THE next chapter in the ongoing saga about the future of a prime parcel of foreshore land in Port Macquarie will be played out today – and it looks as if it is going to turn into even more of a political bunfight.
Port Macquarie-Hastings Council mayor Peter Besseling will meet with the NSW Minister for Lands Kevin Humphries in Port Macquarie today to renew calls for a competitive sale of the Short Street/Plaza car park site and to raise concerns over what he claims is a “compromised” process to date.
The meeting is being held as a direct result of requests from Cr Besseling given concerns over the proposed sale of the car park site to Woolworths. It had been tentatively scheduled for earlier this week, but was put back to today, when the minister will be in Port Macquarie.
Cr Besseling said a council request for public information under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA Act) revealed that a statutory requirement for a land assessment over Crown Land along Port Macquarie foreshore was removed based on incorrect information.
He said Crown Lands wrote to council on 11 December 2013, regarding the in-principle sale of the Shore Street/Plaza car park to Woolworths for a supermarket development.
At the time Crown Lands advised that it was seeking the views of council “as the corporate manager appointed to manage the respective trust(s)”.
However, information obtained by council through the GIPA Act shows that on the very same day that Crown Lands wrote to council seeking its views on the proposal, a report was presented to the Director of Strategic Projects stating that council, as trust manager of the reserve, had “indicated strong support”.
“Council’s views were made quite clear through a subsequent, unanimous resolution that did not support the sale of land to Woolworths,” Cr Besseling said.
He said the suggestion of council’s support was used to recommend that the Director of Strategic Projects exercise delegation to waive the requirement for a land assessment in respect of the proposed sale of Crown Land.
Furthermore, he said the recommendation was signed off by Crown Lands more than two weeks before council had the opportunity to consider the proposal at a council meeting.
Cr Besseling said council wanted a public interest test, a full land assessment and a public competition process for sale through an expression of interest.
Given the opportunity to comment on the mayor’s claims, a spokesperson for Crown Lands said Crown Land’s dealings with council officers up until formal approval had been sought had been very positive and the department had understood that council would be supportive.
“Formal approval was sought, and at this stage council made it clear that it was not in favour of this proposal,” the spokesperson said.
He said Minister Humphries was expected to make a further statement after today’s meeting with the mayor.
