AT council’s November 25 meeting ERA councillors Peter Schwarz and Neil Burnside broke ranks.
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They voted to retain the caustic interim sea-level rise policy.
They also voted to adopt a sea-level rise policy and framework report that sets the scene for the development of a coastal zone management plan that will leave this shire at a permanent disadvantage to our Shoalhaven neighbours.
We now find out from Cr Leslight’s letter (Bay Post, December 10) that these voting decisions were made against the advice of the State Treasurer and the Minister for the Environment.
The interim sea-level rise policy has cost Eurobodalla ratepayers close to a billion dollars in property losses. What will be the economic outcome of a final coastal zone management plan that is based on a consultancy report that supports the adoption of extreme sea-level rise predictions and planning responses?
Cr Schwarz has now floated the idea of a marina development at Corrigans Beach, when two weeks ago he supported a policy framework that will see the Corrigans Beach area labelled a sea-level rise danger zone.
What sort of developer is going to trust him or this council to deliver an unobstructed development path for a project of this nature or to protect the surrounding infrastructure that it predicts will soon be inundated by the rising seas? Does he really believe that the NSW Treasurer will give him $200,000 to do a feasibility study on a project that has effectively been killed off by councillors ignoring senior ministerial advice on sensible sea-level rise policy development?
It was also Burnside and Schwarz who last week moved and seconded the motion for council to apply for an excessive 25.97 per cent rate hike. What a strange move for supposed champions of the local ratepayer.
Ian Hitchcock
Dalmeny