THE TWEED SHIRE Volume 1 #38 Thursday, May 28, 2009 Advertising and news enquiries: Phone: (02) 6672 2280 Fax: (02) 6672 4933 editor@tweedecho.com.au adcopy@tweedecho.com.au www.tweedecho.com.au
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LOCAL & INDEPENDENT
Councillors fear state planning panels Ken Sapwell
Tweed Shire councillors on both sides of the fence have joined a growing chorus of protest against the government’s controversial decision to transfer their planning powers to a government-controlled panel next month. Deputy Mayor Barry Longland and former mayor Warren Polglase say the radical change will sideline councillors from the decision-making process involving large and controversial developments and put it in the hands of unelected representatives. Planning Minister Kristina Kenneally has given the council less than two weeks to find two suitable people to appoint to one of the government’s so-called Joint Regional Planning Panels (JRPPs) that will be dominated by three government appointed members. The council was told last Friday it has until next Tuesday (June 2) to seek nominations from community members whose skills meet wide-ranging guidelines so two can be chosen by councillors at a special meeting two days later. As a result, Tweed Shire Council yesterday (Wednesday) announced that an extraordinary meeting would be held next Thursday, June 4, at 4.30pm to consider the makeup of the local panel. The local appointees will serve on a five-person panel which will make recommendations to Ms Kenneally about infrastructure and ‘ecotourist’ projects worth more than $5 million and residential and commercial development worth more than $10 million. Chief planner Vince Connell said the council was now calling for people ‘with appropriate expertise to determine development proposals of regional significance’ to nominate to serve terms of up to three years in a paid position on the panel. Cr Polglase says the panels will undermine the council’s role, with appointees unaccountable to the electorate deciding the future of the shire. ‘People objecting to the Repco rally should be turning their attention to the government because it may well be making the decision under this new arrangement,’ he said. Cr Longland said he shared similar con-
cerns and would be supporting a protest vote against the changes when he attended the Local Government Association’s annual conference next week with Cr Polglase and Mayor Joan van Lieshout. Association president Genia McCaffery says the panels will leave residents out of major planning decisions and are likely to make the planning system more costly, time consuming and confusing. ‘It’s difficult to see what benefits these panels will bring to the development process. ‘The panels will cost an extra $3.5million per year in sitting fees and travel expenses alone – which will have to come from already-stretched council budgets, or added to development application fees.
‘The panels will have three state government appointed members, including the chairperson, and only two appointed by the local council where the development is located, meaning residents have a minority voice in the decisions. ‘Councils do a great job administering a complex DA process and understanding local concerns, and so should have the final say on developments in their local areas.’ President of the Shires Association, Cr Bruce Miller, says JRPPs will make the planning process more time consuming. ‘Also, transparency is undermined because panel members will be open to political pressure, just like local councillors, but without the need to front up at election time.
Cr Miller says the decision to establish only five JRPPs for the metropolitan and coastal regions will affect community input into local decisions. ‘Communities in regional areas will be forced to travel long distances to attend the Panel meetings while the 43 local councils west of the divide will have no say about large developments in their area. ‘This goes against what local government stands for, so we simply can’t support it. ‘We urge the Minister to reconsider the need to introduce JRPPs, and keep local planning controls where they belong – in the hands of local councils and their communities,’ he said. ■ See Editorial, page 6
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Breaking the boredom of a rain-soaked week, Murwillumbah girl Shelby Gilbert, 12, ventured out last Thursday to explore familiar ground, albeit underneath her kayak, after torrential rain inundated parts of Murwillumbah and the town’s historic showground. Photo Luis Feliu