The battle for the presidency of Belconnen Community Council has finally been settled with neither former president Shirley Gourgaud nor challenger Matthew Watts elected to the role.
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Ms Gourgaud did not contest the position at the re-run of the council's annual general meeting on Wednesday last week.
Instead, Hawker resident Robyn Coghlan was elected ahead of Mr Watts after they initially tied the vote at 41 each. A revote led to those who abstained the first time tilting the scales in Ms Coghlan's favour.
Ms Gourgaud steps away from the council after more than six years at the helm.
Meanwhile, the vote for vice president saw Damien Haas defeat Brian Rhynehart.
The position of secretary was retained by Victoria Robertson, while John Simson was returned as treasurer.
About 100 Belconnen residents packed into the meeting room for the rerun of the September 2012 annual general meeting that saw the election of Mr Watts.
In November 2012 Mr Watts was deposed by Ms Gourgaud and her supporters, triggering an investigation into council affairs by the ACT government. That investigation led to the Office of Regulatory Services deeming that the September 2012 meeting did not conform to the Association Incorporations Act.
To resolve ongoing tension and ensure the council conformed with the act it urged a second annual general meeting.
The meeting last week attracted about 10 times the number of residents than the last valid AGM in 2011.
One meeting attendant noted that many residents were not previously aware that the Belconnen Community Council existed, an issue that Ms Coghlan said she hoped to address because it was an important public forum.
“The community councils have an opportunity to talk to the bureaucrats at the planning and development forum, and we need better conversations about serious things – conversations, not just being talked about,” she said.
Ms Coghlan said a pressing concern for the council was height restrictions in the Belconnen town centre. The restrictions had been removed by a 2001 town centre master plan, but had in turn been made “toothless” by the territory plan of 2008.
“So our concern is that we're sort of in this vacuum, and the government has adopted a policy of residential in-fill in the town centre, and suddenly we've jumped from having 10 storey buildings to 20, and now 35 storey buildings, and there's been no consultation about that at all,” Ms Coghlan said. “It's not an issue that has been discussed with the community.”
Ms Coghlan said she would push for increased community consultation before projects commenced, rather than at the end of the process when time and money had already been invested.
“[Land Development Agency] comes to talk to the council every six months or so about their land release program,” she said. “They just need to provide more information at that stage so that people fully understand and can imagine what is proposed on those blocks of land before they actually go up for sale.”
Ms Coghlan was concerned by what she perceived as an “ad hoc” approach to development in Belconnen.
“So our question is: what sort of overall vision do they have? We don't know. We'd like to know,” she said.
The next Belconnen Community Council meeting will take place on Tuesday, May 21 at 7.30pm in the community room of the Belconnen Library.
- The Chronicle
