Is justice really given to the highest bidder?

Bingo Hill (Coast Community News, August 20), it just doesn’t add up.

The letter by Don Rowe gives rise to a number of questions. I have been attending the court on behalf of the community. Did he or any other member of RSL NSW do so? I certainly didn’t see him. The court ruled that the sub-branch could not be held responsible for something they were neither consulted about nor gave consent to, how can you claim contrary? How many times did any of your executives meet with the sub-branch? How many times did you meet with representatives of Gosford Council, Verde Terra or the Memorial Club? You sold the land for a measly $750,000 for approximately 100 acres in a gazetted village centre on the Central Coast. What induced you to do so without at least putting it to the public market? In short, it appears that you have betrayed this community, your own subbranch members, and the entire population of the Central Coast by virtually giving away a public asset to the very groups who betrayed and backstabbed the local sub-branch, so they can continue to put rubbish into the catchment? The only people you appear to have protected are the ones that appear to have acted corruptly and illegally, i.e. the memorial golf club, Gosford Council, Verde Terra and the Environment Protection Authority. You must well know that a development of that extent could not legally have been approved without consultation with, and permission of, the legal owners, yet you chose to betray the entire community, for what? As to Council unable to comment on secret meetings, ask them why they haven’t met with the sub-branch. Ask why they approved the application to establish the tip with no consultation with or consent of the owners, or the local community. Also ask why they approved a tip in the bed of Hallards Creek in the catchment and secretly with no local input allowed? Their consent orders as read out in court give them and Verde Terra the ability to review the horrific current orders every three years, altering them as they please. Is the entire golf course allowed to become a tip and the trucks allowed in dramatically increased? Why did their representative promise to let the community know who was claiming to be the owners but didn’t? Why was the sub-branch gagged so they couldn’t let the local people know what’s going on? Aren’t they legally responsible for the whole mess? And is that the reason they went behind the back of the sub-branch and got support of the NSW League? Exactly how did they do that? As to Holstein looks forward to a final resolution, Mr Holstein, weren’t you mayor of Gosford when the tip was approved? Shouldn’t council have ensured that the owners were consulted and had given consent? At the public meeting you attended as a representative of council and state government, you claimed that council had met with the owners of the land, however the owners were present and made it clear that they had not been informed nor invited to the meeting. You were going to get back to us. You are reported to have said on public radio recently that you wouldn’t allow the land to be sold into private ownership. What was always intended for the Mangrove Mountain golf course site was that it be a community asset honouring the men who served and died for the country. It now appears it never will be. Even the memorial green where the ashes of the man who facilitated its purchase lay is subject to becoming part of a tip with the potential to contaminate the entire Central Coast’s water. Where is the honour in that? So whose intention was it to betray our servicemen, virtually give away our land, contaminate the water, treat the local people as gullible fools, and expect us to give full approval? I notice that of late you haven’t been up to meet with the community, I wonder why? Will someone please tell us if other community assets or indeed private property could be subject to more of the same and how soon? How has justice and democracy been served? Or is justice really given to the highest bidder? Letter, 26 Aug 2014 Clara Jones, Kulnura Is justice really given to the highest bidder?

Letter, 26 Aug 2014
Clara Jones, Kulnura