Central Coast Mayor, Jane Smith, has called on her fellow Councillors to actively promote opportunities for research for public benefit to be undertaken on public land owned by Council.
According to Mayor Smith, “Council either owns or manages a significant amount of public land.
“This provides opportunities, particularly for tertiary institutions, to undertake research in areas such as ecology, natural resource management, agriculture, water catchments, and coastal and waterways management.
“This information is often useful to Council, contributes to a significant body of knowledge and academic literature, and should be on the public record through data sets such as the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) or the Wildlife Atlas (BioNet).
“In the long term, encouraging research institutions to access the Central Coast, may also provide opportunities to enhance the Central Coast’s reputation as an “education and research hub”.
“It may also contribute to a niche market in terms of research or volunteer tourism, with opportunities to explore partnerships with research institutions and organisations such as National Parks and Wildlife Service.”
Accordingly, Mayor Smith used a Mayoral Minute to move: “That Council notes that the motion relates to research activities carried out for public benefit or education purposes, and does not apply to requests relating to commercial activities.
“Where tertiary organisations, government agencies, community groups or schools need to apply to Council for permission in order to meet insurance, governance or other requirements, Council’s default position is to approve the request.
“In the event, Council has reason to refuse or vary the research proposal or request, a report comes to Council for determination.”
She further moved that “Council investigates how niche tourism initiatives such as “volunteer or research tourism” might contribute to Council’s broader tourism strategy and to report to Council on related opportunities by July 2018.
Source:
Agenda item 2.3, Dec 18
Central Coast Council ordinary meeting