Manly Dam closure – email responses from council

Dear Phil,

Thank you for taking the time to write to council on this important issue.

I would just like to clarify that the decision to close the track was NOT made by the elected council but by council staff. We as councillors have not been allowed to have any say and, quite the opposite, myself and Virginia wanted to prevent the closure and leave the track accessible based on the 12 year precedent.

Virginia and myself have put forward to reinstate the volunteers involved in track work under close supervision. Staff then, surprise, suddenly came back telling us that they had ignored the Plan of Management for 12 years and that now they decided to close the track. I am opposed to the closure.

Virginia and myself are trying to revert this asap, but we are handicapped because Cr Falinski put forward a motion to reduce meetings to monthly meetings, which was unfortunately supported by the majority of councillors (see meeting minutes online at Warringah council's webpage for details on votes). So we have fewer opportunities where we can attempt to change decisions made by council staff.

Regards,

Christina
0411 699 266

I got the same one..

On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 1:42 PM, wrote:

Please be assured this is not a decision I have made!

It is one of the Mayor and Council Staff. Several Councillors have expressed concern as to how this decision can be made and a Media Release issued stating it's a Council decision when the Council has not voted on it!

Regards

Vincent De Luca OAM

Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

Thank you: Cllr Virginia Laugesen, Cllr Christina Kirsch & Cllr Vincent De Luca OAM, for your support and replies:

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[email protected]
Please be assured this is not a decision I have made!

It is one of the Mayor and Council Staff. Several Councillors have expressed concern as to how this decision can be made and a Media Release issued stating it's a Council decision when the Council has not voted on it!

Regards

Vincent De Luca OAM
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Dear Timbo,

Thank you for taking the time to write to council on this important issue.

I would just like to clarify that the decision to close the track was NOT made by the elected council but by council staff. We as councillors have not been allowed to have any say and, quite the opposite, myself and Virginia wanted to prevent the closure and leave the track accessible based on the 12 year precedent.

Virginia and myself have put forward to reinstate the volunteers involved in track work under close supervision. Staff then, surprise, suddenly came back telling us that they had ignored the Plan of Management for 12 years and that now they decided to close the track. I am opposed to the closure.

Virginia and myself are trying to revert this asap, but we are handicapped because Cr Falinski put forward a motion to reduce meetings to monthly meetings, which was unfortunately supported by the majority of councillors (see meeting minutes online at Warringah council's webpage for details on votes). So we have fewer opportunities where we can attempt to change decisions made by council staff.

Regards,

Christina
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Dear Timbo,

Thanks for your email. I fully understand your outrage and concern. I am the councillor who brought a Notice of Motion to council to reinstate mountain bike volunteer days, which were abandoned 1-2 years ago.

See item 12.7 of: http://www.warringah.nsw.gov.au/council_then/doc...

My NoM was deferred to a briefing. During its preparation, council staff discovered the technicality in the 1998 Plan of Management – that the 1.2km section of track near Wakehurst Pwy (and now other sections) have never had permission for bikes. Without consultation, the briefing’s topic changed direction from: how can we reinstate volunteers? to: is mountain biking ‘legal’ at Manly Dam?

At the 9 February 2010 ordinary meeting, my original NoM was to be resubmitted. I spent the time since the briefing of the week before preparing an amendment (about volunteering) that I believed would be a compromise to suit bikers, environmentalists and council staff. Not perfect for any one party, but better than nothing, under the circumstances. The expectation was that four options for the future of bikes at the dam would come to us for voting, at the 23/2 meeting – separate to my NoM.

As you may have read in Thursday’s Manly Daily (see: http://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/news/story/...), that meeting was a disastrous waste of time, with what I can only describe as filibustering preventing the mountain bike item from being raised before our cut-off time of 10pm. An extraordinary meeting has been called for 23 February* to cover all items left unresolved, which was about half of the night’s agenda.

The decision to close the circuit track from 12 February, was emailed to councillors late that day at the same time it went to the media and online. Councillors did NOT vote on the track’s closure, nor were we given the chance to do so. This seems to be a turnaround on the briefing’s advice. It was my understanding no changes to the tracks would be made until we were presented with a report of four options (originally 23/2 but now 23/3, see below).

