BREAKING NEWS 7 August 2017
A usually reliable source has just informed
me that the company intending to apply for permission to establish a landfill
at Allawuna is Avon Waste.
It’s possible that the Shire has already received
the application.
What now seems certain is that all
councillors, not just the Shire President, have known about the new landfill
proposal for some time.
Yet to the best of my knowledge not one of
them—not one!—has deigned to share this vital information with the people of
York.
My reading of the Local Government Act is
that it empowers and by implication enjoins councillors to ‘facilitate
communication’ between the Council and the community they are elected to
represent.
In plain words, that means they are
supposed to talk to us and tell us what is going on.
Instead, they prefer to opt for secrecy
when anything controversial swims into their ken.
In that respect, they seem more like a
witches’ coven than a representative body with governing responsibilities and
legislative powers.
‘Careful, they might hear you’
Somebody told me yesterday that the Shire
President has threatened our councillors with hellfire
(figuratively speaking—I don’t think
his authority extends that far) if they dare to raise any aspect
of council business with the rest of us in public or in private conversation.
It’s true that individual councillors are
not permitted to act as spokespersons for Council. That task is the prerogative of a shire president or mayor
or a CEO acting under delegated authority.
But there is no reason why councillors should
hesitate to make public their personal opinions on issues that come before
them, so long as they make clear that those opinions are their own, not those
of council as a whole.
Members of parliament can talk to the
people, so why not members of council?
If our Shire President really is putting
the screws on councillors to keep their traps shut—and if he isn’t, he’s
welcome to deny it on this blog, or perhaps he can use his column in the
YDCM—then he is behaving like a bully.
In that case, councillors should come out
of their trance, give him the collective finger, man up (even the ladies) and
do the right thing, not what they are told to do.
 |
| "When we've finished our brew, would someone like to move that we put a curse on that Plumridge fellow? I'd do it myself, but I know he'll make fun of my spelling." |
Do York rate payers whose all green rubbish bins are the same size and volume as their yellow lid rubbish bins have to pay more on their yearly rubbish disposal rates than the York rate payers whose all green rubbish bins are but a fraction of that size and volume?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Squatter Jenkins had regretted this inexplicable act of malice ever since and wanted the chance to put it right. So he used the time machine to go back in time and made sure his earlier self walked past the cat in the tree without even a glance in its direction. And so the cat continued doing what he was doing and killed the sparrow he was stalking. The sparrow was most disappointed as he now missed out on a life of fun and frolics including marrying his sparrow neighbour, Mavis Jenkins (no relation to Squatter Jenkins). Mavis Jenkins spent a lifetime having the feeling that she was missing out on something but couldn't quite put her finger on it. Or rather, her wing on it. Poor Mavis. Meanwhile, Squatter Jenkins' earlier self reached the bus stop earlier as a result of ignoring the cat in the tree, and unfortunately because of this, the bus accidentally ran him over and killed him. And so Squatter Jenkins disappeared from our reality. Which was a shame, as he hadn't paid me yet either.
ReplyDeleteI was unable to make full use of my marvellous invention and rid the world of it's many woes, as my evil nemesis, Montgomery Harrington, stole my time machine, travelled back in time and prevented Squatter Jenkins from requesting that I invent a time machine. Just to annoy me. So Squatter Jenkins then reappeared, much to his confused happiness. As well as an ecstatic sparrow.
So all this didn't happen. Or did it? Montgomery Harrington needed the time machine in order to stop it from existing. If I didn't invent it, Montgomery Harrington wouldn't have gone back in time and told Squatter Jenkins not to ask for it, so Squatter Jenkins actually would have asked for it to be invented. These time travelling paradoxes hurt my head, I wish I never started it. That gives me an idea, maybe I could make another time machine and go back in time and stop myself from inventing the first one. Yes, great idea, that'll solve everything.
Is this a satirical parable or an extract from a roman a clef, or are you dabbling in hydroponics?
DeleteAnonymous 8 August at 03:49, I see exactly where you're coming from. Obviously the moderator is oblivious to the message contained within.
DeleteIndeed he is. What message is that? Please explain. On second thoughts, don't bother.
DeleteHas the issue come before them as you say?
