A BEEFY agenda greeted all who made it to the first Golden Plains Shire council meeting of the year, held in Bannockburn on Wednesday, 26 February.<\/p>\n
One of the biggest decisions councillors had make was on 20.85 hectare of municipal owned land in Teesdale that will be split into 37 lots.<\/p>\n
Located on Lomandra Drive, the site is the last phase of the Bakers Lane subdivision, a parcel of land owned by council that was part of a former Leigh Shire gravel pit.<\/p>\n
Subsequently councillors were asked to make a subdivision and planning decision on land they were essentially the custodians of.<\/p>\n
Cr Les Rowe questioned how that was meant to happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis land is owned by the council, and we are the councillors of the council, how do we vote on this?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Shire CEO Eric Braslis tried to clear up the confusion.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re sitting here tonight making decisions on the planning application not as the council but as the responsible authority in the Planning and Environment Act<\/em>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an odd instance, but it does happen to councils throughout the state. You do need to be dealing with this impartially, like you would any application.\u201d<\/p>\n Ultimately the move was supported by all but one of the councillors in attendance, Cr Des Phelan was absent, with Cr Helena Kirby noting the budgetary impact.<\/p>\n \u201cThe selling of this land should provide the council with some good income,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Four objections were received to the subdivision, mostly focusing on changes to area.<\/p>\n The motion was opposed by Cr David Evans who was concerned about future effluent issues in the area and said that could have been overcome with larger subdivisions and less blocks.<\/p>\n Building gets new tenants<\/strong><\/p>\n The Meredith Interpretive Centre at 10 Wallace Street will soon have new custodians after councillors approved a group known as CLAW Enterprises for a peppercorn rent on the site in the first year.<\/p>\n CLAW will seek to use the land as a creative co-working space in partnership with start-up and business idea incubator Runway Limited as well as Meredith Primary School and the district\u2019s Lions Club.<\/p>\n The terms of lease on the site include a peppercorn rent running to $11 in the first year and then rising to $13,200 in year two. There are also optional extensions to the lease.<\/p>\n Cr David Evans sought to amend the motion before councillors, saying the new tenants should have to pay $1000 for their first year of use.<\/p>\n That move was kyboshed by other councillors who chose not to support it.<\/p>\n During debate on the original motion some councillors explained their decision not to support Cr Evans.<\/p>\n \u201cI would rather get $11 and have somebody look after this site than have it left empty and it will then cost us a lot more than what we\u2019ll ever get back out of it,\u201d said Cr Nathan Hansford<\/p>\n Taking and listening<\/strong><\/p>\n Councillors and Shire staff will be back out and hearing what residents have to say after listening posts for 2020 were approved.<\/p>\n Four sites were confirmed with Smythesdale in April, Linton and Bannockburn in May and Bannockburn again in June all set to host the feedback stations.<\/p>\n The May session will specifically be open to resident input on the 2020\/21 budget.<\/p>\n Community grants move to staff<\/strong><\/p>\n Councillors will no longer have a detailed hand in deciding where money is allocated to under the community grants program with most of them agreeing to pass the responsibility onto council staff.<\/p>\n The move to redelegate the tasks was a result of council\u2019s internal auditors highlighting reports from the State and Federal government agencies relating to potential issues with councillors solely deciding where grant money should go.<\/p>\n Cr Kirby disagreed with the move saying that there hadn\u2019t previously been issues with councillors deciding where community grants went in the Shire. All councillors bar Cr Kirby voted for the change.<\/p>\n Over the life 25-year life of the Shire\u2019s community grants program an estimated $6.8 million has been allocated across the municipality. So far this financial year just over $110,000 has been given to 32 projects.<\/p>\n