In a letter to market coordinator, Great Lakes Council General Manager Glenn Handford said he was “over-ruling the market’s decision to refuse application for a stall to Member of Parliament, Member for Myall Lakes Stephen Bromhead”.

In the letter, Mr Handford said he believed that it was in the “best interest” of the community for a local member of parliament to be able to meet people and hear their concerns.

Earlier, the market committee had refused Mr Bromhead’s application for a stall to meet his constituents, in a bid to keep the markets non political, except just prior to an election.

Committee member Judy Donnelly said she and other members of the committee had debated the pros and cons of the application, like they do with all applications, before coming to the decision.

“What is the point of the committee endlessly debating each application if the GM can just over-rule us?” she said.

“The last letter to him (Mr Bromhead) drew to his attention that the final decision is the right of the market committee under the NSW local government act. Under section 4.5 this states that ‘other goods or services not listed in the policy should be at the discretion of the market management as long as it is not in breach of the policy’,” she said.

Mr Handford responded saying that as a complaint had now been lodged with Council by Mr Bromhead, it activated clause 4.11 of the Complaints Resolution.

In this section, the Council was to investigate complaints that could not be resolved by market management.

The decision by Council to allow Mr Bromhead’s application was made after review of correspondence relating to the matter.

“This is not about any one person or political part or belief.  It is about granting the local member of Parliament the opportunity to liaise with the local people,” Mr Handford reported.

Mr Bromhead intends set up a stall in March.