PORT Macquarie-Hastings mayor Peter Besseling will take the council’s battle to ensure the community has input into the future of the Plaza car park site to Sydney next week.
Cr Besseling has a tentative appointment to meet with the Minister for Natural Resources, Lands and Water Kevin Humphries on Tuesday 22 July.
In a letter to the minister thanking him for agreeing to meet, Cr Besseling said there remained a great deal of discomfort with the manner in which Crown Lands had approached the in-principle sale of public land to Woolworths, through an exclusive negotiation.
He said the Plaza Car Park – Community Engagement Report released by the council on 26 June contained community feedback on how residents would like to see the Short Street/Plaza car park site utilised into the future.
“The comments contained in the report such as ‘The access to the site and maintaining and upgrading a sense of community space which is open and active with the ability to utilise the foreshore’ were a key aspect,” he said.
The meeting with the minister is the latest development in what has become an ongoing saga.
Several months ago, the council found out Crown Lands was contemplating a direct sale of the land to Woolworths without calling public expressions of interest.
Several public meetings have since been organised to discuss the future of the car park site, which fronts Kooloonbung Creek and is adjacent to the old Food For Less site Woolworths already owns.
For those unfamiliar with the saga to date, Woolworths has had a development application approved to build a new supermarket on the Food For Less site, but would like to build a bigger development incorporating much of the car park, hence approaching Crown Lands regarding a possible purchase.
