Yass Valley Council often comes in for a battering in this paper, in one way or another.
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But we have to say that this year the 'council bashing' we've seen in our pages has been fairly unprecedented.
Council has been accused of everything from greed to arrogance to negligence. Issues that have raised the ire of residents include the (un-)development of the Liberty Theatre, the Park & Ride and our discoloured water. And a new issue getting a guernsey on our letters pages these past couple of weeks is the proposed Murrumbateman sewage works.
All of these items warrant discussion in the Tribune's pages. It's not wrong to call our council and councillors to account. That's all as it should be. But it must be disheartening for councillors and council staff when they are roundly criticised by those with only a cursory understanding of the facts.
The Trib is fortunate to have a bit of an inside track on many issues that come before council. We read council papers and meeting reports; we have contact with council staff to clarify facts; a number of the councillors are in regular contact with us; we attend every ordinary council meeting and stay to the end; we go along to many council-run events. In short, we see and experience a lot of what Joe Public doesn't.
We wouldn't say for a second that council is perfect - this paper has often highlighted shortcomings and called on council to do better.
Yet, we also see, that in the main they are simply people trying to do a job.
Council should be held up to scrutiny, they are working for the public good, but we believe it has simply become a popular sport now to accuse council of extreme actions and motivations with pretty limited facts.
It would behove many of those who are being critical to do a little more checking of the facts before they sharpen up their arrows.