At the last meeting of Campbelltown Council on September 11 all councillors present voted in favour of this motion:
That council endorses the creation of the Campbelltown Alliance, a high level stakeholder advisory group to provide independent strategic advice and feedback to council for major CBD related projects and that all interested councillors be invited to participate in the group.
Now three Labor Party councillors, Meg Oates, Masood Chowdhury and Ben Gilholme will try to rescind the above decision.
They have lodged a rescission motion which will be debated at the next meeting of council on October 9.
No reason has been given for the rescission motion, which has mystified some of the other councillors.
Cr Ben Moroney, of the Greens, says he is “really confused’’.
“This is really unprecedented for councillors to support something and then try to rescind it,’’ he said.
Cr Moroney on September 11 was the only one to vote against the original motion, which merely endorsed the creation of the Campbelltown Alliance.
Another councillor, George Greiss, proposed an amendment that all interested councillors be invited to participate in the Campbelltown Alliance.
This was duly accepted and fully supported – even by Cr Moroney – when put to the vote.
Cr Greiss, who is the leader of the Liberal Party on the council, said that like Cr Moroney he was “a little bit confused’’ when he found out about the rescission motion lodged by the three Labor councillors.
“It will be the first rescission in this term, it’s a bit strange,’’ Cr Greiss said.
Neither he nor Cr Moroney wanted to discuss how they will approach the rescission motion when it comes up before council.
However Cr Moroney told the South West Voice he remained opposed to the establishment of the Campbelltown Alliance as originally proposed.
Under the proposal brought to council, and given the green light, the Mayor would be patron of Campbelltown Alliance, which would be chaired by the General Manager.
According to a report abled at the September 11 meeting, the idea for such a group came as a recommendation from communications firm Taylor Street Advisory (TSA).
“A recommendation from TSA was the establishment of the Campbelltown Alliance, a civic leadership group made up of people both local and further afield who would provide advice and input into transformational, city shaping related projects such as Re-imagining Campbelltown CBD, the Campbelltown Health and Education Precinct, transport infrastructure and connectivity, and cultural projects,’’ the report to council said.
“Should Council endorse the formation of the Alliance, invitations would be extended by the Mayor and General Manager to a range of people representing key organisations that might consider taking a place on the Campbelltown Alliance.’’
Councillors were told at the meeting that a list had already been drawn up and invitations would be sent once they have given the green light to the proposal.
Now it looks like nothing will happen for three months at least, if the rescission motion receives majority support on October 9.
