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MARCH & APRIL 2009 NEWS ARCHIVES Click here to return to the current News page 29 April 2009 Local tourism flourishes as visitor numbers leap by 16 per cent, adding $85 million to Shoalhaven’s economy..In total the local tourism economy received $629 million, $85 million more than 2007..according to the Shoalhaven Tourism Board’s report on the 2008 Economic Impact of Tourism. Meanwhile the number of overnight visitors fell in a number of other regions, including Illawarra down 7.5 per cent, Central Coast down 10.1 per cent and Hunter Valley down 5.7 per cent. Council’s economic development manager Greg Pullen said the tourism industry made up about eight per cent of the local economy.
Mayor Paul Green said the 16 per cent rise in tourism and significant rise in tourist numbers was a wonderful statement about the Shoalhaven. “In the current global financial crisis these tourism figures are welcome indeed as we begin to see the Australian economy contract significantly,” Cr Green said. “We do live in a sensational city with abundant natural charms, great rivers and estuaries, a stunning Jervis Bay, superb clean beaches and great amenities. At council we are continually working to ensure that our city maintains these qualities that continue to attract such a large number of visitors. We also work to ensure that our city is sustainable so that the influx of people does not have a detrimental effect on the condition of our city.” From the South Coast Register. Read more...
22 April 2009 Crime doubles over the years: Break-ins to homes throughout the Illawarra fell 34.5 per cent between 1995 and 2008, however last year the number of Shoalhaven homes broken into rose by 20.2 per cent. Illawarra crime statistics from 1995 to 2008 also revealed major increases in a number of offences including assault (up 110 per cent), sexual assault (up 150 per cent) and robbery without a weapon (up 99 per cent). State Member for South Coast Shelley Hancock claimed the dramatic increase in assaults was a direct result of the State Government’s failure to allocate adequate resources to Shoalhaven, Lake Illawarra and Wollongong local area commands. From the South Coast Register. Read more...
Shoalhaven Independents top donations list: Political donations received by councillors in the lead-up to the local government election last year have been posted on the internet. Once again, the Shoalhaven Independents Group party, led by former mayor Councillor Greg Watson received the largest amount of donations and spent the most on its campaign. The Electoral Funding Authority posted all political donations received by councillors from July 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008. From the South Coast Register. Read more...
14 April 2009 Shoalhaven City Deputy Mayor Gareth Ward will put forward a Notice of Motion at tonight’s Council meeting calling on Council to review its Asset Management Plans and Bushfire Mitigation Programs with respect to both public and private interests. The call for a review follows the devastating bushfires in Victoria. ...“Living the Australian dream of a ‘home amongst the gumtrees’ may be ideal but it can also be lethal without the appropriate knowledge, expertise and planning. Striking the right balance between preserving our environment and protecting property and lives remains a challenge which Council must address in the interests of all residents,” Cr Ward said. ...“Council has an opportunity and responsibility together with the NSW Rural Fire Service, to keep abreast of technical and best practice advances so as to provide all reasonable and practical means to protect existing and future private and public assets within the City of Shoalhaven. This motion seeks to begin a methodical but sensible process with the endeavour of protecting the lives and properties of Shoalhaven residents,” Cr Ward concluded. From a Media Release by Deputy Mayor Gareth Ward, “We must be prepared” 14 April 2009. Read more... 13 April 2009City needs to move forward and find a suitable hotel site: The long list of reasons not to approve Huscorp’s Nowra hotel proposal presented to Shoalhaven City Council by the independent assessor will vindicate many in the community who thought from the outset that the idea was flawed. Quite apart from concerns about traffic and parking, the visual impact of a nine-storey serviced apartment block on Nowra’s gateway would have blocked sight lines to the Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre and the city administrative centre. The development would have looked more at home on a Rockdale intersection. Unfortunately, this recommendation not to approve the development will probably not be the end of the saga, with Huscorp now issuing a notice of claim for damages. Should the matter proceed and be found in favour of the developer, there is a possibility that members of the previous council who were steering the deal through despite very vocal objections could be held personally liable. The Department of Local Government spelled this out last year when it looked into the transaction. From an Editorial in the South Coast Register. Read more… What the consultant said: summary in the South Coast Register, read it here… NO to Hotel: longer article in the South Coast Register. Read more... 8 April 2009Huscorp launches $1m suit: Development company Huscorp is suing Shoalhaven City Council for an amount believed to be in the vicinity of $1 million. The claim is due to go before the Supreme Court for directions on June 10...While Huscorp representatives were reluctant to discuss the legal threat until council had an opportunity to respond to the statement of claim, the papers are believed to relate to issues over Huscorp’s plan to build a hotel complex and apartments on land in Bridge Road, Nowra, next to the Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre...However, the plan faced controversy from the outset, with Shoalhaven City Council accused of selling the Bridge Road land to the Huscorp group well below its commercial value...Huscorp’s plans were then put on hold when questions arose over council’s legal entitlement to sell the land, and whether it had been correctly rezoned to allow it to be sold. From the South Coast Register. Read more... 3 April 2009New Council little better than old (letter signed by 119 concerned citizens): “People who care about Huskisson – which includes many more than those who live in this small village – have every reason to feel continuing disappointment in the majority of Shoalhaven City councillors. The community has made it perfectly clear that it is not anti-development but wants development that suits Huskisson, rather than seeing Huskisson sacrificed to suit the needs of a small number of developers....Now we see the community invited to a workshop to consider the area of the waterfront developments. Council is trying to limit the number of people at this workshop, which, is to be facilitated by a consultant who, unbelievably, also works for developers who have had large waterfront developments approved. It’s not possible to work for both sides and this is a clear conflict of interest, which council chooses to ignore. Anywhere else but Shoalhaven and you would think it couldn’t happen.” From a Letter to the Editor (signed by 119 concerned citizens) South Coast Register. Read more... 2 April 2009Development monster is clawing at our fences: Architect Anna Bowen-James is educated, energetic and middle class. She spends her life designing houses, shepherding them through councils, dealing with builders and certifiers, doing the decent thing by the neighbours. So she knows her way round the planning system, or thought she did.
