By Amelia Willmer
More than 30 people attended the Connecting with Council community meeting hosted by Southern Downs Regional Council at Allora RSL on 1 March.
All elected councilors attended, apart from Cr Gow who sent an apology.
The meeting was chaired by Mayor Vic Pennisi who sat next to the CEO Dave Burges at the head table flanked by three senior council officers who were on hand to answer numerous questions and to provide advice.
They were Director of Infrastructure Services Gary Murphy, Director of Planning Scott Riley, and Director of Customer Service Leon Love.
Numerous issues raised by attendees concerned the community hall, library, and senior citizens centre, lack of communication from council, preservation of the old fire station, the state of roads, footpaths, disabled access to shops, dangers of bunya nut trees near people’s homes, the plan to improve the streetscape, leaf litter from plane trees, the opening hours of the swimming pool, and the state of the change rooms at WIRAC in Warwick.
The majority of people in the audience were older, retired people.
One business owner asked why the meeting was held at 10.30am on a work day, preventing many workers and other business owners from attending (an issue that has been running on Allora social media pages).
The meeting went for two-and-half hours and concluded with lunch.
In relation to problems with road repairs, Cr Pennis declared: “I own it. The buck stops with me”.
He invited people to make an appointment with him, including after hours, to discuss this or any other issue.
