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Don’t pander to minority group

Staff ReporterMelville Gazette

I AM frankly amazed that Dr Shayne Silcox, the City of Melville’s chief executive, even considered the appeal by a small number of locals calling themselves the Bicton Residents Action Group to change anything to do with the highly successful Tom Hoad Cup.

It is known that the core of this group consists of four families, two of whom are related. All of them have either established or have moved to homes in the area knowing that Melville Water Polo Club was on their doorstep. Indeed the main voice of this group built his home (good luck to him, he worked for it) and then proceeded to demolish the next-door homestead and built another large family home virtually on top of the club after the Tom Hoad Cup was up and running.

Claims have been made by this group about “parking gridlock” when the City knows that it allows overflow parking on the adjacent Rob Campbell Reserve. Anyone who chooses to live near a highly successful sporting venue that was founded in 1923 must expect some inconvenience; it goes with the territory.

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Apparently, the club has in the group’s opinion grown too much in recent years.

As far as timing goes, the club has spelt out well-founded reasons and we all know of the many sporting competitions that run after Christmas and across this holiday period.

This is a high-value event, not just for Melville but also for WA and indeed Australia. I wonder how many times Dr Silcox has been to this international tournament to see just what effort goes into making it such a success?

The alternatives he has come up with are frankly out of order.

Please Dr Silcox, look at the bigger picture and stop apparently pandering to what is in fact a very small group.

Bryan Matthews, Bicton