Letter to the Editor: Public land in public hands Opinion Property/Sports/Opinion - popup ad by News Of The Area - Modern Media - October 31, 2024 DEAR News Of The Area, IT WAS not an auspicious start by the newly elected City of Coffs Harbour Council at its first meeting last week. 33,161 locals voted against development of the Jetty foreshore, which was almost 70 percent of all votes cast. Yet, at this first meeting of the new Council under the control of Mayor Nikki Williams, the so-called ‘Nat Independents’ voted for a motion, moved by George Cecato, to effectively disregard the poll result, thereby totally ignoring the clear wishes of the Coffs Harbour community. Incredibly, this vote was taken shortly after the councillors swore a solemn oath to act in “the best interests of the people of Coffs Harbour”. If the National Party ‘independents’ are not listening to 70 percent of their constituents… who are they listening to? Our new Mayor is on record as saying “You get the best outcome… when you collaborate”, and that she values everyone’s voice. She was only in the responsible position of Mayor for 30 minutes before these principles were cast aside. The Jetty Foreshore development question is the biggest issue facing Coffs Harbour in the past 100 years. It is far too important to meekly accept the new Council’s 5 to 4 vote to disregard the decision of 33,161 locals. All sorts of spurious arguments were advanced by the ‘Nat Independents’ and their nominated public speakers in support of their untenable position to disregard the poll vote. Should we be surprised by their actions? Probably not. If someone claims to be independent when clearly they are not, in order to get elected onto Council… we shouldn’t hold high hopes for them to act “in the best interests of the people of Coffs Harbour”. Clearly, for whatever reason, Coffs Council does not get it. The public land at the Jetty Foreshore needs to stay in public hands for the enjoyment of all residents now and into the future. Coffs residents don’t want any multi-storey buildings on this land, whatever their intended use. Motions at Council’s first meeting were either carried or lost 5 votes to 4 and it was always the same five councillors who voted as a block… so much for being independent. It seems we are heading back to the bad old days when Council was very divided and exceedingly poor decisions were made. Regards, Kevin MONTGOMERY, North Boambee Valley.
What this reader fails to understand, is that collaboration is not only the best way, it is the only way, to obtain the best outcome for the regeneration of the railway land at the Jetty – for one simple reason and that is, the administrator of the land is the NSW State Government and not the Council. I can tell you first hand, because I was there, that the downright rudeness, lack of respect, shown to the administrators representatives, was at best embarrassing, truthfully, rude. I know because I was there, in the room, listening to the comments made. The reader is focusing on the collaboration of the Mayor and the majority of the Councillors, dealing with the minority of the Councillors. Well sir, that is how democracy works. Any criticism of how the voting occurred during the meeting, let’s get this straight right from the get go. The previous Mayor, influenced by his Deputy, Bellingen resident, Sally Townley, presented numerous Council Notices of Motion, invariably with no notice to the “Non aligned” Councillors, including myself, but totally obvious that the “Gang of 6” had discussed, agreed, constructed the motion, before the meeting – even to the extent of who was going to speak when, what each was going to say. This went on for 2 and a half years, thankfully, I had towards the end, had had enough. I could no longer bear, the community’s financial contributions to Council, being channelled into a proposal which was not; Planned, Budgeted For, Hosted. The costs whilst unknown, were clearly, in the tens of millions of dollars. The source of payment for this idea, passed by the Mayor and collusive Councillors, was to be from The General Fund. This source was in June 2022, so defficient in funds, that it did not have enough money to pay for the commitments it had, including staff wages so, $10 million was borrowed from money paid to us by the tenants of the airport. From that point in time, until July 2024, including the repayment of that $10 million, $44 million has been stashed away into the General Fund. All I can say is , congratulations Coffs Harbour community, you have democratically elected, the majority of Councillors, who will spend your money, which you pay to Council in the form of rates, fees, charges and contributions, across the whole of Coffs Harbour. Reply
The collaboration relative to this matter has already commenced, by our new Mayor, with those who make the decisions, the State Government, according to what was revealed at Mayor Williams first meeting. Trying to force the administrators for the land owners, being the residents of NSW, is not very bright – to put it mildly. Reply
Well said Rodger Finally we have got a Mayor who will work with all the government departments and representatives to we get things done, unlike the previous Mayor who had a personal mandate to stop all development. People were sick of the negative attitude of the previous council members and voted accordingly . I like the positive attitude of Mayor Williams and lets get behind her to a positive outcome. Reply
