Neville Hazlett, Noosa Bridge Club

2:23 Mayor Wilkie: The Speakers are Neville Haslett… [3 seconds the machine transcription could not make out; listen from 2:28] But Neville Haslett. [1 seconds the machine transcription could not make out; listen from 2:35] And Barb Allen from the Noosa Bridge Club, and the top is the Noosa Bridge Club, which I'd like to come to the lectern and present your deputation, we've got 15 minutes for you.

2:46 Speaker 1: Good morning everybody, and thank you for accepting our attendance today. Nasal and I, and I'm not nasal, represent the Bridge Club, and I'm the president of the current committee of 11, and Neville is a management push-along do-it-man, he's great. If I can just give you a little bit of the history of the club, which I've only been a member of for three years, so some of this was news to me as well, but anyway, I will share that with you. So in 1977, the inaugural meeting of nine members formed the Noosa Bridge Club, happening in Hastings Street, with Luke Tershwell, who's now in his nearly 90s. Opening Belmondo's doors to like-minded bridge players. From there, games were played in private homes, Pine Tree Resort Motel, Noosa Bowls Club, and later at the Sunshine Beach Circus. In 1986, the club had the foresight to purchase a 29-year-old church hall in James Street. As pressure mounted for development in that area, some eight years after owning the building, the club was offered council land at Wallace Park to relocate, and we happily reside there today.

4:12 Anticipating a surge in membership, a large extension was added to the former church hall, carried out mainly by members. Today, we enjoy the considerable efforts of our former founders, and our club has blossomed to 370 members, with a cap of 400, the capacity of our building. We are, in fact, one of the very few bridge clubs nationwide with a growing membership, which we love. Play happens five days a week, five days per week. Christmas days and Sundays, the only days that we remain closed. And sessions are four to four and a half hours in duration. Our demographic is creeping upwards, 68 being the average age of our member. We have five members over 90, and because they have recently been offered free play as a 90-year-old, there are 20 others aspiring to get to that magical figure. Inspiration. On the day of no play, that's a Tuesday, the club opens for beginners' lessons, supervised play, and various other teacher groups, along with our management committee meeting held once a month.

5:32 Members have bonded over one very large extended, to a very large extended family unit, a culture that we currently actively create. For many, coming to bridge four or five times a week has become their lifeblood, and only form of socialisation outside of their homes. Before play, as many as 30 members arrive three quarters of an hour before play, to wet their social appetites. I might say I'm one of them. We're tragics. Following play, it's often hard to move the members on because of the same reason. So we have a wonderful problem. As an activity, we can clearly claim that we mitigate against cognitive decline in a massive way, which is great for the individual, their families, and the community at large. Life's tough challenges for many of our members simply disappears because of the mental challenges, and they get by by playing bridge and making the connections within the club, keeping isolation and depression at bay. Many of our members draw from some sort of pension, and often state how fabulous it is that we keep our fees to $100 a year as a joining fee, and $7 per game fee.

6:54 Most affordable rates indeed. The club is run by 68 volunteers, 11 of whom form the management committee. Many subcommittees exist to consider IT, strategic planning, rules and ethics, social events, housekeeping, maintenance, publicity, teaching, we go on. And also we run an app that is an organiser for our partnership arrangement. All in all, we run a pretty seamless organisation. We employ an admin officer for 10 hours a week to keep the place trouble free. We pride ourselves in listening to our members, being change agents if required, assisting with four local charities annually, Katie Rose, the Parkinson's Group, Salvation Army and Santa's Little Helpers at Christmas, and always try to do the best via our membership. In summary, we've had 370 very happy Vegemites. Thank you.

8:02 Mayor Wilkie: Thank you, Barb. You're welcome, Neville.

8:06 Neville Hazlett: Thank you.

8:10 My throat's only got a bit drier.

8:14 Speaker 1: Just listening to me. Yeah, well, no. I'll tell you.

8:23 Neville Hazlett: Mr Mayor, councillors, council officers, I'm Neville Hazlett, and I'm part of the Bridge Club Management Committee. Thank you for this invitation and opportunity to outline some of our issues and problems, which we hope you will receive positively. We invite the Councillor to consider our position and interests and note the contradiction between Council's tree management policy and our ability to support Council's zero emission target. We are hindered from supporting Council's Living Well initiatives, and we are being disadvantaged financially by this policy. Our current difficulties are financial pressures. And our financial pressures are, in one instance, Rock Rainier Club is difficult because we have continuing economic issues around building maintenance, around running costs, and upcoming expenditure for technology and to upkeep our building. Specific immediate problem is the cost to power the building, which is a result of a necessary air conditioning system to make the internal ambient conditions reasonable or weather conditions.

