Quick steps to making submission
“I was one of the protesters in Palm Beach on Saturday. I was joined by four others from my building. We are all law-abiding citizens and as far as I know it was the first time any of us had ever participated in a protest.
We are very worried about a high-rise which is going to be built next-door and its impact on our building from dewatering and from the vibrations from sheet piling. We don’t want to be another Mascot Towers with millions of dollars of damage.
Major damage has already happened to a number of homes in Palm Beach due to recent high rise construction.
We have emailed all councilors, including the mayor, on a number of occasions about our concerns regarding sheet piling and the inappropriate development in Palm Beach. No one seems to have taken any interest, except for our local Councillor Daphne McDonald.
We want someone in the council (not just Daphne) to take notice of what we are saying and are worried about.
What did the major think protesters would do to him if he had come on Monday? We aren’t nasty people, just unhappy and concerned residents. On Saturday, the mayor spoke at us, not to us, and didn’t make eye contact. Nearly all of us were women. How intimidating we must have looked to him.
The other protesters there seemed like decent people and I can’t believe the mayor was so worried about someone damaging the artificial reef plaque. The council has already spent money on providing security personnel for it, and a security council was installed. Plus, late on Monday night I saw police checking it out for possible damage. All this because of what some man said on Saturday? Crazy.
I hope no one does damage it in anger as the reef is a good thing for Palm Beach, plus it would be an additional cost to ratepayers to repair or replace and it’s not the way to get your point across.
Daphne seems to be in the mayor’s bad books and she shouldn’t be. The mayor is quoted as saying: “It’s disappointing that a Councillor would play a political shot regarding this issue.” Daphne isn’t being political, she’s just looking after her constituents.
The mayor needs to stop quoting surveys or consultation on the City Plan to justify what the council is doing to Palm Beach.
He should know better than most that most people don’t participate in these kind of things, or perhaps they didn’t even know about the City Plan Consultation. I didn’t live on the Gold Coast then, so I don’t know how rate payers were advised. However, I’m sure if he had written to or emailed all Palm Beach Residents, he would have received a lot of input. On Saturday, the mayor said to us protesters, we can make an appointment to see him. Well, Mayor, we are going to try to do just that. We hope you will accommodate us.
Sue Kelly, Palm Beach. “