December 9th, 2021Your say

At the council meeting on November 23, 2021, Cr Don Henderson said that there was no community consultation about The Rex.

The following day, Mayor Cr Tim Drylie echoed this comment when he referred to “the lack of depth of community consultation at the beginning of this project”.
I would like to remind both councillors that their comments are not borne out by the evidence. There was a report to the August 16, 2016 council meeting. This report gave the background to the proposal to purchase The Rex and commented on the “extensive range of public consultation” which had taken place.
“The community consultation has included 10 public sessions in The Rex (attended by approximately 200 people), media announcement, public newspapers and Facebook information, and hard copy feedback forms. A number of additional presentations on the proposal were delivered at the request of local community groups, or to individuals that were unable to attend the advertised sessions.”
The report outlined the key themes which emerged from the community consultation process. The number one theme was “Concern for the Daylesford Cinema”.
The community consultation added to the work the then CEO had been doing with council staff in 2014 around staffing accommodation needs.
It seems to me that history is being rewritten in an attempt to portray The Rex project as negatively as possible.

• Gina Lyons, Daylesford