There appears to be a growing cloud of confusion and fear forming around the proposal to investigate a more effective and efficient way of providing quality parks and play equipment for residents of our shire.

The proposal (which is all it is at this stage) is to test the feelings of the community and I would certainly suggest you take the opportunity to make your thoughts known.

Are there a number of parks with play equipment that are underutilised or not used at all and can we create efficiencies and provide higher quality all ability play spaces in our shire?

I remember previous council's threatening to sell community land and yes parks where included in the wholesale

Sell off. This is not one of those plans. Fortunately, this did not happen.

I can understand some residual concerns remaining in the minds of some due to the unacceptable opportunism and fire sale mentality of some previous councillors with development priorities, rather than community interests.

If there was a threat of losing our valuable and essential public spaces, I would fight tooth and nail to stop it as I did previously.

I am confident that if the proposal for a new playground strategy is supported by you adopted by council, that any parks that may lose playground equipment due to inefficiencies or lack of use, will not be "flogged off".

It would be a bold council who would ignore the clear message that was sent from the community to the council of 2008 -2012.

Rather than responding to those who push the emotional buttons of fear, let's take the time to see if this proposal really does offer opportunity for some meaningful upgrades of major parks, whilst allowing those smaller parks to be used as open space, play spaces or for other community uses such as community gardens.

RELATED:

Over the past few years I have made representations to the Wingecarribee Shire Council regarding mitigating the flood risk to the residents of Bowral from the effects of flooding from Mittagong Creek.

Whilst most residents may, or may not, be aware of the report carried out by Bewsher Consulting in 2009, they may also not be aware of council's responsibilities to both manage and mitigate the risk.

RELATED:

In my past submissions I provided recommendations on how some basic actions by council could potentially reduce the effects of flooding to properties and supported those recommendations with photographic evidence.

Recommendations included removal of tree growing in the creek, removal of debris incliding trunks of fallen trees, all of which restrict the flow of water, and regular clearing of storwater drains, which feed water directly into the creek.

Regretfully we have seen little or no evidence from council to put into effect any actions which could potentially reduce the risk to residents, other than the erection of a multitude of road signs which inform all concerned of the depth of the water, which could inundate their properties.

In a new notification from council we understand that the proliferation of road signs in to be further extended to other areas of Bowral, this notification includes in its heading, and I quote:

"Flooding along Mittagong Creek in the township of Bowral is well documented with a long history of major floods (ie. March 1893, March 1915, March 1975, March 1978, November 1985, August 1886, March 1988, October 1999, June 2016 and March 2017)."

While this information may or may not be accurately designated as "Major Floods", it is certainly and indictment to the lack of actions in the past century to reach a more permanent solution to this problem.

Risk management is not just about informing the public about the risk from floodwater to their properties, or from water on public roads, it is much more about taking actions to prevent in in the first place.