Green and environmentally-keen — Cr Mel McDonell is not for turning
Keen environmentalist and newly-elected independent Orange City Councillor, Melanie McDonell, is not for turning.
The former head of the Greens ticket is one of few Orange City Councillors who is prepared to put the recently-approved first stage of the $25-million sports stadium precinct at Bloomfield on hold until the new Council reviews alternative sites for the facility.
Getting the decision done right is more important to getting it done quickly, she believes, arguing that putting an 8500-capacity sports stadium on a one-way-in, one-way-out, country road to a growing health precinct, is fraught with peril.
Employed at the Health Precinct, she doesn’t believe assurances from Council that traffic jams during major sporting events will not endanger access to the hospital for patients and staff.
“I really want to have a look at it again — aside from the trees, as someone who drives there regularly, it doesn’t cope with current levels of use. There is no way, with thousands of extra cars, that it will be able to cope.
“We’ve got specialists who, even now, complain about the traffic and getting to emergencies, how’s it going to be with a full stadium crowd emptying onto those streets in south Orange?” the private practice nurse asked.
She said that Council should again look at the North Orange site purchased by a previous council for that very use, but where natural-occurring asbestos is often cited as an issue.
“I don’t understand the change of location and why they moved it from there, this was the site they surveyed, zoned, changed its land use, sure it’s got naturally-occurring asbestos, but why were ratepayers’ funds put into the block of land if they know it was unsuitable?” she asked.
“Besides, the advice for naturally-occurring asbestos, is the best way to deal with it, is to cap it with a sporting field.”
With a high-profile campaign; an articulate persona; a lot of new ideas; and her own giant utility advertising board on the back of a small utility truck during most of last year, Mel admits she wasn’t totally flabbergasted at her election win, saying that new blood is a wonderful thing for the Colour City.
“I wasn’t surprised as such, I was cautiously optimistic, a lot of people were giving me congratulations before the election, but I didn’t want to get too far in front of myself,” Cr McDonell said.
“I’m so impressed at the new-look Council, I did a little ‘happy dance’ when I saw that Gerald (Power) and Frances (Kinghorne) got in as well.
“I think this will make for a lot more respectful debate than in the last Chamber; a more respectful and collaborative approach.”
Believing that the days of party politicians ruling our lives are coming to an end, she was set to speak at independent environmental candidate Kate Hooks recent launch of her candidacy for Calare, until a long-running illness kept her away.
“Independents are not controlled by the party membership; I was actually going to speak at Kate’s launch, but my Mum read my speech.”
She believes that the new Council should have a more community-friendly emphasis with an all-weather playground top of her list.
“We need more of a ‘family focus’, not just a ‘sports family focus’. We need an all-weather adventure playground, somewhere in the middle of winter where kids can go on slides and the like.”
Cr McDonell would also like to see better footpaths and an electricity-powered, publicly-owned bus fleet to reduce locals’ reliance on the motor-car to get where they need to go.
“It’s a two-pronged approach that makes us less reliant on our cars… the only other thing is I want the new conservatorium of music and the planetarium to be built as soon-as possible. I’m a big muso… I played the bassoon as a kid. I think it will be great, so exciting,” she concluded.