The Beagle Editor At a recent public council meeting on 12 March 2019 the ESC Mayor Innes stated that the NSW Planning Minister has decided to sign off the RLS planning proposal: “The Minister did come down on Friday, the Minister made it very clear that he has taken careful consideration of all the concerns that have been raised through different agencies. He is very confident that the director has addressed with those agencies many of the concerns that have been raised and he has absolutely and categorically put it on the record that if re-elected it will be one of the first documents that he signs.” This statement might be considered an electioneering stunt played out by the Mayor, especially in light of her closing Public Forum speakers down on the day wanting to mention the State Election. Her comment, invited by Lindsay Brown in her capacity as an "advocate" could be construed by anyone hearing it as attempting to rally votes for the Liberal government if in support of the RLS. There seems to be an amount of community concern and misunderstanding in the Eurobodalla Shire, about the Shire’s recommendations that Council submitted to the NSW Planning department for consideration in relation to the Rural Lands Development package, (RLS) It is known the NSW Government hasn’t signed off on what council submitted yet. It could be some months away before NSW Planning and the Minister are in a position to sign off on the submission as presented or even in an amended form.
Once Council is able to receive rural development applications for development approval much checking and likely conditioning of applications will occur for all sorts of compliance reasons, generally to comply with State development planning control legislation and other requirements. Compliance reasons will include a range of environment matters including fire. The Mayor might say the Minister "is very confident that the director has addressed with those agencies many of the concerns that have been raised". It’s a real pity our Council and the Minister didn’t properly explain the processes and potential costs involved to the applicants though. Even the Mayor could have.!!
Allan Brown
Catalina NSW
