Toowoomba Councilor and local Church leader, Lyle Shelton wishes to make
Toowoomba a city of "style and grace".
Prominent local Neopagan and objector to the Australian Gospel Music
Festival (in its current form on its current site) Mr Alex Law faces
censor under Cr Sheltons proposed Local Law about "tidy" properties.
Mr Law, like other local Pagans has faced years of harassment from a
small number of Toowoomba City Council Officers over zealously and very
selectively applying and enforcing the various nuisance regulations. At
time Council Officers have declared flowerbeds to be "dangerously
overgrown" on Mr Law's property with ignoring significantly more
overgrown bed on adjacent properties. Mr Law has been forbidden to use
lawn clippings to mulch his garden beds ("rats can live in them").
Recently, Mr Law, an invalid pensioner sought assistance form a
government agency to remove almost all flowers and shrubbery from his
yard, leaving a desolate wasteland. this has stopped the harassment over
"excessive vegetation". Cr Shelton after locking horns with Mr Law at a
planning meeting about future use of Queens Park, venue for the
Australian gospel Music Festival (which Cr Shelton and his church have
links to), has been carrying various complaints to council apparently in
an orchestrated campaign to drive Mr Law from his home. According to the
Toowoomba Chronicle (11/12/2004 fp & p8), Council engineers have deemed
the house sound, blocking this latest avenue of complaint by Cr Shelton.
Thus, in order to drive the Witches and other Fairytale Creatures out of
Toowoomba, Cr Shelton has taken a page from the bylaws of Dulac in the
movie Shrek. "Toowoomba City Council will check to see if it has the
power to pass judgment on a property based on looks alone." (The
Chronicle, fp, Saturday December 11, 2004).
After the positive article in The Chronicle, which avoids the religious
controversy and paints the proposed new law in terms of a a class war,
Mr Law has received telephone calls and visits from people from all
walks of life and faiths offering sympathy and support. This proves that
Cr Shelton's desire for a city of grace has already been met.
The Mayor of Toowoomba, Cr Dianne Thorley can be emailed at
The Toowoomba Chronicle is at www.thechronicle.com.au
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