Councillor’s symbolic reminder of community engagement
Cr David Law has worked hard to push the Nambour Special Entertainment Precinct and Nambour Place Plan.
DIVISION 10 councillor David Law keeps a tall jar full of ribbons on his desk.
The ribbons were tied on a construction fence at the Nambour Aquatic Centre when work was about to begin on a new carpark soon after he was elected to council in 2020.
To try and gauge public support for saving large fig trees that were to be removed for the carpark, the new councillor tied a ribbon to the fence on a Friday afternoon and invited others to do the same.
“When I met with the council staff on the Monday morning, the fence was a sea of ribbons and colours and it was remarkable,” he told a Nambour Chamber of Commerce meet the candidates event.
“The plans were re-drawn and six of the eight trees were saved and we still got all the new parking spaces.
He has kept the ribbons as a reminder of “what community consultation looks like, feels like, and that is what the result is when you do it well and you truly engage with your community.”
Cr Law said he made two promises when he first ran for the council: to be honest and work hard, and gave examples of the positive results for Nambour.
The first was establishment of a Nambour Special Entertainment Precinct stakeholder forum which has met monthly and a Nambour Activation Team which links entertainment and other businesses with council services.
“With this team, I initiated Nambour Forecourt Live, a free monthly community music event held on the (council) forecourt to bring people into Nambour and this is now led to the Nambour Twilight Markets,” he said.
The other example was the Aquatic Centre carpark.
His future plans include compassionate solutions for homelessness, continuing to activate the Nambour town centre, and establishing the Nambour-Coolum recreational trail.
Cr Law was formerly the national manager of a disability services firm.
Reader’s Question on getting back to basics
Jordan asked: Who will promise to go back to rates, roads and rubbish?
Cr Law responds:
People who own property, whether commercial or residential, pay rates based on the land valuation of their property.
This funding is used to provide the services required by the whole community, irrespective of who pays the rates and includes so much more than rubbish and roads.
I will not sell off all the swimming pools and shut all the libraries, get rid of the art gallery and sell off all the sporting grounds and end all grass roots sport on the coast.
I will not go back to basics, I am moving forwards and this backward looking tired old cliche has no place in council.
We need councillors who can create visionary strategic plans and have them implemented so the Sunshine Coast continues to be a place people want to actually live with culture, sport and strong communities.