The Council Election will be Critical for Bayside Council.
I watched the long Bayside Council Meeting on Wednesday night July 14 2021. One issue that i found most disconcerting were the extraordinary number of comments on Facebook – over 800, many of which attacked the Councillors.
Some comments were less than informed ones, but others were not. Some residents later wrote on a community Facebook site that “these comments reflected the number of frustrations that residents feel with Council.“
One of Bayside’s major issues has been the Gardiner Park Field, and the push for a demerger by some. Gardiner Park is presently in the Land and Environment Court. Botany Council had allowed its assets to run down so that Bayside Council, after amalgamation in late 2016, had to spend millions of dollars to bring the area up to the required standard. And the overdevelopment in Mascot and Botany was in fact approved by Botany Council, not Bayside Council.
At last Wednesday night’s Council meeting, Councillor Barlow and Councillor Nagi presented Bayside Council’s huge financial outlay in the former Botany Council area. Councillor Mc Donald stated that “we had gone too far to be able to demerge. And Council has done a good job to date in the former Botany Council area. “
Residents must remember that they elected these current Councillors to Council in 2017. It is now time on September 4 2021 to choose carefully to elect Councillors, who have the necessary skills and ability to undertake this demanding role. We need people representative of different age groups and life experience / skills elected to genuinely represent the community.
Council has some very important decisions to be made in the next few years. Informed debate on all Council matters would be welcomed by the community, so that the best outcomes can be achieved for ratepayers and residents.
Anne Field July 18 2021
