Has Sorell Council has gone mad?
Over the past two weeks, construction workers under the direction of Sorell GM, Bill Costin have demolished toilet facilities which service the Men’s Shed site, and not content with that, now have begun demolition of a storage shed on site where materials are stored.
“This is a total outrage!,” says Men’s Shed Secretary John Rapley. “Nowhere in this demolition have we been consulted, workers have just come on site, dismantling buildings without so much as ‘do you mind’.
“The Men’s Shed is a community organisation that has been established for the prime purpose of providing activities to the older and young in our area, and this just goes against everything we stand for. It flies in the face of community care, which if fundamental to what we as a community should be able to expect from our council”
When councillors have been approached by Shed members appealing for their assistance in halting the demolitions, councillors have told that they are powerless to stop the General Managers directives to contractors involved.
Questions need to be asked
Have council an approved development application for these demolition works?
Have the issues of attachment (of the buildings being demolished) to a heritage building been considered?
What are the issues that Council Officers have cited when they say that the ‘Demolition is being undertaken under special emergency powers’ of the Local Government Act?
What about the expectation that when one leases a building (the Men’s Shed) that a building should have basic facilities such as a toilet for the use of leasees?
What will be next? So far in the last twelve months the council has railroaded through the demolition of two buildings attached to other community groups, the PCYC and the Girl Guides buildings without consultation and drawn out
Men’s Sheds were originally formed for men often suffering depression after retirement as a place of communication and comradery – not as a place of angst, where you don’t know what’s going to be taken away next!
Today (Friday the 6th of September) members and supporters of the Men’s Shed will be having a sit-in to protest the treatment they continue to receive by officers of the Sorell Council.
