Mayor Thorley finds CADS petition hard to swallow ...

Faced with almost 12,000 signatures on the CADS petition, Mayor Thorley beat a hasty retreat to her office.

Perhaps to contemplate life after Saturday?

From the Courier Mail:

Petition hard to swallow

By Amanda Gearing

28 July 2006

IN a fiery display at Toowoomba City Hall the main opponents in tomorrow's water recycling debate faced off for about two seconds – then retreated to their respective corners.

After Citizens Against Drinking Sewage co-ordinator Rosemary Morley handed a bundle of 12,000 petition signatures to Mayor Dianne Thorley, the mayor took the bundle, said a terse thank you and immediately retreated to her office.

Mrs Morley was left to explain the dummy spit to a media gaggle that has arrived in the city to cover the poll tomorrow.

"She made it plain she doesn't want to speak to me," Mrs Morley said.

She said the council had not consulted the community about possible water supply options before committing to water recycling, and opponents had been gathering signatures for the past 12 months.

"The petition shows that we mean business," she said.

Documents show the council identified the need for a new dam in 1996 but in late 2004 there were no new water source options on the drawing board.

Faced with drought and rapidly dwindling supplies, the council was told it was not in a position to undertake an extensive community consultation program to identify water sources and an adaptation of a water recycling plan first proposed in 1996 was adopted.

Mrs Morley said she hoped that after tomorrow's poll the council would consult the community about the alternative water sources that had now been identified.

Outside City Hall, most voters at the pre-polling booth refused to take both the "yes" and the "no" how to vote cards.

No voter Ngaire Macqueen said she didn't take either of the how-to-vote cards because she had made up her mind using information in the media and mailed out to residents.

Mrs Macqueen, a naturopath, said health was the most important issue to her and she had looked at the processes and whether they would be sustainable and healthy.

"I voted no just because most man-made processes don't tend to be 100 per cent forever. I'm worried about problems with health for people at large," she said.

Yes voter Cathy Ferguson also said she had already made up her mind but took both how-to-vote cards to be polite.

"I think we haven't got any more choices. (Recycling) seems the only commonsense way to go to guarantee there is going to be some water there," she said. "I don't think anybody would like sewage in their water but we have to."

Source - Courier Mail - Thorley dummy spit.