When the Tweed Vally Hospital (TVH) site was rezoned from State Significant Farmland (SSF) to allow the site to be developed for the new hospital the NSW government said they would not allow any further development on the SSF on the Cudgen Plateau.
The neighbouring property was bought by developer Allan Larkin in 2019. He began lobbying the state government to include the site in the new hospital development in early 2020. The government declined to include it in the TVH site development.
In February 2022 Centuria Capital Group and Digital Infratech then proposed Cudgen Connection at the site and have continued to push for the site to be rezoned and developed including saying the site was incorrectly zoned. This is against clear community opposition and repeated confirmation from the local MP Geoff Provest (Nationals) that the site is not open for development. This position was supported by both the then NSW Planning Minister Anthony Roberts and Minister for Agriculture Dugald Saunders in 2022.
At the time Mr Larkin started his campaign in 2020 to develop the SSF ‘Mr Provest repeated his “iron clad guarantee” that no further SSF would be used for development purposes,’ President of the Kingscliff Ratepayers and Progress Association Inc (KRPA), Peter Newton, told The Echo.
Last weekend saw the Cudgen Connection group seeking Tweed residents’ feedback on their $300 million proposal that would see the SSF developed. Originally the proposal, on land that cannot be used for this development unless rezoned by the state government, was for a ‘$250m health and education development’ which is now a ‘$300m health, education and essential worker housing precinct’.
Community values agricultural land
‘Over the years, the Kingscliff/Cudgen community has fought off a number of proposed developments on this farmland,’ explained Mr Newton.
‘Our community wants to reach a point where we are not having to be continually vigilant or concerned that we are facing yet another battle to save and protect an area that is supposedly already protected from development by legislation.
‘The fact remains that this proposal is still on legislatively protected farmland that can only be used for agriculturally-related purposes, something the developer knew from the moment he bought it. That is the major flaw in the proposal and one that is completely unacceptable to not only our community but a raft of politicians including our state and federal members and Tweed Shire councillors.
‘The protection of this land is enshrined in the North Coast Regional Plan 2041 and in the Shire’s planning frameworks, which have been developed with significant community consultation.
‘We still seek an unequivocal guarantee that the land remain protected and the community can stop looking over its shoulder for the next proposal from a land-banking developer,’ said Mr Newton.
Journalists should ask Mr Larkin and all persons, and representatives of entities closely associated with him, what contributions he has made, or others on his behalf have made, to political parties or candidates for any Local, State or Federal elections.
The way things are going on earth high grade food producing lands and fresh water for Australia are in reality more valuable than near most anything else. Australia being an arid country has very little deep soil farming land. We must go to lengths to protect such places like the cudgen plateau. The hospital to my own thoughts was miss placed but is in a central position and an important community asset so it got the nod but for developers to buy land in this area then trying it on to have it rezoned for some industry including housing etc etc is just sheer greed and selfishness in my book. I really don’t like speaking this bluntly but this activity needs to be called for what it is and cudgen Kingscliff residents deserve better than having to spend their valuable time guarding what is already meant to be protected.
Come on our elected representatives pls work harder to protect us all from these practices. There is always an answer to problems. Thanks
Iron is for rusting away (‘iron clad guarantee’). And perpetual is the short term version of eternity. A new set of politicians is in the pipeline, ready to serve the ‘next land-banking developer’.
The current government are much less likely to change the planning laws against environmental and community interests.
Unfortunately greed opportunist developers were always going to jump on the bandwagon after Provest’s LNP cronies stupidly sited the Hospital on state significant prime agricultural land after varying planning laws.
Short term profit is always the preference of owners and the LNP. Let’s hope the legal challenges by developers with huge sums of money to spend on legal challenges can’t sway the courts and Labor quickly review the ‘anything goes’ planning committees in NSW.
The same thing is happening on the Hansen farm in Cudgen. Just because the land hasn’t been farmed for some time it doesn’t mean it is no longer state significant farm land. A plant specified as a small shrub when planted in Cudgen grows into a tall tree in no time. With no fertiliser!