ReplyDeleteCouncillors can't have an opinion before they get the facts.
Just because the SP arguably knows about a proposed agenda item, doesn't mean all councillors do. I personally think that's part of the problem.
According to my informant - who should know - information about the proposal wasn't restricted to the shire president. Other councillors also knew what was in the wind.
DeleteHaving an opinion before getting the facts is a common human failing, I'm sorry to say.
Why all the secrecy? Have councillors forgotten the anger that surfaced when it was discovered the previous council arrogantly kept the landfill information from the people?
ReplyDeleteWhy has Cr. Ferro remained quiet on this? I attended meetings in the Town Hall when she was happy to take the spot light during the public meetings speaking against the SITA landfill. Where's her loyalty to those she claimed to be speaking on behalf?
More hear say, where is your evidence? One must certainly take your writings with a grain of salt as has been proven in the past with assumptions and leaping to conclusions from conversations that you were not privy to!
ReplyDeleteWhat facts can you present? Is there any concrete evidence or just one of your cronies going off half cocked?
It was not one of my 'cronies' who told me about the new landfill proposal.
DeleteAs yet I have no documentary evidence to support what I have written, but I regard my main source as unimpeachable (so would you, if you knew who it was) and have good reason to believe that what I've been told is true.
You may have noticed that nobody from the Shire, including the Shire President, has come forward to deny the assertions contained in my article.
Your attempt to denigrate my blog's reputation for truth and accuracy are merely infantile. Time and again I have produced documentary evidence to support what I have written, and time and again - even when no such evidence was available - I have turned out to be right.
I hope that when hard evidence regarding the new landfill proposal does become available, as inevitably it must, you will have the decency and good grace to apologise for your silly, ill-considered and ill-founded comment. Somehow, though, I doubt that you will.
where is your documented proof then of Mr Pig Poo associating with disreputable ex counsellors?
DeleteHow were these counsellors disreputable? No allegations made, no charges laid, no convictions recorded, How is this factual information?
Would you like me to continue? i doubt you will post this. You claim to correct incorrect information in you posts but I notice that this still stands unedited.
Please don't get on your high horse old chap, just stating actual facts say what old boy!
Well, I did post it, but I won't post any more of your inane comments.
DeleteI didn't say the councillors were 'disreputable'. The word I used was 'discredited'. If you'd been reading this and the other York blog for the last couple of years, you'd know why.
Why you continue to pretend I'm some kind of toff is beyond my comprehension. Go away. From now on, you'll be consigned to the spam folder.
Whether or not the councillors knew of this the administration definitely knew.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you thing its gearing up for the 'heavy haulage route'.
Start looking at the big picture, the state intends to use York as a dumping ground and there isn't a thing anyone can do about it.
The question is, did York council apply to the Planning Minister to amend York's Town Planning Scheme special use provisions to exclude noxious industry? If they did, what date was it lodged?
DeleteRemember the current Council has had one year and ten months get this amendment through.
It's not a coincidence bright yellow signs with black arrows have been installed on every bend, both ways, between York and Allawuna!
ReplyDeletewell the shire has done it again shut down Avon Terrace without notifying businesses. Im all for tourism but if you look at why the road is closed.The palace is holding a lunch for this group and look like their needed parking. I have had enough of this shire doing wrong against businesses.
ReplyDeleteWhy has the Shire closed Avon Terrace to traffic?
DeleteWhat group is the York Palace hosting for lunch? What's the issue with parking?
Details, please.
Literally for the reasons Anonymous 12 August at 19:35 stated, on street parking for Richard Bliss's customers, the WA Porche club.
DeleteCEO Paul Martin is taking the piss, its history repeating itself. Fuck everyone else, lets look after the chosen few.
Presumably that's you Maurice not happy with the Street closure? I suggest you join the Garton-Smith club and start feathering you're own nest. Don't think for one minute thing have changed, you watch them move heaven and earth for the 'Talbot' syndicate who have just bought the Imperial Hotel.
DeleteIf you're not in the click, you can fuck off, that's how it works!
Clarification: The event for which Avon Terrace was closed this morning was a Porsche Club luncheon hosted by Lord and Lady Rapture at the York Palace Hotel aka Malice in the Chalice.
