Shonky Local Governments WA

https://www.facebook.com/MelvilleResidentsRatepayersAssoc/posts/649306187239448

City of Melville Residents and Ratepayers Association Inc. e:[email protected]
An incorporated community organisation for the benefit of residents and ratepayers of the City of Melville.

The City of Melville Council’s September 2021 report on Bronwyn Weir’s investigation into the City’s Administration has attracted much media attention across a number of banners including The West and the Fremantle Herald (see links below)

The City’s Administration released the report under FOI last week, with much redacted in accordance with FOI Act’s strict privacy provisions, for the reasons given below.

Residents and ratepayers should be very concerned about what can be seen:

“It is inappropriate for the City to approve the CBACP which allows for significant amount of multi storey construction in a residential area, without being willing to actively manage the impacts of construction on the community. It is unacceptable for the City to say that they don't have the resources or that it is the responsibility of WorkSafe or the builder to manage these issues.”

“It was not reasonable that the City did not agree that there were errors in the plans following X’s complaints about this issue in March 2017 when it was first raised, or in August 2017 when he continued to raise the issue. It took the City almost 3 years to seek independent advice and concede that the ramp design did not comply with the Standard. This is unreasonable and unacceptable. I agree with X that the error in applying the standard should have been obvious to anyone that looked at the standard and the approved plans. It was not reasonable for the City to rely on the builder's engineer in the circumstances where an important safety concern was raised”.

Residents and ratepayers need to know what its elected Council is going to do to fix this mess.

City Administration's reasons for its decision to redact parts of the Weir Report were:

"After due consideration, I believe that the information refused would have provided sufficient information to identify the third parties and if released would be contra to the legislative safeguards for personal information contained in Clause 3(1) of the Act.

"Furthermore, I consulted the third parties (Parties A and B) in accordance with S32 of the FOI Act and they have refused to give their permission for the release of personal information about themselves. All information deleted if released would assist to identify these parties as such I have refused you access to all matters about them.

"Limitation to Clause 3 is based on a public interest test on whether disclosure of exempt matter would on balance be in the public interest. However, on balance I am of the view that safeguarding the privacy of individuals prevails over other disclosure issues and have affected deletions of matter that would reveal personal information of third parties."

See the Weir report at:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/citizens-for-building-reform-wa_city-of-melville-bronwyn-weir-investigation-activity-7048118042488180736-Ac5j?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

See the Fremantle Herald's Melville Dysfunctional article:https://heraldonlinejournal.com/2023/03/23/dept-sends-melville-stern-warning/

See The Western Australian Paul Murray's one eyed factually incorrect opinion piece, article published 1 April; perhaps as The West's April fools joke?: https://thewest.com.au/opinion/paul-murray/paul-murray-power-the-gory-inside-melville-council-exposed-c-10210410