Community Environment Network (CEN) Chair Gary Chestnut has accused Central Coast Council of spreading “false and misleading information” in respect to its planning practices, as CEN continues to push for State Government intervention in the planning process.
Chestnut said a recent comment from Council that it “does not agree with CEN’s characterisation of the NSW planning framework under which Council operates and has sought to clarify CEN’s understanding of the Central Coast Local Environmental Plan and proposed amendments to it a number of times” made him laugh so hard he wept.
“I’m not sure whether Central Coast Council has been watching too much Yes Minister! or reading too many George Orwell books,” he said.
“This is the same disingenuous and arrogant posturing that the Council exhibited to CEN representatives when we were finally given an opportunity to explain our concerns via a digital TEAMS meeting with members of the planning staff.
“I think the Central Coast community has had enough ‘council-splaining’ to last a lifetime.”
Chestnut said CEN’s The Central Coast Deserves a Better Plan campaign is based on an in-depth analysis of how much Council’s current approach to land zoning and use deviates from the NSW planning framework.
“That is why we are asking for the highest level of NSW Government intervention,” he said.
“The Central Coast Council’s approach to land use, particularly when it comes to the Conservation Zones (C2, C3, C4) is atypical – that is, different to any other council in the whole of NSW.
“If anyone needs a better understanding of the NSW planning framework, it’s the team implementing the current Central Coast Council ‘model’.
“Our suggestion that Council had not fully understood the consequences of applying land uses that may have been acceptable for the flat, wetland-rich topography of the former Wyong Shire to the steep and undulating ridgeways and valleys of the former Gosford City LGA was rebutted in that TEAMS meeting with false and misleading information.
“CEN representatives were gob-smacked when Council’s attendees proclaimed that the former Gosford Council planning instrument (the GLEP2014) had never been accepted by the NSW Department of Planning and was always intended to be ‘interim’.”
Chestnut said GLEP2014 was gazetted and in use, effectively, until 2022.
“I cannot understand why Council representatives would even attempt to mislead community volunteers and advocates in such a way,” he said.
“It certainly stopped us in our tracks in that TEAMS meeting.
“Of 21 questions/concerns we wanted to discuss, we got up to number five.
“Meanwhile, we have a Local Environmental Plan (CCLEP2022) that was always intended to be an interim plan.
“By Council’s admission, the CCLEP does not protect threatened species, wildlife corridors or Aboriginal heritage sites.
“Zone boundaries are based on erroneous mapping and that’s already impeded over $500M of development.
“It is not fit for purpose and doing untold damage to our environment, cultural heritage and way of life.”
“How much damage could be done on deferred matters lands in the former Gosford Local Government Area if the council goes ahead with its planning proposal to rezone C2 land to C3 and C4, thus opening thousands of hectares of conservation land to unacceptable levels of development?”
Chestnut said CEN would not stop campaigning for State Government intervention until “environmental destruction stops and the Central Coast receives the new, comprehensive, and fit-for-purpose planning framework we were promised as an outcome of the 2016 council amalgamation”.