COUNCIL BACKFLIPS OVER AUSTRALIAN FLAG BANNERS

In a dramatic turn of events and a chaotic Council Meeting, Central Coast Council has backflipped on the installation of the Australian flag banners on the light poles West Street, Umina Beach. 

“Last night, we won our democratic right to fly the national flag in our town centre as proud Australians”, said Peninsula Chamber President Matthew Wales after addressing the Council Meeting last night. 

“The Chamber had requested that the matter be deferred due to the inconsistencies in the report relating to references to Ausgrid’s policies that were clearly wrong”. 

“However, following representations made by the Chamber of Commerce and Ausgrid, Council has backflipped and agreed to the installation of the Australian flag banners together with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags leading up the Australia Day in 2023”, said Matthew Wales. 

“At the Council Meeting, Ausgrid warned Council that it should not rely on the some of the statements attributed to them in the report when making its decision”. 

“Ausgrid said that contrary to the Council report, it did not have objections to the flying of the national flag from its infrastructure”, said Matthew Wales. 

“Fortunately, this left Council with nowhere to go other than amending the Council policy to permit the Australian flag banners to be installed”. 

“Whilst we welcome the decision of Council, the Chamber is deeply concerned that both Ausgrid and Central Coast Council could get things so wrong”, said Matthew Wales. 

“What should have been a simple policy decision based on the Chambers request, has ended up as a huge embarrassment for Council at a time when it should be boosting its tarnished image in the community”. 

“The Chamber will now be seeking answers as to why the wrong information was provided to Council by Ausgrid and why Council did not check the facts before putting the policy before the Administrator”, said Matthew Wales. 

“After all, it didn’t take us very long to realise that the report was incorrect so why did Council so long”. 

“Sadly, after two years of battling Council, this could all have been avoided if they had sat down with the local business community and come to an agreement”, said Matthew Wales. 

“But we’ll take the win, celebrate Australia Day as a proud Australians and hope for better relations with Council in the future”