I would like to express my total disappointment and disgust with certain members of the Kiama Council – namely Mayor Mark Honey, Councillors Mark Way, Warren Steel and Don Watson who, on the 17 April, voted to approve a controversial DA in Golden Valley Road, Jamberoo.
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These Councillors, with the exception of Councillor Steel, voted against this DA in 2016.
I would like to acknowledge and thank Councillors Reilly, Rice and Westhoff who listened to the concerns of the local community and voted for the DA not to proceed.
Councillors Reilly and Rice both spoke on this issue and gave a well informed and professional presentation. Councillors Sloan and Brown were not present.
In a recent Mayoral Colum, the Mayor stressed the importance of maintaining our rural landscape.
He said, “The need to identify prime agricultural land and balance farming with development is a regional priority.” He went on to say, “One of the aims of the Kiama Local Environmental Plan 2011 is to protect agricultural land for long-term agricultural production”.
The land subject of this DA is certainly prime agricultural land currently being used to graze livestock.
Having in mind the Mayor’s comments and his previous rejection of this DA, I would like to offer the Mayor a challenge for his next Mayoral column: please explain not only to the residents of Jamberooo, but to the entire Kiama Municipality, why he voted in favour of this DA given his statement to Council that, “It has always been part of my mission to preserve as much of the prime agricultural land that we can in this community”.
If the Mayor really believes this statement then he had ample opportunity to reject this DA.
Like many other residents we await his response.
J Zimmer, Jamberoo
- Letter received April 25, 2018