Yet even she now has a house next-door that enormously exceeds the approved drawings, glowers in from on high to the family bedrooms and has a rear retaining wall so jerry-built it could collapse any moment onto her three little girls. Be scared. This is Grendel at the door. If someone like Bowen-James can't defeat the monster created by council incompetence and private certification, what chance for you or me?
It started eight years ago, when a small-time developer applied for development consent to build two terrace houses beside the Bowen-James's terrace in Paddington. They objected, pointing out the overlooking; the way each house more than doubled the floor-space limit; that what were described as "three storeyed" houses were in fact four-storeyed and that the height dimensions given were not properly documented as required by law.
A 2001 file minute from South Sydney Council planner Nick Horiatopoulos noted that the proposal's footprint and scale, relative to the site and to adjacent buildings, were "not in compliance with the DCP [development control plan]". This should have sent it straight to the full council for decision. But no. Three weeks later the development was approved by a staff planner under delegated authority. Then, under a private, developer-paid certifier, construction began….That sound like Grendel's claws at your fence? It's a monster all right. (From Columnist Elizabeth Farrelly in the Sydney Morning Herald). Read more…
1 April 2009 Probe into two land sales: Shoalhaven City Council is probing the sale of two blocks of land to Huscorp, as questions arise about its ability to sell land in Huskisson to the development company. Council is undertaking a probity review of the sales of land to Huscorp in Bridge Road, Nowra, for a motel and apartment block development, and Owen Street, Huskisson, for a development of mixed residential and retail complex. From the South Coast Register. Read more... Former Huscorp directors await sentencing: Two former directors of development company Huscorp will be sentenced in coming months over dishonesty charges....The charges relate to Business Activity Statements lodged to claim GST refunds between October 1 and December 31 in 2005....After being involved with helping to set up the organisation, the two men ended their involvements with Huscorp early in 2008. From the South Coast Register. Read more...
27 March 2009Temple deal to get probity review: Councillors have unanimously voted to support an independent probity review into the negotiation of the Comberton Grange contract of sale. However, Councillor Greg Watson questioned the motivation behind the motion and maintained a probity review was unnecessary and would find nothing. Allegations were made earlier this month that Cr Watson has accommodated Shaolin Foundation Australia representative Patrick Pang in his home during contract negotiations. It was confirmed Mr Pang had stayed in the home of strategic property manager John Drummond…..Councillors John Fergusson, Andrew Guile and Gareth Ward, who signed the notice of motion, maintained the review was essential. “What will this cost the council not to do it,” Cr Guile said. “This contract has not been concluded, it has followed a tortuous path,” Cr Fergusson agreed. “We have never said anything adverse towards the Shaolin Foundation. If all the boxes are ticked, so be it.” From the South Coast Register. Read more... 12 March 2009Councillor silent on Shaolin connection: A Shoalhaven councillor and former mayor, Greg Watson, refused to answer in open council whether the proponent of a $370 million kung-fu academy and hotel development stayed as a guest at his house while council was discussing confidential matters about the $5 million sale of its land to the proponent. The development, proposed by the Shaolin Temple Foundation director, Patrick Pang, involves the transformation of a 1248-hectare block of council-owned land near Nowra into a ‘Shaolin Village’ ...Cr Ward said he would put in a formal complaint to the council's general manager about the matter. "Obviously this is more than just country hospitality," Cr Ward said. "We have to ensure that all of council's dealings are transparent and I would have a concern when a councillor who is privy to the most delicate confidential deals and discussions was also hosting the party responsible for negotiating the other side of the agreement." From the Sydney Morning Herald -with photos. Read more... NSW Jewish Board of Deputies speaks to Shoalhaven City Council: The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies received permission to address Shoalhaven City Council in the aftermath of racist comments by a (former) Mayor. In his presentation, Board of Deputies CEO Vic Alhadeff emphasized the damage done by such remarks. Alhadeff and Board Education Manager Lynda Ben-Menashe conducted an intensive bridge-building tour of the Shoalhaven and Wollongong areas, conducting 24 meetings in 5 days. At schools Alhadeff and Ben-Menashe did presentations on anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, the Arab-Israeli conflict and rites of passage. From At The Board, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, Vol 1, 2009. A copy of the front page with photo of the CEO with Shoalhaven’s (new) Mayor and (new) Deputy Mayor is linked here (file size 790KB).4 March 