As a member of the Jamberoo Valley Ratepayers and Residents Association, I recently read two pieces of correspondence from Kiama Council that left me flabbergasted.

In both cases, residents offered practical, low-cost solutions to very real local problems. One involved flooding. The other raised safety concerns about a proposed cycleway extension. Both ideas were constructive. Both could have sparked a genuine Council–community partnership.

Instead, they ran headlong into that familiar force, a masterclass in bureaucratic deflection.

You can read the full exchange for yourself here and here.

Here’s the short version:

• Residents offered helpful suggestions.

• Council replied with historical references, legal limitations, and a general tone of “nothing to see here.”

• No invitation to meet. No curiosity. No sense of shared purpose.

The pattern is clear

Raise a concern, offer a solution, and Council will reply with:

• A plan from 2005

• A rule they’ve decided is immovable

• And a warning that any change might require redoing a flawed $200,000 design

All of it technically accurate. None of it helpful.

It was a masterclass in how to appear responsive while ensuring nothing changes, a reply carefully worded to close down the conversation and leave Jamberoo residents seething.

Lest we forget, this is the same Council that already left Jamberoo with a $970,000 shortfall in infrastructure funding.

How hard is it to write a response like this?

“Thanks for raising this. It’s clear you’ve thought it through. While there are some process and legal considerations, we’d be happy to meet, look at the specifics, and explore whether a collaborative approach might be possible.”

Not revolutionary. Just reasonable.

We can do better

It makes you seriously wonder what direction staff are getting from the top. Because this isn’t about policy. It’s about showing up with a willingness to listen, to think, and to work alongside the people you serve.

It takes no courage to quote the rulebook. It takes courage to say, “You might be right. Let’s find a way.”

When thoughtful, constructive ideas are met with polite obstruction, something deeper is lost. Not just confidence in the process — but faith that the process was ever meant to serve the community at all.

The rules are not the issue. The absence of imagination is. The absence of leadership is.

And that, unlike drainage or bike paths,  is not so easily fixed with a shovel or a line on a map.
It takes people willing to say, We can do better. Let’s begin.

Update 

After publishing this post, I received a formal request from Kiama Council asking me to remove links to two emails sent by Council staff in response to community advocacy.

To clarify: those emails were sent to a local advocacy organisation. They relate to infrastructure and safety concerns raised on behalf of residents.

It is accepted practice to assume that Council’s correspondence would be shared with the people affected. That’s how transparency works. It’s also how democracy works.

Council’s objections appear less about privacy and more about controlling the narrative. In that sense, the complaint reads like a local-government-scale SLAPP – a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation – intended to intimidate rather than inform.

I have declined their request.

That Council is now reading the blog is encouraging. May it be the beginning of more open dialogue, not the end of it.

FYI for other advocacy groups:

• Council cannot claim privacy or confidentiality while engaging in correspondence with a publicly transparent group.

• Their email responses are part of a public conversation, not a private one.

• Attempting to restrict further distribution is a retrospective attempt to control optics, not a legitimate legal position.

#KiamaCouncil #LocalGovernment #Jamberoo #CommunityVoices #CivicLeadership #BureaucraticFailure #CouncilAccountability #PublicEngagement #InfrastructureMatters #WeCanDoBetter