Brownhill Creek is back on the agenda thanks to it appears, biased reporting in the Media. And this has aggravated a group of residents in Goodwood South Ward, believing Council has been derelict in it’s duty to it’s rate payers.

I am fast learning that a councillor is going spend half their time fielding misconceptions and therefore mistrust because the press must be right and you must be lying. This is about one of those times. I find myself defending a decision taken by council a while back on Brownhill Creek.

The decision was to agree to a stormwater management plan that went out to significant public consultation way back in 2011. We also agreed that the 5 councils will investigate the dam and no dam option over the next twelve months.

Subsequent concepts and drawings have been produced by the consultant charged with the design of the project and they include options for changing the size of some of the culvert diversions planned in the concept agreed to. It also includes some new culverts.

It appears there has been media reporting  that we have agreed to a scheme with these options. As a result we have been accused by some of our residents of “selling us” short. We have also been accused of not consulting on the “upgraded” plan.

Let me say this.

WE HAVE NOT ADOPTED A SCHEME THAT ALLOWS FOR A NO DAM OPTION.

Now that we have that agreement and SMA approval we do not have to worry that the project will be taken away from us and we then have NO control over it. Now that we have the agreement we can get on with the project and the consultants can prepare detailed drawings.

This is when we will find out whether or not the no dam option is truly feasible or not. It may be that culvert sizes become too big to fit in a particular street whether destroying significant infrastructure including Unley’s greatest asset, its trees.

It may be that enough fall cannot be obtained to allow for the scheme to work, whether dam or no dam. This is evidenced by the early works that became necessary at the Goodwood Junction, where it was found the culvert simply could not take the original intended route around Goodwood Oval.

So (as an example) if Unley has to lose all its trees so that a couple of trees at the top of Mitcham can be saved then I wonder how Unley residents will react and how Unley Councillors will vote.

Anybody believing we should be consulting when we have nothing to consult on, or believing we have let them down I ask you who do you believe. The press or your elected members.

Lets face it…. as Zig Ziglar once said ….you have to believe everything the press says. Let’s face it, they have accurately predicted 23 of the last 2 recessions.