Luis Feliu
A community campaign to sink a controversial plan for an inflatable fun park at the picturesque Jack Evans Boat Harbour in Tweed Heads has been launched.
It comes as several Tweed shire councillors are set to overturn council backing for the operator to continue his quest.
Last week’s council meeting and public access session was packed to hear councillors debate a staff recommendation to offer the Gold Coast operators of Aquasplash its support for it to continue investigate the concept and any required licensing from the state government.
In a narrow 3-2 vote, the pro-development National Party faction led by Cr Warren Polglase (with Crs Carolyn Byrne and Phil Youngblut) succeeded in backing the fun-park push.
But Greens mayor Katie Milne, who has been ill for weeks and not due to return till later next month, has given notice she will sign a rescission motion, with deputy mayor Gary Bagnall and Cr Barry Longland, to reverse that decision.
Cr Milne’s vote will be crucial, as it will act as the casting vote in an expected deadlock (3-3 vote).
Last Thursday, security guards lined the council chamber for the oft-heated public-access meeting with speakers against the Aquasplash plan cheered and manager of the business, Matthew Devine, booed and heckled by some in the the public gallery.
The latest development in the fun-park proposal, which opponents fear will ruin the amenity of the area with parking and toilet overcrowding problems as well as impact on its marine environment, comes as a former lobby group, called Save Jack Evans Boat Harbour (JEBH), has been revived.
Campaigner Stephanie Deane told Echonetdaily the Aquasplash plan had come as a shock to many and would be an election issue come September.
Ms Deane said locals had rallied to ask her to relaunch the group to protect the harbour.
The issue has two longtime rivals going head to head in veteran Cr Polglase, the vice president of the Tweed Heads Chamber of Commerce, who has lobbied on behalf of the contentious plan, and Cr Milne, whose election to council years ago came on the back of public support for her anti-marina stand and protection of the Tweed River,
The harbour has a long-fought history since fears 10 years ago that parts of the its foreshore could be reclaimed for development.
In 2007, the Save JEBH Committee sprung up with several thousand people signing a petition to state parliament against any infill and construction at the harbour
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