Overland rises to defend parking officers
NORTH-WEST social media figure The Boy from Burnie has been taken to task by the general manager of the city’s council after a Facebook post that accused parking officers of targeting residents lining up to get vaccinations.
In one of his first public statements since being appointed Burnie City Council general manager, Simon Overland said Trent Aitken’s Wednesday Whinge and radio interview – in which he claimed parking fines were issued to people attending a Burnie Covid vaccination clinic – stepped over the mark of free speech.
The post has since been removed and the Mercury approached Mr Aitken for comment.
Mr Overland said it was “one thing to provide critical commentary on the policies and practices of the council, which is, after all, everyone’s right”. “It is another thing entirely to target council employees and to broadcast allegations of improper and callous behaviour, as was the case with the remarks that were directed toward council’s parking officers last week.
“Such comments are hurtful and unfounded.”
Mr Overland, the former chief commissioner of Victoria Police, said that since the clinic on August 18, 31 parking infringements had been issued.
“All of them had been issued in the five-hour parking spaces, indicating that Mr Aitken’s statements were not factual,” Mr Overland said.
“It would appear that the public may be running the gauntlet on the basis of there being more parking available at the BAFC (Burnie Arts and Function Centre) since changes to the operation of the Museum and Art Gallery.”
He conceded the tasks that council employees perform may not always be welcomed or accepted by the community. “This is inevitable,” he said. “However, our employees are proud and hardworking members of our Burnie community, and are deserving of the same standards of courtesy and respect due any other person in our community,” Mr Overland said.
He has called on Mr Aitken to now “correct the record”.