The Community Environment Network (CEN) is calling on Central Coast Council to extend the date for submissions on its Draft Plan of Management for Community Land by 20 days, following concerns over limited access to relevant documents.
The draft plan, currently open for submissions until February 21, is the first step in developing a Plan of Management for over 2,000 parcels of community land including natural areas, sportsgrounds, parks, areas of cultural significance and land for general community use which will supersede all previous POMs, excluding the Kincumba Mountain and Central Coast Stadium, which have their own POMs.
Council’s website says that an extensive number of POMs were prepared on a category-by-category basis in each of the former Wyong and Gosford council areas.
“Since then, other parcels of land have been created or acquired which have not yet been categorised and some parcels of land have been found to not have an attached POM,” it says.
“The Draft POM addresses these issues while also proposing a formal review process that will help rationalise the provisions that apply to land that has already been categorised and to extend coverage to community land that is not yet categorised or included in an operative POM.”
The existing categorisation of more than 1,800 parcels of land have been reviewed and approximately 400 additional lots have been categorised for the first time.
The largest number of lots have been confirmed or newly categorised as natural area (more than 1,000 parcels) or as parks (approximately 500 parcels).
There are also a significant number of parcels of land categorised or re-categorised as sportsgrounds and as general community use (between 150-250 parcels of each category).
Council’s website has a schedule of all community land that is proposed to be included in the POM and accompanying maps.
But CEN Chair Gary Chestnut said when the exhibition period opened on December 20 half the community had less access to information than the other half.
“Council had created a page of simple links to all existing Plans of Management (and) at first glance that looked commendable but then we discovered the playing field was far from level,” Chestnut said.
“If you lived in the former Wyong Shire Council (area) all of the existing plans of management were available.
“That was not the case for residents living in the former Gosford City Council area.
“Those people were told that if they wanted access to existing plans of management, they would have to make an informal application through the Government Information Public Access (GIPA) laws.
“Quite frankly we could not believe what we were seeing.
“How could the Council justify giving immediate access to information to only half its residents and ratepayers while expecting the other half to go through an application process?”
Chestnut said while the inequity had been addressed after CEN contacted Council CEO David Farmer, the exhibition period should be extended by the number of days that residents in the Coast’s southern areas didn’t have access to existing community land plans of management.
“This would be an act of good faith and would reassure residents in the southern half of the LGA that Central Coast Council doesn’t consider them to be second-class citizens,” he said.
Terry Collins