A secret process, undertaken last year without public exhibition, enabled the approval of the destruction of the Wallum site at Brunswick Heads.
In March 2023 the state government determined that the ecological assessments undertaken for the 2013 Concept Plan approval were adequate for a current application.
There’s credible scientific evidence that the prior assessments were flawed and that the site is now more ecologically significant.
The applicant applied to the state planning department to seek approval that ‘the biodiversity impacts of the proposed development were satisfactorily assessed prior to the commencement of the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016’.
It appears this process was only known to the applicant, the department and possibly the Northern Rivers Planning Panel (NRPP) and Byron Shire Council staff. The community weren’t provided the opportunity to comment.
The clause 34A(3) approval enabled the NRPP to determine the 2021 DA. It’s shocking that with the significant ecological values of the site that a secret process has determined that those values weren’t considered. The destruction of the site is imminent, subject to Council signing off on the Subdivision Works Certificate in February.
I’ve lodged a GIPA application for the information about the process but believe it’s another example of poor planning processes in NSW that don’t function to protect biodiversity.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
