President's Report at the AGM

The council workshop's and meetings relating to the Fig Tree Pocket local plan were completed prior to this committee's year.

We looked at what had happened during the two years of negotiations and decided to concentrate on the two sections of the plan that would most effect the Mandalay area, while offering support and assistance to the broader Fig Tree Pocket Action Group should they request it.

Our specific targets involved the leased Pony club/EFA land adjacent to our estate and the Lone Pine land on the opposite side of Fig Tree Pocket road.

The local plan provided for small block and multi unit housing development of the pony club land when the lease expired or was terminated. This lease can be terminated by the council at anytime since some of its conditions are almost impossible to adhere to.

Our efforts here resulted in a written and printed guarantees by Cr. Tim Quinn that the Pony Club land would not be used for housing.

This was a satisfactory result but similar guarantees in the past have been overturned and we will have to continue to monitor this situation.

The Lone Pine land was a different story. The Lord Mayor advised me that certain negotiations with the developer resulted in a situation where the council would find itself in court should changes be made.

We argued that the flood levels in 1974 made this land quite unsuitable for housing and, with the help of past and present residents, we had enough information and photographic proof of flood levels to prove our point.

The council advised that they would continue to use the Q100 flood levels, which in the Mandalay area at least are very inaccurate.

Should development go ahead on this land, the developers and residents should be made aware of the actual floods levels in case such information is needed for future litigation.

Our association submitted formal objections to a number of aspects of the proposed local plan.

If Cr. Tim Quinn is to be believed, only twenty-eight objections were submitted and if this is true, there is little chance of success.

Councils like lengthy disputes because while they do that sort of thing as a part of their jobs, the ratepayers have other priorities and can spend only a limited amount of time supporting action groups.

Our committee had other issues to work with during the year including another major social event in the park.

The event began with a ceremonial tree planting by the Turrbal people represented by Connie Issacs and Maroochy Barambah.

This was an important part of the ongoing history of Mandalay for a number of reasons and was the culmination of some complex and often difficult negotiations.

Councillor Jane Prentice has been very supportive all year and her help with the tree planting negotiations was invaluable and very much appreciated.

The evening event was attended by several hundred people and most appeared to enjoy the format.

Other activities completed during the year included the erection of an off leash dog area and the completion of renovations to central park.

Various council people put in some special efforts with the park and deserve our thanks.

The final event of the year was our participation in the annual Clean Up Australia program. We are a bit new to this and numbers of participating residents is not high. Next year we will try to encourage a bigger effort.

A special thanks to those responsible for setting up our website. The site represents a huge number of hours work and if you haven't visited it yet, I suggest you take a look. Its detailed, professional and a credit to those involved.

We started this year with a shortage of members and ended it with the strongest membership numbers we have ever had.

The 2001 committee has been a great committee to work with. In fact it has been one of the best of the twenty-four I have worked with.

I would like to thank them for that and some dedicated efforts that will not be mentioned in this report.


Warren Fletcher
President 

13 March 2002

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