No wake for wakeboarders
At last week’s Tweed Shire Council meeting a vote to approve a development application for a wakeboard coaching business was rejected. Seems simple enough as TSC’s planning department spent a considerable amount of time and effort to outline the inappropriate nature of this application.
The applicant did not meet standards on local issues, state issues and also federal laws. These failings include, but are not limited to, state laws SEPP64, SEPP14, SEPP26 and SEPP71, the Threatened Species Conservation Act and Fisheries Management Act along with international treaties protecting the Tweed River for migratory birds.
NSW Crown Lands department, National Parks and Wildlife and Maritime Services agreed with TSC planners that the application should be rejected. TSC planners recommended 38 times throughout its report that this application should be rejected as it also did not meet the Tweed River Management Plan, Tweed Development Control Plan and Tweed LEP 2000.
The applicant has admitted he has been operating and advertising the business for six years without a DA.
But back to the vote of last week: one councillor put forward a rescission motion, which was then seconded by a fellow councillor. This means this application will be voted on again at next meeting of Council. The result could be an approval for the DA – based on individual councillors’ ‘opinion’.
An honest and logical person would probably ask what could motivate a councillor to go against the advice supplied to them by the TSC staff, ratepayer-funded reports and relevant government marine specialists?
Darren Morrison, Fingal Head