9:45 In the summer, we have to cool, and in the winter we have to heat. And that generates a lot of power consumption, and our power bills are running at about $10,000 a year and likely to increase. The solution, or the potential solution, which upgrades the existing old and inefficient solar system with a new, improved and more efficient one, is somewhat constrained, and significantly constrained, I should say, by the adjoining costs. Shading in some parts of the year reduces the soil generation by 50% and averages around 30%. So this data points to a progressive shading increase and the encroaching vegetation grows as the vegetation develops. As a result of tree shading during the winter months, the proposed new solar system is unable to generate enough power to service our needs, which occurs from the May to July period and the shoulder periods of April and August are a bit marginal. The proposed solar system, according to the supplier, provides the following environmental benefits. They talk about avoided CO2 per year, which is equal to 25 tonnes.

11:00 Surprising, I thought. And according to Google, the tree absorption rate per fully grown tree per year is between 25 and 55 kilograms. Therefore, our solar panels achieve the equivalent CO2 reduction benefit of 550 trees per year. The lifetime benefits are even more stunning. Solutions. Possible solutions are, we would appreciate the Council removing the shading vegetation, which will require a change to the existing tree management policy, or some form of special discrimination. I assume this would be achieved by pruning and would require monitoring to ensure that further growth was kept aligned with our minimised shading requirement. The second proposal, a possible solution, is a financial one. It's a financial problem for us, so maybe it's a financial solution for you guys. Our suggestion is that we would be open to the Council acknowledging the imposition of shading has on our costs and would be happy to enter into that solution.

12:14 Second problem. We have many. The main entrance to our building is a concrete path that's been there for a long time, presumably from the beginning of the building or the building's construction.

12:33 And in certain circumstances, our members are having trouble entering and egressing the building. This is a result of the pathway follows a land contour. It's steep and has to transition between the level front door and the much lower sloping driveway that feeds to Walsh House and the car park. The pathway, by necessity, therefore, falls in two directions, and for those of us that are struggling with mobility, in the wet conditions, for example, could easily lose footing and fall. This has occurred and should, with some priority, be reconciled. To be perfectly clear, this is a significant risk and for recovery for the elderly, me maybe, is a different process than if you're young. So it is quite important for us. Possible solutions. The installation of a handrail to the side of the existing pathway, which is with steadying support members arriving at the parking. Unfortunately, the handrail will need to do a couple of things. It has to curve because the pathway is curved and it falls also, but not at a regular rate. So the handrail is quite complex and quite difficult to produce and we are having trouble actually inviting someone to volunteer to do that.

13:53 Second solution is to actually start again and take the pathway out and put a new pathway into the building, which would actually take a different position. It would actually be straighter and run into the driveway at a higher point and therefore reducing the fall required and making the pathway a lot safer. But it does mean L1 goes, U1 goes in. At the same time, we would also recommend putting a handrail beside the straighter pathway, which is much easier and would cover the risk to falls in that respect. Last one. Third, building maintenance is a problem for us. The increasing burden on our members, the natural crisis of repair and replacement, as building components wear out, is exacerbated by the economic pressures of inflation, by the ageing of components that don't last forever and the harsh conditions our building has to endure, including being closely surrounded by vegetation. The labour actually accelerates the maintenance requirement and places additional pressure on our resources. The approaching vegetation's root structures are already undermining our foundations and potentially disrupting our underground services. The close vegetation also increases the building risks to fire and cyclone damage.

15:08 As I understand, privately owned properties in Noosa are rationally allowed to separate the adjoining bush and vegetation by three metres. Our discussion with Council of Arbor has confirmed that Council will remove only vegetation physically touching our building. This approach does not encourage the longevity of our building and doesn't support our interests. It does only replace the vegetation in a preferential position. Our solution is to clear a three metre wide buffer zone around our building as is regarded elsewhere as prudent. This work should include works to ensure advancing tree roots are removed from our building's footprint.

15:52 In summary, we believe the Noosa Council represents the wider Noosa community. As we are the same, we represent the same people. We support and encourage our members to strive to live fulfilling lives. We try to operate independently, as our generations used to do, but we have come across Council initiatives that effectively work against us, which reinforces our view that we are less important than surrounding vegetation. We invite Council to reassure us that you also have our best interests at heart, and we count. In 1994, when we relocated and built the existing bridge buildings, we effectively gifted the building to the Council as observed by the then Shire Clerk, Mr VB Davidson. We had, we, and I'm sure you will also see, that this generosity should be reciprocated and recognised, as we require to allow our continuing operations which benefit our collective members. Thank you. Thank you very much.

16:55 Mayor Wilkie: Thank you.