We have made inroads in the last week and our campaign is having impact. We cannot share our detailed strategy but the following will give you a snapshot of where we are up to with the campaign.
1. Petition – as of writing this we have 2333 signatures – we need to increase this ASAP. The petition adds credibility to our cause and could play a key role when we are sat with decision makers. If you can only do one thing for the campaign, please share the petition, it could make a difference.
Share the petition here
2. Posters – We have these printed and ready to go and will be delivering to members this week. If this is to be effective, we need many more group members to be involved. Please email savewalka@gmail.com if you can help. We can’t do this part without you!
3. State Government – We have made progress here and will have more to say on this.
4. Family event – the date of this will be released soon.
5. Public meeting – council are attempting to mandate how we oppose the redevelopment. Behind closed doors or in a carefully managed way. This isn’t good enough and a public meeting will go ahead. Watch this space.
6. Letter writing - an important part of our campaign is to support you to send emails to relevant public persons to outline your concerns. We will post more details about this soon.
7. Media – our first press feature is out there. We were disappointed that the Mayor decided to use his response to vilify our group rather than answering our concerns. More press activity happening soon.
8. FB group – A small number of individuals are intent on causing disruption to our campaign. As we grow in strength this is likely to increase. If you notice a comment that you think is a little off – generally baiting of other members or claiming 'conspiracy theories' etc all without evidence, then please flag this with Admin – this is completely anonymous, and you can do this by clicking on the side of the comment and ‘report to admin’.
9. Council updates
Last week Council announced a Live Q&A for 5:30pm Thursday May 11th where Council would answer Walka related questions posed by the community. We will be watching Councils answers closely and hope that difficult questions will be tackled throughly and that this is not just a PR exercise to push Councils own agenda or to claim that they have consulted with the community and addressed our concerns. We will submit questions and encourage you to do the same.
Council now state that the area of redevelopment will cover <4% of the land portion of the site. They have not released the site plan or how they arrived at this figure.
Mayor Penfold mentioned earlier in the week on his Facebook page that 'State Government are meeting their burden [asbestos remediation] within the funding approval' According to General Manager David Evans the cost of remediation lies wholly with State Government [Maitland City Council meeting 24/01/23]. Does anyone else feel angry about this? The grant monies could be better used for onsite infrastructure such as new playground equipment to benefit families of Maitland and not to pay the bills of State Government.
Only together will we stop this, thank you. Share the petition here