Sense of Place

Oftentimes the community are told by the shire and the councillors that this shire is focused on developing and maintaining a "sense of place". The entire planning strategy for Karridale was founded on such a notion. The professional planning staff believed that the resident community had no "sense of place"
and needed at least an additional 1,000 people to move in around the crossroads before a Karridale identity would be created.
Six expensive years on and the Karridale strategy has been imposed onto a community that were not allowed any consultation, were given no opportunity to even see the strategy before it was sent away for endorsement by the WAPC. All along the community did their best, they were lied to, denied access to information, and basically ignored.
This story hasn't ended. When bad things happen we must challenge them.
Karridale is not alone in having a battle with the AMRShire, not just with council decisions but with the shire administration too. Mr Evershed wrote himself an appraisal to justify his pay increase based on how he has given leadership to a "stable" council, but unfortunately news of this was presented to the community the same week that one councillor suddenly bolted from the stable council and another went public regarding the difficulties of obtaining information.
It's only natural that many of the issues that concern us are very local, but they may also be generic. I thought that the lack of information and failure to follow planning officer's recommendations was unique to the planning for Karridale. But this week I read that planning affecting Gnarabup might have a similar issue. Why would this be? Would the same town planning consultants be involved? Or the same property developer?
I continue to have difficulties in obtaining information relating to current planning matters that are due before council on 14th August, how can anyone make informed comments without the information? Multiple requests have been ignored. Now I feel this is not just an affront to Karridale residents as requests fro Cr Colyer's expenses have also been ignored. Why would the publication of Cr Colyer's expenses require multiple requests? Why would this be anything other than a simple statement that needs to be examined in order to make an informed judgement regarding the cost/benefit of the President's travel arrangements?
This very public virtual space has been set up to offer a platform for anyone across the shire to share their experiences. This is a place that has no need to be internationally famous, nor iconic, nor slick and glossy at all. It is a place for anyone to share what works well and what doesn't in their part of the shire. Democracy is failing in Augusta-Margaret River Shire.