Luis Feliu
Tweed Coast residents who have battled for years to preserve a site at Pottsville for a public high school may have their hopes dashed tomorrow as Tweed Shire Council considers a 65-lot housing subdivision plan by the land owner and developer.
Lobbying for the site at Seabreeze Boulevard, Pottsville, to be kept for a high school for the fast-growing community has been going on for years and was a major issue during the last state election campaign.
Labor backed community calls for the school, but the coalition government said the numbers were not there yet to justify buying the land, owned by the Seabreeze estate’s developer, Metricon Queensland, for a high school.
The land had long been earmarked for such a purpose and was a selling point for the estate.
Council planners have now left the ball squarely in the court of councillors, who will debate the issue tomorrow night.
In February, 2013, council resolved to accept the developer’s request to amend planning controls reviewing the site’s former earmarking as a potential school site, as they had not found a buyer for the land to be used as a school. They proposed the residential subdivision instead.
Council also decided the site should remain as a potential school site until at least 2018.
Planning chief Vince Connell said the subdivision plan had raised 41 objections and staff had also raised concerns with regard to agricultural and sewer buffers and minimum frontage requirements.
Mr Connell concluded that the plan was inconsistent with council’s Development Control Plan for the estate and the previous council decision not to review the ’potential school site’ tag for the land until 2018.
‘No new information has been provided by the applicant to demonstrate that the use of the site should be reviewed,’ he said.
Mr Connell said that as a result, council’s direction was needed as to whether or not staff planners continued with a detailed assessment of the application ‘or finalise a determination based on the information provided to date by the applicant’.
Democracy is not a word. Democracy is a meaning and that means the Tweed Shire and the ratepayers of Tweed need a bi-election for a new councillor to make up seven councillors after the resignation of Cr Michael Armstrong.
Democracy means the people have a voice and that is why there were seven Tweed councillors and not six councillors where there could be a tied vote.