Who would be a Wollongong councillor?

While there have been some half-hearted calls for an end to the state- appointed administrators’ management of the discredited Wollongong City Council, the issue everyone seems to be completely overlooking is the lack of obvious candidates.

 

Even the most ardent ALP supporter has got to question the credibility of any recently past ALP affiliated councillors (three currently facing criminal charges) and the ICAC enquiry has cast an unforgiving shadow over all past councillors, including those from the other side of party politics who vainly tried to resist the pervasive top down culture that was allowed to strongly influence important town planning decisions and marginalise any genuine grass roots concerns.

 

Recent TV coverage of the stalled Ambiance project in Fairy Meadow starkly highlighted the downside of Wollongong’s last elected council’s whole heartedly embracing the pro-development approach (read non-complying) offered by now failed developer Bellmorgan when a reasoned but still pro-Wollongong stance could have delivered a more acceptable proposal.

 

How any reasonable person/councillor could have been party to a development that completely overshadowed existing dwellings to the extent the documentary revealed defies credible explanation.

 

If anyone needs to be reminded why ICAC finally took some action against the WCC and its rogue town planning department, the image of those massive concrete walls built right up to the boundaries of adjacent dwellings should do the trick.

 

It gets worse. Since history tells us it is the ratepayers who ultimately pay the price for their council’s indiscretions, Wollongong ratepayers should brace themselves for the costs to remedy this debacle when it finally reaches the courts.

 

Another ‘elephant in the room’ for already reeling Wollongong residents is the existence of a massive backlog of remedial drainage and roadworks running into tens of millions of dollars and climbing.

 

It has only been the run of fine weather and an excessive measure of good luck that has not seen the WCC facing a string of claims for repairs (and consequential damage) that council officers have officially acknowledged as their responsibility but the WCC are not financially able to remedy.

 

The existence of this ‘secret’ list is buried in the WCC’s annual accounts but once again it is a legacy of past council’s poor but mainly hidden, management practices, and the ultimate costs involved will have to be borne, as per usual, by long suffering ratepayers.

 

As it happens I can speak from personal experience here. For several years now my wife and I have been writing to council about a potentially massive drainage problem relating to a malfunctioning WCC sump situated on a shared driveway immediately above our house.

 

Worst case scenario, a mini ‘Coledale’ type mudslide triggered by uncontrolled stormwater runoff could envelop our home with all the attendant risks to personal life and property.

 

The official WCC position is quote, in part:

 

 

 

After years of inaction and letter exchanges with this type of official mumbo jumbo I can only assume it’s another polite ‘don’t call us’ brush off.

 

Having had a massive gum tree fall on our home only last year during a wind storm I am perhaps overly conscious that these types of incidents do actually occur but, more to the point, homeowners involved should take reasonable precautions to protect themselves wherever possible.

 

In this case, being part of the WCC’s drainage system (and not on our property) we are unable to effect the repairs ourselves; in fact we would expose ourselves to legal action if we even attempted to do so.

 

I can only assume if my ‘little’ problem gets this type of treatment it is probably only the tip of a very much bigger iceberg and typical of yet another piece of baggage our future councillors will have to grapple with when the administrators finally decide to leave.