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A two-pronged community consultation about whether to retain or sell a reserve in Woy Woy has resulted in staff recommending the land remains in Council ownership.
By Jacquelene Pearson
A three-year community campaign to save a stand of mature native trees in the middle of Woy Woy may have finally been successful based on a report to be considered at the November meeting of Central Coast Council.
In September, CCC Administrator, Rik Hart, resolved to remove the Austin Butler AC in Woy Woy from a resolution for the “bulk reclassification” of multiple council-owned sites from community to operational classification.
Such a reclassification is necessary before Council can sell public land. Community land is considered to be of value to the community and, hence, cannot be sold.
During the September Central Coast Council meeting, Peninsula Chamber of Commerce President and planning consultant, Matthew Wales, said his clients, the owners of the Peninsula Plaza Shopping Centre, wanted to purchase the land to ensure the shopping centre continued to operate in a safe manner.
Mr Wales said the future of Austin Butler had “wider implications” for Woy Woy Town Centre which “is due to have a major review”.
He argued that the redevelopment of the Peninsula Plaza would be important to the wider commercial health of the town centre.
Mr Wales did not disclose at the public meeting that he had been actively lobbying the council for several years to sell the land to his clients, as revealed in GIPA documents obtained by The Point.
No further action
Council Administrator Rik Hart has seldom resolved contrary to staff recommendations in his time on the Central Coast so it would be unusual if he deviated from that well-established pattern at the November meeting.
The staff recommendation before him will be to stop the reclassification of Austin Butler AC and to “take no further action” to progress its sale.
The community has spoken, one more time and their answer has been resounding.
The formal community consultation ordered by Mr Hart in September consisted of an independently-conducted targeted representative survey and an open community survey via Council’s community engagement website, www.yourvoiceourcoast.com.
The results of the open survey showed that an overwhelming 92 per cent of respondents wanted to retain the trees in Austin Butler AC in council ownership as community land. Most of those were located on the Woy Woy Peninsula.
The results of the independently targeted representative survey conducted by Micromex were a little closer but still fell in favour of retaining the trees by a vote of 49 per cent to 46 per cent.
The council’s business papers have misrepresented this result in a graph that looks like the majority wanted to sell the land – an administrative error that will, no doubt, be corrected before the meeting next week.
The results of the community consultation also indicate that Woy Woy Peninsula residents are in favour of the council planting more shade trees. They just expect it to be done without sacrificing mature natives that are already providing the community with vital shade and habitat.
The 13 community groups who banded together to campaign for the retention of the Austin Butler AC as a public reserve have been persistent, reasonable and resolute.
This should be the end of the matter – at least until after the council election when those with a vested interest in the sale of this public land might decide to start lobbying a fresh intake of inexperienced councillors.
This must, surely, be the trees’ final reprieve.
There needs to be an investigation into why staff felt they needed to push so hard for this unsolicited approach was pushed so hard and for so long. Were all lobbying disclosed?