Residents and Landowners in the Southern Rural areas of Gawler have voted overwhelmingly to ask the State Government to take over from the Gawler Council, the process of reviewing the future character of their area.
In a postal survey undertaken by local Member of Parliament, Mr Tony Piccolo, 115 local residents or landowners voted, with 108 voting to ask the Minister for Planning to initiate the review process, rather than the Gawler Council.
The survey results were reaffirmed at a community meeting held last week, where the motion to accept and endorse the survey results was carried unanimously by the 51 residents attending.
Mr Piccolo arranged the community meeting to report back to residents on what action the Council had taken since it released the Land Capability Assessment report, and what action residents could take to achieve their aspirations.
Mr Piccolo said residents and landowners in the area are very unhappy with council and, in particular, their failure to listen to their concerns and aspirations.
“Sadly, residents and landowners in the area just don’t trust this council,” said Mr Piccolo.
Mr Piccolo said that the residents also voted overwhelmingly (49 for, 2 abstaining) for the Minister for Planning to reject any attempts by the council to initiate their own review of the locality.
“While the residents would welcome council working alongside them and the State Government, they believe the Council is working against them, so don’t want them involved in the process.”
“The decisions made by residents and landowners at the meeting last week reflects a growing lack of confidence in the current council being able to represent their views.”
“Residents in the area believe that despite the hundreds of submissions made by them over recent times, Council is taking its own course of action regardless of the views expressed by the community in that locality.”
“Quite frankly, the residents are quite angry at how the Council has portrayed residents in the area and feel like they are being spoken down to, like little children.”
“Council has spectacularly failed in their consultation process with residents in the area.”
At the meeting, residents agreed to invite experts in the field to provide them with advice so that they can develop a shared vision, principles, and concepts for the development of a future character for the area.
Mr Piccolo said he will be facilitating a workshop shortly for residents to receive advice and deliberate over the future character of the area.
“In the absence of fair and reasonable council leadership on this matter, residents are being proactive and developing their proposals which will then be forwarded to the State Government for its consideration.”