Somerset Regional Council held their Mount Glen Rock Adventure Park development Information evening on April 13th.
The following are terms, that several attendees, when asked to describe the evening, have used...
1. Inept 
2. Unprofessional 
3. Condensending
4. Disrespectful 
5. Humiliating
6. Embarrassing
7. A total waste of time.   
As expected it was nothing more than a presentation of their Development plan, even though the audience were continually told 'this is just a concept'.
More than once the CEO referred to the Draft Plan as some 'sketches on paper'
However, they still invited 2 representatives from Tasmania, to speak about Mountain Bike trails in their state, including the well known Blue Derby trail.
This was totally irrelevant to Esk, and wasted 30 minutes of an already tight schedule of 2 hours.
Audience members began yelling at the stage, telling them to focus on the topic of the night, Esk and the proposed development of Mount Glen Rock.
This unrest caused the next speaker, a representative from the Sunshine Coast speaking about yet another Mountain Bike Trail at Sugar Bag, to shorten his presentation, realising that much of the audience were not at all interested.
To make matters worse for Somerset Regional Council, the audience then got to watch a video, which was introduced by the evening's host, as being for...
'our visual pleasure'
It was a high quality short movie, of an excavator carving a Mountain Bike trail through untouched bushland.
Though we watched in horror, it was exactly what was needed, to reinforce to members of the public, the importance of continuing our campaign of opposition to this proposed development.
From here it only got worse for the Somerset Regional Council, when an onstage panel including the Mayor, the CEO, the Operations Manager and 3 of our elected Councillors, answered only 12 of the 500 questions that had been submitted to Council in the lead up to the evening.
The members of the public were not allowed to ask these questions, that was the host of the evening's role, and the answers were read off pre written sheets in a non definitive manner by the panel.
Community members attending, were left absolutely astounded by such a debacle of an evening. The unprofessionalism displayed and total lack of concern for residents was appalling.
Some of the panel's answers and comments were bordering on insulting, to residents, especially those facing serious impacts to their lives, if this development is to proceed.
However, we were left with 15 minutes, in which the audience of approximately 150, were able to approach Council individually face to face.
The majority of these conversations were the audience expressing to Council, their disbelief at what they had just witnessed.
MOST IMPORTANTLY, SOMERSET REGIONAL COUNCIL CONTINUED TO SHOW THEIR TOTAL LACK OF CONCERN FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, THE FLORA AND FAUNA AND THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF MOUNT GLEN ROCK.
Therefore, Esk Residents agreed that given the display of total incompetence by the Somerset Regional Council throughout the evening, witnessed by the community and also by the environmental group representatives, including Traditional Custodians, invited to the evening by Care4esK, that it actually may have been a 'Win Win' for the community...to use a nauseating term constantly expressed by Council.
The very next day, realising how bad the evening had gone, Councillors began backpedalling, asking to meet with individuals and the Care4esK group, for discussions about our concerns.
FINALLY!!!