Ken Maas, Castlemaine
Maryborough Council is at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal defending its rejection of billboards, as Mount Alexander Shire Council recently attempted (‘Billboard blow’, Midland Express, December 18).
A multi-council campaign should be created, including requests for state government intervention, which has the power to do so.
Notwithstanding such critical objections to the billboards, other real issues reach far and beyond the billboards themselves.
The most elemental issue of council sovereignty arises with this such simple and fundamental type of application to council. It cuts across so many social welfare, amenity and basic rights that the hubris of the applicant and VCAT is bewildering. Especially the order to remove a not-for-profit sign to accommodate a sign for profit.
This is the epitome of a social malaise in western democracy that produces the likes of Donald Trump and risks the intensification of populism and its consequences. Where else but at grass roots can this be attested and with local government protestations.
