On May 30 representatives of WAAG met to discuss the latest information (or lack thereof) at Wolstencroft Park and to consider the options for future direction. As most people will be aware a group of residents met with Cr Sandner just prior to the release of Council’s 2011/12 draft budget to seek assurance that the interests of the community were being supported and progress on the implementation of the Wolstencroft Park master plan actually existed.
What we are now able to confirm is that neither is being achieved.
Based on the information provided by Cr Sandner from our earlier meeting, subsequent information obtained from various sources within and outside Council (including budget details) and a follow up email from Cr Sander with responses to specific questions, it is obvious we are no closer to achieving the objective of stage 1 of the master plan being implemented next financial year. Suffice to say, nor is there much confidence from the detail provided to date that action is forthcoming in future years.
So where to from here?
Council’s "generous" decision to allocate $10,000 in next year’s budget to ‘spread soil and sow seed’ at the parkland site naturally elicits anger and frustration and therefore a temptation to adopt an adversarial approach in response to both Cr Sandner and Council as a whole.
Individually people are free to respond how they see fit and there is no doubt an expression of disappointment is warranted and certainly encouraged by every one who has an interest in seeing this park land being developed.
However, discussion at the May 30 meeting centred on the ‘pros and cons’ of how WAAG should respond and it was decided (based somewhat on the collective and individual energy required) that there is very little to gain in taking an adversarial approach and a lot more to gain in ‘taking’ what has been offered (the $10,000) and using it to shape a realistic pathway to success in the future. It’s important to note ‘taking’ does not mean ‘accepting’. In fact given the incompetency the community has endured over the past 5 years one could argue accepting nothing less than an apology from council and a genuine attempt to develop a constructive working relationship (with the community ) is required.
So, this isn’t a standstill but an opportunity to re-strategise if you like and hopefully eke an outcome we are all satisfied with in years to come.
Strategies discussed in how to proceed from here were discussed and further information about the outcomes from this last meeting is available. If you would like to offer your support in other ways too, then WAAG would love to hear from you.
