably it is better to have no safety area at all!
- CFA has assessed some possible sites but has not approved Council’s suggested locations for the fire refuge. So Council seems to have given up looking for a suitable site.
If you cannot come to this important meeting, and if you feel concerned for the safety of our children, residents and our visitors, then you can write to all Councillors and the CEO or call them all on the phone and express you opinion (for or against). Their contact details are on the website.
This is how our democracy works. Have your say! One of our local Councillors has agreed to attend the meeting.
Neil Shaw, meeting organiser.
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