TUROSS HEAD PROGRESS ASSOCIATION ADDRESS TO COUNCIL 14 August 2018 meeting – Agenda item NOM18/10 1 My name is Marie (Mylène) Boulting. I have been mandated by the Tuross Head Progress Association to speak today in support of the Notice of Motion 18/010 asking Council to defer voting on the Proposed Amendments to the ELEP 2012 driven by the Rural Land Strategy. We have heard many technical expert contributions this morning: ours is to simply explain how THPA became concerned about the proposed amendments, and to present our concerns: (1 – Objections) At the THPA meeting early July, with the events at Tathra in mind, we organised a presentation by the RFS on bushfire preparation; During this presentation, and after a series of questions from the floor, members were made aware of the objections of the RFS to the proposed LEP amendments, and how they would allow new dwellings to be built in bushland with poor access potentially putting people at risk We were astonished to hear from an RFS representative that their letter of objection had apparently not been taken into account by Council. Astonishment then turned to shock when further investigations revealed that objections from other State Agencies were similarly apparently dismissed by Council: OEH, Rural Land Services, DPI – Fisheries. Residents of Tuross and Turlinjah, and all our seasonal visitors, want to ensure we preserve our coastal landscapes, the cleanliness of our rivers: we need experts to guide us to assess the risks and mitigate them. We want to understand WHY when Council receives expert advice from NSW government authorities Council chooses not to listen. We want to emphasize here that we do value the competence and dedication of the hard working Council planning staff, but we also believe that the State Authorities staff are just as competent and dedicated, and deserve to be heard. (2 - E3 Zoning) We started looking more closely at the changes proposed for our area: we knew the zonings had changed from the previous 1987 LEP, and remembered that the Environmental zonings proposed in 2011 for our community land, the Heritage Grazing Lands, E3, had been deferred for further review. We do not understand why this environmental protection has been totally removed from the LEP; we do understand that large rural land owners expressed strong opposition to this zoning for their rural land holdings, and we respect their opinion. But WHY remove the zoning from other lands, such as our community lands. One size DOES NOT fit all here. A sweeping blanket change will inevitably lead to the wrong zoning applied to specific lands needing specific protection. Which is undoubtedly why our neighbouring Shires have retained the E3 zonings for some of their coastal lands. (4- THPA Submission) This led the THPA to present a Submission to Council, summarising our concerns. This one page submission requests Council to allow more time to answer our community’s concerns: I quote In consequence, we believe that the approval process of the Amended ELEP 2012 must be suspended and the Amendments appropriately redrafted to properly comply with the technical objections of all the above-mentioned authorities, and in more balanced fashion to inclusively reflect the wishes of all Shire residents (5 – Petition) The feelings of the wider Tuross community were becoming so obvious that we decided to give them a voice to formally request Council to suspend decision on the Proposed Amendments: We organised a Petition Hundreds of Turossians have now signed this Petition, which was handed to Council earlier today. The Petition ends with this (I quote): … we believe that the Amended LEP 2012 must be immediately withdrawn and appropriately redrafted to address the serious deficiencies identified, in particular: To properly comply with the technical objections of all the above mentioned authorities To reflect in much more balanced fashion the wishes of all Shire residents Whilst ensuring that no existing rights or interests will be diminished by extending this process
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NOTE: Comments were TRIALED - in the end it failed as humans will be humans and it turned into a pile of merde; only contributed to by just a handful who did little to add to the conversation of the issue at hand. Anyone who would like to contribute an opinion are encouraged to send in a Letter to the Editor where it might be considered for publication
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