Mt Pleasant bowling club move: City never consulted community

THANK you for your reporting on the ongoing planning around Shirley Strickland Reserve and the bowls strategy for the City of Melville.

It is truly incredible that our council can continue to engage in planning and actions without taking into account the users, their community and, effectively, their employers.

It started with the idea to relocate the Mt Pleasant Bowls Club to Shirley Strickland Reserve. The public, the users, overwhelmingly rejected this. But Councillor Cameron Schuster seems little deterred from pushing through with his scheme.

Then a supposedly comprehensive investigation into bowling was undertaken to come up with a bowls strategy. Nevertheless, it appears that the people engaged in bowls in the City were hardly consulted, if at all.

Certainly the Shirley Strickland Reserve community was very happy when a concept plan was produced that stated quite unequivocally that, on investigation and consideration, it became clear that relocating bowling greens to Shirley Strickland Reserve was not viable.

Then the bowls strategy appeared, which contained some considerable general background information, but all seemingly made to fit the council’s predetermined conclusion for creation of “sporting hubs” and consolidation of various user groups in centralised locations where better facilities could be provided because of larger numbers of people using the facilities.

Perhaps on paper, and in bureaucratic offices, these ideas appear to make a lot of sense. But it when comes down to real people of flesh and blood and real pieces of land, the situation is very different.

It is unfortunate that we continue to suffer with a council that appears to be unable truly to hear and consider its community, as clearly demonstrated again at the council meeting on June 21.

The utterly arrogant, dismissive, and frankly rude way in which the chief executive reacted and responded to his constituency remains unbelievable.

It seems, however, that the community is sufficiently upset not to allow the chief executive, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor to continue getting away with their private, destructive agenda.

LOUIS de VILLIERS, Ardross.