Bungendore Residents Group Community action for Bungendore Village

You’ll be aware that the move to recind the motion relating to the tip closure and the Bungendore Transfer Station was successful but I believe the conflicts of iInterest issues behind it all, deserve continued examination. Here’s the full text of my presentation to council.

“In a recent letter to the Mirror I asked if I was wrong in my interpretation of the Bungendore Tip debate in saying the councillors had “no concern that the decision would greatly advantage one individual and greatly disadvantage another; no concern that they were overthrowing a key plank of their waste management strategy; no concern that the alternate site proposed would have a greater social and environmental impact; no concern that any change would involve considerable extra cost; no concern that the investigation will take up a huge amount of staff time; and no concern that some councillors had failed to declare a conflict of interest”.

I am pleased that the three councillors who have sponsored this rescission motion, at least, have understood that there is a great deal at stake here and I’m hoping that a majority of the councillors will agree to the rescission.

The rescission will not, however, address what to me are the two most worrying aspects of this affair. The first is the matter of meeting procedure; that a motion so clearly unrelated to the issue before the Council was able to be introduced and voted on without any regard for the interests of the Council, the ratepayers, or other landholders.

The second is that some councillors, with a very clear conflict of interest, did not absent themselves but remained in the room, participated in the debate and voted. All of the Councillors would have known that Elmslea Developments had lodged objections to the tip development and many would have known that Elmslea Developments were seeking a rezoning of land adjacent to the tip. Yet no councillor, nor the General Manager, felt a need to ask if any councillor had an interest to declare. I hope that the Council will take the two unaddressed issues on board and that in future the General Manager, the Mayor and the Councillors will be more vigilant about the ‘safety’ of the motions put to the Council and ensure that conflicts of interest are declared.

I would remind the General Manager and the Councillors that where they are aware of matters such as conflicts of interest, be they their own or other councillors’, they have an obligation under the Local Government Act to inform the Council.”

John Taylor, President BRG