CALL TO SCRAP COUNCIL BANNER POLICY
The Peninsula Chamber of Commerce has today called on Central Coast Council to scrap its controversial Street Banner Policy which deliberately bans the flying of the Australian flag banner on Council infrastructure and in particular, the West Street light poles in Umina Beach leading up to Australia Day.
“Despite years of asking Central Coast Council to allow the Chamber of Commerce to install the Australian flag banners leading up to Australia Day on the light poles brackets in West Street, Umina Beach, the Council has used every possible excuse to prevent this from happening”, said President of the Peninsula Chamber of Commerce, Matthew Wales.
“It has now come to the point where the Council has prepared a new Street Banner Policy which they intend to adopt at the Council Meeting on the 11th October”.
“This new policy specifically prevents the Australian flag banners being flown even though they comply with all the Federal Government protocols”, said Mathew Wales.
“Initially they claimed that they did not have the funds to install the banners even though the Business Chamber was prepared to pay for them as we have in the past. Then Council claimed that flying the Australian flag banners might offend some people although they don’t stipulate who. And now in the report to Council, it is claimed that Ausgrid (who own the light poles) do not support the flying of national flags on their assets”.
“Council further claim that Ausgrid supports Council’s policy position in that it is consistent with their own guidelines and organisational policy”, said Matthew Wales.
“This is clearly incorrect and completely misleading”.
“The Chamber has read the Ausgrid guidelines which makes absolutely no reference to precluding the flying of the Australian national flag or flag banners on its infrastructure”, said Matthew Wales.
“This position was confirmed by Ausgrid in a recent letter to the Peninsula Chamber of Commerce where it stated that it is the community working with Council, not Ausgrid, that should determine what should be hung on the light pole brackets, or whether they should be dressed at all”.
“Ausgrid further confirmed that it does not stipulate the terms of their usage beyond the requirement for public safety, causing no risk to the electricity network and avoidance of advertising of products, commercial services, or any form of political promotion”, said Matthew Wales.
“The local Business Chamber is rightly outraged that the Council has misled the local community by blaming Ausgrid for its policy position when clearly Ausgrid have no specific objection to the installation of the Australian flag banners particularly on Australia Day”.
“The Chamber will be demanding answers as to who wrote the misleading report and who is responsible for the time wasting agenda being run by Council to prevent the flag/banner request by the Peninsula Chamber of Commerce”, said Matthew Wales.
“Council has recently claimed that the current debate is nothing more than a “misconception” over the policy and seek to deflect the argument by making repeated references to flying the Australian flag on flag poles”.
“There is no misconception here. The debate was never about flying the Australian flag on flag poles. It was all about installing the Australian flag banners on the light pole brackets that were specifically designed to accommodate them. Something we have done before for a number of years leading up to Australia Day”, said Matthew Wales.
“Our local business community are completely bewildered as to why Council is so adamant on this subject. This despite a letter of support being provided by the Member for Terrigal, Adam Crouch who is the Parliamentary Secretary for the Central Coast together with a letter from the State Member for Gosford, Liesl Tesch and a letter from the local Aboriginal Land Council, Mingaletta”.
“Sadly, with the Council under administration, we have no ability to approach locally elected Councillors for help on this matter. The Administrator solely makes the final decision and it is clear that he intends to rubber stamp the Street Banner Policy despite the misleading advice provided in the report”, said Matthew Wales.