- Worker fined $11,500 for filling in a 2m hole that the city had neglected
- City Hall withdraws fines after media attention
- The continued absurdity of the town councils is highlighted
- READ MORE: Things are getting serious for Albo’s finance team
Just when you thought stupidity and logic-defying government bureaucracy couldn’t get any worse… a Melbourne local council enters the scene.
A Frankston worker decided to take matters into his own hands and fill in a dangerous hole near his home and a bus stop.
The ditch was formed after a storm uprooted a tree. Frankston City Council removed the fallen tree but left the two-metre-deep hole unrepaired for more than six months.
Obviously, it is the job of the government, and in particular the local government, to solve the problem. But when it does not act, it is not surprising that the local community does so.
A man named Adam Marsal decided to take matters into his own hands. As a self-employed landscaper, he had the tools, the knowledge and the motivation, as a neighbour who lived close to the dangerous and unsightly hole, to fill it in and make it safe.
What did he get for his trouble? Two fines from the city, one sent to his company and the other to him personally, totaling $11,500. He couldn’t make it up.
No thanks, no apologies for the delay by the council. In fact, the fines were preceded by a 20-minute interrogation by a council employee about why he did what he did.
And after Mr Marsal understandably took his absurd deal to the media, he received threats that his home might not comply with council building regulations.
Frankston City Council put local resident Adam Marsal (above) through hell when it filled in a 2m hole after the organisation left it there for six months.
The spot where Mr Mansel, a landscaper, filled in the hole.
Mr Mansel is questioned by a council employee for 20 minutes
If that is not revenge for having the temerity to not accept the treatment meted out to him by his local council, it is at least a perception problem for a level of government that citizens do not particularly like and most of us wonder why it is not scrapped.
Mr. Marsal succeeded in having the larger of the two fines (the one imposed on his company) overturned, but only after adverse media attention and only after spending thousands of dollars hiring lawyers to fight the penalties.
Some real-life experiences of the lack of lateral thinking among some bureaucrats best summarise why local government needs reform.
The major parties are deluding themselves if they believe that having their “up-and-comers” spend time working as local councillors is a breeding ground for future success in state and federal politics.
The recent failure of the New South Wales Liberal Party to submit its applications in time for the upcoming local elections in Australia’s largest state is to be applauded. Incompetence has spared us all another layer of major party interference in our lives.
So why isn’t the abolition of local government on the political agenda? It’s a level of government that is not provided for in the Constitution. We don’t need a referendum to get rid of it.
The answer is that it suits politicians to have yet another layer of government draining taxpayers’ funds. This means they have more positions to fill as part of the taxpayer-funded wealth train. But when stupidity like what we’ve seen in Frankston gets media attention, faith in local government fades even further.
Perhaps total abolition is not the way forward, because I’m not sure I would any more trust state or federal governments to collect my bins, look after the pavements or, in the case of Frankston council, fill potholes in the roads in a timely manner.
But local government is in urgent need of reform and rarely offers good value for money when you compare the rates we pay with the quality of the services we deliver.
Mr. Marsal is running for local council, with the goal of ending stupidity and fixing a broken culture. I for one wish him the best and hope he gets elected so he can look those who gave him those fines in the eye and force them to change the way they treat their community.
Once there, if successful, Marsal will not be captured by the system as so many others were before him. We have seen many good people with good intentions become little more than time servants who enrich themselves after becoming elected politicians.
