An Evans Head group has flagged a possible legal challenge against the Richmond Valley Council’s decision to approve a workers village adjacent to the Evans Head Memorial Aerodrome.
The group also wants to challenge a new policy introduced in June 2015 that allows council staff to approve a development unless two councillors ‘call up’ the development proposal for consideration at a council meeting.
The decision to call up needs to be made prior to a council meeting at which the matter might be heard but the public has no way of knowing when the matter would be considered.
Evans Head Memorial Aerodrome committee president Dr Richard Gates said in effect this meant that if the matter is not ‘called up’ by councillors the public has no opportunity to make comment on the decision of council about certain types of development at a council meeting.
‘The only option left to the public is to take the matter to court,’ Dr Gates said, adding legal advice was being sought.
‘In the case of the workers’ donga at Evans Head the only court process available to the community is Judicial Review, a process in which the council decision can be challenged on legal grounds alone and not on the merits of the case.
‘Judicial Review can be a very expensive and risky process and virtually precludes community challenge unless you have very deep pockets.’
Dr Gates described the new policy as ‘anathema to the two basic pillars of the NSW Local Government Act, “accountability” and “transparency”
‘The community is very dependent now on whether councillors make a decision out of the public view to ask for a development application to be called up for a council meeting, and is left in the dark about when a matter will be heard by council staff and when councillors will get to know about a particular development application.
‘The first thing the public gets to hear about a determination is after the decision has been made and then it can do nothing.’
Dr Gates said the approved documentation for the workers’ donga was changed at the last minute, and those changes were not available for public comment.
We have written to the General Manager asking for a response to these matters.
The Aerodrome Committee is now seeking legal advice about both the policy and the donga approval.
‘There are a number of issues which make the donga proposal controversial including changes to council pre-lodgement minutes in which the developer asked for changes to be made after it was made public that the proposal for the donga had not been instigated by Roads and Maritime but was a purely “speculative venture”.’
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