To Dam or not to Dam? As the debate rages in the press over the whether the dam should happen or not the elected members of five councils are still being briefed from the various parties with an interest in the project.
The public may have all the facts and are happy they can make a decision and therefore believe we can make a decision. From where I sit however I believe the elected members of the councils involved do not have enough information yet and until we do we cannot make a responsible decision.
There has been a huge amount of work put into this project by consultants. We, the elected members of the City of Unley, have been briefed on a number of aspects and the amount of information we have had to take on board is huge. The other councils will have been similarly briefed.
Much of the debate in the press has centred on the question of whether to dam or not to dam.
I am thankful for the opportunity to visit the site of the dam this morning with other elected members from the City of Unley. This was done to help us determine for ourselves the situation surrounding the dam debate.
There is much more than this for us to consider however before we collectively make decisions that will impact on many. For this reason Unley has not entered the public debate. We have taken the view that until we had all the relevant facts we would not comment.
To dam or not to dam is only part of the decision. We must therefore be careful not to focus on the dam and not give due consideration to all the other components. We must surely also be clear in our mind whether the alternatives being proposed in order to eliminate the dam are feasible, both fiscally and from an engineering point of view.
At this stage we do not have enough information to determine the feasibility of the other alternatives. We are now led to believe there is yet another alternative that could be considered. Whilst getting a small briefing on it this too needs more work done before we can consider it.
Hopefully this is close. It is being suggested it might be so watch this space.
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