Re: R.d.f.l Thread 2008
Little bit of football, however relates to the out of touch Hume City Council that some of us are asscoiated with.....
Anzac Day Friday, the Sunbury RSL and Vetrans league hold the service at 10am outside the front of memorial hall every year in rememberance, since the shrine was built. For every year passed the over the decades an agreement has been in place prior to the Hume allignment, with the Shire of Bulla, that the facilities and park land within the memorial hall and shrine were made available at a no cost charge. And so the damm shouldn't be charged.
To charge our war vetrans the use of facilities for a day of remeberance, when if it wasnt for them we wouldn't have the things we take for granted. The mayor of the Hume City Council last week Mohammed Abboucie, put a figure to hire the seats, cooking and tea facilities to the RSL and Vetrans to use the surroundings and facilities. A Estimated cost I am unaware of, but it a disgrace, and Citizens and rate payers of Sunbury should be filthy and propose us back to move to Macedon Council.
The RSL and vetrans had to outsource their catering and facilities to N & M catering, and I am led to believe the Vetrans in the end, ended up removing the chairs form the hall....
Boy how stories get twisted and turned around!
The Council are required by law to have the RSL complete an event process, mostly to do with OHS and given the events on ANZAC Day where serious First Aid was required the process worked. Unfortunately a junior officer was following normal protocol for events and originally told them that there would be a fee, as soon as this was realised by Senior officers the RSL were told there would be no fee, we have never and will never charge them a fee.
The chairs that are used inside are really not suitable to be used outside (OH&S) and council would have assisted in obtaining suitable chairs however, I was never notified about any of these matters until 10.05 on Friday morning, a bit late to do anything.
The RSL got the chairs from N&M free of charge I believe, and having sat in them they were a lot more comfortable than the chairs from the hall.
The council have never been involved with the catering for the ANZAC day function, the modest morning tea is provided by the RSL and out the back they make a bit of money by selling a bit of grog.
Sunbury has never been a part of Macedon Council so there is nothing to potentially move back to as it never existed.
Hume City Council has/is spending $20,000 on a memorial garden and improvements to the Monument in Sunbury, this money came out of mine and my fellow councillors ward allocation.