It's official. Clarence Valley Council is mad as a march hare

The Daily Examiner 20 July 2013:

Clarence Valley councillor Andrew Baker says he resigned from the environment economic and planning committee in part due to the lack of action in Maclean.

Cr Baker said he was frustrated with, what he termed inaction on plans to link Maclean back to the Clarence River.

The 2011 Clouston plan was widely rejected by the public, Cr Baker said.

The plan was reworked and in June 2012 was adopted by the council, along with a resolution to do "a comprehensive design process for McLachlan Park in 2012/2013, taking into account community views and land tenure considerations".

Cr Baker attended the meeting run by Mr Engwicht, which he said had nothing to do with the design.

He also objected to Mr Engwicht's idea of a "tourist attraction toilet".

"The idea of having a tourist attraction toilet with a secret garden atop to create a secret river experience can only be described as 'on the nose' by anyone who just wants this horrible joke to go away," Cr Baker said.

"It stinks that we would waste ratepayers' money paying someone who wants to hide the river behind the dunny.

"I want Maclean to be thought of as penthouse-quality, not as an outhouse joke."  

All sides in this council debate from the penthouse-quality to the loo with a view have missed the point. 

McLachlan Park is only a name. The reality is that the area in question is a concrete and earthen levee wall of approx. 7,796m2, part of a longer earth wall constructed to protect Maclean against flooding.

It is much more important to ensure the structural integrity of this levee than to tart it up for tourists or remove part of it to provide more CBD parking.

Especially when council management has encouraged councillors to use this 62 year-old high school dropout with no design or planning qualifications (pictured below) as a consultant.

David Engwicht

A relentless self-promoter

The Border Mail 3 and 4 March 2009:

WODONGA’s controversial placemaker David Engwicht has resigned.

The man charged with the makeover of High Street and paid $150,000 a year to do so tendered his resignation to Wodonga Council yesterday.

His last day of work is believed to be today.

Councillors and senior staff have defended Mr Engwicht in recent times after he was excluded from a committee reviewing his $5.4 million concept for a makeover of the city’s main strip shopping centre….

His $5.1 million concept for High Street, released in September, was widely panned...

To date Mr. Engwicht appears to have been paid $5,000 by Clarence Valley Council. 

* Graphic from Running On Carbs

* Photographs from PPS and Engwicht website