Council recording now available

THE audio recording of last month's Derwent Valley Council meeting has been published on the council website today. It can be accessed here.

This is a great step forward and will open the council to greater scrutiny. This is particularly important at the start of a council election year as it will allow voters to hear how their councillors are performing.

The council's audio recording policy says the digital file will generally be available on the council website within five business days of the meeting. Despite this new service I still believe the best way to have the full experience of a council meeting is to attend in person and I remain available to assist any person who would like to attend and ask questions.
 

Council appoints interim recycling contractor

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Councillor update

HERE is my most recent councillor update, published in the Derwent Valley Gazette on December 13, 2017.

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Technical issue closes pool

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Change to Christmas garbage collection

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Henry would have been proud

THERE'S a story that Henry Ford once said: "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black." It was a bit like that a few months back when the council's general manager told assembled councillors they had three colour choices for the repainting of the bollards and fence panels in High St.

The faded blue railings are certainly long-overdue for a tidy-up but the colour choices were fairly uninspiring (some might say restrictive). I'm sure these aren't the official names but they can be safely described as shiny black, dull black and mottled black.

As is so often the case, most of your councillors had little to say about this although several thought black was a better choice than the original blue. I'm not so sure about that, especially given the amount of damage that has occurred in the form of scrapes, bumps and occasional knockdowns by cars since the fixtures were installed in 2002. Black would seem to be potentially worse from a visibility point of view, particularly at night.

The work is now under way and it has been announced via a media release that the chosen colour is called Hammertone Black. 

Council meeting at Bushy Park

THE monthly council meeting for September will be held at Bushy Park this Thursday night, starting with a community forum at 6.30pm followed by the regular council meeting at 7pm. The venue will be the hall at the Bushy Park Swimming Pool and you are very welcome to join us.

The community forum is an informal session with no agenda. If you would like any assistance or information about the meeting, please do get in touch. The meeting agenda is available online and in hardcopy from the council chambers.

A reminder that council workshops are held in the Courthouse at New Norfolk on the first, second and fourth Thursdays of each month. The next is scheduled for September 28. The format starts with an open session which the general public is invited to attend and this is for the first half hour. There are no agenda documents for council workshops.