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Dear Council,

We are a young family (in our 40s) and we own and have renovated an original Dalkeith house on a corner block in Joyce St, Dalkeith.

We have read through the Dalkeith Concept Draft Built Form Designs Guidelines of December 2007.

We are absolutely disgusted with the actions of Council leading up to this document being produced and since (to date).

You must know full well that you have not

- adequately publicised it to the community
- consulted properly with the community to obtain its input
- acted in the interests of your electors, ratepayers and residents.

You need to be reminded of your duties as councillors and of section 2.10 of the Local Govt Act.

We have many friends in the area and they are all saying the same thing. Hopefully you are receiving letters from them as well.

We totally oppose your proposals insofar as they provide for
-greater than 2 storey high rise development whether commercial or residential anywhere in Dalkeith
-short term accommodation in the area
- small apartments/flats ( for other than the elderly)
-the possibility of motel/hotel/tavern development
-carving up of large blocks into small lots for redevelopment.

We have worked very hard to be able to afford to buy property in Dalkeith. Your Council made us jump through difficult hoops to reach the end of the building of our dream home. We had to significantly alter our plans a number of times to adhere to your requirements. We chose to keep the original Dalkeith character of our home and not to demolish it and build something modern on our property. This added to our building costs. We were proud to be building something good for the area and to be holding on to Dalkeith tradition. What you are proposing is a movement in Dalkeith which would see the end of Dalkeith. You are inviting Joondanna/Yokine/Dianella type development.

We and our friends would love to see a more vibrant central hub along Waratah Ave with restaurants and so forth for the community to use. There is enough retail in the surrounding areas for the Dalkeith community to go to (eg, Claremont). You can achieve this through careful and proper consultation with the community and controlled and sensible redevelopment.

Your Concept Plan has so many holes in it. It has been prepared with such little thought and consideration for the community. We are so disappointed and angry with your lack of regard for us as a community.

We have also read Cr M Negus’ written submissions for redevelopment in Dalkeith. They are more drastic and far reaching than your proposal. I am disgusted that Cr Negus is using his position as councillor to lobby for something that he knows his electors, ratepayers and residents don’t want. It is not enough that he declares his self-interest in wanting his father’s service station site to be redeveloped or his property at 10 Philip Rd. Not only should he not be allowed to vote on the issue when Council votes but he should resign and let someone with civic mindedness take his seat. There are enough people willing to nominate in this current climate. We need a strong Mayor at the moment to pull her councllors into line and remind them of their duties.

We want answers from you to the following questions:

why are you placing a time restriction on public submissions to 15 February 2008 when you know that the community has not yet been properly informed about the Dalkeith Concept Plan and its ramifications?
are you prepared to extend the deadline for public submissions to a date later than 15 February 2008 and if so, to what date?
what do you intend doing from hereon about properly informing and consulting the community on the issue? The onus is on you as a council to do something positive in this regard;
what evidence do you have that the utilities and other services (eg, parking, traffic) in Dalkeith will be able to support higher density development without the need for major upgrade?
what do you intend doing about Cr Negus’ obvious bias towards large scale redevelopment and his ability to lobby to achieve his objective through his position on council?

We require an urgent response to the above given the time limit of 15 February which you have placed on the community.

Yours sincerely, the Meloni/Lovi family.