Yes, that's right! This week Clarence Valley Council voted to develop a policy on prohibiting the use and sale of helium balloons on Council managed land and facilities.
The Daily Examiner's Tim Howard wrote this piece for Friday's edition of the paper.
Helium
filled balloons might be on the way out on council land in the Clarence Valley,
but they’ll still have a place in the region’s tourism literature.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Clarence
Valley councillors voted to develop a policy to allow council to ban the sale
and release of helium filled balloons from its land. But when it came to the
next item of business, a motion calling for the removal of the flying
balloons-inspired Clarence Valley tourism logo, they baulked.
Faced with a report inspired by
the council’s Climate Change Advisory Committee calling for a complete ban on
all balloons on council’s land and facilities, Greens Cr Greg Clancy put up a
compromise motion.
His motion called for council
to develop a policy to ban helium-filled balloons, investigate the implication
of the ban on other council policies and come up with a draft awareness
campaign about the environmental impacts of balloons.
His motion also called for the
erection of signs at council cemeteries to indicate balloons were banned.
A group of councillors: Mayor
Jim Simmons and Crs Andrew Baker, Richie Williamson and Arthur Lysaught argued
hard against the proposal.
But they met a passionate
response from an equally determined group in Crs Clancy, Karen Toms and Peter
Ellem.
After almost an hour of debate,
their arguments about the dangers to the environment swayed two extra votes
from Crs Debrah Novak and Jason Kingsley.
The next item up for discussion
was a report reviewing council logos.
Cr Toms took exception to the
Valley’s tourism logo, a bunch of coloured circles she said represented a
cluster of flying balloons.
To the frustration of several
councillors, the ensuing 25 minutes of debate resulted in a re-run of arguments
in the previous item.
Cr Toms argued because the
previous motion looked for a policy to ban balloons, it was a good time to
follow through by removing the logo.
But Cr Kingsley could not be
swayed this time and his vote against the proposal to remove the logo decided
the matter in the negative.
Below is a copy of CVC's resolution on Tuesday, June 25, 2019. It can also be seen at page 82 of Council's minutes here.
Credits:
1. The Daily Examiner for the image "Green light for balloon policy" and the text penned by its senior reporter Tim Howard
2. Clarence Valley Council for the Image of "Council Resolution".
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