By Sharon Webb

TEEN CHALLENGE says it has

backed out of its plan to run a drug rehabilitation facility in the former Meander Primary School. It’s believed they want three months notice to quit the site.

Teen Challenge did not instigate the backout. Rather, the council revoked its planning permit, a fact acknowledged by Teen Challenge director Tanya Cavanagh.

After secret discussions with Teen Challenge representatives in a July workshop, councillors made the decision in a closed session of council last month. Mayor Wayne Johnston said the council had backed out ‘because we were not going forward to support Teen Challenge at the planning tribunal’.

When asked why councillors had made this decision, Cllr Johnston said he wasn’t obliged to give a reason.

It’s likely that councillors became aware of the possible political fallout of continuing to fund the long-running legal battle with the Meander Ratepayers and Residents’ Association (MARRA).

General manager John Jordan has admitted the council has spent $60,000 on legal costs.

pent $60,000 on legal costs. But with MARRA’s bills at around $165,000, ratepayers may be paying even more as MARRA applies for legal costs against the council.

Cllr Johnston said he was disappointed the Teen Challenge proposal had ‘polarised’ the community, adding that a ‘small group’ had ‘pursued a war of attrition’, fighting the council’s decision in Tasmania’s planning tribunal and in the Supreme Court.

He implied that MARRA’s 85 financial members were a small unrepresentative bunch in a town of 326 people.

In a council media release, the mayor, who lives in Meander, said, ‘While many in the community were supportive of the proposal, it was opposed by a small group of residents organised as The Meander Area Residents and Ratepayers Association.’

But a northern lawyer said council had taken a typical SLAP approach (Strategic Litigation Against Public Interest) where a large organisation with huge financial resources continually takes legal action to wear down a smaller group with lower financial resources.

In this case the strategy backfired because MARRA is funded upfront by Meander business Timber World, with MARRA running fundraisers to repay them.

MARRA president Bodhi McSweeney said that Teen Challenge’s decision to pull out was great news for Meander.

‘We look forward to the council instigating a process ensuring the school site is used for the benefit of our local community, open to the enjoyment of all and growth of the local area,’ she said.

‘We just wish so much time and effort wasn’t needed to have our community’s wishes recognised. We spent four and a half long years campaigning and fundraising to get to this point.

‘Everyone agrees rehabilitation services are desperately needed for women and children. But they need to be well-regulated, medically-based programs, and Teen Challenge is not such a program.

‘Nor was the main street in the middle of a small town ever the right place for a rehab facility, no matter who runs it.