Central Coast Council expressed its support of the Six Cities Region Discussion Paper at its October 11 meeting, despite heckling from the gallery and after hearing two speakers opposed to the vision at the public forum prior to the meeting.
The Discussion Paper was recently released by the Greater Cities Commission and is open for public comment until October 30.
The Paper outlines the Commission’s plans to develop the Six Cities – comprising Lower Hunter and Greater Newcastle City, Central Coast City, Illawarra Shoalhaven City, Western Parkland City, Central River City and the Eastern Harbour City. – into a mega-region delivering global competitiveness and local liveability.
Two speakers at the public forum raised concerns that the community was being pushed into a decision on the vision without elected councillors in place to represent the community .
Speaker Martin Stephenson said the plan would “destroy the sense of community we’ve always had” and expressed fears the Central Coast would be ”consumed by Sydney”.
“We will surely lose our own identity; this is blatant government overreach to centralise power,” he told the meeting.
A second speaker, Simon Butler, said such an important issue with long-term implications for ratepayers required more detail and expressed concerns it could lead to a “monitoring system”, raising privacy concerns.
Following repeated heckling from the gallery as the matter came under consideration, Administrator Rik Hart called for quiet and threatened to suspend the meeting.
He reiterated that the Vision had bipartisan support and aligned with Council’s stance on issues such as housing, economic development and population growth.
A report to Council said the broad vision was generally consistent with Council’s adopted strategic plans including the Community Strategic Plan, Interim Local Strategic Planning Statement, Economic Development Strategy and Affordable and Alternative Housing Strategy.
“The Six Cities Vision and forthcoming Central Coast Region Plan 2041 (CCRP) will set the high-level strategic direction for planning of the Central Coast region,” the report to the administrator said.
“The Six Cities Region is the largest and most productive urban region in Australia, with a population of over six million residents and providing around three million jobs.”
Council expressed support of the six Region Shapers outlined in the Paper: an embedded First Nations voice; a connected Six Cities Region; housing supply, diversity and affordability; inclusive places connected to infrastructure; powering local jobs; and climate resilient green cities.
The report said Council would welcome investment by NSW and Federal governments into improving regional connectivity by developing a faster (on the current alignment) and a fast (on a new alignment) rail system and was keen to understand how the Warnervale Airport could be activated to contribute to connection across the region.
It said Council supported the concept of climate resilient green cities, with the inclusion of additional focus on coastal hazards, water quality and biodiversity.
Council will work collaboratively with the Greater Cities Commission and key stakeholders in the preparation of the draft Six Cities Region Plan in 2023 and the Central Coast City Plan in 2024.
Source:
Central Coast Council meeting, Oct 11
What Council we Still only have an Administrator making decisions without taking much if any notice of the community’s wishes
And still pushing for raising the rates
what was it they said in the American colonies no taxation(rates) without representation and we all know how that ended
Goodbye beautiful Central Coast. We will be just another dumping ground for Sydney. More people, more cars, packed beaches, destruction of our natural beauty, lack of infrastructure. Council already allows atrocious overdevelopment now. Heaven help us in the future. What’s more, we will have no say in anything. It will all be mapped out for us by this State Government. Maybe time for them to go?