Wellington’s scheduled Community Forum has been undermined by a lack of community input, according to those who attended the meeting at council chambers.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Attendance at the event, which was organised and hosted by approximately fifteen members of council and associated staff, included only four residents of the Wellington area.
Danielle Griffiths, who attended the meeting in order to raise the issue of a lack of current before-and-after school care in the town, left the forum ‘disappointed’ by the lack of turnout.
“I was impressed, actually, in a sense that there were around fifteen council related members there, between staff, the general manager and councillors as well,” Mrs Griffiths said.
“When I look at that, and see the lack of effort that the town went to, it was a little disappointing.”
There’s a lot of people that talk about what’s right, but there aren't many people that are prepared to lobby for improvement. They’re intrinsically linked, if there’s something going on that you don’t like, you need to be the change.
- Danielle Griffiths
Deputy Mayor and Councillor Anne Jones suggested that the reason why many residents were unavailable to attend was because they hadn’t been given adequate notice.
“I think the biggest issue to be quite honest is the fact that Binjang Community Radio were not notified and as such did not broadcast until Monday morning,” Cr Jones said.
READ ALSO: Community Christmas party packs out park
“A lot of our community are not on Facebook or Twitter or any of the other media, there’s not that many people who actually buy print media these days and they listen to the radio hoping to find out what is happening in our community.”
“There were only four people and a baby that attended,” Cr Jones said.
“It was brought to my attention that Binjang had not been notified very late on Friday afternoon and that was only rectified then, to me, that’s not sufficient notice for people to organise themselves for a meeting on the same tonight.”
The informal council forums were proposed following the amalgamation of Dubbo and Wellington’s councils as an alternative to holding regular council meetings in Wellington.
Mrs Griffiths chief concern was that issues that Wellington would otherwise try to fix may go unnoticed if residents don’t hear about them, like the recent financial troubles experienced by the bowling club due to planning requirements.
“If we know about the issues that are going on in the community, then we can help,” Mrs Griffiths said.
“I think as a town we have this opportunity to really band together as a community.”
Other issues raised concerned business owners parking outside storefronts and the general state of pathways and pavements within the town.
