Council meeting on fire over prison public meeting
Sharon Webb
Anti-prison campaigners are concerned Meander Valley councillors will gag themselves in an August 11 public meeting on the Northern Regional Prison planned for Birralee.
WRAP spokesperson Linda Poulton said, ‘If councillors are going to sit with tape over their mouths it will be a difficult meeting for everyone’.
Emotions are running high among Westbury residents and Meander Valley councillors in the run-up to the meeting.
Cllr Andrew Sherriff foreshadowed that he would not stand for the council in next year’s elections, the mayor Wayne Johnston criticised a Westbury resident on ABC Radio and a council staff member was witnessed shouting at a would-be attendee at July’s council meeting.
In a 1.30am email to Ms Poulton, volunteer fireman Cllr Sherriff wrote, ‘I believe I can do this far better without being on council, so lucky for you when my term is up the only time you and me will meet is if your house catches fire or you find yourself trapped in your car in the unfortunate event of an accident!’
On the public meeting, Cllr Sherriff wrote, ‘I’m all for the community being informed with what is going on with this project but we as a council know as much about it now as you do! Not bloody much!’
In the July council meeting, councillors discussed details of the public meeting the council is obliged to run following WRAP collecting a petition of 1026 signatures, 809 of which were valid according to council general manager John Jordan.
Westbury residents not allowed into the July council meeting for COVID reasons held placards saying, ‘Meander Valley Council have sold their souls to Minister Archer’.
Cllr Johnston struggled to control question time. Attending the council meeting remotely after having a COVID test, he couldn’t see the public gallery properly.
People not allowed into the meeting shouted at general manager John Jordan for keeping the meeting room doors closed, because they could not hear the meeting. The decision was reversed quickly when the crowd agreed to be quiet.
WRAP members were conerned that the July agenda was worded to limit the scope of the August public meeting to discussing the current prison site only.
Cllrs Tanya King and Deb White moved an amendment that the public meeting discuss ‘the proposal to build a prison in the Meander Valley municipality’.
Cllr Rodney Synfield said it was a no-brainer to have as broad a discussion as possible. Cllr Michael Kelly said he didn’t know what to think about it.
Mr Jordan advised that depending on the venue, some might miss out. ‘Attendee numbers will be limited by social distancing,’ he said. ‘If we have a venue for 200 and 400 turn up, not everyone will get in.’
Cllr Temple maintained, ‘We need to take the largest venue available. If we have more people than planned for they should see it on a screen outside.’
On the aims of the public meeting, Cllr White suggested getting a written statement from all groups concerned.
The mayor met prison neighbours from the CROWPS group in July but told ABC Radio that WRAP members declined a meeting.
The lack of trust between the two groups was apparent when Cllr Johnston said WRAP would only meet if it could audio-tape the meeting, ‘which I’m not prepared to do because we don’t have parliamentary privilege. I’m not a lawyer so I don’t want to get into the situation where something’s recorded and can be used against me later.’
