Clarence to tackle promises

CLARENCE City Council has vowed to get on top of its growing list of undelivered promises and stalled projects.

The motion was put forward last week by Alderman Brendan Blomeley, who said council was juggling a “staggering” number of master plans, many of which had been left unfinished for years.

It comes after Alderman Tony Mulder joked that council had so many master plans that it would need a master plan to sort out the backlog of master plans.

Mr Blomeley said ratepayers were justifiably frustrated with the slow progress on projects.

“All too often our community feels let down and frustrated by the time it takes to deliver on promised master plans,” he said.

Mr Blomeley’s motion would create a workshop to discuss council’s current 30 unfinished master plans and figure out an order of priority and time frame for completion.

Progress reports would then be uploaded to council’s website for public scrutiny.

Alderman Beth Warren said she could not see much point in the motion, since council staff already issued regular updates on the status of master plans.

“What concerns me about this motion is it adds another layer of bureaucracy which is going to stop our planners from actually progressing our master plans because they’re too busy reporting on the progression of the master plans,” Ms Warren said.

Alderman Richard James sided with Ms Warren. However, Alderman Dean Ewington said it was not good enough to “coast along” and do nothing.

Mayor Doug Chipman said it was an “outstanding idea” to have a list of projects on its website. The motion passed council on Monday night.