Councillor goes in to bat for developer in lengthy saga

A LIVINGSTONE Shire councillor has gone into bat for a Yeppoon couple caught up in a development application saga.

Cr Adam Belot: “In many ways I believe it’s a travesty of justice that this is what local government has come to.”

A LIVINGSTONE Shire councillor has gone in to bat for a Yeppoon couple caught up in a development application saga.

Adam Belot was one of five councillors who this week sensationally declared a possible conflict of interest in a controversial application to subdivide six lots at Bungundarra Rd after all of them had previously been involved in the process which saw it approved against the recommendation of council officers.

The bid to subdivide the land has been a frustrating three-year battle for Colin and Monica Roebuck.

The conflict of interest drama unfolded at Tuesday’s council meeting where councillors were set to ratify (give formal consent) the conditions of the Roebucks’ approved application.

But councillors’ hands were forced after a complaint was lodged about some councillors’ handling of the process.

Cr Belot can’t comment on that matter now that it’s in the hands of the Office of the independent Assessor which investigates and assesses complaints about councillor conduct.

But he did empathise with the Roebucks, whose fate now rests in part with the council officers who previously recommended refusing their rural subdivision.

“I’m extremely disappointed that elected councillors will not participate in the final decision to determine what are reasonable and appropriate conditions which were to come back to the table for approval,” Cr Belot said.

“Instead our hands are tied and our voices are silenced by crazy, complex red tape.

“That is not a good outcome and it needs to be fixed up, as it undermines a councillor’s ability to do the job they are elected to do.”

After Tuesday’s declaration by the five councillors — Belot, Pat Eastwood, Tom Wyatt, Glenda Mather and Mayor Bill Ludwig — there was no option but to delegate the matter to the council’s CEO, Chris Murdoch.

It will now be up to her to set the conditions on the Roebucks’ application with guidance from council officers.

“In many ways I believe it’s a travesty of justice that this is what local government has come to,” Cr Belot said.

“Elected people need to be in a position of making the decisions that are closely connected to the community. Yet due to a perceived conflict of interest which must be kept confidential, the Roebucks must now negotiate without the community’s elected representatives in the room.

“The previous application and this application has gone on for three years and we (councillors) are now unable to participate because of perceived conflicts of interest.

“What really gets compromised here is the democratic will of elected people and it has nothing to do with good governance but rather bureaucracy obstructing the will of the elected councillors.

“Elected members are there to represent the public and to have that taken away is really disappointing.”

Cr Belot said those were his personal views and they were not directed at any council employee but rather at the policies that were in place.