CEN calls for LEP amendments

The Local Environmental Plan used by Central Coast Council to zone and manage land is “flawed, not fit-for-purpose and incapable of protecting the region’s biodiversity, cultural heritage or unique visual character” according to a scoping report prepared by the Community Environment Network (CEN).

The scoping report, which calls for amendments to the Central Coast Local Environmental Plan 2022 (CCLEP2022), is an expansion of CEN’s 2024 The Coast Needs a Better Plan initiative.

Last year CEN called on Planning Minister Paul Scully to reject the Deferred Matters Planning Proposal that the organisation said could have destroyed 3770ha of bushland by introducing intensive and commercial land uses into high conservation zoned land.

The Deferred Matters Planning Proposal has not yet been signed off by Scully and CEN is calling on the Minister to reject the proposal.

CEN Chair Gary Chestnut said the new scoping report identified over 8,350ha of land that contained mapped Endangered Ecological Communities (EECs) and steep land, that was not protected by the C2 Zone under the CCLEP2022.

“This oversight represents a fundamental failure in environmental stewardship and is inconsistent with principles of strategic and evidence-based planning,” he said.

“Urgent corrective action is necessary to address these deficiencies and ensure the adequate protection of these ecologically, scientific, cultural and aesthetic significant areas.

“The failure to uphold rigorous, evidence-based decision-making has resulted in a compromised planning framework, threatening the integrity of conservation efforts and undermined the region’s environmental sustainability.”

Chestnut said the conservation zoning “mess” in the CCLEP2022 was due to the conflicting interpretation and application of environmental/conservation zones by the former Gosford City and Wyong Shire Councils.

Chestnut said there may even be Old Growth Forest in areas of the former Wyong Shire west of the M1 that should be zoned C2, the highest level of protection available outside a national park, but have been zoned C3, which allows land clearing with offsets.

“And we know the NSW offsetting system is also currently failing to protect conservation land,” he said.

“Central Coast Council has repeated past environmental planning failures thus placing the entire region’s conservation efforts at significant risk.

“The failure to protect high-value environmental land is not merely an oversight, it is a systemic issue that reflects a troubling pattern of flawed decision-making.

“Such an approach is devoid of transparency, accountability and adherence to best-practice land-use planning.

“It undermines public trust and sacrifices the long-term environmental, social and economic well-being of the Central Coast.”

Chestnut said copies of CEN’s scoping report and recommendations had been sent to relevant NSW Ministers, all 15 elected Central Coast Council councillors, and the Council’s Director of Environment and Planning.

 “We are seeking the rezoning of those 8,350ha from C3 to the higher and more protective C2 to ensure the protection of all high-value ecological, scientific, cultural and aesthetic attributes located on land within the former Wyong Shire local government area,” he said.

“As we said in 2024, the Central Coast deserves a better plan.

“We were promised a brand-new comprehensive Local Environmental Plan as part of the amalgamation of our two former councils and that happened nine years ago.

“Our proposal would align the region’s conservation zones with contemporary biodiversity conservation and sustainability goals in accordance with the objectives of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 and Department of Planning guidelines.”