Peninsula News after 17 years and 400 editions

This issue is the 400th edition of Peninsula News.

Peninsula News started in April 1999 as a monthly 12-page tabloid paper.

A year and a half later, it became a fortnightly publication and has continued to be so since.

In a feature article at the time "Peninsula News - 18 months on", we described "how the newspaper came about, its purpose and how we believe the community can best make use of it".

The article described "the role of Peninsula News", which we have reproduced in this edition.

Now, 16 years later, Peninsula News continues to operate according to the same principles.

The formal aims of the paper include providing a viable news medium exclusively for the Peninsula, developing a sense of community on the Peninsula and providing a forum for personal expression.

It also provide a voluntary community activity and offers training opportunities for youth and the unemployed.

Peninsula News was founded with the belief that the people of the Peninsula considered themselves a community, that this was important to our identity and way of life, and that this meant we were interested in being involved in our community and having a say in the Peninsula's future.

Having a local news service was essential to this.

Residents needed to know what is happening on and around the Peninsula. They needed to know the activities and interests of others on the Peninsula.

They needed information that would enable them to take action or to help influence the decisions that governments were making that would determine the Peninsula's future.

Peninsula News has been conscious of its role in the democratic process - not in the sense of being a political player but in providing information that would allow residents to be well-informed in making submissions and voting on local affairs.

We believe that residents have a right to know the details of the way our social and physical infrastructure and services are provided, and that as a community we have a right to have a say, if not determine, the structure and style in which it is provided..

Peninsula News has seldom written editorials, and takes the view that readers do not need to be told what to think by the editor.

However, this does not mean that we do not have views about events affecting the Peninsula.

For example, we are concerned about the increasing regionalisation which removes the opportunity for local residents to shape and determine the nature of our community.

We believe that the Peninsula could be better served by having a council of its own, a size which has been shown to be viable in the past.

As well as being responsive to the Peninsula's needs, such a council may is likely be able to operate just as effectively, financially and socially, as regional governments. It is also likely to be more democratic.

We do not believe a council which has a corporate model of management serves the democratic process.

The manager of a council should see himself as a servant of the community, not a corporate chief executive officer extracting the most profit from its customers for the benefit of its shareholder (apparently the State Government).

In a democracy, we are voters, ratepayers and citizens - not customers. In a democracy, the community is self-governing. In a democracy, our elected representatives call the shots.

Whether it was Gosford Council or the new Central Coast Council, it is concerning that our local government has failed these tests and shows no willingness to change.

As we read, in this 400th edition, about the local commemoration of the Battle of Long Tan and the student visits to the Western Front of the First World War, we are reminded, as our politicians will tell us, that these wars were in the interests of protecting "freedom and democracy".

We believe our community could easily lose these.

Peninsula News will continue to take its part in providing the information which allows the community to have the necessary vigilance.

Mark Snell, 19 Aug 2016