THE TWEED SHIRE Volume 1 #1 Thursday, August 28, 2008 Advertising and news enquiries: Phone: (02) 6672 2280 Fax: (02) 6672 4933 editor@tweedecho.com.au adcopy@tweedecho.com.au www.tweedecho.com.au
LOCAL & INDEPENDENT
ture zoning hit a major hurdle when the land was recently given the State’s highest possible classification. Their change of heart comes as property investors and land speculators continue to risk huge stakes in a rezoning gamble, including a $4.5 million Coles joint venture deal for a Lynne Beck family property, with an extra $5 million if it can be used for a supermarket and town houses. Warren Polglase, who is seeking to regain the mayoral robes, says as a former wheat and rice grower he well understood the farmers’ situation. He says their request is a ‘fair ask and worthy of serious consideration’ because farmers were best placed to appreciate the land’s productivity. ‘They have been there a long time and they can’t produce enough to remain viable,’ he said. ‘It has parallels with the farming land around Terranora which the council rezoned because they couldn’t make a go of it.’ One retired farmer who didn’t want to be named said farmers would have once considered it sacrilege to build on good soil, but times appeared to be changing. He agreed production was declining because less than a dozen landowners genuinely worked the land while others let their properties run down in the hope that a change of council or government might turn the tide in their favour. ‘It’s the last patch of prime agricultural land on the east coast of Australia but I think it’s only a matter of time
Ken Sapwell
A strong push is again underway to turn rich farming land at Cudgen into an urban landscape – and for the first time the plateau’s red-soil farmers are lending their weight. Several families who’ve farmed the Tweed’s salad bowl for generations are among 26 landholders signing a petition calling on the council and NSW Planning Minister Frank Sartor to rezone the land for urban purposes. The petition asks Mr Sartor to arrange a meeting to discuss an urgent review of Cudgen’s State Significance status, citing changes since 2005 which
‘It’s the last patch of prime agricultural land on the East coast of Australia but I think it’s only a matter of time before it goes.’
New kids on the block
Spring has sprung throughout the Tweed, and with it comes new births, not least the Tweed Shire Echo’s. Newborn animals are also a common sight in the Tweed Valley. Here five-year-old Makoa Ross is pictured at his grandfather’s farm at Uki with this gorgeous Anglo-Nubian kid, whose mother won grand champion doe at the 2008 Royal Brisbane Show earlier this month.
New supermarket for Pottsville?
Pottsville Village appears to have emerged as Tweed Council’s first choice for the location of a full-line supermarket on the southern end of the Coast. Council Administrators at their second last council meeting decided to amend the town’s locality plan in a move likely to squeeze the nearby Seabreeze Estate out of the big supermarket race. But the amendments will not be put on public exhibition until the findings of a yet-to-be completed site suitability investigation are considered. Council planners have suggestcontinued on page 2 ed that controls be put in place to
it says is putting the economic viability of farms ‘under a real and present danger of collapse.’ It says farms are struggling to stay viable because increasing areas of the plateau are being allowed to lay fallow, drains are weed clogged, labour is hard to find and economies of scale achieved by broad-acre farms elsewhere are impossible to match. Until now long-time produce growers have refused to publicly support a group of non-farmers in the Cudgen Land Owners’ Association whose 10year campaign to lift its prime agricul-
limit the size of neighborhood retail centres in places like Seabreeze to around 500 sqm. They identify Pottsville Village as having the potential to support a fullline supermarket of up to 2500 sqm within the next eight years. The concentration of retail services in one place would create a vibrant mixed-use centre and reduce shoppers’ vehicle fuel bills, the planners say. A report to the meeting said land restraints around the village which may have hindered an expansion of the existing shopping centre may soon be removed. ‘The NSW Department of Lands
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approached the council and advised that their land which is positioned behind the existing commercial premises could be made available for retail expansion if it supported the strengthening of the existing village centre as the primary commercial and retail hub of Pottsville,’ the report said. ‘This has changed the current view not only on the availability of land having the potential suitability to accommodate a large supermarket and commercial floor area within the village centre, but would also be likely to present opportunities for improving the local road network.’
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Farmers join push to rezone prime land