Because it was my NoM, raised with good intentions to preserve and improve the volunteer work structure, and because it has so alarmingly backfired, I will prepare a statement for the media to set the record straight, along the same lines as this email.

I apologise that this matter has been taken out of hand and out of context, resulting in this highly unexpected and upsetting outcome for local mountain bike riders.

Regards,
Virginia Laugesen
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I HAVE TO SAY ITS ASTONISHING THAT THE MAJOR AND A FEW OF HIS STAFF HAVE CHOSEN TO MAKE THEIR DECISION IN SPITE OF COUNCILLORS OBJECTIONS. RECRUITING THE MANY OF US WILLING TO VOLUNTEER TIME TO ESTABLISHING 2 PATHS, IF NECESSARY, TO OVERCOME THE SAFETY ISSUE SEEMS TO BE THE LOGICAL SOLUTION AND ONE THAT WOULD INCUR LITTLE COST. HOWEVER, I SENSE THIS IS NOT THE REAL ISSUE. IT FEELS LIKE SOMEONE CLOSE TO THE MAJOR SIMPLY WANTS BIKERS OFF THE DAM TRAILS. THAT, MICHAEL REGAN, IS A DECISION THAT COULD END YOUR BLING WEARING CAREER. SHOULD HAVE GIVEN THE COMMUNITY GREATER CONSIDERATION. THE PROTEST OVER THIS WILL BE SIGNIFICANT, IT WILL EMBARRASS YOU AND YOUR STAFF GREATLY. GOOD LUCK BRUSHING YOURSELF OFF AFTER THE BATTLE IS LOST AND WE'RE FREE TO RIDE OUR LAPS AGAIN...

I received the same or similar responses to those above from the following people:
Michelle Ray, Vincent De Luca, Christina Kirsch, Virginia Laugesen

I have responded thanking them and encouraging them to continue to exert their influence to get the matter sorted out quickly.

Cheers
Sly

every little thing might help ...

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=302341677101

I just received this reply from Councillor De Luca.

Please be assured this is not a decision I have made! It is one of the Mayor, Michael Regan and Council Staff.

Several Councillors have expressed concern as to how this decision can be made and a Media Release issued stating it's a Council decision when the Council has not voted on it!

Council will vote on this important issue at the Council meeting on Tuesday week.

As always, my vote will be in accordance with what the community wants.

Regards

Vincent De Luca OAM
Warringah Councillor for 'A' Ward

Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

but posted it here http://nobmob.com/node/13024

Dear Mark,

Thanks for your email, which is now one of 70+ received since Friday.

I support mountain bike riders and the reopening of the Manly Dam track. It was staff’s mistake that closed it, without consultation and without the mayor’s intervention. I sent the statement below to the media last night as a backgrounder to help clear up the chain of events that led to this ambushing of cyclists.

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15 February 2010

Media statement:
Cr Virginia Laugesen

Council staff’s closure of the Manly Dam mountain bike circuit track

This is to make clear the connection between the Manly Dam circuit mountain bike track closure on 12 February and my Notice of Motion 12.7 of 13 October 2009. See: http://www.warringah.nsw.gov.au/council_then/doc... .
My intention with the Notice of Motion was to help mountain bike riders resume supplying volunteer labour to Warringah Council to repair and maintain bush mountain bike tracks. Regular volunteer maintenance days, carried out under council ranger supervision, ceased about two years ago when a particular ranger left the job.
My NoM was deferred to a briefing. During its preparation, council staff discovered a “technicality” in the 1998 Plan of Management that rules out use of the 1.2km section of track near Wakehurst Pwy (and two other sections of track) by cyclists.

Without consultation, the briefing’s topic changed direction from: how can we reinstate the volunteers? to: is mountain biking ‘legal’ at Manly Dam?
Next was to come a staff report of four options, including, I thought, councillors’ decision on a review of the POM and the next actions for the mountain bike circuit track. A consultant’s report commissioned in February 2008 now distributed to councillors was to provide input to the choice of options.
At the 9 February 2010 ordinary meeting, my original NoM was resubmitted. I spent the time since the briefing of the week before preparing an amendment (about volunteering) that I believed would be a compromise to suit bikers, environmentalists and council staff and would fit with any future POM review.

