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View Royal on the wrong path

View Royal council has always maintained that they are very community oriented and involved. Their actions however do not support that thesis.

View Royal council has always maintained that they are very community oriented and involved. Their actions however do not support that thesis.

For example, they evicted the community library from the lower level of the “joint use building” erected by the citizens of View Royal to house the town hall, RCMP station and the library. At that time, without the library’s support, the town hall would not have been built.

While they originally promised to pay the moving expenses to Admirals Walk and rent, they have since cut back funding to less than half the amount. This leaves the library, entirely run by volunteers, to raise $45,000 annually. At the same time, View Royal transfers $375,000 of the property taxes to the Greater Victoria Public Library which doesn’t even have a branch in View Royal.

Secondly, this year View Royal council removed permissive tax exemptions from various community halls even though they have received such exemption for many years under the same conditions.

Thirdly, View Royal accepts many small parks extracted from developers in exchange for higher density, as opposed to cash towards land consolidation.

As a result there are no Town-sponsored community allotment gardens, no soccer/football/lacrosse/hockey fields, no local community centres or recreation facilities to enhance the residents lives and no service organizations.

Lastly, Town council has embarked on a plan to cut off residents from road accesses and right-of-ways that have been used longer than the Town has existed, by making them parks. In one case this will deny residents access to their properties, which had been guaranteed by deeded right of way from BC Hydro.

Residents are currently circulating a petition to oppose council’s proposal. In all, I would say that View Royal council has failed its community and property owners.

Jim Powell

View Royal