THE TWEED Volume 3 #16 Thursday, December 16, 2010 Advertising and news enquiries: Phone: (02) 6672 2280 editor@tweedecho.com.au adcopy@tweedecho.com.au www.tweedecho.com.au
LOCAL & INDEPENDENT
Height and density controls confirmed for Hastings Point Ken Sapwell
Jubilant Hastings Point residents were yesterday celebrating an historic victory after Tweed Council adopted a two-storey height limit in most areas of their one-shop coastal village. Councillors voted four-three to cap heights at eight metres in the main residential precincts after council planners warned that anything higher would undermine the popular holiday town’s unique character and threaten its social cohesion. Future heights and densities will be limited under a development control plan (DCP) broadly in line with interim controls introduced two years ago following a high profile campaign including a nude YouTube protest.
Decision challenged The decision has been challenged by a rescission motion but residents are confident the DCP won’t be overturned unless a key councillor happens to be absent when it’s revisited next month. Developers who had several threestorey projects in the pipeline strongly opposed the move but it ends years of frustration by the local progress association following the council’s failure to act on a 1996 decision to initiate a two-storey height limit in the town. Residents who packed the public gallery cheered when Crs Joan van Lieshout, Dot Holdom, Katie Milne and Barry Longland supported twostoreys in all areas except around the village store and the north-eastern hill where three-storeys are possible. Chief planner Vince Connell said in a report to Tuesday night’s council
meeting that some in the community believed the changes were ‘unreasonable and unlawful.’ ‘On the balance of the strong planning and environmental grounds identified in this report, this view is not supported,’ he said. ‘Hastings Point possesses unique qualities which make it identifiably different from other small coastal villages in the Tweed. ‘Distilling its characteristics and developing them in line with the expectations of residents and landowners to project a desired future has been the over-riding objective of this planning process. ‘The draft plan has taken all of these factors into account and has been designed to foster Hastings Point as a small coastal village while allowing opportunity for careful growth in line with its sensitive location and limited level of available retail and social services.’ Progress association spokesman John O’Reilly said the decision would help preserve the health of the local estuaries which were a huge drawcard for locals and tourists. ‘The Battle of Hastings has been an arduous and torrid fight for the protection of a truly unique asset for all to enjoy,’ he said. ‘It’s involved three court cases including one all the way to the High Court, a nude video with international appeal, parliamentary action, workshops, submissions and thousands of hours of work. ‘Greed, ignorance, selfishness and corruption so often seek to exploit those things that are most beautiful.
Pottsville sisters beat the odds Kate McIntosh
Hana and Lily Mitchell may be legally blind, but they don’t lack vision when it comes to following their dreams. The Pottsville sisters recently represented NSW in national athletics competitions, with both finishing in the medals. Eleven-year-old Hana took out the gold in the discus and shot-put, as well as a silver medal in the longjump at the School Sport Australian Athletics Championships in Bendigo. Elder sister Lily, who has previously attended Australian Paralympics decontinued on page 2 velopment camps, won three silver
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Pottsville sisters Hana (left) and Lily Mitchell have both recently represented NSW at national athletics competitions. Photo Jeff Dawson
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medals at the Australian AWD Athletics Championships in Canberra. The sisters, who suffer from degenerative eye disease cone-rod dystrophy, share a friendly rivalry and an extraordinary sisterly bond, says mum Jo. ‘They’re connected in so many ways,’ said Ms Mitchell. ‘As siblings, but also in the empathy they have for the loss of their eyesight.’ Ms Mitchell was unaware her daughters suffered from the hereditary condition, which affects the peripheral vision, until Hana began showing symptoms at eight years of age. In a cruel double blow, Lily, 14, also lost her sight two years ago. Ms Mitchell, who works with special needs children, said her daughters’ condition had required an enormous adjustment, but that the family had developed strategies of coping. ‘Emotionally it was massive,’ she said.
‘And the stigma that’s attached – they didn’t want to be different.’ Ms Mitchell says the girls remain fiercely determined, with sport providing an important outlet. As well as being talented athletes, the girls have also represented NSW in swimming, and study dance and gymnastics.
Film and fashion designs Lily is keen on a career in film, while Hana is interested in fashion design. ‘All I’ve ever done is try to give them every opportunity to do what they love,’ said Ms Mitchell. She says she encourages her daughters to focus on what they can do, instead of what they can’t. ‘My mum taught me to be independent and that’s what I’ve done with them,’ she said. ‘I just teach them that everyone’s different and we get on with it. They take it on the chin.’
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