Theatre of the Actors of Regard
Hepburn Community meeting in Daylesford Town Hall on Tuesday evening to discuss draft changes to Hepburn Shire's
Local Laws. TAR representative PT speaking : see text below
Regarding
Local Law 5.3
Dangerous
and Unsightly Land
I propose
that the word “unsightly” be removed from Local Law 5.3 and that it NOT be used
in any draft or future Local Law.
Currently,
Local Law 5.3 is as follows :
The owner or
occupier of premises must not
allow the premises to be unsighty.
In this
clause, "unsightly" means any land on which :
(1) Unused
excavation material or general household waste is present and in view.
(2) Any other thing that has substantial adverse
visual amenity impact to the general public in context with the surrounding
area.
Draft Local Law 4.3.1 is proposed to replace Local Law 5.3
and is as follows :
The
owner or occupier of land must not cause or allow that
land:
(a) to be unsightly; or
(b) to be
kept in a manner which is dangerous.
NOTE: For
the purposes of this clause, the term
unsightly means land which contains:
(a)
unconstrained rubbish such
as paper, cardboard, plastic bags, styrene, house hold
rubbish, second hand containers;
(b) second
hand timber or second-hand building material;
(c)
discarded, rejected, surplus or abandoned solid or liquid materials;
(d) graffiti;
*that hoary
old chestnut
80 PUNKS IN
THIS VILLAGE AND A FEW HIPPIES
Bakers
Delight OPEN 7 DAYS
Unofficial 'community' mural and bakery signage on wall of Daylesford supermarket car park
HEPBURN DEMOCRATIC CLUB scrolled on street-frontage wall of the old Macaroni Factory at Hepburn Springs.
(Why don't you all f-fade away - 'My Generation', The Who)
(e) anything
being built which is left incomplete and constitutes a detriment
to the appearance of the surrounding area
THE T-REX : a long-stalled Shire project in central Daylesford
(f) any
other thing making the land visually
repugnant; or
(g)
detrimental to the general amenity to
the area but excludes an enclosed building or structure on
the land which complies with regulations made under
the Building Act 1993 or the Planning and Environment Act
1987.
. .
. .
It’s a truism
that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
So too is
ugliness in the eye of the beholder.
So also, to
quote the draft law, unsightliness, visual repugnance and detriment to appearance.
Is it really
thought wise that the Shire should legislate all subjective appearance?
Others have long
advised otherwise.
This is Matthew, chapter 18 (KJV) :
"Woe unto the
world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to
that man by whom the offence cometh!
...if thine
eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to
enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell
fire."
And this is 8th century Shantideva :
"Where would
there be leather enough to cover the entire world? With just the leather of my
sandals, it is as if the whole world were covered. Likewise, I am unable to
restrain external phenomena, but I shall restrain my own mind. What need is
there to restrain anything else?"
Accordingly,
I move that the term “unsightly” be removed from all Local Laws, to be substituted
with the term “sight-seeing”. And that “sight-seeing” be represented NOT as the
touristic seeing of this or that sightly place or unsightly object; rather that
the term “sight-seeing” be offered to all, residents and visitors alike, as an
invitation to look within and without. To visit the make-do construction sites our
own individual acts of seeing the world into being : to witness in wonder the
well-spring of our streaming projections of ‘sightliness’ and ‘unsightliness’.
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something...
LOGOS/HA HA
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