April 15, 2021
South Burnett Regional Council has invited residents from Blackbutt and surrounding areas to attend a community meeting next Tuesday (April 20) to discuss the proposed Blackbutt town centre development.
The meeting will hosted by Mayor Brett Otto and councillors from 5:30pm at Blackbutt Memorial Hall.
“The proposed Blackbutt town redevelopment represents a significant investment by Council, including funding from the Australian Government’s Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program,” Mayor Otto said.
“It is critical that the community has every opportunity to have their say on what is proposed. Tuesday evening’s community meeting is so important in ensuring we get this right.
“The proposed project being put forward for Blackbutt is a significant investment, comprising $550,000 of ratepayer funds plus $750,000 of funding proposed to be taken out of $1.9 million received by Council for local roads and community infrastructure from the Australian Government.
“The total proposed commitment of $1.3 million is a serious decision for Council that must be made carefully and only after extensive community consultation.”
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It’s very laudable of our Mayor and Councillors to give people a chance to have their say. Only, do they really listen? It would appear that they only hear what they want to hear and suits them, other opinions are usually brushed aside. So why spend time with these so-called Community Consultations if they do as they like and planned anyway?
Sceptical; You have really nailed it. Especially with this current bunch.
My thoughts have been for a long time now that we do not have a big enough diversity of local experiences with the numbers we now have of councillors.
Far far better outcomes would happen if we had (instead of current divisions) representations based on original boundaries of previous councils with at least 2 and maybe 3 councillors from each old shire. That would give the proper local knowledge that is needed and is now sorely lacking. And it really is lacking; Especially in the northern part of the now SBRC where we really only have one councillor representing what is really half of the region (the Div 6 guy is from the far south of Div 6 and probably does not have much empathy for the northern part of his div.)
Thanks Beattie for stuffing what we once had!
Disgruntled, I’m not in love with the “three from every old shire” alternative you suggest.
For a start, it would just about double the costs of employing Councillors (right now, we pay $600,000-$700,000 a year for them, which is quite enough in my book). And for seconds, having more people – particularly those with a parochial, inward-looking bent – is no guarantee of quality. Instead, it’s generally a recipe for conflict followed by disastrous mistakes.
If people aren’t happy with the pollies we’ve got, I can only blame the voters who put them there in the first place. Voters should have taken more of an interest before the election and (for those Councillors doing more than one term) paid more attention to their previous performance in office. Fail to do that and you’ve absolutely no right to complain about the result you get.
No, I am not happy with the current bunch. However, at the last election I didn’t even have a choice because the councillor for my division (Blackbutt) was automatically up for another term as there was no other candidate. If there had been an alternative I would have voted for her/him, just to get the incumbent one out. I guess you have to be a very particular kind of person to want to serve in such a team….. I know I wouldn’t want to. Does this attitude deny my the right of to criticize?