Our say | Track vote confirms council's powerful bloc of five

The first is that all nine councillors sitting inside the chamber have firmly made up their minds on where they stand regarding building a go kart track in McPhillamy Park.

That's bad news for those protesters who still hope to have the track relocated, but very good news for those who want to see the project started.

There remains some talk of legal action over the decision to build the track at the top of Mount Panorama but nothing official so far. Regardless, council certainly does not seem too concerned by the prospect.

The second undeniable truth is that the divisions within this council have proceeded well past points of policy and now - in some case, at least - are very much personal.

At times during Thursday's meeting there was no hiding the animosity that now exists between some councillors, particularly the disregard that mayor Bobby Bourke and Cr Alex Christian hold for Cr Jess Jennings (with those feelings of disdain clearly reciprocated).

That bad blood has been around for much of this term of council but became even worse during the campaign for mayor 13 months ago.

It now pervades every council discussion but is most clearly on show during council's most divisive debates - the go kart track, in particular.

It certainly adds some colour to what might otherwise be fairly dull debates within council but adds little in terms of sensible and considered discussion of an issue.

And with 11 months to go until the next council elections, the risk now is that this council is so deeply divided that compromise and negotiation might prove impossible.

If the dominant bloc of five can keep working together they can effectively run the council without the need to seek input from the other four.

That can make for quick and decisive action (as we've seen with the decision to borrow $2.25 million for the go kart track) but can come at the expense of dissenting voices being properly heard.

That means the next 11 months could be a period of great activity and achievement for the strong bloc of five councillors, but likely a period of immense pain and frustration for the remaining four.