Delegates at the Mountain Summit meeting, held at Gosford Council Chambers on Thursday, August 21, were asked to prioritise the needs of the Mountain Districts now, and factors that would impact on the progress of the area into the future.
Local students in Gosford Council Chambers as part of the Mountain Summit
Participating in the event were students from three primary public schools from the Mountains Districts: Somersby, Central Mangrove, and Kulnura. “Despite their relative youth, the delegates demonstrated an astute knowledge of critical local issues”, said Mountain Districts Association President Mr Neil Berecry- Brown. The Summit meeting produced a list of local circumstances that need to improve to allow residents to create the community they desire. Leading the list were serious defects in transport infrastructure, land use conflict due to changing demographics, protection of the Mountain aquifers, threats posed to the district’s environment, residents’ health, quality of life and rural identity from sand mining and coal seam gas development, and the necessity for residents to be actively engaged in decision making processes in order to achieve just outcomes for the community, as with the current landfill operation at the Memorial Club at Central Mangrove. Their vote identified substandard roads and transport infrastructure as being of immediate concern. This issue was raised by a number of speakers, who pointed to dangerous road surfaces, broken pavement edges and poor visibility at intersections as serious issues, but leading the list of identified problems was the crossroads at Central Mangrove. A view expressed was that a roundabout, rather than the change proposed by Gosford Council, was the only sensible solution to the lethal intersection. In addition to bad roads, poor public transport was identified as an impediment to local residents having access to sport and cultural amenities in other parts of the LGA. Summit delegates presented views on land use conflict and changing demographics, stressing the value of farming on the Mountain and a need for local farmers to educate newcomers to the reality of rural life. One aspect of this was that the increasing number of domestic dog attacks on livestock has become a serious problem in addition to wild dog predation. The major long-term issue identified at the Summit was that of protecting the Mountain aquifers. As it was an overlapping theme at the meeting, heard in many of the delegates’ speeches, it can be concluded that protection of water must be forefront in planning decisions, overriding the wishes of those who seek to exploit natural resources. The next Mountain Summit is planned for 2015 when once again children from the Mountain will evaluate the districts’ progress.
Media release,
31 Aug 2014
Neil Berecry-Brown,
Mountain Districts
Association