Have your say on plan for community land

The Community Environment Network (CEN) is urging all residents to take a close look at Central Coast Council’s Draft Plan of Management (PoM) for community land and have a say.

The PoM, if adopted, will cover between 1800 and 2000 lots of land including playing fields, parks and bushland.

“The Council has said this is a housekeeping exercise but community land is our land and we think it is important that as many Central Coast residents as possible take the time to participate in this consultation,” CEN CEO Samantha Willis said.

“CEN will be preparing its own submission but we need as many individuals and community groups as possible to have a close look at the schedule of community land and make sure it is accurate and comprehensive.

“We are also encouraging our members to attend the information session and one of the public hearings.

“Central Coast Council under administration has already sold over $60M in assets since the end of 2020.

“That … was their target but they are continuing to sell assets.”

While it is illegal to sell community land, Council is pushing ahead with the reclassification of community land to operational so it can be sold, Willis said.

“It has also said its review of property is ongoing and it will continue to sell property that is ‘surplus to needs’,” she said.

“We need you to let Council know how much we value our community land by participating in this process.”

Central Coast Council is required by the NSW Government to make sure that all the community land it owns is covered by a plan of management, with a need to update the plan in the wake of the 2016 amalgamation of the former Wyong and Gosford Councils.

Some locations will be excluded from the generic Plan of Management that is currently on exhibition and will have their own plans of management.

“CEN has already found it necessary to contact the Central Coast Council over its decision to withhold what we consider to be vital information from this consultation process,” Willis said.

“You will find a link to (the plan) on Council’s website that includes further links to all existing plans of management.

“When we returned to work on January 9 that link included only those plans from the former Wyong Shire.

“Residents of the former Gosford Council (area) were told they would need to complete an informal Government Information Public Access (GIPA) application to get access to existing plans of management in their local area.

“We didn’t think that was good enough so we wrote to Council’s CEO David Farmer and we are pleased to report that all existing plans of management have since been made available, irrespective of whether you live in the north or the south of the Central Coast Local Government Area.

“However, members of the public are already alerting CEN to problems with the information currently on exhibition, including land missing from the schedule or not described accurately, so the community is encouraged to get involved in this process,” Willis said.

“Every little contribution helps.”

Council has extended the public exhibition period for an extra week until Tuesday, March 1.