Councillor defends $40k legal bill

BY TIM HOWARD

A Clarence Valley councillor says a successful legal appeal against council that cost it more than $40,000 should be regarded as a success.

Cr Bill Day said the successful appeal against the council was not an “absolute victory” for the appellant.

He said he had moved the original motion of refusal for the DA and for reasons of transparency wanted to explain his reason and talk about the outcome.

“I did want to point out, despite the LEC accepted the DA, they amended the proposal to make it more compatible with the setbacks of surround properties and to reduce the amenity impacts on the surrounding properties,” he said.

“It wasn’t an absolute victory one way or the other.

“To challenge this sort of DA is not an easy thing to do. Not something to do lightheartedly because the legal costs to the council are substantial, the legal costs slightly over $40,000 and then staff costs on top of that were about 70 hours of staff time as well.

“I did this because I think we ended up with a better development but certainly at a considerable cost to the council.

“I don’t think we need to apologise for that. To get better development there is a cost.

“It’s something we have to balance when we do so.”

Cr Toms had a different point of view to Cr Day.

She said the money and staff time spend on the matter were a cost to ratepayers that was hard to justify.

“I have much difficulty in accepting the fact that it’s a better outcome for our ratepayers,” she said.

“One of the reasons for refusal was for the neighbours’ objections and I was there are the time when we did a site inspection.

“The councillors who refused it went up onto the verandah of the neighbour who actually objected and looked at the view across the neighbouring block, because his view straight out to the river was gone because of his planting.

“I just want to say you can’t always have a view from a neighbouring blocks and the five metres is a very expensive extra five metres setback.”

She doubted this was a good outcome for ratepayers, as providing the setback on a large block may have cost the developer an extra $50,000.

Cr Toms said it was a lesson learned and should encourage councillors to take a harder look at was permissible under development controls.

She said the council hired consultant engineers to defend its decision, because its own staff had approved the development.

She said one consultant had not been able to defend the appeal, so had to find another expert who would.

“We need to understand what our role is as councillors,” Cr Toms said.

“This was an expensive lesson in my opinion.”

Cr Peter Johnstone said he agreed with the motion, but was not happy with Cr Toms’ commentary.

“I drew a completely different conclusion to Cr Toms,” he said.

“As a result of our efforts as councillors we have a better outcome.

“The outcome is a mediate outcome that was taken to the LEC as a mediated outcome as a better solution for the people next door and I would say for us as a council.”

Councillors voted unanimously to note the report of the legal costs to the council.

Wild Weather Triggers Northern Rivers And Tanks Refill Before El Ni O

was “notorious for this, and dangerous” during flash flooding events.

BY KATE COXALL

Residents affected by the catastrophic flood disaster of 2022 reported feeling triggered online, by the intense downpour that lasted 48 hours last Monday night through to Wednesday morning, with some casualties of flash flooding also reported.

The ute pictured, was swept off the 13th causeway, near Kohinur Hall in Upper Main Arm over the Monday night’s deluge, with local’s unable to confirm exactly what had happened to the driver, but confirmed the causeway in question

The Bureau of Meteorology (The Bureau) have reported between 50-150mm for the week, with the most rain falling in the furthest North of our region- Tweed Heads coast. Warnings for flash flooding were released by the Bureau and SES on Monday night as the rain was at its heaviest.

It has been predicted that the rest of the year however will likely see what has been deemed a “super” El Niño by some climatologists, where increased risks of bushfires due to higher temperatures and drier conditions may occur.

Residents on tank water may be thankful to have full tanks after last week’s deluge, but it may be an idea to be water wise going into the coming drier months ahead.

Lismore Airport Testing Ground For Emergency Service Response