Cr Monika Keane accepts an anti-nuclear petition from concerned residents Alvyn Williams, with children Indigo and Arjuna, and Phillip Wright.By Kath Gannaway
WARBURTON activists against nuclear power are taking no chances their petition to the Shire of Yarra Ranges will be filed and forgotten.
Dressed in anti-radiation suits and masks, the group, led by Alvyn Williams and Phillip Wright, presented the towering timber petition to councillor Monika Keane in front of hundreds of people at the reopening of the Warburton Mechanics Institute last month.
As many as 200 people signed the petition, which calls on the shire to set in policy its opposition to nuclear power and to make a commitment to convert shire facilities to 100 per cent green power.
Mr Williams said the motivation behind the petition was to promote awareness and debate.
“We lodged it during Winterfest last year because we felt the way the Federal Government was heading at that time was to deny people a choice and to not allow honest debate about nuclear power,” Mr Williams said.
He said the response at Winterfest had been positive, but had also included views from people who were in favour of nuclear power.
“We had about 10 per cent of people who were strongly in favour, some not very well informed, and others who were informed and believed it was the right thing to do,” Mr Williams said.
He said the petition organisers were also encouraged by the actions of the former Shire of Healesville, which voted in 1988 to declare that shire a Nuclear Free Zone.
The lumbering petition will be officially presented to Yarra Ranges Shire Council at the council meeting in Lilydale on Tuesday, 13 March.
“We would like anybody who would like to support our stand to join us at the meeting,” Mr Williams said.
