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Manly Councillor Gagged, again.

23/8/2015

Should a Councillor be actively promoting Council’s redevelopment plans during the public exhibition period?

No according to Manly Council who has demanded that Councillor Candy Bingham remove publicity-promoted images of Manly2015 proposals from her blog.

“It’s just the latest effort by Manly Council to gag me on this highly controversial multi-million dollar project for Manly”, Clr Bingham said.

“This whole process has not been open and transparent from the start, and its time Manly Council came clean on what the real costs are rather than using vague phrases such as ‘it’s bankable and affordable’”, she added.

Manly Council says the images are copyright. However when Clr Bingham requested permission to use them as part of her role as a Councillor to keep the public informed, permission was refused.

She has compiled with the Council's demand, but replace the images with the following messages, in protest.

This image has been removed by Order of Manly Council.
Sorry, so has this one. It would appear that even a Councillor can not promote these publicly available images.

You can see the pretty pictures on the Council's website here

10 Comments

Don and Vivienne Walker

24/8/2015 02:26:39 am

Surely as a councillor you have the right, as an elected representative, to present to the rate payers an unbiased view of the Manly Council proposals which will result in a project which the majority of the rate payers are rightly rejecting. Or is this yet another example of the police state mentality of the Liberal Party backed councillors and the sad excuse for a general manager these same councillors are supporting who believe that they have a god given right to treat their employees as uneducated idiots, the majority of whom are better educated and successful in life in life then these fools who think they are know more then the people who elected them. Surely it is time to get rid of these councillors, and Mike Baird if he continues to ignore what the rate payers of Manly want..

Mike

24/8/2015 02:45:57 am

Mike. Baird is hypocritical to say his government is open & transparent when he allows Manly Council in his electorate to secretly hide information from councillors who should carry out their fiduciary duties.

Mark O'Brien link

24/8/2015 07:06:18 pm

I don't understand how images I'm allowed to view on the publicly available council webay are not allowed to be shared on social media.
Does that mean Manly Daily was in breach of copyright when they featured some images from the EOI documents too?

Outraged

2/9/2015 11:59:14 pm

It is very sad and deeply disturbing to see such blatant abuse of power by local leaders who are acting against majority opinion only to advance their own need and want. Jean and Henry wanting their names on a building plaque ahead of council amalgamation?? We the local community are not idiots but are treated as such! Full page advertising at ratepayer cost to falsely advertise a process as a success what a joke! Is this meant to convince us it's a good idea?! The swimming pool is the worst kind of out of place concrete monstrosity I have seen in a local nature area. It's a disgrace. Any money spent on this project and the oval is over the top and a waste. The arrogance of these councillors is abhorrent and I am sure they won't receive my vote or the vote of many many people I know at the next election. If Mike Baird allows this to happen he needs a no vote from me as well!! Outrageous and makes me feel sick to the core!! I never thought I would see such abuse of power in our local community. Who do these people think they serve? Us the ratepayers or themselves!

Bruce O'Toole

6/9/2015 09:55:32 am

I could not agree more. This is outrageous behaviour and the council should be placed in Administration pending the next election.

David Hulme link

3/9/2015 12:35:48 am

As ratepayers we urgently need to hear the views of both our Prime Minister and Premier and call them to action. This is their local electorate too. If are not able to help and look after us Manly folk what hope for NSW and the rest of Australia?

Mark Love

3/9/2015 01:16:45 am

The whole process is like an episode of Utopia. At every step the Council is spinning more candy for the sceptical residents. The pool re development looks diabolical with over shadowing of Graham Reserve which incidentally is the preferred temporary oval for Manly Marlins and Manly Cricket teams when the oval car park is constructed. Bringing Graham reserve up to a standard suitable for grade cricket and rugby will cost the council and therefore us hundreds of thousands of dollars. Where is all this money coming from? The Liberals wanton sale of electricity and other assets! There are better solutions to Manlys supposed parking problems than what this council is promoting.

Brigitte Banziger

3/9/2015 04:28:44 am

This surely surpasses the fictional "Utopia". I'd rather I would not have to see real life as more satirical than satire - but Manly Council delivers in spade. Rob Sitch, can you please do an episode set in Manly? You wouldn't even have to come up with any new ideas - everything is already laid out!

Bruce Webb

3/9/2015 08:45:31 am

With regards to the images, there are rights holders to these images and that rights holder is not necessarily Manly Council. What needs to happen is those right holders need to be acknowledged.

All Manly Council had to do was request Candy apply the correct acknowledgements to the images and that would have been the end of it, but no, in their usual fashion they decided to take the OTT stance and demand they be removed, typical reaction by overzealous public servants who have no idea.

Regarding the councillors, there is a clause in the Local Government Act that tells an elected official how they need to act for those that elected them in the first place. I bet the bulk of the councillors on the council would not even know that this clause exists or they have never bothered to take it in. The "Fab 5" ( the Liberal councillors) certainly have thumbed their noses at this clause.

We need to get the amalgamation underway to get rid of these ineffective and expensive idiots. If not by amalgamation then the next Local Government Elections will see necessary changes.

One thing we should remind Mike Baird about is that if he doesn't pull his finger out and do something in his own electorate he will lose it and then won't be Premier any more.

John Wilson

3/9/2015 12:34:44 pm

Sounds a bit Tammany Hall to me. Hammond Egger and his stooges telling us what is good for us, because they were snobs.

Manly Councillor Gagged, again.

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