Council role questioned
Wellington to request leave from Surf Coast
SURF Coast Shire councillor Heather Wellington will request leave at tonight’s council meeting, with the six-year councillor saying she feels disheartened by council officers unreasonably prohibiting information from councillors.
Ms Wellington said she feels as though she is unable to help her community because she can’t access requested information, leaving her feeling like there is no point being a councillor.
“Increasingly what I’m finding is that when people come to me with an issue I can’t find the information, particularly in relation to planning issues,” she said.
“It makes me wonder if there is any point being a councillor.”
Ms Wellington said she had been refused “large amounts” of information, including the breakdown of $150,000 planned expenditure allocated by the council to improve roads, lease and market valuations of Winchelsea Shire Hall and legal advice the shire relied on to refuse a resident access to Freedom of Information processes.
“I became aware of shire plans to spend some of this allocation on customer liaison and inspection, noting that inspection targets in the road management plan are already met,” she said.
“My requests for information about why these activities are needed, how much will be spent on them and how much will be spent actually working on roads have not been met.”
Ms Wellington said council officers began refusing to release information to councillors about 18 months ago after she was involved in a “particularly difficult” planning issue which had been causing community angst for about 10 years.
“People go to the council because they think the councillors can help them and get information that they can’t,” she said.
“But I’ve been told to just refer the community to council officers.
“I feel that if I leave where does that leave the community.”
The council’s Councillor-Staff Interaction Protocol states that “councillors should not request access to documents or copies of documents that relate to operational matters or decisions made by officers under their delegated authorities”.
Ms Wellington will request leave from December 12 to March 18 and said she would “take some time out to work on the legal situation” and consider if she could be part of the council.
The councillor said the recent election of Rose Hodge as mayor would make no difference to the accessibility of information to councillors.
“One way I could get information is if the majority of councillors want it, but they don’t seem to be as concerned as I am about it,” she said. “To me, I’m letting the community down.”