PADD and City of Nedlands Correspondance

P Lovi - 9 July, 2008

Subject: UPDATE TO PADD SUPPORTERS - 9 JULY 2008

Dear PADD supporters,

Thank you so much to those of you who were able to make it to the Council meeting last night. There were about 70 of us in the public gallery and I have no doubt that our presence sent an important message to the Council.

As you witnessed, the Council meeting was not able to start as there was no quorum (ie, there were not 7 councillors present out of the 13 in total). Therefore, Cr Mazzucchelli's Motion re Dalkeith will now be dealt with at the Council meeting of 22 July.

Dalkeith will definitely be on the agenda for the meeting of 22 July because there is not only Cr Mazzucchelli's Motion to be dealt with but also a new Motion from Cr Hipkins which I understand he lodged with the CEO yesterday. I have not seen it yet but will circulate it as soon as I have it. I understand that the Motion is aimed at tying together all the recommendations of the Steering Committee to date in an effort to present a final report to the Council so that the planners can get on with preparing a new concept plan for the commercial areas of Dalkeith without any further delay.

One good thing about what transpired last night is that the Dalkeith issue can now be dealt with in the presence of a full Council on 22 July. I understand that all the councillors will be back from leave by then.

I am hoping that this will be the last time (for a while at least) that we have to call on you to ask you to attend a Council meeting. Those of you that can attend, please do so on Tuesday, 22 July 2008 at 7.00pm.

I am sure that our two active Dalkeith ward Councillors (Cr Hipkins and Cr Argyle) would really appreciate your support and presence. Unfortunately, I will be interstate on the 22nd and will not be able to attend.

This process has been difficult and long winded but I am confident that with a bit of cooperation and good will amongst the Councillors the right Motion will be passed on the 22nd and the planners can get on with preparing the new concept plan for the commercial areas of Dalkeith.

For those of you that have received emails from Cr Tan telling you that I have been misrepresenting the intention of Cr Mazzucchelli's Motion in my writings to you, I have attached below my email to Cr Tan of 7 July.

The thing which these particular councillors don't seem to want to understand is that when Motions like this appear in a shroud of secrecy with no forewarning to the Dalkeith ward Councillors (either by way of notice at the last meeting or via a simple phone call) and when they are omitted from any published agenda, what are we meant to think? If Cr Mazzucchelli had wished to be open and upfront about her Motion she would not have shrouded it in secrecy and taken the Dalkeith ward Councillors and the public by surprise with it.

Warm regards,
Paola Lovi
Chairperson
PADD