Barbara Roughan, Kingscliff
Concept plans for the new Tweed Valley Hospital have been published in our local papers, and now the concept video has been released.
The caption under the drawing in the message from Health Infrastructure states that this is how the new hospital MIGHT look, as it is an artists impression.
The video also is an artists impression of a concept, it is not the actual plan. Is this an attempt to mislead our community?
An accompanying article states that planning approval has not yet been given. ‘Subject to Planning approval, the Tweed Valley Hospital will be produced and delivered in stages.’
Rezoning approval has not been granted at this stage, and without the land being rezoned nothing can be built here.
A message from the Health Department states that the project is almost one third completed, and that many people have been working on the designs for the last 12 months.
Was it always intended that community concerns would be totally ignored?
Why has so much money been spent already without official approval?
Is it because the honourable Minister Roberts knows that this is a done deal, and has been for the last 12 months, so that all the objections to the Environmental Impact Statement by many independent experts will be completely ignored? Is he just waiting for a few weeks to make it appear that these objections have been carefully considered and overruled?
The fact that he announced last August that a job was created to encourage allied health businesses to move to the new Cudgen site from Tweed Heads demonstrates that community objections were always going to be overlooked.
It appears to have been a done deal from December 2017 when initial negotiations to buy the site at Cudgen began.
Much attention has been given to the healing views that this hospital will have for patients and staff.
A nine storey building on top of a ridge will reduce visual amenity for thousands of residents, and will have the exact opposite affect !
To also state that a three and a half year project is almost one third completed without any foundations being laid for the many different buildings needed beggars belief!
I have recently been watching a tv series re the Gold Coast Hospital and it covers a huge area. The site on SSF land at Cudgen is obviously too small or we are being deceived about what we will be getting. Perhaps they have ideas of confiscating more farmland in the future.
Winge, whine, and moan. How about be happy that we are going to get a state of the art hospital in a more central and accessible location? First world problems …
The current hospital is struggling to cope. The alterations taking place are well overdue. Further delay is putting lives at risk, which i feel is a much bigger issue than any argument the minority group against it can produce.
Seriously the vocal minority trying to misled others. They advertise ‘rallies’ and still get hardly anyone. Now they are telling people how to vote and asking for donations of $2 or more. They should have spent their time working on concepts with the architects and clinicians for the good of the community.
The vocal few trying to mislead others. Advertising ‘rallies’ which only a small number attend, advising people how to vote, yet claim they are not political, asking for donations of $2 or more, but not a charity, pushing Kings Forest, so sweet potatoes over our koala community. Time would be better spent in the community consultation with architects, landscaping plans and clinicians. There appears to perhaps some personal agendas at play.