The recent decision by Central Coast Council once again underlines the appalling lack of any consultation with the local communities.
Thirty seven submissions were received regarding the Mount Penang highway precinct development application, and because they did not meet the 50 target, they were to be dismissed as irrelevant.
So we have another Planning Department disaster.
The entrance to the Central Coast will be like so many others, with car yards, service stations and fast food outlets.
There is of course something to be said for discreetly situated supermarkets and childcare centres, but surely we are oversupplied with fast food outlets causing more obesity for our people.
With some imagination, we could still have some development at this site, but retain the trees, and allow it to be a low impact, small precinct, as we see in many of the better planned areas of our country.
The attitude once quoted by the then mayor, Chris Holstein, that he needed jobs for his grandchildren and thus welcomed more shops, is ridiculous, as a walk around the Kariong shopping area will attest to, more shops will not give more employment.
Email, Nov 4
Geoff Mitchell, Kariong