The recommendation had been put to the Traffic Committee a month beforehand but councillors were not informed. Cr Libby Martin (Deputy Mayor) is the councillor representative who was present at that meeting and the proposal was introduced by Mr Mark Piorkowski (General Manager Operations).

The recommendation in the Agenda is as follows:

A few years ago the Armidale public told council after an extensive and expensive consultation exercise that there was no way they would accept vehicle access to the mall apart from the current emergency services and council vehicles.

As a result of the public outcry, council was forced to drop the failed urban landscape plans by King & Campbell, which had been commissioned by council at great expense to the ratepayers of Armidale.

At that time those plans were kept secret by council for months before being revealed at a meeting of Mall traders in November 2017.

A subsequent petition of residents containing just under 4000 signatures was accepted by the CEO, Mr Peter Dennis, but disappeared soon after and was not recorded in the consultation report despite photographic evidence being published in the Armidale Express.

A written complaint was sent to the Ombudsman, the Minister for Local Government, the Office of Local Government and the Premier but was not acted upon.

It appears that the reason for this current proposal is to provide an after hours pick up and drop off point in the Mall for a single business and the NEV 2030 Think Tank was told that by a reliable authority that the owner of that business had offered to finance the roadway.

The ensuing permanent roadworks would include bollards, signage and the removal of the stage area causing major disruption to the aesthetics and public usage of the Central Mall area.

There has been no development application, no community consultation and no councillor consultation. Councillors were expected to vote on an open-ended proposal which does not follow due process.

Several years earlier when the business in question put in a development proposal for refurbishment, it was documented that all vehicular access was to be from Cinders Lane and a carpark be installed behind the business in question. That carpark was subsequently built.

Therefore in proposing this project to the Traffic Committee the General Manager (Operations) was acting against an approved development application which has not been amended.

At the council meeting held on Wednesday 22nd April, Cr Robinson asked the Deputy Mayor Cr Martin (Traffic Committee representative) if any drawings or documents had been presented to their meeting of 3rd March. She declined to comment.

The proposal has now been voted down by ARC councillors. However many questions still remain as to how the proposal came about, who would have benefited and who offered to pay for it.

Why was the item placed on the agenda within the Traffic Committee Report without informing councillors or the public beforehand, knowing this was a highly contentious issue for the people of Armidale.

Answers to these questions need to go on the public record. The Office of Local Government has now sent a memo to councils across the state warning them of corruption during the pandemic.

Maria Hitchcock OAM, New England Visions 2030 Think Tank

English is our common and legal language, yet, like all languages the meaning of words and phrases are highly dependent on grammar and context.

The Armidale Regional Council agenda for its Wednesday, 22 April 2020 meeting (freely available for download from the Armidale Regional Council website) contains a motion (17.1):

Title: FOR DECISION: Minutes - Traffic Advisory Committee - 03 March 2020

In reference to the proposed changes to Armidale's Mall, the following was recommended:

RECOMMENDATION:

A Shared Zone is defined under Rule 24 in the NSW Road Rules (2008) (www.rms.nsw.gov.au/trafficinformation/downloads/ttd_2016-001.pdf) as:

"a road or network of roads or a road related area where space is shared safely by vehicles and pedestrians and where pedestrian priority and quality of life take precedence over ease of vehicle movement".

Let's look at a few issues here:

In days of "fake news", our use of language, especially in documents of this kind, becomes more and more important, as does the education of our young in the development of a discerning citizen.

In www.digitalcitizenship.nsw.edu.au/articles/become-a-discerning-digital-citizen, Jenny Luca makes the point that "The Australian Curriculum provides a passage with the General capabilities. Critical and creative thinking, personal and social capability, and ethical understanding all lend themselves as key tenets of what it takes to be a discerning digital citizen."

What a great discussion starter for an English class.

Martin Levins, New England Visions 2030 Think Tank

This proposal damages one of Armidale's great visual and community amenities. Although pedestrian traffic has thinned in recent years with the closure of several businesses in the mall, it is still vibrant at certain times of the day and when special events are scheduled. These include regular markets, the Autumn Festival, family events like those targeting children, and the recent, pre-COVID-19 lock-down, foodies evening.

The old Courthouse, whose future is uncertain, at the eastern end might have its options reduced by the proposal before us.

Given the proposal's potentially wide-ranging impacts on our community and various businesses, we would have expected it to have been:

(a) considered by council's planning staff;

(b) subjected to the usual processes of community consultation;

(c) and be discussed and potentially amended after discussions between those staff members and the project's proponents prior to final submission to council.

What we see instead is an attempt to by-pass due process by sleight-of-hand focusing on just the interests of one applicant and its potential traffic impact. Community and wider business input is sought only at the very last minute.

Council itself has almost been entirely by-passed in the process and unable to offer ideas and suggest amendments in the formulation stage, despite its duty to consider wider community interests.

The issue raises numerous questions that could take several hours to resolve by council itself, but there is insufficient time to debate the matter given council's extensive agenda. In short, the whole matter should be granted due process.

Finally, the idea of a short trial is appalling since the construction of road access will be costly and potentially make the proposal irreversible. If the proposer is offering to fund the project that comes close buying one's preferred outcomes and stuffing the community in the process.

Dr Tony Sorenson, New England Visions 2030 Think Tank

One of the problems I see with the present Armidale Regional Council is their lack of communications and working with our community.

I and many other good people were on the Economic Growth Committee and yet when questions were raised on how projects the Armidale Regional Council had successfully applied for funding were going eg. Super Playground and Helicopter landing pad at Armidale Regional Airport, our committee was disbanded soon after.

It was almost like council didn't like open discussion.

Now here we have another example of this lack of transparency with the Armidale Regional Council, where despite knowing how controversial putting forward a proposal to have shared access in the Mall would be, it was still put forward with the absolute minimum of opportunity for our community to engage in this decision.

Council need to engage with the Armidale community not shut them out.

We need to progress good ideas, like security screening at Armidale Airport, plan a future for the old Armidale Teachers College and bring modern medical procedures into our community like the Virtual Hospital and Robotic Surgery.

The time is right for accelerated change and opportunity, but not if the council keeps cutting our community out of discussion and decisions.

Alun Davies, New England Visions 2030 Think Tank