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Many submissions written in response to the exhibition of a planning proposal to rezone conservation land on Woy Woy Road, Kariong, have been “lost” by the NSW Planning Department.
Community consultation for the planning proposal, via the NSW Planning Portal closed on 29 January.
“However, it came to light that many people who had put in a submission via the portal did not receive the automated email confirming their submission was received,” said Kariong community activist, Lisa Bellamy.
“This basically meant that many (possibly thousands, how will we ever know) submission have been ‘lost’,” she said.
“With the obvious failure of the NSW Planning Portal system, we contacted the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure. They confirmed that if you didn’t receive a confirmation email, the submission was not received.
“They agreed to keep the community consultation process open until 9th Feb so submissions could be resent (or new ones put in) to an email address.
“It appears they have now given us until 12th Feb to do this. They really are making this up as they go along.
“The failure of the planning portal system raises issues with the transparency, efficacy and integrity of this process.
“We are now calling on the Department of Planning to scrap this planning proposal as the process has failed. This whole process has been undemocratic and is certainly failing our natural environment and culturally significant places.
“We are planning a rally/protest/demonstration outside the Dept of Planning office in Gosford. You could show your support for the environment, and outrage at the failure of our leaders to protect it, and come along. Details to come. It will probably be 9am Friday morning 16th Feb. I will confirm this date, but please consider saving the date.”
HOW YOU CAN HELP
* If you didn’t receive a confirmation email after putting your submission into the portal, can you please resend it to [email protected]
*If you haven’t put in a submission yet, it’s not too late. You have until Monday, 12 Feb, this Monday.
*Write to [email protected] and let them know your concerns about the failure of this process.
*contact Paul Scully, Minister for Planning and let him know what you think of his processes. https://www.nsw.gov.au/nsw-government/ministers/minister-for-planning-and-public-spaces
*go to https://www.savekariongsacredlands.com/ for more information on ministers to contact
If you got to the end of this email, thank you for reading. The more people are aware of how our systems are failing our democratic process and the natural environment the better as it keeps us on our toes.
For updates
Please visit Save Kariong Sacred Lands on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/211156451728991/
and
Coast Environmental Alliance (CEA) on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/364461693426
