A recent letter to the Editor of the Armadale Examiner newspaper
in Armadale, from a K Brown, praised the Armadale City Council for
its actions in developing Armadale.
The letter, published in
the 06 September 2007 isue of the newspaper, tells how wonderful the
council has been in developing Armadale.
The letter was
apparently written and published in order to support the re-election
of the sitting councillors who are "up for re-election" in
the 2007 Local Government Elections, in response to a campaign by an
organisation that has been critical of actions by the Armadale City
Council, the local organisation complaining that the council has
recently acted against the wishes of locals in supporting development
that puts revenue before local resources.
What people may have forgotten, is the fight that we had to have with the council, back in 2004, to stop the council rezoning the parks and reserves of Armadale, as residential, so that the council could sell off the land for housing development.
The sitting members of the council, who are up for re-election in the 2007 Local Government Elections, were members of the 2004 council, against whom we had to fight, to save the parks and reserves of Armadale, from the city council's pland to rezone the parks and reserves as residential, and sell off the land for housing development.
This is a battle that was waged against the council in 2004, in relation to the Town Planning Scheme No.4, that was proposed by the Armadale City Council, the document published by the council, with the Mayor and members of the council, denying the contents of the document that was published by the council, as an "Invitation For Public Comment", and the Mayor and members of the city council denouncing the contents of the offiocial council document, as lies and misinformation, and a fabrication.
Below are links to images of some documents from that time.
The cover of the document that was published by the council, with the title "Proposed Town Planning Scheme No. 4 - Invitation For Public Comment".
Page 02 of of the document that was published by the council, with the title "Proposed Town Planning Scheme No. 4 - Invitation For Public Comment".
Notice the wording in the first paragraph -
"The council
proposes to adopt a new Town Planning Scheme for our district to
replace the existing schemes.
Town Planning Scheme No. 4 is
intended to guide the development of the district over the next five
to ten years during which time we are expected to experience
significant growth.
Page 07 of the document that was published by the council, with the title "Proposed Town Planning Scheme No. 4 - Invitation For Public Comment".
Note the words under the heading "Open Space".
"The
City has commenced a seven stage review of public open space in the
City to improve the quality and usefulness of recreation reserves.
Stages 1 to 5 of the review have undergone detailed consideration
following public consultation, and Council's recommendations for
Stages 1 to 5 are reflected in Scheme 4. Reserves which are important
to be retained and managed by the City are shown as Parks and
Recreation (Local) whilst reserves considered unsuitable for
recreation are zoned Residential in anticipation of future release
for residential purposes. Most unsuitable reserves are too small or
not suitable located. Funds from their sale must be used locally to
improve other recreation reserves."
Now, it is quite
clear, from the text of the Armadale City Council publication, on the
basis of which, the council invited comments from the public, that
any land that is currently used as a reserve, for recreation, that is
shown within the publication as marked as zoned Residential, is
"considered unsuitable for recreation", and is to be sold
by the council, for residential development.
The wording makes it clear that the parks and reserves that are shown
as residential, and are shown as being zoned as residential, so they
could be sold off by the council, were determined to be unsuitable for
recreation, DURING the review, and not before the review. The wording
of the document makes it clear that any land that was determined to be
suitable for recreation, by the review, is shown coloured as Parks and
Reserves, and, any parks and reserves that are shown as residential,
were determined to be unsuitable for recreation, when the review was
done.
It is as the
document was written, and, that is as it was approved by the council.
The wording makes
that quite clear and unambiguous.
Now, how is land so marked,
shown in that city council publication?
The part of the map that is contained in the document that was published by the council, with the title "Proposed Town Planning Scheme No. 4 - Invitation For Public Comment", that has the key that shows what the different markings for different land uses, mean.
Note, in the column with the heading "ZONES", the first
colour, the beige kind of colour, representing "Residential".
So, any land that is currently a reserve, that is used for
recreation, that shows as that colour on the map in that document,
has been coloured with that colour, has been decided by the council
to be unsuitable for recreation, and is intended to be rezoned as
residential, and sold off by the council, for residential
development.
The council has made that quite clear, in the
wording of the document.
The section of the map that is contained in the document that was published by the council, with the title "Proposed Town Planning Scheme No. 4 - Invitation For Public Comment", that shows what is known as Gwynne Park.
