If there was a bullshit bar, what type of bullshit would you order?
There are many types of bullshit, executive bullshit, legislative bullshit, quasi-judical bullshit and of course consultation bullshit – but today we visit the little shop of of quasi-judicial-consultative-bullshit fusion as served by Development WA, flavour provided in this episode by Element.
In the community engagement stage of Edge Living’s soon to be approved with conditions by Development WA Dunes development at reserve street. [yes I can see into the future & no the TAB won’t take bets] The public, all 68 of them, were posed several fundamental and highly investigative questions, community engagement after all is considered best practice these days, a requirement of the Scarborough Beach Master Scam and it’s importance highlighted in recent changes to the Planning System.
So… hard hitting questions on building heights, departures from the planning framework, density traffic and infrastructure concerns, destruction of public open space right ? well no, not quite..
Q4 If there was a wine bar, what type would you enjoy?
Q5 If you could visit the wine bar on the opening night, what would you order?
The earth shattering most popular result to Q5 if you are interested was …drum roll… wine.
Q$z If Madam had to have a limb chopped off – which limb would Madam choose to lose?
OK, I made that one up but if you have seen the full questionnaire hopefully you will get the point.
So how did Element mange to attract 68 whole people to the open day ?
Give me 5 minutes on Facebook and I can gather you up 68 people for the unveiling of a dead dog, I would not need a Flyer but if I did it would quite probably have featured a picture of a dog, in any state of being. Element preferred something a little more cryptic.
I am not sure what the above conveys at first glance to the reader?
The terminally bored might, with gentle persuasion, have perused this delightful and cheery invitation leaflet ‘delivered’ to local residents (not to me despite being on the delivery map) but would quite probably be just as in the dark after reading it as before they started – it appears in the fleeting moment – the glance it might receive shortly before recycling – like an advert for a new bar or bistro only without pictures that have anything to do with wine bars bistros or for that matter 2 15-18 storey developments.
The flyer instead showed local points of interest, lots of them, just not the point of interest of interest…. I wonder if this is what the sales brochures will look like ?
Perhaps the sales brochure will unlike the flyer include the proposed building heights –
NEITHER of the flyers anywhere mention the height of the development
In fact if you read the proposal downloadable from Development WA you will note that it does not once mention in the text the height of the development in storeys – only in meters (other than 15-18ST in a legend on a graph) this is not community engagement this is misdirection ..
…misdirection which may go someway to explain how the proponent manages to cynically conjure up credence for its conclusion that:
“There is moderate support for the redevelopment of Lot 500 Scarborough.”
“A number of responses indicated 0% support, with commentary indicating concerns for traffic and ‘over-development’/height within Scarborough. Positive support responses were keen to see fresh development in Scarborough.“
The best positive quote Element could extract from anyone was:
“I went to the public showing yesterday and I was impressed by the project. My major concern was to find out if the tower would block [our] ocean views from R212 in Observation Rise. It seems that we are only going to lose a partial view but we will gain by getting a much improved development in the area.”
hmmmm – likely to be said by (in my personal opinion) no-one – ever.
Overall, Element reported 75% support from, depending on your interpretation at most 68 – 104 people only 85% of whom were familiar with the area – I wonder how many would have turned up had the actual scale and scope of the development been disclosed… we will never know so I am calling this 75% support as 100% bullshit.
Don’t shoot me I’m only the piano player
They still have those in wine bars don’t they? regardless my rant here is not BTW aimed at the proponent- though not including proposed building heights in community engagement is disgraceful and dishonest given the scope of the requested variation from the scheme, no the point is that they know as well as you and I do that money spent in consultation in the Scarborough Beach Development Zone is money down the drain – money no better spent on consultation as on the ridiculous public art contributions developers will be asked to make which will be sold to the natives and just as importantly the West Australian as `community benefits` or the development infrastructure contributions they will make that will probably go toward the traffic anger management officers that will be required in Scarborough Beach Car Park formerly known as West Coast Highway.
Development WA engagement which for the curious is an integral and required component of the application process, like DAP, SDAU and WAPC consultation is no more than window dressing for headlines where decision makers will claim that the community were consulted – what they they won’t say is that the community told them to go **** themselves, which we can say with abandon given no-one is actually listening.
And finally, Beachy McBeach face!
I love people.
Asked what Scarborough Beach’s characteristics were – the highest polling response from this engagement process was `Beachy` , I think we can all learn from this.
Becoming Bogan , Corrupt, Degenerating, Troubled and Glenelg on Steroids were some of the other more interesting responses.
