Council calls for feuding Meander groups to work together on school plan

Sharon Webb

MEANDER COMMUNITY groups polarised on the issue of future use of the former school property will need ‘to get over themselves’, Mayor Wayne Johnston said.

Following Meander Valley Council’s December decision in a closed session to terminate the property’s lease to drug rehabilitation group Teen Challenge, Cllr Johnston said it was time to focus on alternative possibilities for the site.

‘The council will establish a community evaluation committee, comprising a representative from local community organisations,’ he said.

‘This committee will help with the development of a shortlist of proposals for broader community feedback before the council decides on a preferred option.’

According to the mayor, general manager John Jordan will chair the committee. It is not known how community representatives will be chosen and the process has not yet started.

But the council’s decision to hand over the former Meander School property to Teen Challenge four years ago has caused significant rifts in the community and it is uncertain whether Meander community organisations will be able to work together effectively.

The Meander Progress Association supported Teen Challenge’s use of the property; at one stage many Meander front gardens displayed posters of support. An element of their support was Teen Challenge’s religious base.

In the face of the Meander Valley Council’s allocation of the property to Teen Challenge for a peppercorn rent, residents who disagreed with the move established MARRA, the Meander Residents and Ratepayers Association.

MARRA and the council faced off on six occasions in Tasmania’s planning tribunal and the Supreme Court with both groups spending big on legal representation.

MARRA won, with a Supreme Court decision in June last year that the site was not suitable for Teen Challenge’s use on bushfire protection grounds.

In August, Teen Challenge signalled it no longer wanted to use the property.

At that time Cllr Johnston, who lives in Meander, said he was disappointed the proposal had ‘polarised’ the community, referring to MARRA as a ‘small group’ that had ‘pursued a war of attrition’.

Now Cllr Johnston has said, ‘The groups will have to get over themselves. We all live in the one community.

‘We are looking for organisations who are open and inclusive to represent the views of Meander residents.

‘It is hoped this new engagement process will be respected by all and results in a proposal to secure the long term viability of the site.’

Indications of potential trouble ahead came from both MARRA and the Meander Progress Association.

MARRA president Bodhi McSweeney said, ‘An independent mediator needs to be involved because of the level of conflict in Meander on the issue.

‘MARRA looks forward to being included in a process that involves the whole community.’

When contacted by the Gazette, Meander Progress Association president Andrea Berne said, ‘We have no comment at the moment.’