SunRRA - An open letter to the yet-to-be-appointed Administrators of Brimbank Council

An open letter to the yet-to-be-appointed Administrators of Brimbank Council

Saturday, 17 October 2009

To the Administrators
We want you to know that the people of the west including Brimbank are fed up with entrenched neglect from our elected representatives and we aren’t going to take it anymore.

But SunRRA members are also saying we want to work with you to start the long term repair job now needed after decades of political neglect. As you know Brimbank residents have been caught in the middle of warring between two sides of the same ALP faction, both of whom wanted control of the Council. Both sides have succeeded in getting their wish.

The outcome has been political patronage for a few and neglect for the majority. We trust that in your future decisions the politically driven agendas of local state and federal MP’s will be viewed as secondary considerations to meeting priority community needs.

There has been a complete disconnect between the needs and expectations of the community and the priorities and spending of this Council. Even now the Council administration is secretive, insular and views the community it serves as a nuisance. The recently completed Community Plan has been overridden by priorities of the Council administration e.g. the $40M Civic Centre proposal was not a priority in the Community Plan. To get answers to straightforward questions we must still submit complaints to the Victorian Ombudsman.

Our Parks and Gardens are among the worst in Melbourne. In neighbouring Braybrook (once part of Sunshine Council) there has been heavy investment in playgrounds, tennis courts and basketball facilities. In comparison, Sunshine parks still have play equipment that is decades old and in disrepair. To make it clear: we want to see immediate improvements to our public facilities.

Sunshine’s Outdoor Swimming Pool is heated for year-round swimming, but only open in summer. It can’t be opened earlier this year because management planned repairs in October despite the pool laying unused and fenced off for 3 months during winter. The pool complex is perfect for youth oriented/community events, and moonlight cinema but no such events have been held.

Our council, in its wisdom, determines demand for the outdoor pool by closing it in March and asking people who come to swim indoors if they would prefer to swim outdoors. The indoor pool was closed for the second week of the school holidays for scheduled maintenance. This disastrous mismanagement of prime council assets must cease.

Sunvale Primary School, now merged with two other schools on the east Sunshine site, is the perfect site for a Community Park and Youth Precinct but has been nominated by the Chief Executive Officer for a social housing project. There is no evidence that this is an appropriate use for the site and the community has never been consulted. There is evidence that Harvester ward is badly under-resourced for open space.

The Sunshine community went to council to develop a joint submission for Sunvale to become a Community Park. The community began advocating for Open Space while our CEO went behind our backs and wrote to Government seeking support for his social housing plan and started a deceptive postcard/petition campaign claiming council was trying to Save Sunvale, when in fact it was doing the opposite. We trust this adversarial approach will merely be a remnant of past days during your term as Administrators.

Community Facilities across the municipality have all been given to groups associated with the ALP and are poorly utilised. One of these in Biggs St, St Albans is used as the Maribyrnong Branch of the ALP for peppercorn rent and despite being noted as an issue by the Ombudsman is still in ALP hands. This must be addressed immediately. The broader community is seeking a full and transparent audit of council community facilities to ensure all corrupt practices are rooted out for good.

Health Status in Brimbank is among the worst in Australia yet there are virtually no opportunities for recreation and virtually no bike paths/walking tracks for our community to use. Investment in health prevention is virtually non-existent. Where is the value for money? We expect to see measurably better outcomes during your tenure.

Planning Decisions – Local and State Government collusion in planning decisions will not be tolerated. SunRRA trusts that corrupt planning practices will be a thing of the past and not need to be exposed to public scrutiny.

In your deliberations on the abortive plan to demolish our Civic Centre, bring us into debt by building a new one, and making the land available for high density housing experiments, think about the feedback the Brimbank community gave to Capire and Nexus consultants. Note the calls for priority Council spending on gaps in community infrastructure before any spend on a new Council office block. .

SunRRA and many other community groups seek to have a Community Reference Group established to guide your decisions by clearly identifying the priority needs of the community..

For Brimbank residents, missing out due to Local and State Government collusion has manifested as the worst health status, the highest rate of diabetes, higher than average unemployment, poor access to open space, sub-par public transport, the highest gaming machine losses in the state and rising street violence due to under-resourcing of police.

The tasks ahead are now thankfully clear: Administrators are here to right the wrongs of the last 15 years, invest in our parks and gardens; playgrounds; create environments for healthier living; and improve our sporting facilities and run down community buildings. More importantly, we expect this will be delivered fairly and equitably for all in our community.

We look forward to a much strengthened Community and Council Partnership developing and will watch with interest how it is nurtured and grown.

SunRRA looks forward to meeting with you soon to hear your thoughts on these matters..

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