How we work with community matters. Two items at Thursday’s Council meeting cut to the heart of that relationship: our loss of community trust, and our chance to rebuild it.
I backed 57 Station St until recently, believing it was the most realistic way to deliver some of the affordable housing our community so desperately needs.
But it concerned me from the start that community had been locked out of the process. I was hopeful that engagement through the DA stage could address that. Then, at the most recent consultation, community members asked for formal documentation guaranteeing a 30 per cent income cap on rents. I didn’t have this documentation, and nobody could produce it.
The more I’ve dug into what little documentation exists between Council and Landcom, the more my concern has grown. Too much of this deal was done behind closed doors – even I, as a councillor, have been locked out of key documents between the two agencies.
Decisions and planning for public expenditure on public land should be robust and transparent. That’s the basics of good governance.
Which is why I’m so incredibly frustrated that fellow councillors blocked community engagement at the critical go/no-go stage for the Mullumbimby Hospital site.
In December, the NSW government will propose what they could build there – including how much will be social and affordable housing. But there will be no formal community engagement before Council is asked to take a position on this proposal.
This is public land, and a real chance to do things differently: to embed community’s vision and values throughout the project, rather than trying to retrofit trust after the damage is done. If we learn the lesson of 57 Station Street, we can show what’s possible when Council and community work together. That’s the partnership I’ll keep pushing for.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