DeleteThe closure was advertised on page 9 of the August edition of the YDCM, so the Shire told us it was going to happen a fortnight ago. It was supposed to last from 11 am to 2 pm (the closure that is, not the Shire, which is slated to last until its forthcoming amalgamation with Northam or Pyongyang).
My curiosity piqued, I toddled down just after midday to have a look. Porsches old and new lined both sides of the Terrace, but I saw several vehicles of a more democratic nature driving south along the street towards the Great Southern Highway. I saw people shopping in IGA, enjoying a lunchtime stroll and sipping coffee outside Mad Mo's Cafe.
It was hardly different from a normal Sunday afternoon in the centre of town. As my wife and I sauntered past the York Hotel, we were regaled from that establishment with the lugubrious strains of George Harrison's 'My Sweet Lord', a poignant reminder that God was in His Heaven and all was right with the world. No harm done to anyone by the closure, so far as I could tell.
Arse licker.
DeleteAnonymous 13 August 00:14, I think you meant to post your comment as a response to mine at 00:12.
DeleteObviously, you and I have very different ideas about what is meant by 'an excellent spread', but then, I've never been to prison.
DETAILS
ReplyDeleteDate: Sunday, 13 August 2017
Meeting Time: 8:30am for 9am start
Meeting point:
The Lakes Roadhouse (new BP Station!)
Cnr Great Eastern & Great Southern Hwys, The Lakes
Cost: $80 per head – Includes museum entry, private museum tour and a beautiful three-course lunch at the York Palace Hotel
RSVP: Registrations close Tuesday 8 August 2017.
Bloody good value, by anybody's reckoning. Say what you like about Their Highnesses, and I've had a fair bit to say about them since they made a profit without honour by off-loading Chalkies on to the rest of us aided by their visionary friend James Best, but they do put on an excellent spread.
DeleteThat's not much the point, is it?
DeleteThe main street was closed for a while this morning. That may well be unfair to some businesses and the general public, considering it really was a 'private' event. Possibly the Howick Street or Lowe Street carpark would have been a more suitable option for such an affair. It is good to see these events happening more frequently though, on that point, well done to all those involved. Keep up the momentum, it will be good for most.
It seems that irony is lost on some people.
DeleteI agree, it does seem unfair to close the street for a private function, even for the benefit of such noted public benefactors as Richard and Nola Bliss. Other options were available, as you rightly say.
On the other hand, this is York, democracy's graveyard and the town that time forgot...
the link address
ReplyDeletehttps://porscheclubofwesternaustralia.wildapricot.org/event-2511791
I will make comment now and i just like to say the street closure was a short one,But a lot of local came into my cafe wanting know what was going on. My response was i didn't know? The York visitor center posted 2 dates for today little private function at the bliss's. one was today and the other 13/9/2017. I was confused as to we are asked to sign a form to say we didn't object to the road been closed. I would of objected because it wasn't a event that bought tourist into town, as stated outside the palace hotel it was a private function. I never want to be in the click, my business is here to serve the public. We do not want to be with the so called elites'. I do not want to cause problems We are here to provide a service that these people are not providing to the middle to low income earners. Karma's a bitch it will bite you in the arise someday. To the elites reading this i going no where fast.
ReplyDeleteHi Maurice,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the email however I reject some of the comments you have made as they are inaccurate.
This was not a Shire of York event. The Shire of York provided $1,500 towards the event to cover road closure as part of attracting the Porsche Club to come to town through the Shire’s community sponsorship process approved by Council. The short term road closure (45 mins in total) was required to ensure that all parking of cars was done in a safe manner.
After the approval of funds from Council the club started planning the event a number of local businesses were invited (including your business) to submit proposals to the club to host lunch and the club made the decision where they would have lunch. The York Palace was chosen by the club. I suggest if you have any questions about this event you contact the event organisers who I am told really enjoyed the day in York.
I understand that businesses were consulted about the short road closure to ensure safety as cars parked in the main street including you which was done by Esmeralda. Furthermore the road closure was advertised in the paper and on the Shire of York website.
I trust this addresses the questions you have asked as part of your email.
