Huon Valley Guessing Games: Where apathy rules

It’s Town Forum time again in the Huon, starting at Geeveston (tonight, Monday November 7, 6pm), followed by Cygnet (tomorrow, Tuesday November 8, 7pm), Franklin (Tuesday November 15, 6.30pm), Huonville (Tuesday November 22, 6pm) and Dover (Thursday November 24, 7pm).

Last year’s forum attendances were generally disappointing and symptomatic of political malaise. The Dover and Huonville forums may as well have not been held; there was a bit more interest at Geeveston; and only at Cygnet and Franklin did we see glimmers of a more inquisitive interest and an awareness that local government has as much to do with the sustenance of a healthy democracy as does government at state and federal levels. But even at Cygnet and Franklin, the attendances hardly displayed a community-wide interest in the workings of local government.

The apathy of people in the Huon towards the role of, and behaviour by, council is also manifest in the poor public attendances at the council’s monthly open meetings. Unless someone has a specific interest — most often relating to an item when council is in its role as a planning authority — the public gallery rarely numbers as many as a dozen, and often fewer.

It is unlikely that it was this apathy that persuaded the Huon Valley News (the only publication in the valley with any attributes that liken it to a newspaper) to place a ban on editorial contributions from the public throughout the recent local government elections for mayor, deputy mayor and four of the nine councillor positions. But it didn’t stop HVN from taking the money for an election advertisement that made scurrilously out-of-context allegations against the “Greens councillors” (not named, of course, so therefore within the rules of the soggy Electoral Act).

The HVN ban was surprising in that it usually is fairly courageous in its allocation of space to letter writers expressing views from all points of the political spectrum. But ban public comment it did, to its eternal shame. HVN’s blackout was yet another slap in the face for the joke that passes for democracy in the Huon Valley.

Ratepayers and residents over the two weeks of forum meetings should be asking the mayor and council management many questions on many fronts.

At Dover, they might ponder the news that DIER is thinking (presumably at the behest of the Futures Team-controlled HVC) of splurging $10 million on a 700-metre stretch of four-lane highway running south from Braeside Road, Franklin. Even the riskiest of speedsters can see that such a wild waste of public funding on 700 metres of super highway isn’t going to speed up the trip to or from Dover by more than a few seconds. Anyway, how many cars can overtake a slow vehicle over a distance of 700 metres? And, if the current trend of reducing speed limits is maintained, what purpose would a four-lane highway serve anywhere in the municipality? Much more sensible, a lot of people think, would be to construct a series of turnouts south of Geeveston. Ten million dollars would build quite a few of them.

At Huonville, forum attendees might give a thought to the recent shemozzle at a meeting of the Recreation Area Management Advisory Committee, which ended up with the chairman of the committee, a councillor, Tony Duggan, moving a motion that a member of the committee be removed, a motion council later endorsed without giving the committee member in question a chance to state his case. It is a mite strange that a chairman of such a committee should move such a motion, especially when that chairman is also a councillor. Questions about this case of seemingly summary justice should be asked at the Huonville Town Forum.

At Franklin, interest should be high about an imaginative scheme to transform the northern end of the township’s waterfront (dreamed up by municipality-wide maritime enthusiasts) that could bring the evaporators building back to life and provide more than 30 jobs for local people. This is a visionary project that should get council’s endorsement when its proponents set about trying to raise the million or so dollars needed to get the project to the starting line. Will council give it its blessing? The Franklin Town Forum should give this topic a good airing.

At Geeveston, where employment is becoming a bigger worry by the day, the main debate is likely to be centred on the consequences of forestry restructuring. The time is well past when many parents should have started encouraging their children to look elsewhere than forestry for their livelihoods.

At Cygnet two topics are likely to get an airing. It looks very much as if a lot of secret planning by a council determined to replace the old Loongana Park public toilets with a new block further into the park (at a cost that is likely to be pushing $200,000 should it ever come to fruition) is about to come to not much if talk around the town is anything to go by. Well over 500 local people (including this writer) earlier this year signed a yet-to-be-presented petition requesting that council give serious consideration to refurbishing the present toilet rather than putting up a new one that would cut off the adjacent museum’s view of the park; would likely cause the demise of the biggest eucalypt (one of only two) in the park; would not meet at least one of the standards laid down in the council’s toilet strategy; and would cost a huge amount of money compared with what it would cost to refurbish the present toilet block (probably less than $100,000) — which would leave a substantial amount in council’s 2011-12 budget to go towards improving the Burtons Reserve public toilet block.

And then there is council’s plan for a car park behind the Cygnet Town Hall. Mayor Robert Armstrong long resisted such a project until one local resident suggested that the council land behind the Town Hall be used to grow food and perhaps be a venue for the Cygnet Folk Festival. Almost out of the blue, a few weeks ago, the Cygnet Township Committee (CTC) was briefed on a car park plan, details of which are now available on the HVC website. Naturally, the council’s handpicked CTC thought it was a good idea. Unfortunately, the car park proposal, including a bus stop and long-vehicle parking bays, bears little resemblance to the Cygnet Township Plan that was endorsed by council a year or so ago. Even the footpath has crossed the road. And, tellingly, although the council’s intention to pursue this project only became public a month or so ago, the detailed plan in the attachments to Wednesday night’s (November 9) monthly council meeting is dated March 2011. Questions should be asked on that fact alone.

As with the Loongana toilets plan, the back-of-the-Town Hall car park plan is another example of how this council keeps getting things arse-about-face. It doesn’t seem to understand that public consultation should come before spending thousands of dollars on having consultants with little local knowledge drawing up plans.

By asking the people first, council can find out what a community wants. Otherwise we’ll end with even more eyesores, such as the recently built Huonville Esplanade barbecue — which replaced an environmentally compatible rustic timber building that could have been renovated much more cheaply. By the way, the new barbecue building desperately needs some finishing touches, at least a coat of paint to help blend it into the landscape.

The people of the Huon should not take the administration of their lovely valley for granted. Tough times lie ahead, and we have a council that is controlled by a group that has neither the imagination nor the vision to tackle the challenges. So turn up in strength at your town forums and spell out your views. That way, at least, council’s hardworking staff will get a better idea of the way to go, and councillors may realise that they must lift their games.