Cops called to evict protester
Council bans woman from its meetings
AN ELDERLY woman was marched from the Cairns Regional Council chambers by police after holing up in an elevator for about 30 minutes and refusing to leave.
Parramatta Park woman Gayna Vaughan-Birch was banned earlier this month from attending council meetings for a year after allegedly displaying offensive signs, making “comment of a very serious nature to council staff” and causing a disturbance at a previous meeting.
She showed up to the local government’s Spence St administration centre yesterday and was granted a visitor pass to attend the monthly ordinary meeting, with front desk staff unaware the ban was in place.
The visit hit a snag when council CEO John Andrejic spotted her at the ground-floor elevator and told her she was not allowed upstairs.
She repeatedly asked if he had received her letter, referring to a missive from last week outlining her grievances.
The letter pointed to Ms Vaughan-Birch’s decade-long battle with the council over the approval of a neighbouring three-storey apartment complex looking into her property.
“Every day I have to live in a house with half-closed blinds to prevent direct line-of-sight into bedroom and living areas … I could press for compensation for past and present stress and trauma, but out of consideration for the long-suffering ratepayer I have simply asked for a few non-invasive screening trees” it said.
The council has refused to supply the trees, with Mr Andrejic saying it would not be appropriate to undertake works in a resident’s back yard.
Ms Vaughan-Birch’s letter said her behaviour at the previous meeting was “hardly ladylike” but “remarkably restrained” given the situation.
“I have no real desire to attend council meetings which, to my observations, consist of little more than rubberstamping decisions that have already been made – but as a citizen and ratepayer I reserve my right to do so,” it continued.
Council management disagreed and a police officer was eventually called in to escort Ms Vaughan-Birch from the elevator and then the building.
Her visitor pass had already been wiped from the office computer system, meaning she could not operate the elevator.