LETTER

Wychwood: anti-densification, anti-poor people, anti-immigrants? 

I’m writing in response to an article in the Bulletin on 29 April, “Community Group submissions to the City Urban Plan”.   This stood out not because of what it said but more because of what it didn’t say and the subtle undertones of what is taking place before our very eyes.  

To me, the ‘Friends of Wychwood’ is a very active and organised group of residents in the Wychwood neighbourhood who go to great lengths to block new residents from establishing in their suburb.   

The policy they are now pushing under the guise of environmental concern, is that no lot can be divided, for risk of having to remove a tree in order to build a home.

One outcome of this policy is to limit opportunities for poorer people to settle there.  Smaller lots make a suburb more accessible to those not as economically viable as existing residents.  Immigrants are the most affected.

The Friends of Wychwood claim to support ‘diversity measures’ but clearly they don’t support diversity of income or wealth in their backyard.  There is a certain hypocrisy here, since I believe every member of this group, with plush homes in this exclusive suburb, had a tree removed to build their home.  ‘Do as I say, not as I do’. 

I caution these community groups who purport to represent the interests and views of everyone in that community -- they do not -- and in fact I see many in Wychwood who aare increasingly cautious of the tactics used by the ‘Friends of Wychwood’. 

Pauline Hanson

Wychwood / Aylmer