GCA / FOMRE Deputation to Gingin Shire - 04.02.2010

 

February 2nd 2010 .

 

On Tuesday, February 2nd, our ward councillor, Sam Collard, arranged a deputation to the Gingin Shire Council on behalf of both organisations. Geoff Gilby, GCA President and John Prince, FOMRE Convenor represented the Guilderton community. The Council, with only one councillor being absent, courteously received the deputation which offered the following points for the Council's consideration.

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The Minister for Planning exerted considerable pressure on our community organizations to lie down and be quiet, and accept his announced decision to approve the development of 2000 houses on the south side of the Moore River Estuary. We anticipate that the Shire Council may come under similar pressure to fast-track the approval of the Company's Outline Development Plan when it surfaces shortly. We wish to avoid the tensions which developed between the Council and the Guilderton Community over the processes surrounding the earlier ODP in 1995/6.

 

It is most desirable that the Council and the Guilderton Community should be working together in open communication in this matter. To this end we would like to raise the following issues in our Deputation to the Council.

 

1.  The need for adequate time for public comment.

 

2.  The most effective forms of obtaining realistic Community feedback.

 

3. The possibility of the Council and the Community co-operating in a workshop or series of workshops and in the proper processing of the output from those workshops.

 

4. The importance of any approvals the Shire may decide to issue carrying a sunset clause, so that the developer cannot sit on his escalated asset indefinitely.

 

5. To what extent will the Shire negotiate with the developer to contribute to providing community facilities such as a medical centre, community hall, etc, in the way that other developers have done in other successful developments? In its previous ODP the Company limited its contribution strictly to setting apart land in accordance with the statutory requirement.

 

6. The Minister, in his discussion with us, envisaged the provision of a bridge to link the new development with the existing town of Guilderton. We would like to find out what is the Shire Council's attitude to this very expensive proposal, which could ultimately decide the viability of the whole plan.

 

 

Geoff Gilby

Guilderton Community Association

 

John Prince

Friends of Moore River Estuary

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