An attempt by NSW Planning Minister, Mr Anthony Roberts, to supply straight answers regarding the Central Coast Regional Plan 2036 has appalled us at the Northern Lakes Disability Tourism Precinct Committee.
We are effectively no further advanced on each of the issues raised by us with the Central Coast Regional Plan 2036.
Mr Roberts spruiks that 40,500 homes will be needed to cope with projected population growth to 2036 in areas “with sufficient infrastructure to support the growth, such as Doyalson, the Lake Munmorah corridor and southern shores of Lake Macquarie”.
Unless I am mistaken, as a resident living in one of, and close to all, these suburbs, I believe that our infrastructure in the north of the Central Coast is close to third world, considering we live one hour from Australia’s largest city.
We have no access for over 32 per cent of our residents having a disability, mobility, or aging issue, not including mothers with prams and visitors with luggage, needing to traverse the 82 steps of our closest railway station, being Wyee Station.
I have raised this issue with the Premier as former Transport Minister, Yasmin Catley MP and Greg Piper MP, on many occasions, plus our poor public transport, lack of medical services and such simple issues as poor television and radio reception that Federal Member, Pat Conroy MP, has identified.
Our roads are poor, we have close to complete suburbs without kerb and guttering, our water supply is being threatened by further mining, our homes are continually under threat of mine subsidence and we have massive human health and environmental issues, which are being swept under the carpet by most politicians at all levels.
This especially includes, Mr Scott Macdonald, Parliamentary Secretary for Planning and the Central Coast, who seems to be intent in wanting the PFAS issues at Lake Munmorah and Colongra Bay to just go away.
Unfortunately, we will make sure they don’t.
Air pollution continues to create health issues, with only one official EPA monitoring station on the Central Coast.
We have a University Cancer Cluster study and report identifying the Northern region of the Central Coast as having cancer rates 20 per cent above the State’s average.
We have the equivalent of 455 Olympic swimming pools of stored toxic Fly Ash that is creating environmental issues outside the 50 year old, unlined dam walls, and we have the Planning Minister writing off our concerns for the mining and extractions of coal, gas, petroleum, sand, sandstone, gravel and clay, identified in the Central Coast Regional Plan 2036, by stating that the “mining will continue to deliver positive economic outcomes for the region in line with the plan’s goals”.
Our organisation and regional residents would love to know what these positive economic outcomes are and what Mr Roberts would consider to be the negative outcomes of such destructive processes.
As for the proposed housing crisis, he and NSW Planning recently announced a new suburb for the Badgerys Creek area.
This new suburb will be to the tune of 30,000 new homes (not the 40,500 proposed for just a few suburbs of the Central Coast) with new road upgrades as part of the $3.6 billion road building program in the area.
It seems he has recently become a Greenie, by committing 150,000 new trees to complement this new land release, whilst we in the north of the Central Coast have our bushland systematically destroyed by uncontrolled housing, mines and toxic environmental disasters such as the PFAS issues at Lake Munmorah and Colongra Bay.
The Northern Lakes Disability Tourism Precinct Committee Inc is very concerned that the NSW Planning Minister and our state representatives may be receiving incorrect information on the human health and environment of this region.
Mr Roberts has failed to identify building sites, raising issues under the North Wyong Structure Plan which mooted only 20,000 new home sites, and failed miserably to identify the locations of all proposed mineral extraction processes.
Mr Robert’s and his Department’s obvious ignorance towards the massive human health and environmental issues that either were not identified in any of the regional plans, past or present, or are again politically swept under the carpet, is testimony to his lack of concern for the Central Coast and its residents.
I have personally met with both Monica Gibson, former Director of the Gosford Branch of the NSW Planning Department, and, Lee Shearer, Co-ordinator General, about the forcing of the Central Coast Regional Plan (CCRP) 2036 onto the 355,000 residents of the Coast.
Unfortunately, Monica Gibson was so far out of her depth, that she wrote the entire CCRP 2036 off as nothing but a blueprint.
Lee Shearer had her opinion, yet was not willing to listen to the residents’ issues and quite arrogantly and abruptly ended our meeting by walking out of the cafe where we met at Wyong.
Email, Nov 26
Gary Blaschke, Lake Munmorah