A marathon community meeting on Wednesday night saw residents from Mount Campbell Estate vent their frustrations at the proposed cemetery near the corner of Old Cooma Road and Burra Road.
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Up to 50 people filled the council chambers to voice their concerns, with the potential construction of the memorial park only being made public last month.
The fierce debate lasted more than half an hour while Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council staff presented the ins and outs of the project.
But disgust towards the proposed cemetery dominated the combined near four hour public forum.
Some main points raised by the residents include:
- Council’s consultation with home owners, who say the project should have been made public earlier.
- The frequency of storm water collecting on the site and the potential for flooding.
- If the council had considered another site and why they had seemed to settle on this particular location.
- If council had forced the land owners to enter in a contract to sell the parcel of land.
Council staff struggled to contain the opposition to the project, who hurled comments with regularity.
Tempers ran high, particularly when one separate member of the public said the group opposing the cemetery wasn’t helping anyone “by interrupting and talking crap”.
On Thursday, council general manager Peter Tegart said he understood it was an emotive issue and wanted four points to be made clear:
- Is that we are in need of a new site for a cemetery and that a site is needed within 5 years.
- Council had to secure this particular site in order to enable thorough investigations into whether the land will be suitable.
- Other sites are still being explored as the investigations may indicate that a memorial park is not suitable for this location.
- This proposal is for a modern style memorial park, which is very different to a traditional cemetery in the way it looks from both inside and outside.
“What may have been lost in the meeting last night was that while the site is the preferred site for the proposed memorial park, there are a number of approval and investigation steps that have to occur before a memorial park can be progressed,” Mr Tegart said.
During these stages he said the community will have a chance to appeal and have their views heard.
“What Council has done so far is some initial investigations and made a purchase of the land to enable us to make the required comprehensive investigations,” he said.
It was due to be a lengthy process before construction begins on the cemetery, but it was unlikely the residents at Mount Campbell Estate would support it.
