Mitcham Council passes budget with Blackwood Hub on casting vote of Mayor Heather Holmes-Ross
Mitcham Council has narrowly passed its contentious budget on the casting vote of the mayor – including the $20 million Blackwood Hub that has divided the council and community.
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Division in Mitcham Council meant its latest budget passed only by a sliver – securing the controversial planned $20 million Blackwood Hub.
Councillors were divided on the 2020/21 budget – which includes the major Blackwood project – voting 6-6 for and against it.
It left the casting vote to Mayor Heather Holmes-Ross, who supported the contentious budget on Tuesday night.
Elected members were largely divided on geographic lines over the Blackwood Hub.
Councillors from the Mitcham hills supported the project while those from the plains voted against the budget in an effort to thwart the hub, which still requires $5 million of external funding.
A push from Cr David Munro to introduce a sunset clause on the hub – which would have resulted in its support lapsing if funding was not found by the end of the year – was unsuccessful.
The hub had become a lightning rod for councillors and the community because of revelations the council-owned site of the popular Karkoo Nursery in Blackwood would have to be sold to help fund the project.
Councillors were provided with about 150 complaints about the possible sale of the nursery land from members of the community before Tuesday’s meeting.
Cr Yvonne Todd told the meeting she was originally opposed to including the Blackwood Hub, but changed her mind on advice from the State Government to “borrow and spend”.
“I am disappointed and confused by elected members and members of the public who think they know better than both the Federal and State Government and want the council to ignore their expert advice,” Cr Todd said.
But newly elected Gault Ward councillor Rod Moss said he found an “overwhelming sense of concern” over big spending projects during his campaign.
“It was not necessarily aimed at the hub project, but a project of that scale being undertaken at this time,” Cr Moss said.
“They saw that as high risk and there were some professional people who made comments to me that nobody knows what the economy as going to look like.”