Ullo Plebs!

OK tenuous link but I loved the guy!

Our local council is up in arms, outraged, all flushed and flummoxed. Our butchly, busty, Mayor

Sonia is put-out, perturbed and positively petulant! She’s flashing her chain all over the local papers pushing her little agenda . . .which for the time being has had the breaks applied!

Due to their abysmal record in land development and the desperate need to open affordable land and housing in my neck of the woods - “the Northwest Sector” - the State Government has recommended a plebiscite (now there’s a nice old Roman term) to determine whether they should take over all development planning for the Shire.

(Yay, happy clapping in the background)

Why? Well God forbid, we might actually be able to organise the release of affordable land and housing as the rent crisis increases and families simply cannot afford the current inflated price of houseing. Who knows, it might happen within a year window instead of the usual 20 years it takes for this pathetic council to get it’s planning act together. . It has already had the North Kellyville development snatched from it’s grip by the Iemma Government as a penalty for slow processing and approvals so why not give the whole shebang to the State Government to divvy up as they see fit!

Now you all know I have a vested interest in this as I want to *hypocriticall* cut and run, with my fat little wads of kish bulging from my pockets – c’mon it’s my retirement fund! But there’s another issue at stake here too. Councils are notoriously self interested. All the counsellors in these chambers have businesses in the shire. All have their own personal agenda. They are from different political backgrounds so getting agreement is a dogs breakfast. Believe me, I’ve been to enough council meetings to see the abyssmal discussions, dismissals and eventual resignation of good public servants who can no longer work among this posse of incompetents.

So, now, every ratepayer is receiving a delightful little plebiscite flyer and an opportunity to tell the State Government how fabulous our dodgy council is, how wonderful they are at planning and how competent they are at cutting up parcels of land (like a 2 year old with a birthday cake and a spoon). How fair they are to developers, and last but not least, how worthy they are of golfing junkets in Wexford Ireland and Cootamundra our sister cities apparently. (I doubt there are many junkets to Cootamundra.)

So in a nutshell - these are the council's gripes:

The state government intends to take over money from developer levies for local services, facilities and infrastructureand hold onto it in the State Treasurey. There go the Cootamundra golf trips, Orange Blossom Festivals and pootles off to Ireland!

The State government want to dimissh and in some cases eliminate Local Government from the planning process and replace the authority of your local council and the Councillors you elected. with independent panels and private certifiers!

Yes they did say 'dimissh' which yet again reminded me of the intelligence and integrity of individual council members and I only voted because it was compulsory

Whackafuckindoo! At last, independent and unbiased assessment of property development with no developers pissing in their pockets or worse still, self interested councillors pushing their own agendas. . .

So will I be supporting local government planning? . . . Absolutely not. It was the downfall of Wollongong Council and will be the downfall of ours . . . the only crime of course . . .getting caught