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6 MARCH, 2024
Aiming to be active
Riverwalk Primary students (from left) Mahathi, Anoushka, Leila, Rydah and Wyndham councillor Susan McIntyre, step out in support of the Active Travel program. (Ljubica Vrankovic) 392264_02
More Wyndham students are set to use their school shoes for walking, with another local school joining the Active Travel program. On Friday March 1, Werribee’s Riverwalk Primary became the latest school to join the program which aims to get more students walking or riding to and from their homes each day. Riverwalk has joined the Junior Active Travel Leader program which will provide students with confidence and skills to run small events, promote active travel through doing and talking about it at school assemblies. It joins the likes of Bellbridge Primary, Wyndham Vale Primary and Saltwater P-9 College in participating in the program which is operated by Wydnham council. “Wyndham’s Active Travel program is fantastic initiative that has been embraced by the community and local schools,” said Wyndham councillor Susan McIntyre. “There are a number of schools that are participating in Wyndham, encouraging students, their families and friends to walk, scoot and ride to school. Being active is beneficial for physical as well as mental well being while helping reduce traffic congestion and pollution.”
Wyndham council chaos By Cade Lucas Wyndham deputy mayor, Josh Gilligan, has launched an extraordinary attack on his colleagues claiming he feels “sick and embarrassed” to have to serve alongside “such incredibly poor elected officials“. The criticism, which is likely to further inflame tension on council, came in a letter that Cr Gilligan addressed to the mayor and his fellow councillors in relation to an upcoming VCAT hearing involving himself and Cr Jasmine Hill, who is appealing against her suspension for misconduct. Cr Hill was found guilty of bullying two council staffers by the Councillor Conduct
Panel (CCP) in November after a complaint was lodged by Cr Gilligan. Last week lawyers for Wyndham council notified VCAT that they would not join Cr Gilligan as a party in the upcoming appeal. At Tuesday night’s council meeting, a notice of motion from Cr Gilligan asking that the council fund his legal representation for the appeal, as it had for Cr Hill’s defence before the CCP, was defeated by six votes to two. In the letter seen by the Star Weekly, Cr Gilligan said that these decisions breached the council’s zero tolerance towards bullying and that in the future it would be used as a case study for how not to handle such matters. “A majority of my colleagues have chosen
to send a clear message to our workforce this week — the right to a safe and healthy workplace at Wyndham is not a given anymore,” Cr Gilligan wrote in the letter. “Shame on each and every councillor who has used their authority to create this scenario.” In response, Wyndham mayor Jennie Barrera said that the matter was still subject to legal proceedings and that any further comment risked being prejudicial to the outcome. After beginning her four month suspension from council in December, Cr Hill lodged an appeal with VCAT just before Christmas and was reinstated pending the outcome.
Cr Hill’s appeal is set to be heard in June. Cr Gilligan said in the letter that while Cr Hill had a right to appeal, he was angered by the way she had been welcomed back onto council while he was being left to fight the matter on his own. “You won’t see me in a photo alongside a bully because I value my integrity and solitary for those workers over Facebook likes. It makes me sick and embarrassed to have to serve alongside such incredibly poor elected officials,” wrote Cr Gilligan, noting there are “some caught up in this who supported strong moral action on this matter all the way“. ■ Continued: Page 2
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