For those of you do not know the reserve known as Gwynne Park, as
you look at the map, in the top right corner, is the rectangle that
is coloured blue with white stripes. Coming left and down from that,
a little bit, is a green rectangle. The dotted line that runs along
the road on the edge at the right of that rectangle, is running along
Seventh Road. At the lower left edge of that rectangle, is Townley
Street. Between Townley Street and Seventh Road, above the green
rectangle, runs Forrest Road. between Forrest Road and that green
rectangle, between Townley Street and Seventh Road, is the part of
the reserve known as Gwynne Park, that the Armadale City Council
intended to rezone as residential and sell of so the council could
get the money for the land. The land includes the land that has been
used as a football field, and also used for playing lacrosse, by
local schools, the land that is tennis courts, used by the Tennis
Club, the land used as bowling greens, by the Bowling Club, the
building previously known as the Armadale Recreation Centre, now
known by some obscure name unknown to many locals, and the land
currently occupied by Lotteries House.
It is the map
published by the Armadale City Council, in the document published by
the Armadale City Council, approved by the members of the Armadale
City Council.
But, Gwynne Park was not the only recreational reserve under threat from the intentions of the Armadale City Council. Some of you may remember, from the local newspapers at the time, that Fancote Park and Creyk Park were also regarded as being under threat, for the same reasons.
The section of the map that is contained in the document that was published by the council, with the title "Proposed Town Planning Scheme No. 4 - Invitation For Public Comment", that shows what was known as Creyk Park, and as Fancote Park.
If you look at that map, you will see two circles (well, kind of
circles), drawn with a ballpoint pen, on the map.
The upper
circle, with the number "2" in it, shows a bit of land with
"R15/40" written on it, and a strip of green along the
right hand edge. I believe that the two bits of land, together, made
up what was known as Fancote Park, with the part labelled "R15/40"
to have ben rezoned by the council so the council could sell the land
for units to be built on it, with housing density up to 40.
The
lower circle, with the beige bit with "R25" written on a
block of land, in it, shows what was known as Creyk Park. That block
with the "R25" written on it, is the part of Creyk Park, to
have been rezoned as residential land, with housing density 25, so
the council could sell the land for housing development.
A map that shows what was known as Creyk Park.
Unfortunately for the members of the Armadale City Council, some
of the members of the public, were awake, and actually read the
document, and tried to stop the council from selling off the parks
and reserves of Armadale for housing development.
The local
newspapers were contacted about it, letters were sent to the ditors
of the local newspapers, and, a Special Meeting Of Electors of
Armadale, was called, all to try to stop the parks and reserves of
Armadale from being sold by the council for housing development, and
to try to protect the parks and reserves of Armadale, from the
Armadale City Council.
A copy of the article that was published in the Comment News on 08 June 2004.
A copy of the article that was published in the Armadale Examiner on 10 June 2004.
A copy of the article that was published in the Armadale City Council publication in June 2004.
Note: it is interesting that the Mayor refered to the contents of the official Armadale City Council publication, "Proposed Town Planning Scheme No. 4 - Invitation For Public Comment", "a tisue of lies and misinformation".
A copy of a Letter To The Editor that was published in the Armadale Examiner on 01 July 2004. It has the title "Parks for recreational use".
A copy of the article that was published in the Comment News on 06 July 2004. It has the title "Residents want park zoning set in concrete".
A copy of the article that was published in the Armadale Examiner on 08 July 2004. The article has the title "Misleading or a mistake?".
A copy of a Letter To The Editor that was published in the Comment News on 13 July 2004. It has the title "Armadale, please explain".
A copy of a flyer that was apparently distributed by a city councillor, in the Kelmscott area, in June and July 2004. The flyer is self-explanatory, in the context of all of the above material.
Basically, what all of this web page is about, is that the members
of the Armadale City Council decided to try to rezone the parks and
reserves, and sell them off, and hope that they would get away with
it, by nobody noticing, or by nobody being interested enough to do
anything about it.
Unfortunately for the members of the
Armadale City Council, enough of the members of the public, were
awake, and, read the docment, and, were sufficiently interested in
the facilities in Armadale, to try to stop the city council from
destroying them.
Once it was made public, the city council
denied any knowledge, and insisted that the official documents of the
city council, were lies and fabrications.
The big problem
here, is that a significant number of the city councillors involved,
are now up for re-election, and, going on the past performance of the
people of Armadale, the electors are simply too apathetic, and will
probably vote the sitting councillors back in, either by directly
voting for the, or by simply being not interested enough about
Armadale, to bother to vote.
I can be contacted by email by clicking on my name at the end of this sentence - Bret .
This web page was last updated on 03 October, 2007