2009Costly [Entertainment] Centre a white elephant (from SCR Letters, 20 Feb 2009 edition):“The previous Shoalhaven City Council was warned, by many people, that the entertainment centre may become a white elephant once the initial novelty wore off. When it was first proposed, I made a statement along the lines that the centre would only be used by a minority of the residents as the price of a ticket for the shows would be out of the reach of the majority of Shoalhaven rate payers’ pockets. The delusions of grandeur that went with the idea of an entertainment centre seemed to have overlooked the fact that a great many of the area’s population are either pensioners, unemployed or low income earners. Now, we hear that it is running at a deficit.” From a Letter to the Editor, South Coast Register. Read more... Departmental review attacks poor council leadership: Poor relationships between Shoalhaven City councillors, and the way elected councillors deal with staff, are at the heart of a list of recommendations for change within council. The Department of Local Government prepared the recommendations during a better practice review, which highlighted the good, the bad and the ugly within council’s operations. Points earning praise included “a mature approach to delivering services to the community”, while issues of concern included, “The review team found insufficient commitment to council’s policy framework by the elected body.” However the strongest criticism was generated by failing relationships among councillors, and between councillors and council’s professional staff. From the South Coast Register. Read more…
Stand by for lots of blocks of flats: “It seems to me that our new council has decided that rather than disregard Development Control Plan 99, it will quickly rewrite it to suit a developer. Who chose to ignore the current planning document (and one presumes also instructed the architect to do the same)? The question needs to be asked (hypothetically, of course) who pays an architect thousands of dollars to design a block of flats that doesn’t comply to planning regulations and pays council $3000 in application fees, if only to have the development rejected? DCP99 is a planning document put together by professional planners and community representatives in 2001. It has a complex formula that relates to height, bulk and the area of land. The current DCP99 in theory produces a high-density development that allows for soft landscaping that sits unobtrusively within the streetscape. Instead we can expect three-storey blocks of flats on 643 square metres along our coastline.” From a Letter to the Editor, South Coast Register. Read more... 27 February 2009Reversal a win for good governance: “..Tuesday night’s decision by Shoalhaven City Council, to overturn a decision made only two weeks earlier to allow a development in breach of its own planning regulations, was a victory for good governance. Too often councils are in the position of having to put off what is important to try and accomplish what is urgent, and that was nearly the case with the development proposed for Fegen Street, Huskisson. In its haste to approve what was obviously a high quality and appropriate development, the council was almost in the difficult position of ignoring its own rules and regulations.” From an Editorial in the South Coast Register. Read more…
ABOUT FACE - Community concerns prompt planning reversal: Despite being universally praised, a development proposed for Huskisson has been put on hold while Shoalhaven City Council tries to update a development control plan. The three-storey residential and tourist development proposed for 19 Fegen Street was actually approved by council two weeks earlier, but was brought back for reconsideration on Tuesday evening following a recision motion instigated by Cr John Fergusson. That reconsideration resulted in councillors bowing to community concerns that the organisation was turning its back on its own processes and policies by approving a project that did not comply with the relevant development control plan.
But the change of direction did not come without pain, with several councillors arguing the development equated to jobs and growth. However the mood of the meeting changed when Crs Nigel Soames and Andrew Guile, who both supported the development proceeding at the previous meeting, indicated they had changed their minds. Cr Guile said his change of tack was based on the belief the DCP could be quickly overhauled, resulting in only a minor delay for the developer. From the South Coast Register. Read more... 25 February 2009South Coast Register sales up: Regional newspapers are showing resilience amid the bleak economic conditions putting pressure on media companies around the world. January circulation figures for the South Coast Register confirm that people still rely on quality local news sources - in good times and in bad. The Register reported a five per cent spike in circulation for the month of January, off the back of an exceptionally strong tourist season all along the South Coast. Over the long term, the readership of the Monday and Friday editions continues to increase, month on month and year on year. This growth has been steady now for almost 10 years. From the South Coast Register. Read more... |
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