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Local Council elections September 2012
To all MTB'ers not happy with your local council's MTB stance let the elected councilor's know!-with council elections in Sept. here we have a chance to really get what we are deserved.Incumbent & hopeful candidates need to hear what we want-so everyone get talking or writing & lets have them give us what is needed.
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Can't agree more.
Quite a few are leaving, (some of which are ones I have issues with on other issues).
I think talking to prospective candidates is going to be really important!
Have to keep eyes out for who they are.
Yep, dead right Robbie-o, these new ones might shall we say be a blank canvas, some of the worn in ones we have up here are on the nose!
Well seven look like they are leaving and think the majority who are staying on are the ones who we have managed to bring over to the mtb cause. So that is good.
Whilst support from the Councillors is definitely beneficial, it is the support of the sport and recreation planners that is essential to further MTB areas and support in each LGA. I'm unsure about Lake Macquarie's smaller sister, Newcastle, but the Lake Mac planners are seeking to change their standard Plan of Management approach to permit sustainable mtb activities on their land and investigating alternatively funding models for their maitenance.
too right Mark, blue mountains council is a different kettle of fish alltogether, it took the whole political process and rider patience, and a great deal of persisitance from yourself ,Al, kingy,chuck and others to really get it over the line!..but the councillors were the most important, unfortunately, but now fortunately, greenhill seemed to be the key!
Spoke to Mark Greenhill (Blue Mountains Councilor) on the weekend. He said he is running in September but a lot are leaving. I also thanked Mark for his efforts last month.
I'm off tonight to meet the Warringah Candidates, Riveting I know!!!
Are there any in particular we (the local MTB fraternity) need to be cautious off?
Christina Kirsch (Greens)
Conny Harris (Greens)
Don’t know, yet, about “Save our Suburbs” what they actually stand for!!!!
Any input appreciated…….
Greg
But FWIW the Save Our Suburbs group are a state level political party primarily concerned with "overdevelopment" and opposed in a general sense to developers.
I don't know for sure but I doubt that they would care as a party about bicycles or MTB at all.
My admittedly shaky recollection is that SOS provides a "registered political party" to individuals and groups at a local level - something which is required in State and Federal elections and which was made quite difficult for smaller groups by certain legislation changes a few years ago.
UPDATE: here is the Local Government Elections website where you can find your Council's page then click through to 2012 election details, thence to candidate profiles.
The current Ku-ring-gai Draft Bicycle Plan contains pretty much nothing about mtb's....
http://www.kmc.nsw.gov.au/www/html/5054-ku-ring-...
They're resting on their laurels after Golden Jubliee, but it ain't much of a start...
Thanks Guys, I'll listern contently and if anything of concern is raised I'll share it.
Edit:
The "Friends of Narrabeen Lagoon" invited present and prospective council candidates to, in turn, answer 14 question relating to the Lagoon, tonight at the Narrabeen Tram shed.
Apart from the many question variations along the vein of "what would you do to protect the Lagoon, water quality, Fauna, Flora, future development, and so on it was the following two points that stirred my interest.
1) There is the quest to have the Lagoon and Catchment area turned into a state park. This concerns me, as they still consider mountain bikes as part of the threat (grouped together with 4WD & motor bikes) and needs to be controlled.......
www.narrabeenlagoon.org.au/Threats/threats.htm
2) Acquisition of sensitive land was also raised. Connie Harris (a present Greens Councillor, that just so happens to live in one of the houses on Morgan Rd that we park in front of for our rides in Oxford Falls), wants a levy put on residents, or get Gov grants to fund buying land of high sensitivity. She specifically made note of the “Sisters of Good Samaritan” land which I think may be the area of Red Hill atop of Cromer.
www.narrabeenlagoon.org.au/Newsletters/news23.pdf
My two cents worth is I support the efforts of most of all the people that show interest in the Lagoon and Catchment area but my personal take is the area can and should be used and enjoyed, not just looked at from a far.
I feel the need to point out that IMHO the existing Greens councillors on the northern beaches appear to be congenitally unable to distinguish between bicycles and motorcycles when hearing "mountain bike" and as a consequence they reflexively and steadfastly oppose anything which could lead to mountain bikes in the bush.
Contrary to The Greens written policy, all of the existing Greens councillors have shown repeatedly that they will oppose mountain bikes.
FWIW I voted Green at the last federal elections - doesn't mean I think they can be trusted locally from a mountain bike perspective.
re: Warringah, it's been awhile since I had interaction with them, but Conny Harris and Christina Kirsch seemed to be reasonably well-disposed to mountain bikers, as they see us as allies against development. They have moved past their default position being anti-mtb, to judging things on their merits.
Most of the rest of the incumbents are supportive, for a variety of reasons that are mostly pragmatic. We've gone from being the "ratbag element" to being complained about by some constituents due to our "political influence" LOL!
I'd expect this to continue so long as we continue to be reasonably well-behaved and the evidence supports councillors' support of us.
So play nicely, be respectful, but continue pushing the sustainable and responsible fair access message.
A good sound bite to use is that walkers and mountain bikers are similar percentages of the population, but mountain bikers have only 1% of singletrack access despite having similar environmental footprint.
Hi guys,
I live in Hazelbrook and am going to vote early tomorrow for the council elections. Just wondering if you guys have any advice in regards to candidates who are pro-active towards the mountain bike community/trail advocy etc. Couple of people I've talked to had mentioned Brendon Luchetti as a mountain bike friendly candidate, just wondering what people thought as i'm not that up to speed on different councillors agenda's in regards to the mtb world. Cheers
In addition to Hawkeyes comments the current Mayor, Michael Regan has been massively supportive for Manly Dam, Red Hill and Oxy and also DJ. So has Virginia.
Craig Whitting for Manly Council has also been batting for us.
I was pleased to see Micheal Begg put in as a councillor, Micheal and I are mountain bike racing buddies from the early 90's so I would anticipate a good hearing from him regarding any future developments on the mountain bike front.
He is very well regarded in the community and will certainly bring a balanced perspective to any dialog we have with council.