Planning a Democratic Revolution in 2022 Northern Midlands Council Elections

We have found far too many examples of planning going off the rails in the Northern Midlands, because the council has a really bad habit of secretly engaging consultants to make a plan for a specific location, and then only later presenting the development to the community as a done deal.

A case in point is the new town park in Ross, where the council purchased the land in secret, engaged a consultancy company to design the new park, and then presented the whole deal to the community for comments on minimal options, such as the colour of the trees.

We find this approach to planning and development to be authoritarian and dictatorial, and better suited to China than Australia.

There are over 100 hectares of public land in Ross, and land near the Ross Bridge that needs to be developed as heritage parkland, but this is not on the council radar.

The Tasmanian Government has spent millions of dollars restoring and maintaining the Ross Bridge, so the logical thing to do, would be to improve the surrounds of the bridge.

The council didn’t need to buy more land, but hey, spending money looks to be more important than good planning with the Northern Midlands Council.

They have got themselves stuck in a ditch, and are now camped permanently by the road, making no progress where it matters.

We are totally sick and tired of this zombie affliction that cripples the Northern Midlands councillors, who are unable to see or hear their ratepayers and residents.

If this were not the case, the former mayor and councillors would have taken note of their planning mistake in Ross, when we had them standing on the public land near the Ross Bridge, and told them that this is where the new park should be located.

But they had bought the other land, so nothing else mattered.

They were stuck in the mud.

For that, and a mountain of other reasons, we are standing for council in this year’s election as Mayor (Kim Peart) and Deputy Mayor (Jennifer Bolton).

We will bring a whole new range of ideas, visions, and a will to listen to what the people want.

We see the need for a new dawn in the Northern Midlands, so the municipality can realise its full potential, and ratepayers can get value for money.

We call on all interested in running in the council election to consider joining our team, or lending support, if they are dedicated to building a better future.

One of the first challenges in the campaign will be to call for a promise from the federal election candidates for the Campbell Town Hall, to revitalise the hall, and create a civic and cultural centre on public land next to and including the Town Hall.

We will have more to say about this in a few days, and welcome help to make it happen.

This will be a fierce campaign, to heal a sick council with a democratic revolution to fight the tyranny that is crushing the health and development of the municipality.

POLICIES

We believe that council meetings should be held in a different town each month, with time before each meeting given over to listening to the needs and ideas of the community.

By bringing the council to the community, there will be no need for the District Committees, which are a considerable cost burden on the ratepayers.

The existence of District Committees, which are Special Committees of the council, and therefore an official part of the council, undermine the role of independent community or progress associations, putting far too much control of local community affairs into the hands of the council, who then specialise in listening to their Special Committees, and ignoring ordinary members of the community.

This situation is eerily like that in Animal Farm by George Orwell, describing the Soviet Union, where all the animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

Special Committee members are unelected and unrepresentative, and we call on all members to immediately resign, as a way of opening the way to a better future.

Many times we have put ideas to the council, some of which are described below, like the proposal for a civic and cultural centre with the Campbell Town Hall, but the council will not listen to us, or discuss the matter, and nor will their Special Committee in Campbell Town, who have no contact details on the council web site, and therefore function in secret as a sounding board for the council.

We approached Tasmanian Government ministers about our ideas for the Campbell Town Hall, but were told to speak to the council, which traps us in a real live Catch 22 situation.

The only way to break this tyrannical oppression by the Northern Midlands Council, is to take a battering ram to the council castle and fight for what we want from the inside.

Will you join the revolution to create a far more exciting future in the Northern Midlands?

Our success will create a much happier council and community.

We are keen to hear from anyone who would like to join our team and run in this council election, or offer to help in any way you can.

We want to hear what people think, and will champion your ideas.

We have an exciting range of proposals, some of which have been worked on over many years, such as a walking and cycle trail connecting towns.

This would be a whole new kind of visitor experience, open the way for diverse new enterprises springing up, and in time could come to include a mini-coach service for people in town and country to go to the city, and back again.

In time a footpath and cycle trail network could connect all towns and cities in Tasmania.

The council are currently squabbling with the Tasmanian Government for a cycle way along a highway upgrade running west from the Longford roundabout, but were totally missing in action when we called for a footpath and cycleway between Ross and Campbell Town with the current highway upgrade, as if the south is not really part of the municipality, until it comes to paying rates.

Help us make the whole municipality seen and cared about, not just the north.

We propose the development of a virtual world community for residents in the Northern Midlands, which can be used for meetings and also for creative activities, so people in isolated places can connect with the larger community.

With fewer people visiting museums during the pandemic, a virtual world can be used to create a virtual museum, just like a museum in a local community, for anyone in the world to visit, any time, or a virtual art gallery, where works can be purchased and shipped to the new owner from a gallery in the Northern Midlands.

There are virtual worlds now which can be accessed in the same way as viewing a web site, so that anyone with a computer can participate in a virtual world community.

We have been in the front line of the fight to save the Campbell Town Hall, which the current council wants to sell.

We want the Town Hall kept public, and would like to win support for a civic and cultural centre being created on public land next to and including the Town Hall.

A revitalised Town Hall would serve for meetings, cinema, theatre, exhibitions and functions, with a passage to the new building to access new toilets and a cafe.

The new building could include a larger public library, a home for the local history museum, and space for a proposed rural and regional art gallery.

With strong support there could also be a sculpture park in Ross, where amazing carved art is found on the Ross Bridge.

We will be fighting for the creation of a heritage park on public land around the Ross Bridge, where the historic stables are found, and the wonderful Uniting Church is seen on the hill.

The heritage park can include an interpretation installation for the Ross Bridge, which could feature a bronze statue of the master carver of the bridge, Daniel Herbert, carving one of the stones.

There is no veterinary service in the Central Midlands, and we will be seeking ways to make this happen, so that pet owners and farmers can better care for their animals in time of need.

We believe there needs to be a climate change plan, with the world getting hotter, to include a fire and heat shelter for residents of towns and farms.

We are keen to promote the development of villages with a quality of life in the country setting, rather than have towns spread across the landscape without much thought.

We are planning a mid-winter fire festival in Ross on the first Saturday in July, in a Viking theme, to include candle-lit lanterns and fire drawings. Would you like to participate?

This event will include the inaugural Viking Lecture in the Town Hall in Ross in the afternoon, where the Viking dragon boat to be sent off on the bonfire will be seen, before its final journey to the flames.

The Viking Lecture will be in the tradition of the launch of the Viking Society in 1975, when Dr Rod Thompson, later Professor Thompson, made an historical presentation in the old church at 47 Davey Street, Hobart.

This event will also honour the king on the Ross Bridge, believed to be Jorgen Jorgenson (1780-1841), who ruled Iceland for two months in 1809, was dispatched as a convict to Van Diemen’s Land in 1825, served as a police constable in Ross in 1833, was popularly known as the ex-king of Iceland, has been called the Convict King, and had a book on his life published in 1954 called the Viking of Van Diemen’s Land.

Kim organised an official Tasmanian Bicentenary event in Ross in 2004 on the theme of Jorgen Jorgenson, with a contribution coming from Iceland, and later had input into the 2009 bicentenary event in Iceland, marking Jorgenson’s rule of the island.

Join the revolution to help us regenerate this tired old council, and create a better and fairer future for the residents and ratepayers of the Northern Midlands.

Kim Peart – kimpeart@iinet.net.au

Jennifer Bolton – jabolton@iinet.net.au