Advice to Derwent Valley Council

AT Thursday night's council meeting I made the following statement: "I wish to advise the council that I appeared before the Standards Panel of the Local Government Association yesterday, in relation to Mr Ian Brown's appeal against the recent determination of his Code of Conduct complaint made against me. I am advised that a finding may be reached next week."

During the hearing, Mr Brown expressed his concern that it had been incorrectly stated on this blog that he was a resident of Ridson Vale or Clarendon Vale, when in fact he had never lived at either of those places. I apologised for the error and advised that the information had been sourced from Mr Brown's correspondence which listed a Clarendon Vale postal address.

Comments will not be published until this matter is concluded.

Agenda for October meeting

YESTERDAY'S mail brought a very interesting council agenda for the October meeting this Thursday and I imagine there will be more than a few onlookers in the public gallery. You are welcome to join them - the meeting starts at 6.30pm. There is an opportunity for public questions and statements at the start of the meeting. It's advisable to get there early to fill in the simple form and hand it to the deputy general manager.

There are two items of some disappointment. In Motions on Notice, Cr Jim Elliott proposes that the council should cease the advertising of its monthly "workshops". Cr Elliott does not state whether it is his intention to move these workshops back behind closed doors, or simply to stop advertising them. If the idea is simply to save money, that could be achieved by listing the monthly meeting and monthly workshop in the one advertisement. I regret that because I am employed by the newspaper where the council does its advertising, I will not be able to take part in the debate on this topic.

Equally disappointing, and contrary to assurances received in the last fortnight, is that community concerns about the access road for a new subdivision at Molesworth seem not to have been heard. Building an expensive road and bridge to connect with Molesworth Rd makes no sense when the safest and most obvious option is to connect directly with the Lyell Highway. If the highway cannot cope with one additional entry on a reasonably straight stretch at Sorell Creek, what has the State Government achieved with its $14 million worth of "improvements"?

Also on the agenda is a briefing by Home and Community Care co-ordinator Julie Triffett; a proposal to investigate the employment of a regional development officer; community grants for 2010/11; and a closed meeting to discuss a solid waste collection service contract.

Latest advertisement - October

BELOW is my latest councillor update, published in last week's issue of the Derwent Valley Gazette.