thanking you, the no maccas crew

My thanks to everyone who committed time to fight the McDonalds Tecoma VCAT appeal. The dust has settled and now we wait for a decision from the tribunal which should come around mid October.

I thought it was time to publicly recognise those, and there are many, who went above and beyond the call of duty. There were countless hours spent around a variety of kitchen tables and loungerooms over tea and biscuits. The appeal drew together many different people to fight for the common cause and I can assure you the community put in the absolute best effort they could to fight this appeal.

So my hearty thanks particularly go to:

Anita – part of the core campaign group, who let us meet at her house for weeks on end, became a storage point for material and did an incredibly comprehensive submission on built form

Anne, Barbara, Nicole, Steve – part of the core campaign group, who spent many hours on their presentations and coordinating public meetings and other events, assisting the community with questions about how to fill out their VCAT objections at help desks, tirelessly pursued signatures on the pledge and also let us meet at their respective houses

Claire – part of the core campaign group, who staffed the community help desk to assist with questions about VCAT objections, who spent countless hours pouring over traffic data and reports, coordinating community surveys, modelling traffic data and giving a cracker of a presentation to the tribunal, was one of our cross examiners, summed up in right of replies and concluded the community’s involvement in the appeal by speaking to the draft conditions

Community surveyors – who gave up their time to count cars, buses, bicycles, pedestrians on some chilly afternoons and evenings in Tecoma

Community submitters – who listened to advice, engaged fully in the process and gave some amazing presentations to the tribunal

David – part of the core campaign group, who was keen to pull and pick apart every expert report, sourced our expert on lighting, was a communications distributor, presented TVAG’s submission and participated in cross examination and right of reply

James – the webmaster

Joy – for some prolific badge making

Jude – who got the media involved when it was needed

Lynne & Richard – who sourced out the community’s hired gun, Town Planner Tim

Miranda – who helped with the info stalls about the VCAT statement of grounds

Karl – part of the core campaign group, who poured over expert reports, dug up countless Maccas cases, was an expert in signage and communication distribution, did an extensive presentation and had some magnificent cross examination moments

Kate – part of the core campaign group, who staffed our help desk to help community members with VCAT objections and came to the fore at the pointy end to provide valuable advice about cross examination, right of reply and draft conditions and provide daily support our cross examiners up at the big desk

Krissy – part of the core campaign group, the videomaker of Our Tecoma

Town Planner Tim – although not strictly part of the community because he was our hired gun, his representation was strong and forceful and he put forward a comprehensive case on our behalf

Wilf – part of the core campaign group, who was active in so many ways, a dab hand with signage, developed a corker of a presentation for the preschool and sadly passed away suddenly 3 days out from the start of the hearing

There’s many more who aren’t listed, I thank you too, it’s been an enormous effort and highlights how the scales are skewed in terms of resources when it comes to applicants with deep pockets and community members with no resources but their local knowledge, skill, talent, passion and commitment to draw upon, and we did have plenty of that!

The email traffic has been extensive, the meeting hours long, let’s hope it’s all worth it and we get the right result for Tecoma.