Hello and welcome to the blog and I promise that I'll round out the Rail Lands Retail Agenda first and then some other stuff...
RLRA: is my name for all of the machinations and deceits perpetrated by Mt Gambier City Council as they continue to pursue a massive Retail/Commercial development on the Old Rail Lands site in the centre of Mt Gambier...Council/the state government re-zoned the site for this in 2009 but I've never seen that mentioned anywhere. I have covered the RLRA repeatedly and at length in previous posts, but I confess that I find myself unable to fully explain what is really happening with the Easement issue...it just doesn't make sense.
All of the current 'works' on the ORL, including moving the Rail Easement, are entirely unnecessary and solely about clearing the footprint for that development. However, I cannot understand how Council got Federal and/or state Rail Authority approvals to put 2 tight bends in the Easement, 2 major derailing hazards, right in the middle of town...any train traveling through there, particularly any freight train, would have to do so at a crawl whilst still constantly screeching, clanking, etc, and the least little mishap and there'll be a derailment...it's atrocious planning that simply doesn't make sense.
I note that the multiple plans that Council produced in 2005, 2006, 2009, and again in 2010, all show a massive expansion of the Lakes Plaza that by necessity pushes the Rail Easement to the site's Southern Boundary...but then in November 2011 Council suddenly produced and launched, with great fanfare, the $10million Parklands Concept Plan that is absolutely identical to all of the previous plans except with some vague but very large 'structure' right where Council had previously, repeatedly identified a Retail/Commercial development.
Again, if you put Rail Services back to where Council has moved the Easement, it will cut the site into small, unconnected and largely unusable sections...if the Retail development goes ahead, even without Rail running through there, the rest will have to go under carpark...this is the future Council has planned and is pursuing.
I maintain that the PCP launch was a deliberate and calculated deceit designed to 1) distract away from and deflect some of the criticism Council was copping re the huge expense of the unpopular Main Corner Project which was only weeks from opening, ie, '$10m+ for the largely unwanted and entirely unnecessary MCP is not so bad because look, we're going to spend $10m on this PCP thingy', and 2) shut down the parallel criticisms Council was receiving about a failure to do anything with the Rail Lands.
I've gone round and round with the Easement issue but I'm still in a holding pattern over 'dunno'...profuse apologies if I have missed something here, but, after applying the logic of Sherlock Holmes, I believe that this 'Easement moving' is possibly an indication that state and federal authorities have secretly written off Rail Services ever returning to the South East, and that Council knows that, they've been given the nod, but nobody's going to publicly admit it.
This would also explain why Council has ripped up and removed rails, sleepers, and other infrastructure whilst constantly, publicly claiming that they don't know if they'll be financially responsible to replace it all should Rail return...Council has repeatedly used these Deed and/or Easement issues as faux justification for doing nothing on the site, but then when it suits them, they just rip it all up whilst still saying 'dunno if we have to pay for it'...it's either extraordinarily careless and cavalier, or indicative of a knowledge about the non-return of Rail.
(But why, if they know that Rail is never returning, has Council done the massive earthworks to move the Easement, including the huge curved trench for the 'new Easement' footing?-Ed)...I just don't know, that's where it gets really confusing...if my theorising about the permanent demise of Rail Services is accurate, then the only explanation is that it's a deliberate deceit to maintain the facade that Rail might eventually return...plus it's a convenient place to dump all of the 'contaminated soil' that needs to be moved away from that Retail/Commercial footprint.
And that's where it gets really convoluted because...(oo, allow me-Ed)...sure...(because
Council have a history of ridiculously careless, cavalier, and
corruptly nepotistic planning and development, and gross mismanagement
of the City's finances...so it's highly possible even probable that they
have just ploughed ahead with moving the Easement sans appropriate
approvals and with no idea what's going to happen in the future or how
they'll pay for it-Ed)...exactly...Council has proven itself to be deceitful, wasteful, inept, incompetent, corrupt and nepotistic, and wholly focused on what is best for it's constituent members and their mates.
But even then it's not strictly incompetence or ineptitude, because Council is making very specific decisions based on specific agendas benefiting a handful of people...the fact that these decisions are fundamentally disastrous for everybody else is just the fall-out that Council clearly doesn't care about...it is unfortunately very, very possible that Council has just gone ahead and done what suits a couple of them because that's what they want for them...but I digress...
There's no question that Council is still pursuing the RLRA and using ratepayers money to prepare the site accordingly, which includes moving the Easement...I note that after these initial 'earthworks' there are no plans or budgeting for any future works on the site beyond some lawn and drainage ponds...even if you believe the figures provided in The Border Watch, this brings the entire project to just under $4million...what happened to the $10m PCP promised in November 2011?...
Hooray, Here Comes The Outrage: as much as it should never have to happen, it's great to hear that an organised opposition, the Limestone Strike-Out Alliance (?spelling), has been established to address the Fracking already currently underway in the heart of the Coonawarra wine district, and there have been a couple of letters in The Border Watch, and I am aware that there are several people who have been active for some time...I'm not so much withdrawing my statement that there's been no opposition, but the drilling has already started and I expected heated clashes at 'the Farm Gate' as it were.
I still believe that this drilling is not 'exploratory'...everyone involved is talking about the presence of gas as a given and I believe this is the Fracking drilling underway right now...and I completely reject the ludicrous assertions that this Fracking is somehow magically environmentally benign because 'it's such a deep hole'...excuse me, bollocks...that is a trite nonsense from Beach Energy who know damn well...(damn well...nice-Ed)...whatevs...at best, Beach know they will likely be long gone by the time the chemical pollution that they will pump 4km into the ground inevitably leaches back to the surface polluting aquifers, etc...more on this later.
So Confused: about what happened yesterday with that bizarre ABC Local Radio interview with Grant District Mayor Richard Sage...again, I've gone over and over this, but I don't understand why he baulked so drastically at being asked if he were running, so it comes down to a semi-educated guess, namely, that I am aware that there are/were a series of Freedom of Information requests made to Grant District Council across a range of issues.
Because these are not my requests and I'm not specifically aware of the exact details, I won't discuss these FOI requests any further...perhaps there's something looming in the wings that Mr Sage is aware of that might decide him on not running?...this is purely speculation on my part, based on what little I know of what's happening, and there could be other issues, but I have had that interview described to me as 'laughable'.
So today I've managed to thoroughly clarify absolutely nothing...even I'm more confused than when I started...yay...I'll leave y'all to take from that what you will.
Tomorrow: The Naracoorte Child Abuse Case
No action against a teacher who framed a child for accessing pornography, and the Education Minister refuses to comment...classic South Australia where the paedophiles are running the state...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is one angry blog, my blog...cheers and laters...
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