On exhibition at Tweed Shire Council meeting last week was that only Cr Milne and Cr Bagnall are willing to balance competing issues and interests and put proper and sustainable foundations in place to facilitate development rather than only in the interests of developers.
Public consultation is an important and valued opportunity for the community to provide comment on matters within our shire.
To maintain public confidence the outcomes of such processes and professional advice should not be ignored and consideration given to both the community and developers.
The value of our seaside and rural villages has been a key finding of a number of surveys and it is intrinsic to manage community expectation to preserve the shires heritage and unique characteristics as valued assets to our shire.
Two councillors gave a spiel they were listening to the community and then voted to support the ‘Tweed LEP Amendment No. 3’ to rezone rural land at Mooball for residential development with minimum lot sizes 450m2.
Despite written council advice ‘if a larger lot size is preferred then it should be incorporated into the LEP” these councillors made a poor attempt to hoodwink that this can be done at the development application stage.
But worse, a councillor falsely stated the decision on the Mooball Planning Proposal (PP) had been made by the previous council.
The previous council resolved to proceed the process to rezone two properties at Mooball and inclusion of the PP in the ‘Planning Reform Works Program’.
It was indeed this councillor and colleagues of the current council who then supported the actual PP with a third property slipped in without the owner’s consent or knowledge and with minimum lot sizes of 250m2 be sent to NSW Planning for a Gateway Determination. Following representations to NSW Planning this PP was withdrawn.
To blatantly mislead the council chamber and gallery brings into serious question the credibility of allegations against a colleague.
Lindy Smith, Tweed Heads
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