The long awaited report on Coopers Island Road is set to be presented to Eurobodalla Council at the Tuesday 8 June 2021 Council Meeting.
Presently it is not known what the staff recommendation will be as their report will be not be available on Council's website from Wednesday 2 June 2021.
It is hoped, at the very least, that Council staff offer clarity as to why they have allowed an illegal gate to be erected across a Public Road for nearly two years without any intervention.
It is understood that the recommendation will ask the Councillors to consider selling the Public Road to the adjacent land owner. Such a suggestion, if dared, will come as an outrage to the community who have traversed the Council owned Coopers Island Road to access the Council owned weir and Crown Land foreshore that abuts Bowns Creek and provides entrance to the upper reaches of Tuross Lake and Trunketabella Lake.
The Council has sat on its hands for nearly two years on the matter of the illegal gate and have knowingly ignored continued complaints from the wider community. Their inaction to remove a gate that they know to be illegal and their failure to engage with the community on site has seen individual councillors take their own action to investigate the structure and the impediments of fencing along Bowns Creek.
Council advise that the road is graded annually, however it has not been graded for two years "due to access issues"
The Tuross Head Progress Association and the Recreational Fishing Alliance have written to Council on numerous occasions with the matter raised on agendas with no interest or action by council staff. Over the past six months it has come to a head and it is understood that there are now legal representations being undertaken in regards to the issue.
It is hoped, though not expected, that Council staff will offer some sort of community apology for their laxity in fulfilling their delegations and legal obligations around the removal of the gate from a public road.
It is expected that the councillors will be offered the recommendation to decide to sell. Such a recommendation will see them wipe their hands of the matter and pass the process across to the Crown who will then begin the community consultation process calling for submissions.
If such an action does occur it will allow the councillors, who have failed vicariously to undertake their delegated duties, to say "Not in my hands, talk to the Crown", thereby seeming innocent of any wrong doing in the leadup to the next election in September.
If that is the case and they consider this a political sideslip then they have grossly underestimated the community who already see their inaction and will hold them to account.
The community will have the opportunity to present to the councilors in Public Forum prior to the Council meeting of Tuesday 8 June 2021
Further reading: Coopers Island Road: What are Council hiding and why are they failing their community
Above: If you arrived at this gate would you think that it was a PUBLIC ROAD or would you think that the PRIVATE PROPERTY NO TRESSPASSING sign suggested that you turn around. Image: Clr Anthony Mayne
