Ballina Shire Councillor Jeff Johnson has strongly criticised Mayor Sharon Cadwallader’s use of her casting vote on the issues of conservation zones and electoral boundaries.
He says that at the last Ballina Council meeting the mayor used her casting vote to ‘kill off new land management initiatives aimed at improving conservation outcomes in the Ballina Shire’. This includes over 2300 hectares of wetlands, coastal areas, endangered ecological communities, forested areas, scenic escarpments and rural farming properties.
‘The council vote was 5-5 with all four Team Cadwallader Councillors supporting the radical decision to allow property owners to determine their own property zone through an “opt-in” concept that goes against the advice of senior council staff and the NSW Department of Planning and Environment (DPE),’ said Cr Johnson.
‘As a former deputy mayor and a Ballina Shire Councillor for over 15 years it is my opinion that using a casting vote in this way is totally inappropriate. It shows contempt for council staff and a total disregard for the health of our local environment.
‘It also undermines many of Ballina Council’s long-established environmental initiatives such as our Biodiversity Strategy, Koala Management Plan and our Healthy Waterways program.’
Dominant group
Cr Johnson says the decision highlights how easily poor decisions are made when there is a dominant group on council.
‘Team Cadwallader currently has 4 out of 10 councillors so they only need the support of one other councillor to make unilateral decisions,’ he said.
‘This isn’t the first time the mayor has used the casting vote to go against the advice of the professional staff. This approach to decision-making tarnishes Ballina Council’s reputation and brings the organisation into disrepute.’
According to Cr Johnson, ‘The advice provided by the Department of Planning and the Environment (DPE) was clear and confirmed that zoning decisions are “required to be consistent with the methodology contained within the North Coast E Zones Final Recommendations Report” (NCEZR), i.e. based on the environmental attributes of the land or the Primary Land Use (PLU).
‘The DPE’s advice was highly critical of Team Cadwallader’s proposed approach of only applying “a conservation zone where a written request from a landholder was submitted to Council”.
Cr Johnson said, ‘The DPE letter goes further to highlight that “an undesirable precedent could be established if certain rezonings are not being based on site attributes and planning merits, but instead on landowner agreement”.
Reverse decision?
Jeff Johnson says the NSW state government should be reversing Ballina Council’s decision on conservation zones. ‘If councillors don’t want to make major planning decisions based on the legislation and the clearly established planning framework then they shouldn’t be on council,’ he said.
‘The other recent decision where the casting vote was used was to support Cr Bruem’s (Team Cadwallader) electoral boundary change which again went against the staff recommendation and also 97 per cent of public submissions. One has to ask why?
‘I believe it’s politically motivated and an attempt to gain an extra Team Cadwallader councillor at the next election and therefore gain total control of the council for the next four years,’ he said.
Accoring to Cr Johnson, ‘This would be bad news for good governance and the environment. Clearly Mayor Cadwallader doesn’t respect the public submissions, which was highlighted by her use of the casting vote against the clear feedback from the public (97 per cent).
‘I don’t think there has been a consultation process that was so against a councillor initiative.
‘These decisions highlight the poor leadership being shown that in my opinion (and many others) reflects poorly on all councillors,’ concluded Cr Johnson.
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