Democracy in Action

...or should that be "democracy inaction"?
Just sat through a developmet application session of Newcastle Council. What a strange event.
Councillors Buman and O'Neill giggled and passed notes and talked almost throughout the entire session. They behaved worse than schoolkids. If I had a blackboard duster I would have thrown it at them like we used to in the good old days of pedagogical instruction.
The councillors from our ward, our actual elected representatives, the ones that actually showed up, were keen to just vote the development application through and be done with it. It was a complete joke. The council is totally hamstrung by its own seemingly incompetent members and a fear of the dreaded Land and Environment Court.
Councillors Gaudry, Eade, Parsons and McKenzie were on our side in opposing the development. Bless them. The rest couldn't give a bugger. "Heritage heretics" Keith Parsons calls them.
Here's the gist of an email I received from Barbara Gaudry:

Thank you for your email.
I am very disappointed for you and the other local residents.
I really believe in the merits of the case you were putting and Ihad hoped that by drawing the analogy with the Glebe Road decision that the other Councillors might see it in that light and think that it was worth the chance of our decision being upheld.
I don't believe in risking ratepayer's money if there is no/little chance of succeeding in the Land and Environment Court but I thought that a precedent was there with the Glebe Road decision.
The houses are in the section of Glebe Road between Watkins Street and Union Street and I managed to get Councillor support (on the previous Council) to reject a DA for the demolition and replacement of one of these houses.
The proposed new house was totally out of character with the other houses in the block.
The developer then went to the Land and Environment and lost the case.

From memory Keith was not correct in saying that the Glebe Road houses were already on a list being considered for some kind of protection when we made our decision to reject the demolition of one of the houses and its replacement with a new dwelling.
I think that the decision to consider possible listing of these houses came later when we were reviewing our LEP (Local Environment Plan) which is a statutory document.
I don't think that these houses still have any statutory protection as the assessment process wasn't funded by Council (I am relying on memory and haven't checked the current status).

Unfortunately, there are some Councillors (4 at least) who vote for a Development no matter what.
They invariably put the rights of the developer ahead of the residents.
This is extremely disappointing as we are meant to look at each DA on its merits.
Our decisions about the 'merits of the case' are subjective of course but there needs to be some flexibility in decision making.

I am sorry that we failed the other night.

Regards
Barbara."

What a top lady. I was considering joining the Labor party until they dumped her hubby and replaced him with the execrable Jodi MacKay but now I might reconsider.
It still leaves us with the constant irritation of Buman and O'Neill. If ever there was a case for the Local Government Minister to sack the council it would be these two dullards. What a waste of oxygen they are!