Regards,
Paul
Paul Martin
Chief Executive Officer
Shire of York
PO Box 22, York WA 6302
Phone: (08) 9641 2233 / Fax: (08) 9641 2202
Mobile: 0417 670 047
Email: ceo@york.wa.gov.au
Website: www.york.wa.gov.au
Maurice, thanks for letting us all read Paul's reply to your email.
DeleteAny chance of sending me the email that he has replied to? In fairness, I ought to publish both.
Can you also find out when the other "businesses were consulted about the short road closure", I wasn't consulted.
DeleteMeanwhile, I have a few questions:
Delete1. Why does it cost $1500 to close a road for 45 minutes?
2. Why assume that Porsche drivers are less capable of parking 'in a safe manner' than drivers of less prestigious vehicles?
3. Why not offer the visitors the Howick St car park instead of allowing them to clog up parking spaces along the main drag?
4. Which businesses did Esmeralda consult, and when? One business owner has denied being consulted. After what happened during the jazz festival not long ago, some folk seem to be losing trust in the Shire's capacity to manage tourist events.
Sounds like the problem lies in the middle ranks at that shire,those on top seem so far away from the bottom, nobody really knows what's going on.
DeleteOf course it doesn't really cost $1500 to close a street for 45 minutes,although with all that administration it probably goes close.
DeleteHi Paul
ReplyDeleteI would like to know some answers to the following question as a rate payer and business owner it concerns me greatly that money is being wasted.
1. Sunday the 13/8/2017 Avon Terrace was closed for 2 hours.
a. Why wasn’t businesses ask to sign for this Road closure as previously for events.
b. Who paid for the street closure
2. The Porche Club Australia had a private function at the palace Hotel and Motor Museum.
a. This was promoted as a private function at the Palace Hotel and on line per head payment not as an event.
b. Confusion on Dates and times advertised.
To the common folk down here on the terrace this was again a glorified stuff up on the shire behalf. If the blisses hold a private function as advertised than it needs to provide carparking spaces for them. The palace needs to provide them.
Tourism is our bread and butter on the weekends and to loose trade to a business that was holding a private function is appalling. But the Shire of York saw this as an event when us common folk see it as a private function.
So saying this I have loss my confidence in the Shire as to wasting monies on these so called events. This has set a precedent for other business to ask for Avon Terrace to be closed for private functions without seeking permission from other business owners.
My business supports Tourism and isn’t Anti Events but this was a joke.
Cheers
Maurice Buck
Common Folk
dont publish this part
i sent him this been a bit cheeky i cant believe his response he says it not a event for shire of York but than calls it event paid by us ratepayers. Im so angry at this that we suffer why these elites use our hard monies to feather their nest
cheers
For the most part these 'elite's' are crafty bxxxxxs. Tis a shame more 'common people' aren't using these 'community sponsorship' scheme's. Possibly because of a lack of information or meditation between the administrators and some of the intended recipients of such grants/scheme's.
DeleteHey Maurice, can your customer(s) afford cars?
DeleteA road closure costs around $80-$120 payable to local police. Can only assume the rest is in-kind.
ReplyDeleteClosing the street to accommodate a single German marque was discriminative against those of us who drive Bentley’s and other superior vehicles, I ended up parking my vehicle in a ‘public’ car park next to a white utility thing and the other ordinary cars, not an experience I wish to repeat. Definitely a good idea allocating car parking for luxury vehicles only in the CBD, Perth should follow suit.
ReplyDeleteEven in these benighted times, folk who drive Bentleys usually know better than to form plurals with apostrophes.
DeleteHave you considered taking your complaint to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission?
I have more than one.
DeleteMore than one what?
DeleteTesticle
DeleteAssuming that you're telling the truth, which somehow I doubt, would you write 'testicles' or 'testicle's' to indicate that you have the standard plurality of gonads?
DeleteCan people stop arguing about Avon tce being closed, there's far more serious issues York residents need to focus on, like the latest application for a Landfill.
ReplyDeleteInstead of writing a book about the last landfill and denigrating the two ladies who worked their arses off for York , I suggest the person uses her time to pen letters to the Premier and Ministers then wipe the dust off those stored protest signs and get them back into the paddocks adjacent to Great Southern Highway between York and Allawuna.