On the Sunday before the council meeting, I walked the now-closed section of 1.2km with fellow councillors Conny Harris and Christina Kirsch. It was clear that asking cyclists to patch up the top of the circuit track by riding on Wakehurst Parkway was out of the question. It was too dangerous to even walk along the side of that road and there’s no space to build a cycle way without destroying bushland. There was no signal then, that the track was about to be closed without discussion.
Thanks to the now-infamous ‘torture chamber’ meeting of 9 February, we didn’t reach my volunteer reinstatement item that night and it was delayed again, to the 23 February extraordinary meeting.
Late on Friday 12 February, councillors received a media release by email, announcing the immediate closure of the mountain bike circuit in three places. The elected council did not vote for this closure.
Mountain bike riders were also alerted through their networks and, rightly, went nuts. Councillors have been bombarded with emails all weekend. The objections make sound arguments about the 12-year precedent of permission to ride the track, the lack of recorded pedestrian collisions and the scarcity of similar high-standard tracks in Sydney, among other strong points against the decision.
My position is:
- the circuit track should be reopened immediately;
- the Plan of Management should be amended to include legal use of the circuit track with appropriate considerations, in the shortest possible time;
- any resulting two-way (non-circular) track alternative will cause destructive erosion;
- cyclists should be banned from all diagonal and internal bushwalking tracks;
- bushwalkers should be deterred from the circuit mountain bike track with appropriate warnings;
- there should be no new bush tracks built and no widening of existing tracks;
- volunteer maintenance and repair days should be reinstated, with additional controls.

Note: the result of cutting the top off the circuit track creates a “U”-shaped track, causing bikers to ride in both directions, increasing the risk of collision and erosion, as they share the narrow track that currently caters adequately to one-way traffic.

If not resolved before the next council meeting, I will move an urgency motion to this effect on 23 February.

I raised the matter of returning volunteer labour with the best intentions, as an environmental benefit, a cost saving to council and a community networking opportunity for like-minded, active people. The upsetting and unexpected outcome for Sydney's Mountain bike community could not have been predicted from this proposal and I am disappointed by the action taken by council staff.

Regards,

Virginia Laugesen
Councillor for C Ward
9400 3299
0437 499 959

Please note, it's far from my usual practice to send form responses. But imy detailed but "standard" reply covered the background from my perspective and stated my position without fence-sitting or hiding behind the administration or lawyers. I guess I have no future in politics.
Nor did I try to hide that it was my Notice of Motion or rather, its deferral to staff scrutiny (against my wishes) that was used to hijack the whole mountain bike "problem" and create this mess. Better to come out with the facts early than try to hide what might be used against me later - whether by riders or "colleagues".
A form response was the only way to quickly express my genuine concern to all 222 (so far) emailers. I personalised any that needed answers beyond my set response. I followed up repeat emailers' questions and received a few compliments, thank you all.
Further, I have also engaged extensively with members of the Manly Dam bush regeneration community (and I'm also a MD regen volunteer) because my association with some of those people goes back 20 years or so. Their input is crucial to me, and by backing cyclists, you can imagine the risk I'm taking in upsetting past supporters.
No new tracks:
Any solution from me on volunteers or the circuit track will mean a compromise for cyclists and environmentalists, make no mistake. There's a comment somewhere on the forum, criticising my "no extra tracks or track widening" stance - I make no apologies for that. Remember - I have one vote from 10 on council. If you want extra tracks, lobby the other councillors. At least I make my true position clear early and don't sidestep. Some people find that refreshing.

Here is an email response, albeit simply an acknowledgement, that I received today from Tony Abbott's office...

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Dear Mr Linstid

This is to acknowledge your email to Tony Abbott.

Thank you for taking the time to write. Your correspondence is receiving attention.

Yours sincerely,

Maggie Smith, Electorate Officer
Leader of the Opposition, Hon Tony Abbott MP
T 02 9977 6411 | F 02 9977 8715
2/17 Sydney Road| Manly | 2095 |